Barb Rentenbach

This was one of the most eye-opening experiences that I have been to in a long time. I think when I always think of students with disabilites, I always think that if they cannot communicate then they are not able to comprehend. This year in particular has really broken down those lies and has shown me that they are more than capable of doing tremendous things. 
My favorite part of the talk was when she was talking about students with disabilities and how society thinks that they are not "normal" therefore they do not have a place. She was saying that God created everyone in his image and has a distinct purpose in the world for them. Just like anyone else he created, they are called to minister to others and that is exactly what Barb does. Barb took the opportunity to spend ten years on a book to educate others on Autism and other disabilities so that others would understand her and others more. 
As an educator, it is important to remember that these children know more than we can understand and when we sit and rob them of an education because they are not "normal", we are doing them a huge injustice. 

Group Differences Forum

I found the Group Differences Forum to be extremely interesting and informing. A lot of the things that we discussed as a group I have heard a ton in my cohort because we are Urban Multicultural and we touch on a lot of similar issues. It was cool, though, to see differing cohorts' views on the topics and also see how different teachers use techniques to help/hinder their children. 
The most interesting part for me was the discussion about Special Education in the classrooms. There was a lot of discussion about helpful methods that I will most definately apply in my classroom such as allowing the students chose whichever way is best for them to understand material such as walking around the classroom, sitting in their chair backwards, or sitting on the ground. I will hopefully gain a better understanding of my children as indivduals. 
It was a very helpful technique and I hope that you all use it next year to help mold others' understandings of such prominent topics, too. 

PLE Post #10

For this assignment, I looked at the category of third through fifth graders. In this particular category, the students are beginning to understand temporal words like before and after and also comparative words such as bigger or big as, confusion with the word versus, not understanding irregular word forms, increasing awareness of when sentences are and are not grammatically correct. A lot of them also had to do with sentence structure and how that relates to the children's understanding of incorrect sentences. 

As a teacher, it is important for the students to grasp a clear understand for these three (and more) categories that the children don't understand or are beginning to understand. Strategies that would be useful for the students to use to grasp this understanding may include having them continuously write in journals to ensure that they are thinking about their writing. This is also very effective if the teacher is making an effort to point out mistakes in their writing and having them redo it. This will help them see what they did not do correctly. 

Another great aspect for the teachers to work on with the students at this age is allowing them to read. Reading different books will help children in many different ways and one of these is for students to understand simple syntax that some books provides. By having them exposed regularly to this, they will be able to see how syntax should be used.