308 presenters: Special Ed and At-Risk Students

Today we had two presenters: Shanna M (At-Risk Students) and Becky M (Special Ed) both of whom worked with high school students at the same district.

Becky spoke first about her experiences as a Special Ed educator; she spoke about cognitive, learning, and physical disabilities that she had experience with through work. She was recently hired at Stout to work with students on campus and loves her job because she feels that she is always learning about students needs and different disabilities. I thought she said some great things about these students, even how to address them and their disabilities. Becky said that all of these individuals are students who happen to have a disability. They are not LD students, but rather students with learning disabilities, etc. I think that this is a simple and effective way to address their needs in a may positive way. She also said that disabilities are deceiving and that you cannot make assumptions; each individual has very specific needs that may not be apparent based on the physical appearance of a students.  This is definitely important for us to understand as future educators because we do not have much experience with special needs before we start working with students. Becky also read a poem to us about having a child with special needs, it was a hard to hear it. It's important to remember that these individuals have difficult lives and so do their families. She reminded us that it is important to be empathetic rather than sympathetic. Becky also spoke to us about accommodations (same final product) and modifications (similar final product) and when/if they may be appropriate. It may also be important to teach things like what paying attention looks like and to consider where these students are seated and how the environment affects their attention. She made it very clear that it is important to get to know each student and what their individual needs are.

Shanna then spoke to us about the at-risk students that she works with through the program at her district. She made it clear that these students have the capacity to function highly and are generally found in grades 5-12; these are the students who are at risk for not graduating on time. Part of her job is to counsel these students and talk them through issues that they are having at home or in their lives. She searches for the cause of their issues and how they can get the student through their struggles. Shanna focuses on the fact that these students are not victims and that "life sucks, what are we going to do about that?" She's looking to empower students rather than focus on their struggles. I think that she has a great approach to assisting these students; they need to feel safe and be given the power to take care of themselves. Shanna also told us that she has a difficult time getting parents involved, many of them have bad memories of high school and are not interested in coming back, even for their child. It's not that they don't love their child(ren), it's that they don't know how or what to do. This district also has a unique program that is imbedded in mainstream education rather than just puts these kids somewhere. Her ultimate goal is to get these students back into general education classes so that they have a chance at attending college or at the very least receiving their GE degree from high school. Shanna told us that it is important for us to not feel sorry for these students, but rather than we should help them move forward with their lives. I couldn't agree more. She also told us that when we have these students in our class we should know that punishment isn't a big deal for these students, they are comfortable with this. We should also be aware that they care about success, even if they say they don't.

I think these talks were really important for us to hear; as art education students we will have many of these students in our rooms but have little experience working with them before we leave Stout. We need as much information to reference as possible for when we inevitably work with these individuals.