Please use this discussion thread to review for the Written Comprehensive Exam. Please feel free to use it to ask each other questions about the exam and any other questions you have related to taking the exam. There are other threads on the blog that you may find interesting. Feel free to contribute to any of them.
Hopefully we are not too late to meet and share some information in an extended virtual classroom with those of you at State University of New York. Let's start with who we are and what our current teaching assignments are, where we teach (name, location, SES status, racial/ethnic makeup of our schools, primary and other languages spoken), and who we teach.
You have heard the expression, "When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade." Surviving inclusion when best inclusive practices are not in place is a hard pitcher of lemonade to make. The purpose of this discussion is create a dialog of problems and solutions. What problems are you experiencing? What solutions can you offer? What insights, suggestions, humor, and other survival tips can you offer?
During Summer I term at DSU, graduate candidate, Ada Edwards, offered a discussion comment on an article interview with Alfredo Artilies and Beth Harry. She explained over-identification of minorities in special education based in part on ethnocentricity, “…special education teachers were not aware that they were bias in their teaching style and could not relate to the culture of students of other races. Teachers held to their European way of thinking, "white man" perspective and lacked the sensitiveness of the "different" world their students came from.”
In the Mississippi Delta, I believe we have a unique educational situation influenced by our African-American, European American, Asian American and other ethnic cultures that form the overall cultural landscape of the Delta. Our cultural beliefs and values play an important role in education but for most of us this cultural aspect remains below the level of consciousness. Please comment using Ada’s topic as a focus. If you are not from the Mississippi Delta, comment from your own regional perspective.
As classroom teachers, we tend to have our own little nation over which we preside. We are not aware of our own culture and the decisions we make based on our own ethnocentrism. Even if you do not have a classroom or a group of student for whom you are responsible, you still make many decisions and judgments based on your own culture. Let's take a fun look at the times we have experienced "culture shock." We will use the following definition as a basis for discussion. www.answers.com/topic/ethnocentrism provides a very simple definition for ethnocentricity: “the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one’s own ethnic culture. .. it may be something all cultures have in common. People often feel this occurring during what some call culture shock.” (www.answers.com/topic/ethnocentrism taken July 18, 2006). This is the first of a two-part discussion about coming to understand our cultural perspectives.
Please react to the following quote from Exceptional Lives by Turnbull, Turnbull, Shank, & Smith (2004), p. 6, "How would you feel if you were only known by your disability and not according to your abilities?...There is a great deal of controversy about labeling and about its consequences, which include classification in schools--specifically classification into special education. Students can benefit if a label qualifies them to receive special services...On the other hand, labeling can lead educators to regard a student as a broken person whom they must "fix" (Obiakor, 1999; Patton, 1998; Reschly, 1996). Labeling also can segregate students with disabilities....Indeed, labeling can reflect biases against students' ethnic, linguistic, or cultural backgrounds (Obiakor, 1999; Patton, 1998).
We welcome parents of children with special needs. We would like to hear your comments and concerns about the educational system in the Mississippi Delta, public or private. We offer our support and any information that might be helpful and just a place to discuss whatever is on your mind.
I will be inviting educators to participate in this topic. I would like for them to tell us about where they are and what they are doing. I want them to give us some of their views on the current state of education and special education as well as entertain or enlighten us. Please interact with them.
I have invited Violet Simpson, one of your fellow graduate candidates, to contribute to this topic. What is your favorite website for finding activities and resources to use with your students? What teacher websites do you recommend to join for activities and materials? If you do not any favorites yet, what kinds of activities and resources would you like to find on the Internet? What fun or helpful information have you found in your own searches or checking out the recommendations of others? Be specific and please include the web address in your post.
Well, I am out here in Colorado missing the Delta. Tell me how you spent your 4th of July whether or not you celebrated it. My husband and I went to a picnic in a nearby town where I used to teach. Even though Greeley, CO. is just a half hour away, it is different from Ft. Collins where we live. It is out on the plains which are very dried out and yellow now due to the ongoing drought here. Ft. Collins is in the foothills next to the Rockies. At the picnic given by a past principal of mine who became a friend, we visited with her family and ate a real 4Th of July feast-hamburgers, brats, cold baked chicken, stuffed eggs, a wild-rice salad, potato salad, zucchini bread, cookies, and store-bought but tasty looking cakes. Then we visited with my husband's son and his wife and 3 children at their house back in Ft. Collins. Firecrackers started popping before dark even though there is a state law against them. All in all a very nice day. How about you?
