Lesson 06

 So this week has been pretty difficult. Since this is a blog for a class about disabilities, maybe I should come out with my own. It isn't necessarily classified as a disability or under any kind of special education IDEA but it is something hard that I have to go through and it inhibits be from performing at my fullest. For about 10 years now I have suffered from a chronic intestinal illness. It flares up randomly and gives me excruciating intestinal pain. When this happens, I am usually curled up and can;t move until the pain subsides, which could take hours. When the pain is gone, I am usually left with a nauseated feeling that I put up with for days at a time. Unfortunately, this semester it has flared up more times than it has in a while. I have missed more class than I ever want to and that makes me really frustrated. I am missing out on learning opportunities. Getting the stomach flu last weekend set off my illness and this week has been really hard and I missed Monday and Friday. Fortunately, I was able to be in class on Wednesday and I absolutely loved the case study group work we did. I prepared for my role as the math teacher. The group of other math teachers was really helpful and they helped me come up with some ideas to help Mark that I hadn't though of before. This situation may have been fiction but I know situations like this come up all the time and teachers have to find solutions and accommodations for students. This activity helped me use the knowledge I have learn so far to help a student who was suffering in his education and ability to focus. Mark has many strong points and positive attributes but his teachers were failing to hone in on those and use them to help Mark. Instead, he was being forced to learn in an environment and in a way that caused him to feel inadequate and unfocused.
I learned so much from talking with my peers and getting their perspectives on Mark and helping him learn. Every group assignment we have done has been incredibly beneficial. I am learning to apply what we are studying, which is something other classes I have taken have failed to do.
As hard as things have been, I am learning A TON from this class and I am so grateful for the open mind it has given me. I am positive things will get better and I am excited to continue soaking up knowledge and gaining a passion for Special Education.