A tough place to be in . . .

Some of the readings for this week really broke my heart. "Girls Like Us" will just not leave my mind. I had never heard of special education students referred to as "speddies". It's hard to think that children would call each other that, but then I know that children are that mean. It's so disheartening to see how kids treat each other in this day and time. It keeps getting worse. What is happening to our
world? (Maybe we could start with our president, but that's a whole new post and a different day.) One thing that I always told my students in the classroom was- You may not always be able to be the best in reading, or the best in math, but every one of you has the ability to be nice to others. I found myself telling a group that the other day when teaching them about digital citizenship. We were talking about being nice online and about your words being permanent. The digital world and lack of empathy are really scary.

Some of the topics in this class just make me think so much and want to solve problems. There are so many. I've already read my books for next week, and wow, I will have a lot of thoughts on those as well. What are the answers? It's scary for our future!

When looking for books that feature characters with special needs, autism seemed to be the easiest to locate. There are some great books out there with autistic characters. The ones that I found the best had autistic children as main characters, but the topic of the book was not the autistic child. That's what our students need to see, a child with special needs in a normal setting. I did find it much harder to find books featuring special needs characters in the teen/YA collections.

I think that the way the children with special needs are treated has a lot to do with the teacher of that classroom. A few years ago, we had an autistic child that had a lot of sensory and emotional issues. The class really took on the challenge to protect him, nurture him, and make him feel an important part of the class. I loved seeing how that took shape and how the teacher always made him feel so special in a positive way. It really takes a lot of patience.

A big goal in the last two years for me has been to add diverse books to my collection. In working on readings for this week, I realize that I don't have enough with special needs characters. It surprised me. I have found some great books and have started adding them to my order list. It's so important that we teach acceptance and inclusion to our students at a young age and HOPE that they retain that and carry it with them.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AR . . . to use or not to use . . .

Image
This is really a topic that I am passionate about. At South Elementary, we have always used AR until this year. The teachers that fought to keep it were told at the beginning of the '18-'19 school year that we would not continue it after the end of that school year. A few in 2nd and 3rd grades are fit to be tied about it. Dr. Cottone, our principal, has asked for me to come up with some alternatives to AR testing. I am working on that and plan to lead some PD in November.  Because of this, I have done a lot of reading and digging into the topic of AR. Most research states (at least what I have found) that AR has not prompted a large increase in reading achievement. The growth is higher in 3rd and 4th grades, but not much at all as students move higher. I think that one of the large problems with AR is how some teachers use it. I don't agree with reading within a level range. I feel that students should be given voice and choice. If focusing solely on AR, students ...
Read more
Image
I was very interested in learning the detail and collaboration in which the book And Tango Makes Three came to fruition. The thought and detail with all that were involved makes the book all the more special (Young, C. A. 2011). To be honest, I had heard of the book, but I hadn't read it before this class. I love the book for many reasons, the biggest being that I love animals. It is such a natural response to the love that the penguins have for each other. I’m bummed that parents wouldn’t want their children to see this and see natural responses from animals in a true setting. In reading a response from a parent that by reading this book, her child may be encouraged to be gay, I am amazed that a parent would think this. How can a children's picture book encourage the sexual orientation of a child? I need to become more familiar with responses and situations that I may become confronted with. I have had two situations in which a parent has complained. One was a note fro...
Read more

Global Perspectives . . .

Image
       I have always been a huge proponent of teaching global awareness to my students, and in my role now, I largely encourage my teachers to do the same. In fact, I was leading a professional development last week about making global connections, and I had these on a slide:  • Integrates global awareness activities throughout lesson plans and classroom instructional practices. • Promotes global awareness and its relevance. I asked the the participants if these words looked familiar. A few responded that this is part of the teacher evaluation instrument. Yes, it is, and it is our job to integrate global teaching. I wanted to point that out.      In a Skype with a class from Ireland, we were once sharing what our favorite foods were to eat lunch at school. Of course my students said pizza. Their class favorite was sausage and boiled cabbage. My students didn't think that sounded too yummy. We were Skyping with a class fro...
Read more