Articles

** Articles **
Ipod and Disabilities This article is about how I devices are helping autistic students cope with their disabilities. Normally students who are unable to communicate normally are becoming more functional thanks to the touch screens of IPhones and ITouchs. One story is of a young girl who would be unable to communicate where she wanted to go without reacting violently and now with the Iphone she is able to have a map with visual cues that help her express where she wants to go. Some parents do struggle with the cost but many understand that it is a small price to pay given that some equipment can cost thousands of dollars. What this article has helped me is the importance of innovation. Who would have thought that IPhones and I pads could help Autistic children some much. As a teacher I have to be able to try new things and experiment, especially with children so different from what you would normally expect. I as a social studies teacher the knowledge of these applications can make things like geography more interesting. Plus learning of different uses for new things can help me come up with my own creative ideas.

Student Interns This article is about Student interns who are becoming teachers and their perceptions of special needs children. The study is of one student teacher of physical education who mainly taught severely disabled students. They conducted two interviews with him, one formal and one informal. Then everyday he was at school, for 35 days he was to complete a log asking what was his greatest challenge of the day and what was the most rewarding moment. Finally he was observed doing his lessons at various times through out the seven weeks. While the student was limited to just one 21 year old student teacher there were insights gained. Denise At first only focused on what he can do better but as time went on to think more about student participation and enjoyment of the lesson. He also felt that he would have been better prepared if more in depth classes were offered dealing with special needs children, instead of just one. Especially since most of the things he learned was how to teach able bodied students and not one with abnormalities. I guess what I learned form this article is that until we get out to the field nothing we do can truly prepare us for what is out their. As a teacher I have to be ready to change my perception of things and be wiling to adapt on the fly for what the situation calls for.

[|Inclusion]

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This article is about secondary history teachers perspectives on the inclusion of students with disabilities in their classrooms. The study asked 12 secondary history teachers their opinions of students with disabilities being in their regular classrooms. The researchers interviewed seven high school teachers and 5 middle school teachers who had five or more special needs children in their classroom. The interview fell into four categories, teachers' instructional approaches and curriculum development, adaptations for students with disabilities, teacher views towards students with disabilities, and contextual support available for general education teachers. The researchers found that most of the teacher changes to the curriculum were superficial. Nothing they did truly made the material accommodating for the disabled student. One teacher said he would just extend work deadline and provide outlines for notes. Most of the teacher attitudes towards the students were positive however. They believed that the students can perform the work in the class but just required some extra assistance the teacher was unable to provide. Some teachers did complain about the lack of background knowledge these students had such as their reading and writing skills. However some teachers did express hostility toward the idea of inclusion and felt that the idea hurt more than it helped. ======

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 This article was fascinating to me since I plan on being a high school or middle school history teacher. I can imagine the frustration these teachers have with these kids but it seemed that they were too quick to put the blame on something other than themselves. A couple of the teachers did say that their lesson could be more inviting to special needs students but too many were quick to pass on the reason for difficultly on the students passed education or trying to included them in a normal classroom too fast. I guess sometimes these arguments do have value but looking at how these lessons were planned, the teachers could have put in some extra effort to help these students. I have definitely learned that I must take a hard look at my lesson plans when a special needs child is introduced in my classroom because the quick fix changes will not cut it. ======