Lesson 05

This week one of my favorite activities was practicing our own IEP meetings. I was a social worker, which means my job duties weren't too lengthy, but I got to voice my opinions and give my input on what we should do for the child. My group definitely had some struggles of not knowing what to say or how to say it, but it was an incredible experience that helped me see what all goes in to deciding the needs of a child. My group was able to all work together to help each other out in their different roles. It is really nice how often we learn from our peers in this class. Every class period I feel like we are given the chance to teach one another.
This week was also the Friday my group was teaching the class on Specific Learning Disabilities. Unfortunately, I was really sick the morning of teaching so I wasn't able to be there. This was really hard for me because my group and I put a lot of preparation into this lesson and I hated not being there to support them and do my part. I know they rocked it though.
Researching learning disabilities was really interesting. We were able to find examples of all different kinds of disabilities. We found pictures of dysgraphia and dyslexia. One of my duties in the lesson was to find behaviors of learning disabilities and behavior management strategies. It was really heart-breaking finding that many children become aggressive, angry, shy, depressed, self-conscious, and sometimes even resort to self-harm because they are so frustrated by their inabilities and frustrated that they can't fix it. It is so important that teachers, parents, and even peers be aware of children struggling who may have a learning disability. We need to help them as soon as we can before it really affects them. I actually found an article that talked about how Equine Therapy has been used to help children with learning disabilities. This is what I want to do for my career so I was incredibly happy to know that this kind of therapy can help learning disabilities amongst other things.
Overall it was a good week and I learned so much. This class does still feel overwhelming at times because there is SO much information to know and remember.