What disability does Sheldon have?

The character of Sheldon from the hit TV show “The Big Bang Theory” is a humourous character because of all of his quirks and habits.  He is obviously obsessive compulsive, and a certifiable genius (with an IQ of 187, two PhDs, and a job as a theoretical physicist), but looking at his behaviour makes one wonder, does Sheldon have a disability?  If he were in school, he would be a code 80 (gifted and talented) without a doubt, but would he also have another disability?

Sheldon displays many signs of being unable to conform to societal norms.  He often says inappropriate things to people, pointing out their flaws openly with no filter.  He does not understand figurative ways of speaking, slang, or things such as sarcasm.  He has a very large ego, which in part contributes to his inability to ever see his faults or when he is at fault in a situation.  He also lacks empathy, never being able to see how he or anything else can upset a person, and never relating his actions to the feelings of others around him.  He believes that everything he says is completely true, and that there can be no other solution to any situation than the one that he comes up with.

Looking at all of these things, it seems to be apparent that Sheldon does in fact have a disability according to the Alberta Coding Criteria.  Looking at his symptoms it seems that Sheldon likely has an emotional/behavioural disability (code 53).  The following definition of a code 53 is found in the Alberta Special Education Coding Critera:

EMOTIONAL/BEHAVIOURAL DISABILITY

A student/ECS child identified with a mild to moderate emotional/behavioural disability exhibits chronic and pervasive behaviours that interfere with the learning and safety of the student/child, other students/children and staff.

Typically, behaviour disabilities are characterized by a number of observable maladaptive behaviours:

1.      an inability to establish or maintain satisfactory relationships with peers or adults

2. a general mood of unhappiness or depression
3. inappropriate behaviour or feelings under ordinary conditions
4. continued difficulty in coping with the learning situation in spite of remedial intervention
5. physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems
6. difficulties in accepting the realities of personal responsibility and accountability
7. physical violence toward other persons and/or physical destructiveness toward the environment.

Although Sheldon does not possess all of these criteria of a code 53 he does possess most, and I believe if he were in an Alberta school he would likely fall under this category.  He would of course be coded as gifted/talented as well, but teachers would have to work with him in the area of social norms in order to help him socialize with other students. 

"Setting the Direction"

“Setting the Direction” is the Alberta initiative to create inclusion in special education.  The main idea behind it is to create full inclusion in all Alberta schools, instead of having things such as special education classrooms in which students with special needs are separated from mainstream students. 

I have been thinking recently about how I feel about “Setting the Direction.”  In many ways I am against inclusion, because I find that students with special needs benefit more from one-on-one attention from a teacher, which is rare in a mainstream classroom.  Creating an IPP for a student seems to be very beneficial to students with special needs because they have their own individual goals to achieve instead of having to complete curriculum requirements along with the rest of the class.  I believe that special education classes or educational assistants are very beneficial for students with disabilities, and that completely ridding of this system could be dangerous.

On the other hand, I have been trying to see special education from another perspective.  I recently watched the hit movie “The Express”.  In this movie an African-American man plays football for the UCLA college football team in the late 1950s, but is not accepted by the league and the fans because of his race.  While watching this movie I began to relate it to children with special needs.  I began asking myself, “is this essentially what we are doing to children with disabilities?  Do we have a preconceived notion that they should be separated from “the rest of us” and that is where they belong?  What is this idea based on?  And do we simply think this way because this is the way people before us thought, and so this is how we have been taught to think?”  With these ideas in mind I began comparing the idea of segregation of students with disabilities to segregation of races.  Although there is evidence that students with disabilities do need extra help and attention to learn academically, whereas different races do not, there are realistically no differences between the situations socially.  Just like people of a race other than Caucasian, students with disabilities deserve to be placed in a classroom with the mainstream children, so they can have the same opportunities throughout their schooling and their life.

This new way of thinking has led me to believe much more in inclusive classrooms.  Students with disabilities deserve to be included in regular classroom situations to give them the same social and academic opportunities as all other students.  Although they may need to receive extra assistance in their learning, this may be received through an educational assistant in the classroom, or occasional “pull-outs” during which the student is removed from the regular classroom to work on their own goals.  I believe that there should be an “in-between” in inclusive education in which students receive the extra assistance they require but are involved in the regular classroom as much as possible.

Differentiating Assessment

Differentiated assessment is closely related to differentiated instruction, and is in fact to beginning of it, because in order to define how to differentiate instruction for students the teacher must first know how well the students perform.  It is assessing the students in different ways depending on their different needs.  It most often includes formative assessment, and can be used easily in an IPP as means of assessing a student's progress of their goals.

There are two purposes to differentiated assessment, including assessment for learning, and the facilitation of metacognition.  Assessment for learning, or formative assessment, includes giving the students immediate feedback on their learning and work so both the students and the teacher have an idea of how the student is progressing.  The grades given in formative assessment are not taken in as part of the student’s grade in that class, but provide an idea on where and how the student can improve.  The facilitation of metacognition includes the teacher giving the students the skills to be aware of their own thinking.  Metacognition is the highest level of thinking, as it is being aware of thinking.  It involves reflection of one's self and how you learn, or assessment as learning.  This is important in differentiating assessment because it helps student know how they learn best and what their strengths are so they can capitalize on them.

In planning for differentiated assessment there are 5 steps: (1) determine the purpose; (2) establish a focus; (3) select and use a strategy; (4) record the results; and (5) interpret the results and take action.

1)      Determine the purpose: determine what the point of the assessment is, and why.  Also ask yourself if the students are mastering the content you are teaching them

2)      Establish a focus: the teacher needs to narrow down the curriculum to a narrow focus, and make it more meaningful. 

3)      Select and use a strategy: the teacher should use some kind of formative assessment to assess the student’s learning pertaining to the subject they are learning about.

4)      Record the results: record the student’s progress and either use the results for feedback immediately or keep it long term.

5)      Interpret the results and take action: take the results you have obtained and consider if students have mastered the content you have been teaching them.  If they are move onto the next subject, or if they are not you may need to spend more time on that subject.

Differentiated assessment should be used in many areas of the classroom as it is very useful for the students in being able to master subject matter and discover how they learn best.  It is very beneficial for the teacher as well as it helps them to understand how well students are understanding the lessons and if they need to re-teach anything so the students understand it.  In the future I hope to use differentiated assessment in my classroom as I am a strong believer in formative assessment.

Differentiating Instruction

Differentiating instruction is essentially modifying teaching so students can learn better.  There are many things involved in differentiating instruction, and it goes hand-in-hand with differentiating assessment.  It is a very student-centred, progressivist way of teaching, and is generally quite effective in the classroom.

Because differentiating instruction has its roots in progressivism, it is very important to understand progressivism compared to traditionalism.  Progressivism involves teaching students practical things, things that they will need to know for their future.  John Dewey was one of the first people to reccommend this type of teaching, because he felt students needed to learn things in school that would be more suitable and relevant to their future careers.  Traditionalism is the idea that students are empty vessels to be filled by the teacher, and are "filled" with whatever the teacher should deem important to learn.  This often included things such as speaking Latin or being able to solve difficult math equations.

There are three things that are modified in a classroom that uses differentiating instruction, the content, the process, and the product.  Differentiating the content involves changing what the students are going to learn and the materials they are going to use to learn it.  This includes such things as the curriculum of what students are expected to learn, and any means they're going to learn through such as novels, poems, and movies, and any other resources they are going to use to learn from.  The process includes differentiating the activities the students are going to be engaging in in order to learn.  This includes reading books, any review activities, and many other things in which the students are learning.  And finally, the product is what it is the student creates that demonstrates their learning.  This can be most types of assesments such as tests or essays, or it could also be diagrams, artistic works, or many other unconventional things.

There are three means through which the teacher can maximize students' learning.  There is students' readiness to learn, students' interests, and students' learning profiles.  A student's readiness to learn includes where they are currently at, and how ready they are to move forward in their learning.  Scaffolding is a large part of readiness in differentiating instruction, as the teacher should always be teaching one step above where the student is currently at so they can build on their current knowledge and strive to achieve more.  A student's interests is also very important to use in differentiating instruction.  Students should be taught about things they are passionate about or that intrigue them.  A teacher can use a student's natural interests to get them to learn new things.  Lastly, teaching to students' individual learning profiles can be very useful to a teacher.  Each child learns differently and the teacher should try to teach according to a student's best way of learning as much as possible.  This may be learning kinesthetically, socially, logically, deductively, or many other ways.

By using these ways of differentiating instruction it is very possible to create an effective classroom in which students not only learn well, but they learn well because they want to.  They will be interested in the subject matter and will be able to see how it pertains to their future.  They will be able to use what they have learned in school in their adult life and are not forced to learn material that they have absolutely no interest in.  Differentiating instruction for students is a very good method of teaching, and I personally hope it will become more popular and will be included in schooling more often in the near future.

Creating Objectives for IPP Goals

When creating an IPP, it must include various things, but the most important components of one can be said to be the goals and objectives.  I have previously discussed how to create SMART goals, but under each of these goals there needs to be three objectives breaking up the goal into measurable parts. 

When creating objectives, it is important to keep in mind that they should adhere to the ACT HOW acronym.  This stands for action, context, and terms, and the HOW represents how you are going to measure these things.
A: Action.  This involves the verb of the objective.  It is the action that the student is going to take in order to improve in an area.  It is what they are going to do and learn, and it is what are they going to know when they have achieved the objective.  This can include many things, such as the student will be able to count to 50, or the student will complete written assignments.
C: Context.  The context of the objective is where, when, and under what conditions is the student expected to perform the action.  This may be written in a way such as the student will perform the action twice a week, at home or at school, in a certain classroom, by the end of class, or on the SMARTboard.
T: Terms.  The objective's terms involve writing the criteria for the student's work to be considered a success.  This includes how well or for how long the learning takes place, what percentage they must achieve on the work, or how much of the assignment or learning they must accomplish each time.  These may be things such as the student will achieve 80% on assignments given, or they must accomplish 2 out of 3 assignments.
HOW: How.  This is by what means is the student going to show they accomplished the objective. It is what the student does to show they have achieved their objective.  It also includes how the teacher is going to show that the student has achieved their goals, so how are they going to be assessed?  This may include tests, worksheets, self-reflections, and many other things.

Objectives are very important to an IPP because it makes the goals more specific and breaks them up so the teacher and the student have a vivid start and finishing point.  It elaborates on the goals and makes them seem more achieveable and less overwhelming as well.  A well written IPP should have objectives that follow the ACT HOW model that are specific and pertain to the goal they are under.

Creating Goals in an IPP

Students with disabilities require an individual program plan to be made for them so they can improve throughout the year and their progress can be monitored.  They often are required to learn different things than the other students in their classroom, so it is important to determine what they are going to learn and decide the best way for them to achieve it at the beginning of the year.  In order to determine what they are going to learn goals must be made for the student so they have something to strive to achieve throughout the year. 

The goals that are made must be “SMART” goals, meaning they must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.  It is important for a goal to include all of these things so that the student knows exactly what they are striving for and how they can best achieve it.  It is also important for the student to know how long it should take them to achieve the goal so they have something to look forward to, and can feel a sense of accomplishment when they have reached their goal.

Goals are typically focused on one of five different areas that can be improved.  The first area is self help skills, which includes choice making and personal advocacy, such as sharing with others what their needs are appropriately.  The second area is pro-social skills, including being able to get along with others, and managing emotions such as anger or sadness.  The third area goals can be focused on is communications skills, which involves both receptive and expressive communication like maintaining eye contact and actively listening.  The fourth area is academic skills, including reading, writing, literacy, and mathematics.  And finally, the fifth area of goal focus is work habits, which includes such things as working appropriately and on task, being punctual, coming to class prepared, and many other things.

Strategies for Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities are always in need of “systems” and routines in their daily lives to make things less difficult for them.  Strategies are a way for them to learn new things in their lives, both academic and personal.  Strategies are often used by kids with disabilities but are useful for all people, as they help a person learn and remember new things. 

There are two main things that strategies do; one, it gets the subject active in their learning, and two, it moves the subject toward metacognition.  These are both very important in learning because the subject, or student in particular, will become more interested in what they are learning and will remember it better.  It will also assist them in learning the best way for them to effectively learn any subject matter, which will be useful for them in many aspects of their lives.  Generally students will not willingly consent to using strategies, but once they experience success with it they will adapt the strategy so it works better for them and will be excited about using it.

One of the most used strategies for students with disabilities is the “SQ4R” strategy for reading.  It is an acronym for multiple steps in reading and is used as follows:

S: Survey.  The student surveys the text, the content of it, any objectives involved in it, the introduction to the text, and the summary of the text.

Q: Question.  The student asks themselves multiple questions about the text, including what may happen, what the definition of something may be, who the main subject of the text is, and many others.

R (1): Read.  The student reads through the text, answering the questions they previously asked themselves, and paying attention to everything in the text.

R (2): Recite.  The student answers the questions they are answering out loud, reinforcing the knowledge of the text they are gaining.

R (3): Relate.  The student relates the text and happenings in the text to their own lives and events that they have encountered themselves.

R (4): Review.  The student reviews everything they read and recalls events and facts from the text.

This is a very successful strategy for students with disabilities to use when reading.  It helps them to concentrate on what they are reading and become active in their reading.  They can also use this strategy in areas of their everyday life that require reading, whether it be instructions, directions, or many other things.

Richard Lavoie

FAT City: A Look Ahead

Richard Lavoie created a video called FAT City, and we recently watched a follow up to this video in which Lavoie describes the first video and what things in it mean.  FAT City is an acronym for frustration, anxiety, and tension in the classroom, and is referring to the feelings that students with learning disabilities have while in school.  In the second video Lavoie gives many insights about how adolescents with learning disabilities feel, which is very important for teachers to know in order to be good at helping their students.

In my opinion, one of the most important insights that Lavoie offers is pointing out that school is a child’s job.  When they fail at school they are essentially failing at the biggest aspect of their life at the time.  This creates negative feelings about school for these students, and often makes them want to avoid school altogether.  School is a very large chunk of a student’s life, so when they are struggling with it, and especially when they are failing in it, they begin to feel like a failure, and their self-esteem and self-worth takes a dramatic blow.  As a teacher, it is incredibly important to make a student with a learning disability successful so their self-esteem does not decrease, and they can be happy.  You also need to make them feel safe and comfortable in school, so they do not develop negative feelings toward it, and want to come to school and succeed.

Lavoie also points out that learning disabilities are pervasive in a child’s life, and in their life as an adult.  A learning disability is not something that occurs only in school and is something that an adolescent will grow out of, it is with them in every area of their life, for their entire life.  If  a student has trouble reading in the classroom, they will have trouble reading outside of the classroom as well.  All learning disabilities are present in a child’s life no matter where they are, and a teacher must realize this in order to best teach a student.  If I teach a student with learning disabilities I must realize that the strategies I teach them so they can effectively learn in my classroom must also apply to their learning outside of the classroom.  If a student feels more confident that they can effectively learn in all areas of their life their self-esteem will be boosted and they will be more productive and a better learner in the classroom.

These are only a few insights that Lavoie offers in the video, which is very educational and promotes a better understanding of adolescents with learning disabilities.  It is a great video and I recommend that all teachers, teacher aids, and any other people involved in educating a student with a learning disability watch it.

Accommodations: Observations

In studying the many kind of accommodations, I have learned that there are many ways in order to accommodate for a child with a learning disability.  Among many other things students with disabilities should be observed in the classroom in order to learn the best way in which to accommodate them.  There are strategies for observing them, ecological assessments in which the student is observed in multiple environments, multiple observation methods, and many questions to ask while making observations.

Students should be observed objectively throughout the year to determine if the negative behaviour they are exhibiting is general or specific.  This is very important because once it is determined what triggers the behaviour the teacher and school can make accommodations for the student in order to minimize the negative behaviour.  It is also important to do an ecological assessment in order to determine if the stimulant of the negative behaviour is environmental, such as another student, a certain place, or a teacher’s methods, so accommodations can be made for any of these things as well.

There are multiple methods of observation in order to record the student’s negative behaviour and determine a stimulus.  It is possible to keep anecdotal records, event records, duration records, or checklists/rating scales.  Each of these things keeps records in a different way, although none are more or less important than others.  Each has benefits to them, and depending on what the most prevalent misbehaviour is and what accommodations you are attempting to make it is necessary to keep one of, or many of these types of records.

In keeping these records it is easier to make appropriate accommodations for the student with the disability, and accommodations can change over the school year as necessary.  The student will get the best education out of this effort, and will be able to succeed in school.

Individual Program Plans

Looking at all of the different elements of an Individual Program Plan there are many things to keep in mind.  I have created a few IPPs in my two years of college, but have never looked at creating one from any viewpoints other than that of the teacher.  I am looking forward to creating and IPP that involves multiple perspectives so I can learn to see how different people feel about creating an IPP for a child.  It is very important as a teacher to keep the child's parents in mind when creating an IPP, as well as other members of the team, and I believe the assignemt to create an IPP this way will be useful once I graduate.

Using the various components of an IPP it will be possible to create a good, appropriate IPP for any student.  Keeping in mind the child's needs and what is the most important thing they must improve on at that time, goals must be created that are attainable.  I believe creating attainable goals are the most important part of an Individual Program Plan, and that appropriate goals will motivate to student to do their best in school.  When a student is motivated in school they will also enjoy being there much more than if they go to school only because they have to. 

The second most important part of an Individual Program Plan to me is assessment of improvement, both evaluating progess throughout the year, and the review of progress at the reporting periods.  This lets the student know where they have been improving and how to continue doing so.  Seeing their success they will be motivated to continue working to keep achieving their goals.  It also lets the members of the team know that their efforts are worth it and their time spent working on the IPP and with the student are truly making a difference. 

Overall, IPPs are very effective for students and teachers, and are important for any classroom that includes disabled students.  They may be a lot of work, but are worth it as they bring clarification for the student, as well as the team members, as to what they must do so the student can succeed.  With an IPP everyone knows what is expected of them and how they are going to go about achieving it.  They are a wonderful tool for the classroom and have a lot to offer for teachers and students.

The Retreat!

This week we did not have class on Thursday because we were at Camp Kuriakos out by Sylvan Lake for the retreat.  We learned a lot at the retreat, and did tons of team work to bring us closer together as a cohort.  I found that everyone was very involved in all of the activites, and it seemed like all were having fun and working together very well.  My first team involved myself, Amanda, Ashten, Sarah L, Elizabeth, Darcy, T.J., Tatianna, Kalee, and Selene.  I found that we all worked well together and included everyone in all of the decision making.  We did many activities together and grew to know each other quite well throughout the day.  Our team name was "bunja-ninjas", and we had a wonderful time doing  the cheer for the rest of the cohort after supper.  My second team involved myself, Asten, Elizabeth, Mike, Tammy, Brittney, and Kyla.  We worked very well together and did some activities before sharing our "stories" with each other.  I learned a lot about each of them and feel like I know them all much more now that I did previously. 

Aside from actual group activities we all spent lots of time together getting to know one another.  I learned that many people in our cohort are quite musically talented, and enjoy entertaining other people.  I've learned about many people's personal lives, where they grew up, and what they do outside of school now.  It was a wonderful experience getting to know everyone so well, and I'm glad we were able to do so because I now feel much more connected to my cohort than I did previous to the retreat.

Inclusive Education

There are obviously many ups and downs to inclusive education, and since we've began the course I've been trying to figure out my own opinion on the subject.  This early on in the course I believe it is still difficult for me to come up with a solid opinion about it, but I have began to develop a preliminary position about whether inclusive education is the best option or not.

In a positive light inclusive education can offer many things to both the students with disabilities as well as to the students who are in the classroom with them.  It shows the other students in the class that kids with disabilities are generally no different than them, and that they should, and can include them in all things they do.  It also helps them to become familiar with people who have disabilities so when they encounter them in everyday life, and in society later on in their life, they will not feel uncomfortable with them and will be completely open to socializing or working with them.  It also shows the students with the disabilities that they are like the other kids in the class, and that they can become involved in regular activities with them.  It helps them to learn how to interact with other people and how to gain many socializing skills that will be necessary in their future.

The negative side to inclusive education revolves mainly around the assistance that all children in the classroom may miss out on.  In a classroom that is inclusive the teacher has to divide their time between all of the students, with and without disabilities, which could be very hard for them.  It also could steal time from students who need help if the teacher is trying to assist students with drastically different abilities all at once.  The students who have disabilities may not get all of the assistance they need in an inclusive classroom because the teacher will simply not have enough time to spend with them while also teaching and helping the rest of the class as well. 

In my opinion, I think it really all boils down to the amount of assistance the students with disabilities are going to recieve.  Inclusive education is completely acceptable, if it is possible to have one teacher aid in the classroom for atleast every two students with a disability.  In my own experience, students with disabilities can learn in the regular classroom if they have someone there to provide one-on-one assistance with their learning.  If this is not possible, I believe inclusive education has a high risk of failure.  The teacher will not be able to allot enough time to the students with a disability while still sufficiently teaching and assisting the rest of the class, so that everyone in the classroom gets the best education possible.  There needs to be someone who is assigned the job of assisting the students with disabilities, whether it be a teacher in a special education classroom, or it be a teacher aid sitting with the student with a disability in the regular classroom.

The VERY First Day

Sitting here trying to come up with something to write in my blog I couldn't think of anything really significant I wanted to share with everyone.  Then finally I thought to myself, why not start at the very beginning?

Throughout my life I had never really known what I wanted to do and had never really thought about it either.  In my grade 11 year of high school in Vulcan my mom (a school coordinator and teacher aid in the Milo School) offered my two best friends and I an opportunity to write and direct the annual Milo School Christmas Production.  All three of us knew the staff as well as the students in the school well (as we had attended school there from Kindergarten to grade 9) and decided it would be a lot of fun to take on the challenge.  Over the next few months we wrote the play, and had a blast doing so.  Around the start of November we began going to the Milo School once a week to cast the students in their roles and start practicing the play with them.  We did this throughout November and the beginning of December, and finally the day of the Christmas Production was upon us.  Now I can't honestly say that everything went off without a hitch, but what fun would it have been if it had?  We had to change a few things on the fly and keep the students focused on their roles during the production, but in the end the play was definitely a success.  The students all had fun, and my friends and I had a wonderful experience that we will always remember.

It was shortly after this experience that I finally realized what I wanted to do with my life, I wanted to become a teacher.  In the beginning I had my heart set on being a Kindergarten teacher.  Working with them during the Christmas Production was always fun, and I felt that at that age they truly appreciated and respected me as their leader.  As time went on I realized that being a Kindergarten teacher may someday be what I would like to do, but that all age groups of students can respect and appreciate you if you are a good teacher and lead them in the right direction in a fun, safe environment.  By the time I graduated high school I knew without a doubt that teaching is truly what I wanted to do, and that I really wanted to be able to impact students' lives in a positive manner.