School is for Nurturing Potential, NOT for Smothering It!

B'SD


9 Elul 5771



 I hope you've found this week's pro-people and pro-education thoughts helpful. Here's something to think about over the weekend:

Be Realistic. 

Learn more about protecting yourself when you read EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge from Booklocker Publishing!

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.

10 BEST Ways to Interact with Students of All Ages & Abilities!

B'SD


5 Elul 5771

Here's Part II of my blogposts for promoting fairness and decency in educational settings: 

It’s one to thing to raise the bar on students so they can achieve goals beyond their present levels of accomplishments. It’s a whole ‘nuther thing to humiliate people with unrealistic demands for change - or to tolerate intimidating or humiliating behavior from colleagues and other students.

Let’s get started with a far better way of looking at life for all concerned. Decide to appreciate students for their intrinsic worth, accomplishments, goals and personalities. You’re the teacher or fellow student. Let the opportunity to prove one’s worth proceed with a cheerful spirit.

"10 BEST Ways to Interact with Students of All
Ages and Abilities"

1. Introduce yourself to students of all abilities as you would in most pleasant social situations. Discuss what you have in common and individual interests. Mention that you're willing to be helpful to the person if possible, and take things from there.


2. When you see people in wheelchairs gathered together, simply smile as you walk by or make a pleasant remark as you might when you see people standing around together.


3. See and imagine life from the perspective of the person managing with their limitations. Understand what they need for quality of life. Offer your input and assistance as graciously as you can.

4. Play games such as mentioning favorite songs, TV shows, activities, memories etc. and even games that disabled students enjoy as much as everyone else involved! If hearing- or vision-impaired students or students with any disability are part of the mix, use all-inclusive activities. How? Initiate a group discussion in which students can suggest ideas that work!


5. Modulate your tone of voice and use a clear pronunciation in your conversation only if it will facilitate better communication. Speak directly to and with the disabled student. Use empowering words and their correct name or personal title as in “I’m delighted to meet you Dr./Ms./Mr./Mrs. So-and-so…”


6. Be attentive to advocates for the student and to the student him/herself who needs adaptive techniques and technologies. They know best what’s necessary. Promote the optimal use of class materials and watch the wonder of new ideas and interactions come to joyous life.


7. Choose to be flexible with requested changes and accommodations.


8. Respect boundaries. People do have private lives and you’re not necessarily entitled to know more than the student cares to share with you.


9. Adapt to your new worldview. Put a pleasant expression on your face. Practice until it becomes a habit. You won’t find yourself staring, expressing discomfort or anything socially inappropriate when you’re a habitual smiler.


10. Develop your sense of humor. When a disabled student is in a lousy mood now and then, just accept it. Moods tend to improve, especially when you don’t focus on them. Students with disabilities have angry, sad, or otherwise "off" days as normally as everyone else. Let personalities shine through. Limbs, appliances and moving at different rates of speed have nothing to do with insight, joi de vivre and intellect. Be real, be human and be patient. We’re all works in progress. Even if we seem to have taken a break from the job at times ;^ D

Share Your Ideas with the White House!

White House staff who address disability-related policies host monthly public, live-captioned conference calls for better informing the American public of developments regarding disability issues. Your input is invited. Share your ideas about subjects for discussion and point out the federal officials you’d like to hear from on these topic. See https://www.disability.gov/WHQuestion

Let me know your thoughts on this 2-part series. We can continue it in the effort to educate the public at large.



EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge with an E-book and paperback that hold suggestions for securing employment despite that disability. Learn much more with the EMPOWERING reading materials, too.  Buy them at Booklocker!

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.

10 Ways to Embarrass Disabled/Ill Students of All Ages

B'SD


2 Elul 5771

Here's Part I of my effort to minimize any sort of discomfort on everyone's part at the start of this school year:

10 Ways to Embarrass Disabled/Ill Students of All Ages

You know that classy behavior is called for when you’re mainstreaming students who are somehow different from the rest of the class. But sometimes the best of intentions go awry if you fail to anticipate and to practice what to say and how to behave before the need arises.

The key to success is to consider life from the other person’s perspective. Imagine what it’s like to move around, dress, dine or do homework in that disabled student's condition. What’s it like to move about in hallways or classrooms? Participate in group activities?

Teachers, think harder before opening your mouths, using your positions of authority and/or physical strength for or against a student who can benefit from your compassion. Coach protégés in your care to finesse disability issues. Use good sense that produces constructive results. Classrooms are, after all, for educating students to become productive members of society.

Students without disabilities, consider how you’d manage if people treated you as cruelly as can be. There are far too many ways to hurt feelings in every classroom. Here are some gaffes you can avoid with people of different abilities and limitations:

1.     Tease the person with some obvious adaptive appliance (wheelchair, hearing aids, canes), or take it from them. Tip wheelchairs if necessary for laughs.

2.    If you see two people, each person in a wheelchair, ask if they're racing and "Who’s winning?"

3.    Neglect to account for the limitations of disabled students, especially those whose symptoms are not obvious to onlookers. Expecting asthmatics to physically exert themselves too much, demanding that diabetics stop snacking or medicating themselves during class time (though their lives depend on that), and simply failing to see life from the perspective of the person managing with their limitations so they can have quality of life is inexcusable. Hearing-impaired students need to record lectures, to interact with tutors/teaching assistants and so on. Let them.

4.    Play games that isolate students who can’t join the fun: hide and seek, reading aloud, and card games. Vision-impaired students don’t stand a chance with those.

5.    Speak rudely. Use an uncalled-for slowness and loudness; better yet, talk down to the person using a tone of voice for addressing someone who doesn’t merit simple respect. Refer to the person as if he/she is not right there in front of you! Definitely put their disability before their name or personal title (you know, “I want to introduce you to handicapped Dr. So-and-So…)

6.    Refuse to listen to advocates for the person who needs adaptive techniques and technologies. You know best. Promote ongoing struggles to hear, see and understand you, use class materials, and remain in control. The situation will deteriorate before your very eyes as you fail to heed the students’ concerned friends, family members and disability professionals.

7.    Complain how astonished you are at - and how hard it is to acquiesce to - requested changes and/or accommodations.

8.    Ask personal questions designed to cause discomfort (“Why do you look like that?” “Does this cost a lot?” etc.). Fail to respect the boundaries of polite conversation. Hey, social media proves that nobody has or wants private lives anymore, right?

9.    Don’t bother controlling the contorted looks on your face. Stare. Forget about looking at people with open hearts and clear consciences, let alone pleasant or even neutral expressions.

10. Lose your sense of humor in the most benign of situations, or even if a disabled person is in a lousy mood now and then. Why bother giving a disabled person credit for being totally normal like the rest of society?

Any of the above would surely hurt feelings and damage potential chances for scholastic success, let alone a successful social life with fellow students.

One more thing, students and staff: consider doing some role-playing with each other to gain insight into important life lessons about reasonable expectations and ideal responses. Sometimes we humans are simply clumsy when we’re startled by new realities.

Stay tuned for Part II of this thread for tips on how to do things right: "10 BEST Ways to Interact with Students of All Ages." And do let me know your thoughts about these blogposts. 

EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge with an E-book or print edition from Booklocker.

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.