Week 4

This week I only attended one class. I was super sick on Monday and class was cancelled Friday, which it is always so nice to sleep in! I got the notes from a friend in the class from Monday. On Wednesday we learned about the grief cycle. I've always known a lot about the grief cycle because my mom died when I was 16, and my dad made me go to counseling many times. But as I read about the story of Nella, I realized that having a child with down syndrome is a different type of grief than losing someone. I had such a hard time reading that story, it brought up new emotions I didn't even know I had. What an amazing experience that would be.

Weekly Quote:
"Grief never ends... But it changes. It's a passage, not a place to stay. Grief is not a sign of weakness, not a lack of faith... It is the price of love." - Author Unknown

HWD:
http://www.thinkingautismguide.com/2012/08/autistic-grief-is-not-like-neurotypical.html
http://autismnow.org/blog/grief-and-bereavement/
http://www.autism-society.org/what-is/facts-and-statistics/

Week 3

It was interesting to learn about the different kind of supports that the people in our life provide for us. It makes you think and realize the role that each person in your life plays for you as well as the part you play in other people's lives. And also what role you should start playing in some people's lives to better help them.

Weekly quote:
"We don't meet people by accident. They are meant to cross our path for a reason." -unknown

HWD:

This article talks about giving emotional support to kids with autism, like when you are parenting or teaching them - http://www.autismsupportnetwork.com/news/top-10-strategies-success-emotional-parenting-child-autism-or-pdd-83838322

How dogs help children with autism - http://www.projectchance.com/dogs.html

Week 2

Reading about time management and life skills is always a huge help to remind you about how to better deal with stress, I can honestly say it helped my week out a ton. I am usually the world's worst procrastinator but this week I got all my stuff done ahead of time! It was most interesting to me to learn about the medical model vs. social model with disability. It was helpful to see a specific way of how to decipher between the two and how people look at it. 

Weekly Quote:
"There is no greater disability in society, than the inability to see a person as more." Robert M. Hensel

HWD:

35 percent of young adults (ages 19-23) with autism have not had a job or received postgraduate education after leaving high school. (Shattuck et al., 2012)

In June 2014, only 19.3 percent of people with disabilities in the U.S. were participating in the labor force – working or seeking work. Of those, 12.9 percent were unemployed, meaning only 16.8 percent of the population with disabilities was employed. (By contrast, 69.3 percent of people without disabilities were in the labor force, and 65 percent of the population without disabilities was employed.) (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014)

Week 1

I'm excited to learn more about how to deal with and work with families and people in the community. I know that there are a lot of different people with different views and opinions than me, it is extremely important to understand that in this profession.

I want to learn more about the background of why teachers do things the way they do things. I know that I will be that much better of a teacher, and more professional, if I have the all of the knowledge of everything I need to know. Starting out with learning about HIPAA and FERPA got me excited to keep learning about these things. It's funny how excited to learn and how much more interested you can be in school when you can apply it to your future career. I am ready to learn and be the best educator I can be.

Weekly Quote -- "Educating yourself does not mean that you were stupid in the first place; it means that you are intelligent enough to know that there is plenty left to learn." -Melanie Joy