| Disability/Diversity Project Christine L. Taplin Pittsburg State University Fall 2003 SSLS 510 MWF 11:00 Dr. Charlene Lingo |
| Introduction In every school, regardless of if it is a private, religious, or public school, there will be a pretty diverse group of students. Students range in their differences from learning style and ability all the way to race and socioeconomic status. Teachers are continuously faced with how to work with and teach this diverse group of students. The disability and diversity project that is focused on in SSLS 510, Overview of Education of Exceptional Students, teaches the future educator, the ins and outs of teaching, working with, and understanding students that are diverse and disabled in some way. The goal of the project was to gain a better understanding of disabled and diverse students and to learn methods of working with them that are conducive to helping them learn and reach their full potential. To achieve this, I set out to meet up with Cherie, my cooperating teacher, at lpm. Cherie is one of the special education teachers at the school and has a variety of students with disabilities and that are considered diverse in some way. While working with Cherie and the students I was better able to reach an understanding what special education and being disabled and or diverse meant and entailed. I learned a great deal of valuable information through this hands on experience that will help me when I become an educator. The following journal entries detail my �adventures� and explain about the valuable information I learned. The summary immediately following takes all the parts and puts them into a whole of learning and understanding. |
| Journal Entries Day 1 Tuesday October 14th, 2003 I had arranged with Cherie to meet up with her at the school at 11:30 A.M. Construction work on the highway set me back by about 15 minutes. I checked in at the office at 11:45 A.M. and received a visitor�s pass. Upon first seeing the school from the outside I was quite impressed. It is a relatively new building, which I came to find out later, was only 5 years old. The interior of the school was very comfortable and conducive to academic instruction and learning. The layout was such that students, teachers, and visitors could get where they needed to be with little to no help. Upon checking in, I was informed that Cherie had called in sick. The secretary talked to the sub and the sub said she felt comfortable enough in her knowledge and experience to let me observe. I started out in a 6th grade classroom where a substitute teacher was filling in for the science teacher. The students in the class were working on learning about polymers. The sub had two students she was working with and helping. We will call them Donny and Rick, for the sake of confidentiality. Although, at the time, I didn�t learn what Donny�s disability was, I was told that he couldn�t do what the others were doing, so they worked on getting him to write or draw and be included in the class as much as possible. I did not know Rick�s disability, but upon first observation I had to assume that it was either an attention disorder or a behavior disorder. Most likely it was a combination of both. Rick was much more involved in the lesson, though he had trouble staying on track, and when reading, would skip entire lines or single words. He seemed to understand the concepts presented, but only to a certain extent. However, he didn�t appear to care about the concepts, give them much attention, and had difficulty applying the concepts to real life. After a short time in the classroom it was time for the two students to go to lunch. The sub showed me to the Individual Resource Center (IRC) where Para-professionals and other special educators met and worked with special Ed students. The sub would be leaving for lunch and upon discussion we concluded that it would be best for me to work with one of the Paras for the rest of my time there. From there I watched as one of the Paras helped a student retake a test (I did not acquire the students name). While watching I noticed that the student made many mistakes on questions that were most likely extremely easy for the average student. I would have to assume that either he didn�t study or that he honestly didn�t know, which would perhaps lend to a learning disability. I tend to want to lean towards the first thought, in that he seemed very capable, but just didn�t care. |
| Note:: The names of the students in this project have been changed for confidentiality purposes. |
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