Reflection+8

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When it comes to education, most of us don’t look at the full realm of education, rather we look at just the pre-conceived notion that we have built into our minds. We think of all the healthy children we are going to be dealing with, the way we want our class to look, etc. We don’t think about those who are special needs students, physically handicapped, emotionally traumatized, and many more. We view the Special Ed students as their own kind, not those integrated into our everyday classes, however since the passing of IDEA, this is much more the reverse. How we deal with these students in art however is much different than most classes. We must adapt our lessons to meet their standards, whether it be with material, medium, or context. These last few chapters talked about these ideas as well as the different sections of art we will be incorporating into our classrooms such as sculpture, and an extension to the idea of drawing from observation. How we incorporate students into our classrooms and deal with their problems and solve the situation is what is important and the main focus.======

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As we sit in class and participate in lessons, I look around and wonder what the difference would be if we were to have a special needs student in our class. What would we do different, what would we do to accommodate them, and so on. I have noticed that here on Mercyhurst’s campus, there is not one student in a wheel chair. So how do we know how to accommodate them besides state laws? With art however, it’s the idea of what works for them, what makes them feel as if they are involved in class, a student, and not an outsider. This isn’t too difficult. We as teachers find ways to accommodate students, such as our current project of rewriting lesson plans, adaptations, so that we can accommodate them. We can use ideas such as adaptive technology, simplification of the lesson, not as many criteria, etc.======

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As I was doing research, I came to find out that special needs students are just those with the physical disabilities as well as the mental disabilities, rather, there are many, many more. I, for example, am a special needs student. How, I have a disease known as Necrotizing Enterocolitis, which in short means, I have gastrointestinal issues. I found out that any form of colitis is considered a special needs case. It is interesting when I can come to the realization that there is more to special needs than just the mental and physical disabilities. It’s not just the IEP and GIEPs, each student is in some form most likely a special needs student, it is up to us to fluctuate with what ever is needed to accommodate each students needs.======