Saturday, November 13, 2010

Citizenship in school

As I was reading, I found myself really getting into the article. I found myself really wanting to hug all the children in the world, who just want to be in a normal classroom with their peers, and they can’t because they have a disability, and people don’t think they can do it. When I was in the second grade, I was put into a special Ed room, because they said I had a learning disability. I would only be allowed in my classroom with my peers for a few hours each day, and the rest of my day was spent in another room with other children with disabilities. My brother who is four years older than me was also labeled as a kid who had a learning disability, and our middle brother Greg, was the only “normal one” in our family, or this is how me and my brother Steve called him. All my life I have been jealous of Greg, he got good grades and he never had to go to the special Ed room. A quote from the reading is also how I felt, “I started to notice that I didn't like the classes I was taking called special education. Had to go through special Ed.  almost all my life. I wanted to take other classes that interested me. I had never felt so mad, I wanted to cry”. (Peterson, 1994, p. 6)
When I finally started to get this feeling I felt the need to prove everyone wrong about me, I didn’t like to be separated from my friends and peers, I know I was definitely looked down upon by my teachers. They themselves never wanted to help me, if I got upset or really confused they would just send me away to the special Ed room, and have that teacher deal with me. Finally around the 4th grade I was in my classroom more often, but I wasn’t alone. They sent with me an aid, and wherever I went she was there. She was always on my back about, did you write this down? are you listening?, did you just hear what she said?. Ughh I couldn’t stand it!! I think that was even worse than going to the special Ed room, this was the kids actually could see for themselves on how different I was at school. At least in the special Ed room, nobody was watching me, my peers maybe had theories but they never saw me getting the extra help.
Then the summer to 5th grade was when my family moved to Rhode Island, and I was going into the 5th grade. I thought this was a good chance to start all over again. When I finally started school, I was put in a special Ed room but for only 2 hours out of the day. So I got to spend much more time in my classroom and I really liked the special Ed teacher. In 6th grade I did the same routine as I did in 5th.  Then when I finally went to 7th grade I was in all skills classes but I was able here to start proving people wrong about me, I got straight A’s!!!! :-D. So all my teachers placed me in CP classes for my 8th grade year. I did awesome here to. I got mostly A’s and B’s. And being in CP classes lasted all the way up until my junior year when I moved up into honors classes. My grades went down a little but I was defiantly a solid B student.
I really want to help advocate for others that I think it is extremely important for students with disabilities to be in a classroom with their peers. I think it helped teach me how they learn and do things for themselves. And I think even me being in the room by myself they could see that I’m not as different as they are. [Community] requires a willingness to see people as they are-different perhaps in their minds and in their bodies, but not different in their spirits or in their willingness and ability to contribute to the mosaic of society. It requires the "helper" to have the humility to listen for what the person says he or she needs. Also, the "helper" must see that the interaction "helps" both ways. (p. 12)



http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/Including.Students.html

Sunday, November 7, 2010

fin and Oakes, based off Caiti's blog

                My blog of fin and Oakes is based off of Caiti’s blog post.  When I started to read what she said, “Why would we only have the students who are doing well getting special attention and better classes and resources?  Who came up with this idea? The "less abled" kids are expecting to do badly. If you are expected to do badly, then why not do badly.  If your teachers believe you are "less abled" and give you non- challenging work and just expect less in general you are going to behave just that way.” These few sentences really made me think, and it made me think about a movie that I watched today on ABC.  The movie was called, “Freedom Writers” directed by, Richard LaGravenese.  It reminded me of this one specific scene in the movie, where the teacher is talking to the librarian who gives out copies of the books to the teachers and the students. But the librarian said that she would not give out the copies of the good books to the teachers who had certain students because they won’t take care of the books and they only deserve the books that are ripped and are not the same version as the better books. I can’t find the clip off of youtube but I have attached a clip of the movie trailer. Also what Caiti said was why we are only giving students who are doing well, more attention and better resources.  In the beginning of the movie it showed the teacher of the freedom writers walk down the hall and see the classrooms of the smarter students and they were decorated and clean and neat, and when she got to her room the walls were bare and the room was dirty. The outlook at the school amongst the teachers and staff is that why waste your time in trying to give certain students an education if they don’t want one.
                The next quote from Caiti’s blog was, "rich get richer and poor get poorer." This isn’t the first time I hear this quote this weekend. I actually heard it at the Promising Practices conference.  It was in my second session where we were talking about the routine of things and how nothing seems like its ever going to change the system.  The professor that I had mentioned to us that it seems as if the rich or going to keep getting richer and the poor are going to keep getter poorer.

Conference

                When I first walked into the doors of Donovan I was nervous, I wasn’t really sure what to expect and where to go. Quickly I figured out where to go and what line to stand in for registration, and I felt better once I saw a member of our class also standing in line to register.  I got my folder and scouted out where the class was sitting and I made my way over to them. We talked about what sessions we were all in and nobody at the table were going to be in the same class sessions with me.  We were then told to go to our first session I was excited.  I got to my classroom, and sat down and was waiting for the thing to start. The lady, who was presenting her presentation to us, had some type of African music playing and she was wearing some type of African clothing.  She started off her presentation with how her whole presentation is about un- bias education.  She had us write out a list of our social identities, she wanted to open our eyes to what describes us a person.  She had us sit in groups and go over our lists with one another.  Some of the things that were on my list were,
                                                -white
                                                -German
                                                -English
                                                -Presbyterians
                                                -Brian Tumor Survivor
                                                -am originally from Ohio
This is just a small list of things that were on my list that describes me, and who I am. My teacher that I had also mentioned the reading of McIntosh, and white privileges.  She just mentioned it as a really good reading to have read if you want to become an educator.  This session really opened my eyes to what other people are like and how we are all looked down upon by society, by some part of our identity.  For example I am looked down upon by society in Rhode Island because I am not a native Rhode Islander.
                My second session was about Black slavery, and how slavery still exists today in our world.  The guy in the lecture read us neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. This was the basis of our conversation; it says that only people who have been convicted of a crime can be subjected to “slavery”.  This session was also really interesting and I think opened everyone’s eyes to, it’s not that we don’t know how to change the system and fix it, but its do the people who can change it, really want to?