Renee

__**COMMENTARY**__ By definition, culturally responsive teaching is instruction that recognizes the importance of including students' cultural references in all aspects of learning. It is important to have background knowledge on your students and their families. The classroom will be filled with diversity. You will have students in the classroom, who come from families of different ethnic groups, speak different languages, beliefs, religions, culture, upbringings and so forth. You may often come across students in your classrooms who do not celebrate certain holidays because of their religion. A teacher has to be sensitive to those things because you do not want to offend your students’ parents. This will cause problems which can easily be avoided. During the beginning of the school year; you can send questionnaires home by the students to give to their parents to fill out asking about their background. You can even have family night in which you have students come in with their families and share something about their culture via food, books, dance, songs, stories etc. Not only does culturally responsive instruction address diversity and culture, it also brings forth the needs of students with a disability (learning or physical). In addition, as a teacher, it is your job to bring these differences to the attention of your students, and by doing so everyone will have a clear understanding of one another. This can build friendships, self-esteem, unity in the classroom, encourage respect amongst one another, and support. Most importantly students will feel like they belong in the classroom because a part of them is being incorporated into the curriculum. On the other hand, I can apply culturally responsive instruction in the classroom by doing as follows...
 * February 8, 2012-- Culturally Responsive Instruction**
 * Having books in the classroom library about culture, diversity, and disabilities.
 * Have students share with one another things about themselves.
 * Create a weekly/ monthly newsletter and send them home to parents about what students learned for the week or month.
 * Have students do research papers.
 * In math or science class, students could go around taking polls about the different characteristics that they each have in common or different.

Renee Thank you for some wonderful, practical ideas of how you will foster appreciation of diversity by incorporating ways to learn about and celebrate various cultures in your classroom. Facilitating ways to celebrate children's heritage is a wonderful way to foster belonging and community. Good work. Dr. OReilly

When reading about the different characteristics of a child with __Attention Deficit__ –Hyperactivity Disorder, it made me think about the time when my mom use to have to go to school for my brother for misbehaving. This problem occurred for three school years (from kindergarten-2nd grade). He had the following characteristics as those mentioned in the book (page 214)… • Often talks excessively • Often interrupts or intrudes on others • Often leaves seat in the classroom (could never remain still) • Easily distracted • Low Grades When my mom took him to the doctors he was considered to be a child with AD/HD, they put him on medicine which actually made things worse. When he was in the second grade, he was suspended from school for threatening his teacher and making her cry. My mom eventually took him off. After a while, his behavior changed. He starting listening to his teachers, he talked less, was always on the honor roll, etc. I don’t think he had AD/HD at all, I think he just had behavioral problems and was going through a phase. A lot of times, these doctors give children medicine thinking that it will help them, when in fact; it makes the situation even worse. Stimulants such as Ritalin which is given to child that are diagnosed with having AD/HD can have such side effects as difficulty sleeping (insomnia), dizziness, depression, loss of appetite, jitteriness, headaches weight loss and irritability. ([]). These side effects can make these children not want to take the medicine.
 * February 21, 2012--Chapter 8 **

On the other hand, there are several things that a teacher can do that can help a child with AD/HD succeed academically and they are as follows… • Playing games • Act out a story (involve movement) • Learn the child likes and dislikes and incorporate into the lessons • Establish a homework folder for finished homework. (Help them stay organized) • Involve parents and student by setting reasonable goals for the child to accomplish throughout the school • Provide little to no distractions

**March 12, 2012--Chapter 9** Having an intellectual disability also known as mental retardation, limits a person’s ability to learn at an expected level and function in daily life. This means they may have problems doing simple things such as taking care of themselves, tying their shoes, getting dress, and even feeding themselves. An intellectual disability can come from a genetic condition, problems during pregnancy, problems at birth, and health problems. Intellectual disability could cause a child to learn and develop more slowly than other children of the same age. Signs of a child having an intellectual disability includes… A child with intellectual disability could also have problems learning in school such as reading, writing, adding, subtracting, etc. The section in chapter 9, that I found interesting is when the authors talked about how in order, “to determine whether a student has an intellectual disability, teachers and other professionals have to evaluate the student’s intellectual functioning and adaptive behaviors” (pg. 248). Teachers use the nondiscriminatory evaluation process which involves observing, screening, assessment, pre-referral and referral (if a problem is detected), and determination. To measure adaptive behavior, teachers look at what a child can do in comparison to other children of his or her age. On the other hand, in the text the authors talk about the use of IQ tests, in which intellectual functioning is usually measured. The average score is 100. People scoring below 70 to 75 are considered to have an intellectual disability whereas people scoring above (115-up) are considered “geniuses/gifted”. I found it odd that they use IQ test because IQ test are known for being bias due to the fact that they do not take into consideration race, gender, class and culture. In addition, it don’t look at other intelligences that a person may have which allows for more failure. ---**RENEE AMOS**
 *  sitting up, crawling, or walking later than other children
 *  learning to talk later, or having trouble speaking
 * finding it hard to remember things
 *  having trouble understanding social cues
 *  having trouble seeing the results of their actions (cause and effect)
 *  having trouble solving problems (especially bad when doing math)

**Hello Renee, you stated "**  Having an intellectual disability also known as mental retardation, limits a person’s ability to learn at an expected level and function in daily life". Looking at the list of signs that you posted I wanted to comment on the second sign. In which is "learning to talk, or having trouble speaking". From looking outside in on a child who is at the age of two or three and hasn't spoken a word yet I do not understand how this is known as mental retardation. Most children who show signs of this usually began talking when they are enrolled in school and most doctors tend to tell parents that some children are just shy and that's the reason for their speech delay. When I think of mental retardation I do not think of speech delay. My nephew did not start speaking until he was two and half and he did not suffer from any intellectual disability. How do doctors  differentiate if a speech delay is the cause of mental retardation or just shyness? Betty B Johnson


 * "Creating the Culture of Positive Behavior Supports” (video): **

 When watching the video "Creating the Culture of Positive Behavior Supports", I learned that by improving and helping each other (Students and School Staff), students will be able to improve academically. PBS used the C.A.R.D. system to create positive behavior supports.


 * C- caring for one another
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">A- academically involved ( teachers teaching; students learning)
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">R- respect
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">D- diversity

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Not only did students have to take into consideration C.A.R.D but, the teachers had to change their behavior as well. I was once in a classroom where the teacher constantly yelled for no reason. I dreaded going to that class everyday because I was uncomfortable. Following these supports can prevent behavior problems. As a teacher, you do not want a student disrupting a class because they have behavior problems. By following C.A.R.D, students know and understand what is expected of them. By using this system getting an education has become important for students. At the high school level, students tend to act like "adults" and think they don't have to listen. In the video they talked about how also at the high school level there was problems with tardiness and respect. “Punishment changed to positives and rules changed to expectation. Another thing I learned is that not only in classroom but in hallway, it is important for students to have rules to follow.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;"> At the middle school level, students would push and talk to each other. “Hallways were problematic and needed to be made safer”. Moreover, expectations are taught during the first couple of days of a school year. As the years progress, because students knew what was expected the previous years, they knew how to behave during the first day the following year. In a special education environment this really helped because it prevented disruption in the class and students being sent out of the classroom for misbehaving. I thought that it was interesting how at the end of the month and yearly, teacher get reports on the number of office interventions that had during those time frames. By doing this, it helps improve the positive behavior supports if needed.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;"> I will implement this in my classroom by...


 * 1) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Modeling the behavior (demonstrating to students how to behave when in hallways, classroom, working as whole groups or small groups etc.)
 * 2) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Allowing students to create classroom rules
 * 3) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">At the beginning of school year, have classroom discussion with students about how **WE** should behave
 * 4) <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Create an reward system for behaving during the week