Video "A Mind of their Own" September 21, 2010

Today we watched a movie that dealt with issues and overcoming obstacles for kids with minor learning disabilities. It was an interview and overview of what 4 different children have to deal with everyday in a school setting. It was not new to me that children deal with these learning disabilities daily and have problems with such things as reading, writing, and math. It did give a point of view that was more realistic than watching teachers and parents discuss their children's needs. Usually children do not have such an understanding grasp on their own problems in the classroom.

The movie made sense and allowed the viewer to see that each child could embrace their strengths and weaknesses when dealing with different people in different situations. But all of their strengths were obvious when put in a more specialized situation. It makes sense that children with disabilities can accept and deal with their disabilities when surrounded by other children with the same types of learning disabilities.

So would a more specialized setting make sense for children with these disabilities? Yes, I think so. It allows them to embrace each day and not be frustrated with issues that may occur in a regular classroom. But obviously the issue is money and funding for these programs. It really is frustrating that the Board of Education cannot see what is working and what is not. Putting stress on teachers to deal with multiple learning disabilities will ultimately cause behavioural issues to occur and the children with other needs will not gain the attention to improve. Somehow there must be some understanding that individual help is important for students to gain confidence in a regular classroom and being forced into a class of 40 with one teacher will not be sufficient.

If I were put into a classroom with these children I would feel completely overwhelmed. Somehow I would need to distribute my time efficiently to my sure my lesson plans correspond with the student. All students must feel involved in an inclusive classroom to reduce negative situations. These students also had major test anxiety so testing strategies would need to be looked over and possibly even taken out of the unit to help these children with disabilities reduce anxiety. I do think that this is a major issue in many classrooms and first year teachers need to understand that anything can happen.