After viewing the short movie
Enabling Dreams, I was reminded of the heartbreaking reality of people with
disabilities. Not to say that I was unaware of the difficulties they face just
to get by, but lets just say I’m more appreciative of having full use of my
limbs and appendages. I often forget and take for granted the fact that there
are people who have it harder than I do.
Addressing
this reality from a teacher’s point of view, of course we will have to create
lesson plans for our students and make sure that we make accommodations for
students who need them. These accommodations therefore will provide
opportunities for the whole class to be active in the lesson. In the video for
example, computers and microphones were provided for students to do classwork
and homework.
As a
prospective teacher, I would never want any of my students to feel left out,
especially if they have a learning disability. I would imagine they feel bad
and different enough already, knowing how kids can be at times. Therefore, I
definitely plan to integrate accommodations within my lessons. For example,
since I would be teaching science, if my student with a disability required the
use of a computer to do work, I would create a computer version of a worksheet
I’d give to the class so they can do the work as well.
In order to
make sure that my revisions and accommodations to my lessons are appropriate
for my students with needs, of course I would have to take into consideration
their personal disability, and try to determine whether I am excluding them
from any opportunity for learning presented through my regular lessons. I have
to make sure that there are enough learning opportunities possible for my
students with disabilities, and it should equal, as much as possible, that of
students without disabilities. Of course I have to be realistic but I should
always ensure that the learning opportunity is there for my students and it is
optimized. One accommodation I can do, for example, is allow the student extra
time to take an exam, or even have them take the exam in another room where
distractions could be lessened (DO-IT, 2012).
Honestly, having had the dream of
becoming a teacher for so long, I’ve had a fear of having students with any
type of disability. I don’t fear having a disabled student; I just fear that I
might not know how to handle their particular situation thereby depriving them
of the best education they deserve. For
example, my auntie once had a student who was blind, and never having
experienced working with blind students, had to figure out a way to teach the
student as normally as possible. She admitted that she didn’t know how she
could effectively teach someone who couldn’t see what she was talking about.
I fear that I would be in the
same position as my auntie. I know that teaching itself is not an easy feat,
even with students that are considered to be without disabilities, but I just
really fear failing to give all of my students the best education possible. A personal experience is that in my present
biology class, I have a classmate who takes tests on a computer and has a
personal note taker in class. Of course, having these accommodations have
enhanced his education since he is able to do the work, and I’ve spoken to him
and so far, he’s doing well.
After watching the video, I
researched different methods of how to address students who have disabilities.
I’ve come across an online article called “Academic Accommodations for Students
With Disabilities” in which it discusses an article by Barbara Gross from UC
Berkeley discussing students with disabilities. One important point was
“Remember that disabled students are students first, disabled second” (Martes,
2007). Growing up, I’ve never really had any disabled classmates so I barely
had any experience with people who are disabled. I’m sure that most people are
somewhat hesitant, and don’t know how to act around disabled people, but we
should treat them as normally as possible.
Enabling Dreams sparked a hope in
me for my students, because I see that technology continues to be integrated
into different aspects of life, especially in education. The fact that people
are coming up with more ways for people to live life wholly, disabled or not,
makes the future, and education, appear so much brighter.
References:
1. DO-IT University of Washington. (2012, April 12). Academic accommodations for students with learning disabilities. Retrieved from http://www.washington.edu/doit/Brochures/PDF/accomm_ld.pdf
2. Martes, L.
(2007, October 16). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://lourdes- tecnologiaasistiva.blogspot.com/2007/10/academic-accomodations-for-students.html
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