3/19
I still have so many questions, but I think it's important that I learned how to answer my own questions and also that I can deal with issues as they come. The main thing I'm still wondering: is the education program at MSU preparing teachers to meet individual needs to the best of their ability? I know not everyone is as interested in this subject as I am, but I'm wondering if most people feel adequately prepared based on our 12 hr. special ed cram session? I'm curious what interns or recent grads would say. I feel like this is a really important topic and it's doing us a disservice to have such minimal exposure to and instruction about the topic. (Although the instructors did the best they could given the circumstances.) I'm wondering also if there will be a sudden demand for bilingual para-pros and special ed teachers, or if students will be expected to take language classes without any of the additional resources they might need? I think it will be very interesting to see how things will change in the next few years as the new graduation requirements come into play. Although I didn't fulfill my goal of researching every single type of disability that requires an IEP, I feel that I answered my initial questions and learned where to look for the answers so that I can grapple with this issue as I continue in my career.
Here is the link to my final PowerPoint: http://richa521.googlepages.com/ip
Monday, March 19, 2007
Sunday, March 18, 2007
3/18 Wrapping things up
I just want to use this entry to wrap up the project and make sure I'm (explicitly) meeting all the requirements. First, a summary of the new resources I played with while making this blog. (Actually blogging is a new resource for me on its own, along with making web pages!) A) I learned to use an RSS feed to discover new resources. I set my RSS feed to alert me to resources having to do with Special Ed, which is where I actually found a few of my other resources. I didn't like the RSS feed because I'm not devoted enough to check it daily, so I have hundreds of hits waiting for me to go through them. It was nice, on the other hand, to have a list of entries that were already filtered into what I was looking for that I would have available to me at any time. (You can't save a typical search that easily.) B) I had also never used any form of podcasting, so it was new for me to learn the websites to look for, and the whole experience was new. I wrote already that I didn't like this very much because I get too distracted, but it's nice that I could download that to my ipod and listen to it while I'm doing anything throughout the day. C) A professional discussion board/ forum is also new to me. (The only discussion board I've ever really read is movie or food reviews.) I enjoyed witnessing the interactions between teachers from all over, especially when they disagreed or debated something. I'm glad I learned these new things, I think I'm skeptical because I'm not entirely sure how to work them yet but they'll probably grow on me. Collaboration: A) The first time I collaborated was when I looked at Jessica's project, where she gave me the idea to check out AZ teacher forums. I'm really glad I found this because it ended up being my favorite part of the project! B) Then we created our group blog, and although we never really used it until the end, I added all the links to each of our inquiry projects so it was easier to navigate. It ended up being useful to have the group blog so we could share our final project with each other. C) Although they aren't my classmates, I was able to collaborate with other teachers using the AZ teacher forum. I didn't get much response to my inquiry, but that's understandable since it wasn't really a discourse. I was excited to get one response though, and enjoyed reading other threads. D) Again I collaborated with Jessica, she posted on my blog and I responded, and I also read her blog and posted a comment. It was interesting to see what other people in the class are doing, but our group was kind of a stretch as far as fitting together, so I wish there had been a closer tie-in. E) One of the organizers from the LD podcast commented on my entry about the podcast I listened to. It's always exciting to have a new opinion, and also to see how cool technology is! (I'm really impressed that someone from outside of our class read my blog!) Hopefully I will be able to figure out how to post my PowerPoint here, or at least a link to it, since it will go into more detail about what I got out of this project than I'm going to go into here. Overall, although I didn't end up doing everything I had planned, I think I answered the questions I wanted to answer. I still think it would be helpful to go over all of the different disabilities in the "alphabet soup" just for a starting reference point, but from what I looked at, it seemed that I really could generalize a lot of the accommodations. The line about anything that helps a special ed student will probably help most students, that our teachers kept drilling really is true. So I feel that I've learned where I can look when I have specific questions and I've learned a few more general things too...I count this as a success.
I just want to use this entry to wrap up the project and make sure I'm (explicitly) meeting all the requirements. First, a summary of the new resources I played with while making this blog. (Actually blogging is a new resource for me on its own, along with making web pages!) A) I learned to use an RSS feed to discover new resources. I set my RSS feed to alert me to resources having to do with Special Ed, which is where I actually found a few of my other resources. I didn't like the RSS feed because I'm not devoted enough to check it daily, so I have hundreds of hits waiting for me to go through them. It was nice, on the other hand, to have a list of entries that were already filtered into what I was looking for that I would have available to me at any time. (You can't save a typical search that easily.) B) I had also never used any form of podcasting, so it was new for me to learn the websites to look for, and the whole experience was new. I wrote already that I didn't like this very much because I get too distracted, but it's nice that I could download that to my ipod and listen to it while I'm doing anything throughout the day. C) A professional discussion board/ forum is also new to me. (The only discussion board I've ever really read is movie or food reviews.) I enjoyed witnessing the interactions between teachers from all over, especially when they disagreed or debated something. I'm glad I learned these new things, I think I'm skeptical because I'm not entirely sure how to work them yet but they'll probably grow on me. Collaboration: A) The first time I collaborated was when I looked at Jessica's project, where she gave me the idea to check out AZ teacher forums. I'm really glad I found this because it ended up being my favorite part of the project! B) Then we created our group blog, and although we never really used it until the end, I added all the links to each of our inquiry projects so it was easier to navigate. It ended up being useful to have the group blog so we could share our final project with each other. C) Although they aren't my classmates, I was able to collaborate with other teachers using the AZ teacher forum. I didn't get much response to my inquiry, but that's understandable since it wasn't really a discourse. I was excited to get one response though, and enjoyed reading other threads. D) Again I collaborated with Jessica, she posted on my blog and I responded, and I also read her blog and posted a comment. It was interesting to see what other people in the class are doing, but our group was kind of a stretch as far as fitting together, so I wish there had been a closer tie-in. E) One of the organizers from the LD podcast commented on my entry about the podcast I listened to. It's always exciting to have a new opinion, and also to see how cool technology is! (I'm really impressed that someone from outside of our class read my blog!) Hopefully I will be able to figure out how to post my PowerPoint here, or at least a link to it, since it will go into more detail about what I got out of this project than I'm going to go into here. Overall, although I didn't end up doing everything I had planned, I think I answered the questions I wanted to answer. I still think it would be helpful to go over all of the different disabilities in the "alphabet soup" just for a starting reference point, but from what I looked at, it seemed that I really could generalize a lot of the accommodations. The line about anything that helps a special ed student will probably help most students, that our teachers kept drilling really is true. So I feel that I've learned where I can look when I have specific questions and I've learned a few more general things too...I count this as a success.
Friday, March 2, 2007
3/2
Today I listened to an episode of the LD podcast, a podcast put out by parents of LD kids for parents of LD kids. This one was an interview with an administrator, Courtney Rau, the special education department chair at a Massachusetts school district. The parents seemed really excited to get an administrator's perspective. They discussed inclusion, and I was surprised that the mom was skeptical of inclusion programs. I would have thought that the parents were more supportive of it, but in some cases the school is just trying to cut back on faculty by throwing kids who need more attention into an inclusion class. They also discussed ASD quite a bit, which I of course found interesting since I've been looking into that. They talked about some programs that weren't balancing working on social and academics skills and the negative outcomes of that for ASD students. They also talked about some terms like "least restrictive environment" and "LD," questioning such blanket statements that are expected to cover all situations. What do these things mean? I was surprised when they were talking about "residential setting" schooling. At first I just thought this meant pull out classes or a separate building for special ed. But as I listened, I realized they were talking about boarding schools for special ed students. I didn't really think this kind of thing existed, it doesn't seem like that great of a solution to me, so I 'd like to learn a little more about this. (Maybe I misunderstood?) The main point the administrator reiterated is that teachers want to teach all of their students the best they can, and I hope that is a statement that is actually true! (I know some lazy teachers...) The website for this podcast is : http://ldpodcast.com/images/show20.mp3. This is probably a better resource for parents looking for support, it was long and I didn't feel like the information was very rich for my purpose. I'm not sure how I feel about podcasts either, I get too distracted to sit and listen to it!
Today I listened to an episode of the LD podcast, a podcast put out by parents of LD kids for parents of LD kids. This one was an interview with an administrator, Courtney Rau, the special education department chair at a Massachusetts school district. The parents seemed really excited to get an administrator's perspective. They discussed inclusion, and I was surprised that the mom was skeptical of inclusion programs. I would have thought that the parents were more supportive of it, but in some cases the school is just trying to cut back on faculty by throwing kids who need more attention into an inclusion class. They also discussed ASD quite a bit, which I of course found interesting since I've been looking into that. They talked about some programs that weren't balancing working on social and academics skills and the negative outcomes of that for ASD students. They also talked about some terms like "least restrictive environment" and "LD," questioning such blanket statements that are expected to cover all situations. What do these things mean? I was surprised when they were talking about "residential setting" schooling. At first I just thought this meant pull out classes or a separate building for special ed. But as I listened, I realized they were talking about boarding schools for special ed students. I didn't really think this kind of thing existed, it doesn't seem like that great of a solution to me, so I 'd like to learn a little more about this. (Maybe I misunderstood?) The main point the administrator reiterated is that teachers want to teach all of their students the best they can, and I hope that is a statement that is actually true! (I know some lazy teachers...) The website for this podcast is : http://ldpodcast.com/images/show20.mp3. This is probably a better resource for parents looking for support, it was long and I didn't feel like the information was very rich for my purpose. I'm not sure how I feel about podcasts either, I get too distracted to sit and listen to it!
Thursday, March 1, 2007
3/1/07
I have been looking at an article and online discussion about academic waivers for LD students. I have been using the site's RSS feed to follow the discussion. Here's the link to the site: http://www.ldresources.org/p=929. This was dealing with foreign language requirements in college, but since the requirements at the high school level are changing I thought it would be relevant. Some of the discussion was based on these questions:
-If you can waive a requirement for any reason, does your degree mean as much?
-Is it your responsibility to know what the college/university policy is on waivers before you enroll?
Things again got a little heated, as one side said students should look for a more accommodating school and the other said the system should change. They referenced legal issues BU was involved in, contemplating if it is right to receive a degree with a certain school's prestige backing it up if you didn't complete all of the school's requirements. I'm getting a little far from the high school setting with that, so let me get back on track. One post was by a foreign language professor. She talked about how students with disabilities in language areas can focus on cultural and historical aspects of the language/class, they might be more successful in sign language, and they will just have to realize they'll have to work harder at this than at other subjects. This combined with a teacher who is trying to make accommodations and help this student should make the goal of learning another language attainable. One thing I had a problem with on the discussion board is that one person kept saying, "what about people who cannot learn a language or do the math?" (They paralleled math to foreign language often.) I don't think it's acceptable to say that someone "cannot" do it; that's completely giving up on it and I'm not sure it's ever safe to give up like that.
I have been looking at an article and online discussion about academic waivers for LD students. I have been using the site's RSS feed to follow the discussion. Here's the link to the site: http://www.ldresources.org/p=929. This was dealing with foreign language requirements in college, but since the requirements at the high school level are changing I thought it would be relevant. Some of the discussion was based on these questions:
-If you can waive a requirement for any reason, does your degree mean as much?
-Is it your responsibility to know what the college/university policy is on waivers before you enroll?
Things again got a little heated, as one side said students should look for a more accommodating school and the other said the system should change. They referenced legal issues BU was involved in, contemplating if it is right to receive a degree with a certain school's prestige backing it up if you didn't complete all of the school's requirements. I'm getting a little far from the high school setting with that, so let me get back on track. One post was by a foreign language professor. She talked about how students with disabilities in language areas can focus on cultural and historical aspects of the language/class, they might be more successful in sign language, and they will just have to realize they'll have to work harder at this than at other subjects. This combined with a teacher who is trying to make accommodations and help this student should make the goal of learning another language attainable. One thing I had a problem with on the discussion board is that one person kept saying, "what about people who cannot learn a language or do the math?" (They paralleled math to foreign language often.) I don't think it's acceptable to say that someone "cannot" do it; that's completely giving up on it and I'm not sure it's ever safe to give up like that.
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