Wednesday 5 June 2013

Are we meeting the needs of all students?

http://www.ldao.ca/

I found this image while browsing the internet on my lunch break today. It stood out to me because I am in an EPSY 400 class which focuses on working with differences and diversity. After viewing this image I thought what does it mean to learn differently?
Our role as classroom teachers is to meet the needs of all of our students and in Gwen Keith's words "all means all". This means we need to develop and understand how to meet the needs of all of our learners while being as inclusive as possible.
I would be interested in hearing some of your stories you may of had dealing with a child who has an exceptionality or disability. How did you meet their needs? Please share :)

4 comments:

  1. I did a similar class, last year, in fall which was EPSY322 - Students with special needs, and I was really overwhelmed with all the information. Teaching students with special needs is a challenge! Inclusive classroom are a wonderful concept but even it takes a lot of training, patience and compassion on the part of teachers to make it work.
    I had a student in my class, when I was teaching back home, who had ADHD and it was really difficult for me to handle as I had to make a lot of adjustment in the classroom setting as well as in my teaching strategies to make him come up to his potential. But after all the hard work I was happy to enjoy the ripe fruit!
    As a classroom teacher I really did everything I could to make things work but making other teachers understand the difficulties was even more challenging. Other teachers often were not able to understand his behavior and gave negative remarks, which hit hard on him and lowered his confidence. I even started sitting in other classes with him just to make teachers comfortable working with him.
    we teachers need to understand that all the negative remarks and humiliation that students face, because of being different, often tend to separate themselves from others and they stop communicating. They start thinking they are stupid, clumsy or a failure. Their self-esteem takes a battering and they find it hard to think anything positive or good about themselves.

    http://expressimental.wordpress.com/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for you comment and your story! I too have seen students with exceptionalities have troubles socializing with others because they are embarrassed that they are different. You are completely right when you say teachers need to be aware of their remarks. Students have feelings just like everyone else, and we need to nurture their self worth, not jeopardize it.

      Delete
  2. I truley believe the quote on this photo. Im my experiences I have seen teachers ignore that fact that they have different learners in their classrooms. Them saying that it is a lot of extra time and work to try to accomadate all the students in the class. LIKE SERIOUSLY!!! I think its time to retire! I realize that it is extra work and time but something that in my opinion will be so rewarding in the end. Being able to see and know that accomplishments that you have helped with in your students succeeding is a very rewarding feeling. I feel that in order for teachers to help meet the needs of all their students they need to ask for help. Teachers helping teachers! We are all there for support everyone one has different ideas and tools to help make your classroom a success, so take advantage!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for you comment! I completely agree with you when you say that we need to put in the extra work. We are obligated as teachers to meet students needs and I believe you have to be willing to put in the extra work/time to become an educator.

      Delete