A Final Reflection of Sorts

Throughout the semester, we did a large variety of assignments, ranging from large scale individual projects like the Key Assessment, or the 15 minute Google Slides we do almost every class with our tables. We talk about pretty much everyone's respective fields at some point, to make sure each student is given an application of what we are learning to their major. All of these assignments were accompanied by great pieces of media, from podcasts to 100 year old literature, and everything in between. Below are my three favorite assignments or media from the last 15 weeks:

"Our History" Accumulative Board:

Obviously biased towards my own discipline, I really enjoyed talking about anything history, which fortunately we got to do much of when researching legislation and movements for inclusivity throughout our nation's history. Additionally, it was to have Joyce let me direct the assignment, it was definitely a good random drop-in experience of what it is like to give out an assignment to a class. But, even without the teaching aspect I got out of it, it was extremely fun to learn about everyone's personal history and how they were affected/connected to various points in history. This was also one of our first and only physical mini-projects, which I definitely wish there were a few more of.

"Eliminating Ableism in Education" by Thomas Hehir

In my High School, like many schools still, handled students with special needs in matters of isolation, keeping them in separate classrooms of 3-4 students each. Because of this, I never real ever interacted with my peers who had disabilities, leading to me having not much of a basis about disabilities besides what general knowledge I had and the brief explanations given to me in Psych classes. But, after reading "Eliminating Ableism", my perspective truly opened up. I had never considered the idea that society might be furthering the impacts of a child's disability by the ways in which they handle their education. If you deem a child behind, what good does moving them into a different room to teach them at a slower pace do for them. The answer? It doesn't, all it does is push them further back, demolishing their chances at ever catching up. The idea of integration seemed so easy to me, and thought to myself, "Why don't they?". But they actually do. In my current placement, I'm in a IEP-integrated classroom, where students with severe mental and behavioral disabilities are in the same class as even the most highest-achievers. If preschoolers can have an integrate classroom with their separated peers, what could possibly be stopping all other grade level from doing the same. Beats me.

"Troublemakers" by Carla Shalaby

My placement from this semester has completely shifted the way I think about behavior and what we need to take-away from what we observe as teachers. Just before I started my time in my clinical placement, we read "Troublemakers", where learned about the other side of the story when we discuss misbehavior in schools, and how it impacts the schools. Instead of focusing on the bad thing done, and how we can punish the behavior out of the student, we should learn to focus on the "Why"? Since writing my blog about Shalaby's book, I always try to place myself into the lens that views the Why's and not that What's. With two students in particular, from my placement classroom, I learned to understand their reasons for misbehaving, whether it be a private sit down to calm down and just play with blocks or sitting on my laps and resting their heads, I always try to understand their side of the story first. Not only has this helped their tendency to act out, and rather try and communicate to me first, but it has also evolved my own mind, turning me into a better person than before.