Associated Colleges of Illinois: Mentor Online

I have just come from a dissertation meeting where the subject was kids with autism - should they be included in general education classes and if so do they learn to read like other students and what reading instruction do they need to be able to read.  As we know, people with  autism are as different as people who like ice cream.  Because of their diversity, it is almost impossible and in my opinion, unethical to try to determine what kids with autism need in the classroom.  I think its the teachers responsiblity to determine what each individual child needs in the classroom and then create a supportive environment where a wide variety of ability levels can learn.  How do we do that?  Where do we start?  We first start with a teachers belief that this can happen.  After that, its a matter of gathering data and designing instruction to meet those student needs.  The big obstacle is teacher beliefs.  Many teachers don’t believe that kids with disabilities belong in their classroom.  Why?  After all it wasn’t too long ago that many white teachers didn’t believe that African-American kids belonged in their classroom.  Frankly, if we dig deep, I think we would still find plenty of teachers that still don’t want them in their classroom, nor do they want the gay kids, the muslim kids, the jewish kids, the christian kids, the low SES kids, the high SES kids, etc.  One of my students told me they don’t want any general education kids in their classrooms, only the special education kids.  Wow!  Whats going on?  Why do we want to put paramenters on what kids we teach.  Are we fearful of our ability to meet the needs of kids different from us?  Are we fearful that we might have to expand our own knowledge and skills?  Are we scared that if we get to know these kids, our house of cards will fall, exposing our ignorance and admitting that our bias is unfounded?  Hmmmmmm.

Hi, my name is Christy D. Roberts and I am the online moderator in Special Education for ACI.  I am the Department Chair for Special Education at Lewis University in Romeoville, IL.  We have both undergraduate and graduate programs at Lewis University.  One of our undergraduate programs is a dual certificate program which results in certification in special education and elementary education.  The graduate program is a 2 year cohort program.  I would like to begin this session by introducing you to a wonderful online resource from the Council of Exceptional Children.  CEC has an online newsletter called CEC Smartbrief and can be accessed at CEC SmartBrief.  Sign up is free and you will receive an online newsletter once a week that has information updates as well as professional development opportunities.  My students and I recently used a link on Smartbrief to sign up for an online training in differentiated instruction by Leap Frog.  This online training took only 2 hours and every participant received a free leap frog interactive book for their classroom.  CEC is a wonderful professional resource for all teachers.  In addition to Smartbrief, they also publish a teaching journal “Teaching Exceptional Children.  This journal has many ideas for designing instruction and effective teaching practices for all kids.  In addition to providing special education teachers with multiple resources for the classroom, CEC is your professional organization that has both local and national conferences.  All special education teachers should join CEC and support their professional organization.