Hi LINKS! Whew! What a busy couple of weeks it has been! You all did awesome during our Autism Awareness Week! I was so proud of your bravery when you each made an announcement. I was also incredibly impressed when hearing your interviews that you gave to Mr. Bill. Teaching this class just makes me so happy! You all make me happy!
Enough mushy stuff. This week we are focusing a little more on the r-word and then moving on to bullying. In class we finished up the sibling article that we started months ago! We then watched this video about the r-word that I forgot to show you earlier and we read this blog post from a mother of a daughter with developmental disabilities. These are two of my favorite "anti-r-word" things to share with people.
We then started to discuss bullying, in particular people with disabilities. We listened to this NPR piece. If you want to read the transcript you can go here. *Kayla and Ali, look at everything that we are able to get done without you in class! You both must talk way too much! ;-)
As you all know, bullying has been a big hot-button in schools the past few years. There have been some horrible things that have happened due to bullying (suicide, cutting, rape, etc.). Our students with autism, or any student with a disability are often the target of bullying.
We are lucky with our current boys, because often they are not able to tell if they are being bullied or not. But in this class we strive to think beyond our peers and to remember all of the other students in our school who are also affected by a disability. We can be an advocate and voice for them just as much as we can for the boys in our class.
I am hoping that by you hearing the girl's story from the NPR piece and by reading the handout I gave you about bullying that not only will you become more educated on the subject but that your advocating-selves will jump to help kids in this situation. You all are such great advocates for our peers that I just know you can go beyond my classroom and help all kids out there. Please pay close attention to #8 on the handout I gave you. If that statistic is printed up in a professional article, then there must be something behind it! I believe in each and every one of you. You can help stop the terrible bullying, even if it means standing against someone who intimidates you.
Go on over to the "Homework" tab and check out what you need to do this week. Also, I have attached your final project information. Take a look, start to think about it, and we will discuss more on Tuesday.
Enough mushy stuff. This week we are focusing a little more on the r-word and then moving on to bullying. In class we finished up the sibling article that we started months ago! We then watched this video about the r-word that I forgot to show you earlier and we read this blog post from a mother of a daughter with developmental disabilities. These are two of my favorite "anti-r-word" things to share with people.
We then started to discuss bullying, in particular people with disabilities. We listened to this NPR piece. If you want to read the transcript you can go here. *Kayla and Ali, look at everything that we are able to get done without you in class! You both must talk way too much! ;-)
As you all know, bullying has been a big hot-button in schools the past few years. There have been some horrible things that have happened due to bullying (suicide, cutting, rape, etc.). Our students with autism, or any student with a disability are often the target of bullying.
We are lucky with our current boys, because often they are not able to tell if they are being bullied or not. But in this class we strive to think beyond our peers and to remember all of the other students in our school who are also affected by a disability. We can be an advocate and voice for them just as much as we can for the boys in our class.
I am hoping that by you hearing the girl's story from the NPR piece and by reading the handout I gave you about bullying that not only will you become more educated on the subject but that your advocating-selves will jump to help kids in this situation. You all are such great advocates for our peers that I just know you can go beyond my classroom and help all kids out there. Please pay close attention to #8 on the handout I gave you. If that statistic is printed up in a professional article, then there must be something behind it! I believe in each and every one of you. You can help stop the terrible bullying, even if it means standing against someone who intimidates you.
Go on over to the "Homework" tab and check out what you need to do this week. Also, I have attached your final project information. Take a look, start to think about it, and we will discuss more on Tuesday.