Learning outcome (f)

 f) Investigate ways of achieving successful learning for diverse learners

Evidence 1.)
Notes taken in class
Inclusive Education , Teaching & Social Justice Lecture with Gill Rutherford - 14th May

1 - When a baby is born, who knows what he/she will become?  
Nobody, we often make presumptions based on the different aspects such as the where the child is born, family's socio-economic status, society, government etc.
If a child is born with an impairment, assumptions can be immediately made about what will become of that child.

2 - How do we assess the worth of an individual?
Culturally based
Government and society may base it on what that individual can contribute in terms of productivity/work

3 - What is required to support any child in developing in their potential?
Provide opportunities
Break down barriers
High expectations

Comes down to believing that students can learn and deserve to learn!

Documentary - (can't remember name)
Consider various ways different people view the students

Parents - Think the children know more than the school says they do.  Think the school doesn't know how to include the children in the class.  State that they child is continually doubted on what they know, are always having to prove their knowledge, as a result, often become bored.
Believe it is beneficial for students to be educated in a "regular" school; fellow students will eventually be their bosses, friends, spouses etc and they should learn from and with them as this is a true representation of what life will be like in the future.

Conclusion - Every child has the ability to learn in some way and it is our job to figure out which way this is.  
How we value children, not the resources available, will determine children s experience in schools

Reflection
I found this to be a extremely valuable lecture.  Prior to this, I hadn't put much thought into inclusive education.  I had witnessed different versions of inclusive education in the limited time I had been in schools and didn't feel strongly drawn nor adverse to any in particular.  Something that struck a chord with me was the parents in the interview stating that they knew that their children were intelligent and could see it in the unique ways in which they communicated, however the schools quite often made the assumption that they were not intelligent as they didn't communicate this in a way in which the teachers were accustomed to.  The parents were frustrated at how their children were consistently asked to prove their knowledge, in a way that was not necessarily suitable to the child's needs, and believed their children found this both tiring and boring.  I have witnessed firsthand, when working with disabled children in Mexico, the frustration some of the students had when trying to express themselves but not having the means to do so as often they were non-verbal.  Despite this, I remember after getting to know some of these students, we were able to communicate in other ways.  I told them jokes, stories, showed them photos, scolded them, taught them things and in doing so, I witnessed them respond with the same emotions and enthusiasm amongst other things, I would have expected from a non-disabled child, the only difference was they didn't do it verbally.  At the time, I was also struggling to express myself in a verbal manner, as I was learning to speak spanish.  Whilst I could say very little, I learnt to rely on other aspects in order to express myself, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.  For me, this experience reinforces what the parents were saying in the documentary, even though their children can't communicate in traditional ways, it is not indicative of their intelligence.

I came away from this lecture as an advocate for inclusive education, nonetheless, I expect to see various interpretations of inclusive education and not all of them to be beneficial.  My interpretation of successful inclusive education, starts with valuing every child, getting to know every child and figuring out what works for them.   

Evidence 2

Professional Studies 14th May, Pacific Island StudentsNotes taken in class/reading reflection.

Reading: www.tki.org.nz/e/community/Pasifika/ New Zealand Ministry of Education. (2006). Connections and conversations: making links for learning. 

This workshop focused on Pasifika learners  how we could welcome and teach a Pasifika student in our classroom.  The scenario was an 8 year old Pasifika student named Aiiana starting in our class tomorrow. We had to create a plan for his arrival and what we would do to welcome him.

These were the resources we used:
http://pasifika.tki.org.nz/
Pasifika Education Plan
Spiller Reading
Siope Reading

This was our plan:

• Find out what country he is  coming from
• Learn a greeting in the language of the country
• Make contact with the family
• Invite them to come into the class and introduce themselves and talk about their son, their culture, traditions etc.
• Discuss what expectations we would have about the child's education 
• Give opportunity for family to discuss their expectations about son's schooling and education
• Family, student and teacher to co-construct goals

Not our role to educate class about this child's culture, we do not about their specific culture and their personal connections to the culture (e.g how strong, whether they identify with all aspects of the culture).  This is something the child and family should do, we need to facilitate the exchange.

In the reading there were common themes in relation to how teachers should interact with Pasifika students, these being:

• Have high expectations for them as you would with other studnets
• Be cautious of stereotypes and generalisations
• Value diversity amongst Pasifika students
• Establish strong ties between the home and school, communicate to families what is happening and what is expected in the classroom
• Encourage (don't insist) incorporating the students culture in the classroom
• Be aware that students lives may be very different to teachers life.

The second part of the lesson involved comparing our plan to the 'Best Evidence Synthesis' for teaching practice.  We found our plan reflected a few aspects in particular with including the family in classroom life.

Evidence 3

Notes taken in class, ICT in the Classroom.

I found this class particularly beneficial as I am yet to incorporate much technology in my teaching and feel somewhat intimidated by the idea of it.  I have been surprised by the ease and competency in which students in my classroom have taken to technology in their classrooms.  We discussed this in the class and thus the need for teachers to be 'up with the play'.

• Technology shouldn't be used as a way to fill in time, they need to be learning if they are using technology
• Technology is prevalent nowadays  thus it is essential our students are acquiring the skills needed to use, and take advantage of technology

I personally believe technology can be a great benefit to students learning as long as learning is the central focus, the technology is efficient and relatively simple to use and is able to be used by all.