Oct 20 Professional Development Reflection

I attended the session on Supporting Students with Exceptionalities. The first part mentioned the language usage for someone who does have physical disabilities. For example, exceptionalities, physical impairment, disabled person. We should ask which term is appropriate to use. Another example is that a student may say "I am autistic" or "I have autism". So the tone is important. The stats showed that around 86 thousand students in BC do have special needs and they are entitled to equitable access to learning, achievement, and the pursuit of excellence (however this isn't happening in many schools). An inclusive classroom is one that is supportive with students and teachers doing the best with what they got. We give 100% to the students and they would probably give 100% back. Students learn together, support each other of all abilities, participate and contribute to the life of the school. So including students into the classroom isn't just providing a desk for them. All BC school districts must work to identity, prevent, and remove barriers for people with disabilities and meet the requirements of the Accessible BC Act (2021). What it mandates are to create accessibility committees, create accessibility plans, and establish a process for receiving public feedback. I really liked the visual pictures with diagrams that showed kids being cheerful with each other. A continuum of education practice was also shown from exclusion to segregation to integration to inclusion to teaching to diversity. Learning from students with special needs is helpful since they know what they are comfortable with. There was a video that was shown where a group of young kids with special needs said what they feel inside when a teacher tells them to do something. For example, one kid said that when the teacher tells him to sit up straight, he would have to focus entirely on sitting up straight and not on the lesson. This is quite surprising and it demonstrates the complex nature of people with special needs. Another kid said that he has to move around or rock in his chair to pay attention better. This makes teachers think that we may tell students to do something that may be helpful but it does the opposite. Another surprising thing was that even with an official diagnosis document, the student won't necessarily get the funding handed to them by the school. The district handles the process. I also liked three pictures showing which parts of the brain are responsible for engagement (middle of brain), representation (back of brain), and action/expression (frontal lobe). EPSE 317 addresses more on this topic and content includes types of disabilities, roles of general classroom teachers in creating inclusive classrooms, universal design for learning/lesson planning, trauma-informed inclusive classroom practices, ableism within schools, assessment and students with disabilities, IEP's and the roles of teachers. Currently I am a bit scared because I don't want to mess up and do something that may not be great for those with special needs. Not sure how much extra work/effort I have to put in to help, so I'm worried if I can even get through the material. I have no experience so I hope to have some eye opening findings and interactions during practicum to better support these students.