HIKE BLOG , Week 5

Alright well I do have to admit that at first I really did not understand why we would go on an almost three hour hike during an education class that we are supposed to be learning about children with disabilities. I thought that it was silly and really had no connection what so ever. It seemed like you stretching a little.
THEN... I started to really think about it. I thought about as you stated we're walking against the stream. This really made my brain work a little. Students who suffer with IDD or any learning disability for that matter are walking against the stream. Everything is just that much more difficult for them. They need to go through life with that extra challenge, the current is coming at them and they have to push through it, they have to work extra hard. Some I feel choose to give in and let the current take them down the stream. This could be for a factor of different reasons whether it be that the work just become too difficult, they start to fall so far behind that they can no longer keep their head above water, and others may just not want to give that extra work. As a future educator I think that it is a teachers job to at the very least make sure that every student has a very bottom level all of the tools that they need to achieve in school. This may mean different things for different students. Some need more help than others, but should have contact with the tools to help them.
One other thought I had about this hiking activity is that just as the point of this activity may not seem clear but it still had a definite purpose, every activity that we do with our student in a classroom may not seem clear, the point and purpose is still there. It may not be clear to the student right from the get go but with some thought by the end the student should be able to get down to the root of what you are really saying and what they should be learning. Sometimes this may even happen without the student knowing that it is occurring.

I am going to be honest I am not really sure what the metaphor involving the cocktail umbrellas was but after thinking about it, I have come up with an idea of my own. Every student has abilities in them, they have a level of learning that they are able to achieve the umbrella is meanly the cover or the disability that is over shadowing them. It at times gets in their way and sometimes covers them so much that they are hidden completely over it. But they can get to a point in their life that although the umbrella is still there you would never even know it. They have achieved their abilities and the umbrella didn't stand in their way.

A positive tool for some students with IDD is a positive peer that helps navigate them through the school day. This can help a student feel more welcomes and at ease with their other classmates.