Lesson 12 Reflection

• A reflection of your process to learn it, and what you would change to learn more/better,

This week I made sure to be thorough in my readings and because of it I was able to participate. I would change by trying to make sure that when I did comment that it was more effective, I really like to participate in class but I need to make sure that others are able to as well.

• What experience or resource helped you learn the most,

I had a really good experience this week helping at the center to help those with special needs. I noticed that one of the guys was asked to do a list of 4 different things and then was expected to remember what they were 10 minutes later. Personally I don't think that was the most effective way to help him, and I realized I didn't even remember all the 4 things he was asked to do. Therefore it taught me to make sure to repeat instructions and ask directly afterwards to help them remember.

• How well prepared are you for applying what you learned in the future,

I feel like I am prepared to be able to implement what we learned especially about being compassionate and understanding people's needs but also to make sure to help them be independent.

• How well did your peers learn and what did you do to help them learn more.

My peers did really well to discuss and participate in order to learn the material. I helped by being included in discussions while still letting everyone take a turn so I didn't take over.

Service Experience helping those with Special Needs

Recently I was able to spend time with individuals with special needs at a center that works with adults. When I was first preparing to visit for the first time I was a little nervous, I knew that there were ways in which I could do my best to interact with them but I was still cautious since I hadn't had many actual experiences with those that had severe needs. When I arrived I was first very pleasantly surprised that the place seemed nice and welcoming. The ladies in charge were friendly and sweet and more than that is that they spoke with the individuals (who had special needs) as if they were best friends. She would joke with them, see how they were doing and scold them in a teasing manner. If I hadn't known who she was talking to I almost would have thought that she was talking with a co-worker. I loved this. I thought it was amazing. I also noticed how remarkably high functioning most of them were, some had more difficulties but many of them really were quite high functioning. I first went with a group that was going out to the "community" to teach them useful skills. We then proceeded to go to the dollar tree, it was really cool to be involved in talking to them about how much everything cost, to see the amount they would get for each item and to have them compare items to see their content. I was truthfully blown away. The girl I talked to asked me about my life, was excited for me that I was married, and wanted to know about my major. It was really enjoyable and I was extremely impressed. I thought it was wonderful to simply spend time with them. We then were helping the guy to pick up an item that he wanted. What I loved is that the helper didn't make the decision for him. She would tell him options and help him remember what he had bought before but she made him make the decision himself. This inspired me. I thought it was wonderful that they really were learning skills necessary to do well in society. She even told me to not try to sway him and not to pick for him. I greatly admired this. After that we were driving back and he would mainly repeat what we said but he responded appropriately which was impressive. He then said he had a job!! The helper then explained to me that most of them have jobs and they would earn a little bit of money that they could use at the store to learn about money management but also to enjoy things such as plays. We later used puzzles at the center. It really stood out to me how even this man confined to a wheelchair who couldn't communicate and had difficulty moving was excelling at a puzzle. I also was with 2 people using a puzzle and they found more pieces than I could. I loved this experience. I returned multiple times and it kept surprising me how they really were being taught to be independent. I thought this was a good lesson and was remarkable to me because they showed that they believed in the person and their abilities and they didn't let a disability define them. I also experienced being near them as they participated in a play (quite effectively) and in church (including commenting and being reflective).
Ultimately what I learned from these powerful experiences was that we should always make sure to encourage people to achieve new goals, and to believe that they can. Many times people judge those with disabilities and don't believe they can achieve great things but they can. We simply need to give them the opportunity. This will affect my expectations in the future and also will help me to always give people a chance.

Lesson 11 Reflection

• A reflection of your process to learn it, and what you would change to learn more/better,
• What I did to learn the material was I took notes on the textbook then I went back and read the chapter in detail. This way I knew what points to look for. I would have highlighted my favorite parts to focus on the most crucial aspects of the chapter.
• What experience or resource helped you learn the most,
• This was a really good week as far as learning goes. I thought the case study where were worked together as a MultiDisciplinary team was not only effective in teaching me the steps but I felt it was really effective in also helping me know (a small part of) how I would feel as a part of a child with disabilities.
• How well prepared are you for applying what you learned in the future,
• I definitely feel that I am now better prepared at understanding how I would act in certain cases dealing with a MDT and this helped me to be prepared to apply knowledge in the future. We were taught from the textbook a few weeks back that on a MDT you need to make sure you know what your united purpose is which is to help the student. I liked putting that to practice this week.
• How well did your peers learn and what did you do to help them learn more.
• My peers really got into their parts on the MDT as well as in the activities of Visual impairments. I helped by making sure to really do my part to make it seem more realistic.

Lesson 9 reflection

• A reflection of your process to learn it, and what you would change to learn more/better,
• This week it was really interesting to be learning the different ways to teach materials either with co-teaching or simply teaching people a new skill. I think I would have tried a variety of different teaching methods to learn what was most effective.
• What experience or resource helped you learn the most,
• I appreciated the experiences were we had to try to figure out the different co-teaching methods.
• How well prepared are you for applying what you learned in the future,
• I definitely feel that I am more understanding of not only how important it is to differentiate instruction but also to realize that different students prefer different methods of learning.
• How well did your peers learn and what did you do to help them learn more.
  My peers did really well to understand the material. I helped them through suggesting ideas and contributing in group discussions.

Reflection: Lesson 10

• A reflection of your process to learn it, and what you would change to learn more/better,
• This week I truly enjoyed using the power points (jeopardy games to learn the material) It was incredibly useful because then I felt that I was really learning the material and understanding it rather than just memorizing it. I would have spaced out my studying over a series of days instead of on only a couple days because that way each day my knowledge could've been built upon my previous knowledge.
• What experience or resource helped you learn the most,
• Truly the Jeopardy games by far helped me to learn the most. I went through them over and over until I understood and knew each answer. This was very useful and helped me to learn.
• How well prepared are you for applying what you learned in the future,
• I feel like I am a lot more prepared to apply what I learned especially in terms of recognizing abuse and notifying officials.
• How well did your peers learn and what did you do to help them learn more.
• I know there were other people who were studying for the test, and I encouraged them to use the jeopardy game because I was enjoying using it as a study guide.

Abuse, Poverty and other conditions Lesson 8 reflection

Write a blog entry .... An overview of what you learned,

• A reflection of your process to learn it, and what you would change to learn more/better,
• I definitely really thought that this week had a lot of good learning opportunities. I did my best to really understand the chapter. I would have done better at taking good notes.
• What experience or resource helped you learn the most,
• I liked the simulation of being in poverty. I feel that it really helped us to recognize that even if families try their best to support their families that sometimes they can fall short. Something else it taught me is that parents will naturally still want to help their children have the simple pleasures of life.
• How well prepared are you for applying what you learned in the future,
• I really liked the video shown of the school district, I feel that it helped me recognize what I could do to make a difference in the future.
• How well did your peers learn and what did you do to help them learn more.
• I felt like my peers did really well to prepare for the class as well as be involved. I did the simulation with a partner and we discussed it as a group. I helped by sharing my thought and opinions, as well as the information I knew on the subject.

Teaching experience: Other Health Impairments

• How do you feel about your lesson delivery and why? Was it effective, why or why not? 

I feel really good about our lesson. I feel that we both really understood the topic and that we did our best to help the class learn it. We also included activities, case studies and had everyone involved. Something that we also did really well was to use real life circumstances to help the class know how they would react as teachers, and what they could do to help their students

• What evidence do you have (while delivering your lesson) of effective student engagement? 
• Part of the evidence we had was that we had many different learning opportunities that required each group to discuss, some of which required that the group members alternate in reading case studies, overall causing everyone to participate. Each group also had to share with the class what their group discussed and decided on. 

• If you were to teach this lesson by yourself, not in a group, what would you change and why? 

If I were to do this by myself I actually don't think I would change very much, there was only two of us so it allowed us both to share all our ideas and to work together. This meant that everything I wanted to do and would have done by myself was done in our group presentation.  

• What could have been an area of improvement in your teaching? 

Something that I realized could have been better about our teaching was to give more background information about the topics before doing the activities. We had decided that the case studies would have been solved too easily without effort if we had explained each category first but because we did the activities first people may have felt more confused.  

• Based on the criteria for the “Teaching Experience” in the above instructions, would you give your group a 0, 5 or a 10?  Why?  AND would you give yourself a 0, 5 or a 10?  Why? 
• I would absolutely give our group a 10 and I would give myself a 10 because the teaching we did was very thorough, interesting, informative and involving. We spent a lot of time making sure that we "taught" the class instead of just "presented". We really did use teaching everyone and kept it interesting. Through the use of our case studies and different activities we had people really thinking and working as a group. I think this was a good method because it made people really get involved to try to learn the material. Also as a side note; our slides were very engaging with pictures and information.

Lesson 7: Learning Reflection

• A reflection of your process to learn it, and what you would change to learn more/better,
• This week I was definitely doing a lot of research to prepare for our presentation and I believe that helped me to learn more. What I would change to do better would probably be to present the information and then do the activities because I think people would have preferred it that way. I just felt that as far as the activities went it would be useful fir them to think through the information given and then decide before receiving more information.
• What experience or resource helped you learn the most,
• Something I really enjoyed was preparing to present on "Other Health Impairments" this definitely caused me to be researching and doing in depth learning all week. 
• How well prepared are you for applying what you learned in the future,
• I definitely feel that with the activities of the week, and researching and doing my presentation that I am more knowledgeable and able to help recognize the needs of children, and to know how to help.
• How well did your peers learn and what did you do to help them learn more.
• I think that I did my very best to make the presentation interesting so that my peers could learn. What I did to help them was I prepared so that they could have good information.

Lesson 6 Learning Reflection

Write a blog entry .... An overview of what you learned,

• A reflection of your process to learn it, and what you would change to learn more/better,

This week the process I did to learn the material was first I focused on main topics and subtopics and then I read the extra information in depth. I liked this method but next time I would read in depth in the beginning to connect certain concepts right away.

• What experience or resource helped you learn the most,

I really liked the ADHD presentation with the simulations they used. It made me realize how hard it is for most people to focus when there are many things distracting us.

• How well prepared are you for applying what you learned in the future,

I think I am more prepared now to help make accommodations and modifications in my classrooms based on a child's needs.

• How well did your peers learn and what did you do to help them learn more.

My peers seemed to really like the lessons taught in class and I contributes by doing my part to really dive into the lesson so I could share my insights.

Stephanie Nielson: Nienie's life

Stephanie Nielson is a powerful individual.
First of all I wanted to say how much I loved her dreams and hopes of becoming a mom. I think this was such a wonderful aspiration for her and showed everyone truly how important it is. I loved that she focused on how being a mom brought such joy to her along with being a wife. I thought this was a good background explanation of her life to show the priorities in her life were the Lord and her family. Her tragic experience really was horrific and so sad. It really was moving thinking how she could be living her life in bliss making many happy memories and preparing for another baby while taking care of her kids and then the next second nearly die. It really put into perspective firstly how fragile life was but also how much the Lord is watching out for us. It was incredible how she said that right when she gave up hope (in the plane crash) was when she felt the Lord was taking care of it. It really firstly shows that the Lord is always there for us especially in our hardest times and is willing to help. The next thing is that her ordeal was so difficult, painful and trying on her family yet her relatives told the doctors and nurses that "divorce would not be an option". That even though similar situations of intense difficulty can tear families apart that it would not tear hers apart, and that it didn't. It made me marvel at the Lord's hand in this as well as how incredible that her husband remained faithful even when others may not have. That ultimately they relied on the Lord and the nearly fatal and beyond tragic event could have destroyed them but they chose not to let that happen. I definitely admire and am moved by her faith and her family sticking together.
This definitely relates to our class because many times people have disabilities but the family can pull together and overcome it. Also that the difficulty or disability doesn't need to define your family and that you can remain faithful. It really made me want to make sure that if my family does experience having an accident that leaves one of us disabled or if one of our children does have a disability that we will turn to the Lord and continue to love them regardless and be there for them always.

https://video.byui.edu/media/Stephanie+Nielson+%E2%80%9CHope,+Triumph,+and+Everyday+Joy%E2%80%9D/0_fjnzs1lt/31369652

Learning this week

• A reflection of your process to learn it, and what you would change to learn more/better,
• This week the way I was trying to be most effective in what I learned was that I made sure to do my part in really reading and pondering the case study as well as my own specific part. To make my experience even better I should have looked up examples of how parents dealt with similar situations in a MDT IEP meeting.
• What experience or resource helped you learn the most,
• I loved the experience we had with the group teaching and how they had us do different simulations. I think the simulations helped me really understand the difficulties children may go through in struggling to learn with a learning disability.
• How well prepared are you for applying what you learned in the future,
• I felt a lot more prepared by practicing a IEP meeting as a parent because it helped me know how I should act in similar situations in the future if the need occurred.
• How well did your peers learn and what did you do to help them learn more.
• I did my part to contribute to the group's learning by actively being involved in activities. They really benefited from the IEP MDT meeting as well as the simulations and seemed to enjoy them

Lesson four learning reflection

• Wonderful learning experience while visiting those with disabilities.

This week I felt like I really progressed in my learning because I took careful notes of the different court cases involved and I sat down and studied them. Then when we did the activities in class about court cases I was ready and prepared. This helped my learning tremendously. I need to get better at writing everything down in my notes in a way that makes it easier to study.

I truly loved the experience that I had visiting the people that had disabilities. It was an amazing experience because I was very impressed with many things in that facility. I first was very impressed that the workers knew who everyone was and showed genuine love. There was a lady there that knew everyone on an intimate basis because she would joke with them and hug them. I loved this because I really felt that the individuals there felt of her love. I also loved how the workers really encouraged the individuals to become independent. They were learning useful skills. It was such an amazing phenomenon to me.

I think I am pretty prepared to apply certain things in the future such as treating others with kindness and understanding. I also think the simulations helped with this because it made me see how truly difficult it would be to live with an impairment. 

My group all had amazing experiences with the service project. They were all nervous beforehand because they didn't know what to expect. But they all loved it. I think this was one of the best ways they could have possibly learned because it was through experience. I helped my group learn by trying to share my knowledge of court cases during the group activity.

Stuttering

It is really interesting with my stuttering experience how it automatically made me nervous. I would try to say something but it took so long for me to say it I was worried that the worker would get impatient with me. It was interesting later when he brought me to the item I was trying to buy I was stuttering to say that I thought it was the right thing but he was kind of ready to go. It really made me realize how when people stutter it makes us nervous. I think its because we don't want them to know we noticed, and we are worried that they will feel embarrassed. It really was an interesting experience. Partly also because I think naturally on my own I sometimes stutter ever so slightly but sometimes it still makes me self conscious. For example if I am saying something in class but don't say it perfectly. This can also happen with reading out loud, especially if I am nervous about it. Almost to the level where it seems that I have problems with fluency. But I think this is natural in some cases. I think many people may have moments where they stutter, its sad for the people who always stutter though.

Visual Impairment

Doing the Vision impairment simulation was definitely a lot more difficult than I thought, it made me really grateful for the vision that I do have
Some of the surprising difficulties were
-I already had bad vision so it was tricky with the masks because through the small part I could see it wasn't clear.
-It was hard to drink water because you could only see through a small hole and if you were looking at the water it would be too far from your mouth. So you couldn't see that water when you drank it. Which made me just have to use trial and error to find where it was at.
-It is interesting that sounds started to seem a little bit louder and overwhelming with a lot of things happening that I was not aware of.
-I couldn't do homework because my eyesight wasn't good enough without my glasses
-Also it kept seeming like there was someone standing next to me when they weren't
-I could never find my mouse, I would move it around for 20 seconds trying to see it, but that made it too quick for my vision to pick up
-It made me nervous when people stood near me, because I knew I wouldn't be able to focus on what they were saying.
-I started typing and doing my homework and then saw that I wasn't even on the correct page
-I went to the office and tried talking to the people next to me but couldn't tell if they were looking at me or listening so I kind of just had to point to the sign up sheet and check for myself
my vision is already not so good so it was really tough to read the numbers
So over all I learned a lot about different visual impairments and it made me want to research them more to see what could help people. Also it made me realize how much it really did make simple tasks difficult.

Having such a hard time seeing and feeling lost and helpless to do things such as my own homework made me realize how some people really must struggle on a daily basis to be able to even see. It made me firstly very grateful for my vision but it also made me want to help those with vision that wasn't good. One of the ways it made me want to help others would be to make sure that if someone in my class did have a hard time seeing that I would print them out parts of the lesson in very large font, or assign a child next to them to read what is on the board. It made me realize that sometimes even if a child is at the front of the room it still may not be sufficient to help them. It made me want to help in any way possible to make modifications that they asked for, or that their parents needed. Because I realized it truly is impossible to do home work or focus on what is written on the board when you can not even see it. I definitely want to help others feel accepted and accommodated.

Lesson 3 learning reflection- 13 categories of eligibility under IDEA

• A reflection of your process to learn it, and what you would change to learn more/better,

I really liked when we had the activity where we practiced picking what the 13 categories of eligibility were under IDEA. I learn really well through visual representations and through trial and error so it helped me a lot to be able to really focus and try to decide what would be in the category. I would've liked to write down all the choices and practice the activity at home.

• What experience or resource helped you learn the most,

The experience that helped me learn the most was when I had to do the matching of the 13 categories as well as the High and Low incidences. Something else that really helped me learn was doing the simulation for the learning disability. It made me realize that it really would be so difficult for an individual.

• How well prepared are you for applying what you learned in the future,

I think I could have been more prepared for learning the material by memorizing what was covered by the IDEA as well as the categories. I think that as far as applying what I learned in the future I think I understand the general idea behind the "due process" but would want to study more on the specifics.

• How well did your peers learn and what did you do to help them learn more.

It seemed that my peers did very well in learning the material. We worked as a group and when there was a category that I felt fell under the IDEA I made sure to explain my reasoning to the group.

Learning disability

I needed to do a “learning disability” simulation where I went to a store and struggled to think of what to say. Including the fact that I could not use the letters “L or N” in anything I said. I also needed to ask directions to something. My experience in the store was so interesting, at first I tried to think of what to say and I literally did not know how to express myself. So I decided to try talking to a lady to get directions in the store for printer paper. The tricky thing is that I could not use the word “printer”. I thought it would still work out though so I went up to her and said.

Me- “Hey…do you…do you have the…uh paper?

Lady Worker- “what paper”

Me- “white paper”

Lady- “white paper for what?”

Me- “The uh white paper to do…the…to do the homework…?”

Lady- “For what?”

Me- “White paper…from computer?”

Lady- “Printer paper?”

Me- “YES! Yes that is it!”

She was patient, but definitely confused, and it was interesting that I really had no other way to explain it and just had to hope she would understand. She then proceeded to give me directions to where the paper was, and truthfully I was very lost. I understood part of what she said but wasn’t sure. So I repeated back part of what she said in the words I could get out and I ended up just walking in the general direction.

I later had to ask about 3 other people some questions, as well as talk to the lady at the checkout. And it really was interesting how there were some things that were really just difficult to communicate. It made me grateful that the people were understanding and helpful. It made me think of how difficult it must be for people to express their needs without all the necessary words. It also made me realize how relieved I was when people did understand me, as well as how much I would try to practice in my mind ahead of time what I would say. What is interesting is no matter how much you practice in your mind what to say, there are always things that you still struggle to express through words.

Because it was really difficult in this experience to express myself it made me realize how difficult it must be for other people. It also made me realize that they truly must feel embarrassed and want so badly to get their point across. It made me want to make sure I was always patient and loving with others. The experiences basically included the fact that I struggled in front of people to do my best to communicate and was left at the mercy of them. It really made me realize how much our decision to be kind and understanding can bless those around us.

Learning reflection: Lesson 2

• A reflection of your process to learn it, and what you would change to learn more/better,
• I felt that during this week I really made an effort to not only learn the material but to also ponder about its implications in my life. I also was thinking of how I could help others with the knowledge that I learned. I tried to look at the topics from a perspective of compassion in order to fully understand the importance of the lesson. What I would do to learn the information better would be to try to have a separate spots in my notebook for my impressions as well as the facts we are learning.
• What experience or resource helped you learn the most,
• The experience that helped me learn the most was definitely the orthopedic impairment simulation. I have always had compassion for those in wheelchairs, but this experience brought me to a whole new level of understanding.
• How well prepared are you for applying what you learned in the future,
• I definitely feel in the situation of someone with a wheelchair I am now more prepared to be persistent with offering help. I still have yet to learn more about other disabilities so that I know how best to help them.
• How well did your peers learn and what did you do to help them learn more.
• I definitely feel that I did my best to contribute to my peer's knowledge. Especially if it was on a concept that I had studied more thoroughly. I made sure to share my ideas while still listening to theirs. They seemed to really care about the topics.

A whole new understanding- being in a wheelchair is impossibly difficult.

In my field of study for child development I have known for a few years that I would need to do an "orthopedic simulation" and use a wheelchair for a few hours. The idea of needing to do this worried me to the point where I nearly wanted to switch my major so I wouldn't need to. This was my first sign of understanding how difficult it really must be to be confined to a wheelchair. Because they really don't have a choice, and it isn't temporary. As the day approached for me to need to ride in the wheelchair I felt increasingly more nervous and aware of my weaknesses. I knew it would be difficult to ride up and down a hill and that I would not be very quick. I also knew that in general I am self conscious of the thoughts of others. It is interesting that one of the things I was worried about the most was being looked down on by others. This fear really is tragic because it should never be the case. If anything people with disabilities should be looked up to. They are so humble, sweet and brave for constantly trying to complete difficult tasks that we take for granted.

The first experience that I had while being in the wheelchair was the differences of the normal wheelchair verses the "special" made wheelchair. The first chair was difficult to maneuver and to be able to move around without the wheel hitting my foot. The special made wheelchair on the other hand was a lot more convenient and felt light to use. Many people don't have this option and must suffer through one that is very difficult to use.

The next experience came when I needed to go down and up a hill. I assumed that it would be hard coming up the hill but I had no idea the true impossibility of both of the two experiences. Firstly going down the hill is so dangerous. Your wheel chair literally starts spiraling out of control and goes so fast that you are can not control it. Also your hands hurt in general from pushing the wheelchair, and on top of that it is scary to stop the wheelchair because you are afraid that your hands will get stuck in the wheels.

Going up the hill. Is like trying to walk through quicksand. I went so slow I might as well have been crawling. I literally was so shocked by the true intense difficulty of the situation. It was not only tiring for my arms but it felt as if all the strength had left them and I had only just started going up the hill! A kind young man offered to push me but I was worrying that he would be late for class and said he would not need to, also I knew it would be very difficult for him. But I secretly wanted him to push me. Then I was inching/struggling up the hill when another person offered to help, I definitely wanted help so I agreed. But I warned him that the wheelchair did not have handlebars and that it was a long way but he still helped out. (I later helped a sweet pregnant girl who was also needing to use the wheelchair and it is also quite difficult to push, it exhausts your breath) so I am grateful for the person that pushed me, his girlfriend/friend helped him by holding his things but I could tell he was out of breath.

Something astoundingly tragic to me is that bathrooms have a bump in the floor between the bathroom and the hallway. That is nearly impossible to get over with a wheelchair. I had to open the door and try holding on to the door and pulling the wheelchair and myself in. It really was impossible without someones help. People helped me with that as well when they saw me struggling.

A huge major difficulty that I never thought of before was in order to get onto the toilet the person has to really use all their upper body strength to try to hoist themselves up and it just is really tricky and difficult. I mean this in the most appropriate way possible -not only that but how do you get ready to use the bathroom? Think about it. It is extremely impossible it takes a lot of lifting yourself on each side and slowly shimming your pants down. Basically you either have to take your pants off while sitting in the chair which is unsanitary for yourself and other people, or to sit on the toilet seat and try to take them off! ALSO impossible.

WE ARE SO BLESSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To have our legs and our ability to walk!
I hope I never EVER ever everrr again rush to a class while someone is struggling to use a wheelchair. Because even if someone says they are fine and don't need help. PLEASE help!!! I told someone I was fine, but inside I was silently begging them to be unrelenting and still help push me in the wheelchair.

Changes that should be made-
Wheelchairs should have a way to slowly let the wheels roll down a hill under control without destroying your hands to stop them.
The wheelchairs should be lighter and easier to maneuver while still having the handle bars to push someone in a wheel chair.
Bathrooms should have little ramps that allow someone to get over the bump.
Automatic doors should open on both sides so its easier to get through.

Basically this experience of struggling to accomplish certain tasks in a wheel chair made me want to make sure that I help those in need who are in a wheelchair. I would also want to make sure that in my classroom I would arrange the class in a way where it is easily accessible and even have activities where other children volunteer to help the child out who is in a wheelchair.