I made the full swing of fighting against having Bobbi Sue placed in my room to fighting for her to be in a mainstream classroom working with kids in the way that she had worked with them all year long. I'm a perfect example of how you have to have an open mind.
Nothing here is so outrageous that I can't learn it.
Now that I have dealt with her, I have rolled her down the hill and I've taken her sliding with the other kids and stuff. She's a little girl like everyone else.
When I started finally having some interactions with him, he would come right over with his walker up to my desk, hold onto the desk, and put his butt around like he wanted to get up on my lap. And I would pick him up and he would look up at me and smile and he would put his hand on my face, and so you knew when he was content.
Increase in their sense of ownership for the child's education.
It's easy to expect the aide to do everything lot that student, and then you think now you don't have to deal with it at all, but it doesn't .... I mean I suppose it could work that way, but I don't think that you would get much out of it.
I feel very comfortable with her. Very often I have her for periods in the classroom when the aides aren't there, and that's no problem at all.
I'm the one that's going to make the plans for that student. I'm responsible for his success in my classroom.
I think you have to see them as another one of the children in class who has some strengths, some weaknesses; and you need to find out where they are at and how you can help them.
To me, he was just one of the kids in the class. I think you really need to have that attitude.
Finally, these teachers displayed a willingness to learn from their students.
I started watching my own regular classroom students. They didn't treat him any differently. They went about their business like everything was normal. So I said, "If they can do it, I can do it." He's not getting in their way, they're treating him like everybody else.
I learned more from the kids than I think they learned from me because they were with Tim last year.
They were always letting me know when I forgot something. "You didn't remember to include Sarah." So they were very good at letting me know.
The kids help you figure it out.
Benefits for students with disabilities
Even if she is plateauing, she's still being challenged. There are new things that people try to make her do or get her to do even if she is just doing all she's ever done before; it may be more than laying around on the floor.
Sometimes during music class when they would be singing, Susie would almost laugh because she was hearing the song; and even though she wasn't singing, she was enjoying it, being part of it by just being there.
I think that just opens up so many doors and avenues and there are role models there; and there are just so many other things available to them that wouldn't be available if they were in a room with children who were very similar to themselves.
He taught them [people at school] that he can learn.
He is growing accustomed to the way people do things. He is more able to carry on a conversation and stay relevant for more than two sentences. He is learning turn taking; I'm sure that it was worked on before, but I think in a regular classroom you really learn it or someone is on your case all the time.
Benefits of Students Without Disabilities
I also saw in them the willingness to have him there in that room, to treat him like everybody else; that they didn't feel that he was any different.
Teacher transformations
The first few weeks they [students without disabilities] were watching me .... They really looked toward me to see: Is this OK? They watch the adults and see what their reaction is and then model them. I mean that is a real
Important part of education, what you model. I also think kids accept things quicker than adults in some ways.
I was proud of myself for letting myself change my mind. You know, that I wasn't stubborn enough, that I wasn't open to new ideas and learning something new .... I'm glad that I was open, that I could change my mind because it made me feel better as a person to know that I gave somebody a chance and that I knew in the future that if it ever came to that again that I would do the same.
Increased confidence
I think before I always had high expectations, and I used to really plan. If things didn't go exactly the way I planned them, then I felt like I was a failure, I wasn't teaching right, or somehow it was something I was doing. All of the sudden you can make such a learning experience out of anything. So professionally it was great for me.
I really think it changed the way I teach a lot. I think it was really for the better. I think it made me more flexible.
It helped me to understand that all people learn differently and have different things that they can do.
I don't try to lecture as much and cut down on that; and try to get activities, game playing, things like that. The class may be noisier or more active than a class which stresses lecture and just sitting there quietly.
Giangreco, M., Dennis, R., Cloninger, C., Edelman, S., & Schattman, R. (1993). "i've counted jon": Transformational experiences of teachers educating students with disabilities . Exceptional Children, 59(4), 359-372.
Nothing here is so outrageous that I can't learn it.
Now that I have dealt with her, I have rolled her down the hill and I've taken her sliding with the other kids and stuff. She's a little girl like everyone else.
When I started finally having some interactions with him, he would come right over with his walker up to my desk, hold onto the desk, and put his butt around like he wanted to get up on my lap. And I would pick him up and he would look up at me and smile and he would put his hand on my face, and so you knew when he was content.
Increase in their sense of ownership for the child's education.
It's easy to expect the aide to do everything lot that student, and then you think now you don't have to deal with it at all, but it doesn't .... I mean I suppose it could work that way, but I don't think that you would get much out of it.
I feel very comfortable with her. Very often I have her for periods in the classroom when the aides aren't there, and that's no problem at all.
I'm the one that's going to make the plans for that student. I'm responsible for his success in my classroom.
I think you have to see them as another one of the children in class who has some strengths, some weaknesses; and you need to find out where they are at and how you can help them.
To me, he was just one of the kids in the class. I think you really need to have that attitude.
Finally, these teachers displayed a willingness to learn from their students.
I started watching my own regular classroom students. They didn't treat him any differently. They went about their business like everything was normal. So I said, "If they can do it, I can do it." He's not getting in their way, they're treating him like everybody else.
I learned more from the kids than I think they learned from me because they were with Tim last year.
They were always letting me know when I forgot something. "You didn't remember to include Sarah." So they were very good at letting me know.
The kids help you figure it out.
Benefits for students with disabilities
Even if she is plateauing, she's still being challenged. There are new things that people try to make her do or get her to do even if she is just doing all she's ever done before; it may be more than laying around on the floor.
Sometimes during music class when they would be singing, Susie would almost laugh because she was hearing the song; and even though she wasn't singing, she was enjoying it, being part of it by just being there.
I think that just opens up so many doors and avenues and there are role models there; and there are just so many other things available to them that wouldn't be available if they were in a room with children who were very similar to themselves.
He taught them [people at school] that he can learn.
He is growing accustomed to the way people do things. He is more able to carry on a conversation and stay relevant for more than two sentences. He is learning turn taking; I'm sure that it was worked on before, but I think in a regular classroom you really learn it or someone is on your case all the time.
Benefits of Students Without Disabilities
I also saw in them the willingness to have him there in that room, to treat him like everybody else; that they didn't feel that he was any different.
Teacher transformations
The first few weeks they [students without disabilities] were watching me .... They really looked toward me to see: Is this OK? They watch the adults and see what their reaction is and then model them. I mean that is a real
Important part of education, what you model. I also think kids accept things quicker than adults in some ways.
I was proud of myself for letting myself change my mind. You know, that I wasn't stubborn enough, that I wasn't open to new ideas and learning something new .... I'm glad that I was open, that I could change my mind because it made me feel better as a person to know that I gave somebody a chance and that I knew in the future that if it ever came to that again that I would do the same.
Increased confidence
I think before I always had high expectations, and I used to really plan. If things didn't go exactly the way I planned them, then I felt like I was a failure, I wasn't teaching right, or somehow it was something I was doing. All of the sudden you can make such a learning experience out of anything. So professionally it was great for me.
I really think it changed the way I teach a lot. I think it was really for the better. I think it made me more flexible.
It helped me to understand that all people learn differently and have different things that they can do.
I don't try to lecture as much and cut down on that; and try to get activities, game playing, things like that. The class may be noisier or more active than a class which stresses lecture and just sitting there quietly.
Giangreco, M., Dennis, R., Cloninger, C., Edelman, S., & Schattman, R. (1993). "i've counted jon": Transformational experiences of teachers educating students with disabilities . Exceptional Children, 59(4), 359-372.