Week 7 & 8

Read a louds:

•  On the sixteenth day of class Mrs. Jackson read One by Kathryn Otashi. This was a simple book with simple concepts but it had a strong message about bullying, it only takes one person to stand up against a bully. This book used colors and numbers as characters, so it would be a good book to use in a math lesson for younger kids or maybe in an art lesson where you learn to make the different colors from the primary colors.
• On the seventeenth day of class Sarah read Your are Special by Max Lucado. This was a story about wooden people and if you did some thing well then you received a star and if you did some thing bad you would get dots. Well the main character had a lot of dots, when one day he meet a girl who did not have any thing on her. She took him to the wood carver who told the boy it didn't what the others labeled him, all that mattered was what the carver thought. This would be a good introduction to a lesson about self image and self worth.
• On the eighteenth day of class Margaret read The Very Little Boy by Phyllis Krasilovsky. This book was about how every one feels so small and powerless when they are younger but eventually they will become bigger and more powerful. You could use this in an activity about height and track the students height all year long. Also this could be used in a science lesson where you give students a seed and watch it grow into a plant.

Learning Experiences:

•  In class we had a disability day which was very enlightening. I used to think that people with physical handicaps could just use the elevator instead of stairs, but its harder than that. When I was in the wheel chair trying to roll up the ramp I broke a sweat. When we had to put the goggles on to see what it was like to have a vision impairment I felt so alone and scared because I couldn't see anything, like I had to put the book up to my face to read the title. We also had to do a maze in the mirror without looking at the maze, which made you feel like some one who has a dyslexia. This was very frustrating because you had to learn how to move your hand in the opposite direction than what you saw. It was also frustrating when you had to pick a letter out of a bag while you were blind folded. It was so frustrating because a lot of the letters look similar so it was hard to distinguish between the two. We also spent several days talking about autism and how we do not know what exactly causes it. I think it is so awesome that kids with autism are being able to show how they feel finally with the help of technology, especially with ipads.

Current Event:

• http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelvenables/2012/10/09/engineers-study-lego-bricks/
• I find the article to be very true and I don't see why other teachers have not thought of it! Lego's are a great way to get kids involved and keep their attention. This is also a good way to have students test their theories on how they would build some thing for example in an engineering or science class.

Quote of the Week:

• "The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you."
  B.B. King
• This quote is so simple but so perfect and true about education. Once you learn something, no one can ever take it back. It also relates to the fact that knowledge is power so when you learn some thing you have power over the others.

Observations:

• Now that I am more knowledgeable about those with special needs I am noticing than more and more people may have a special need and they have just hidden it. It is great to see that people can over come their disability and live a normal and happy life.

Reflection:

• Learning about special needs has made me realize how hard it is on the parents of kids with special needs. Also when we learned about all the paperwork that teachers have to do to make an IEP for their students, especially when my mom is one of them.