7B- Megan Giesen's response to Courtney Ronghi

The 5 layers of Bronfendbrenner’s Layers of development are microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. The microsystem is the relationship a child has with their family. mesystem connects the child’s teacher and their parent together. The exosystem are the parts that don’t involve the child directly itself. For instance, this would be the parents work. The macrosystem is next layer in which the cultural values, customs, and laws the child follows.  Lastly, the chronosystem is the time in which it relates to their development. Physiological changes for the child are examples of this.

Some examples of family Roles in the educational process have to be adaptive. These include given the role of the teacher, advocate rights for their children with disabilities, have legal rights during decision making, and being responsible for the child themselves.

The seven principles of partnership that will help form a healthy partnership with families and professionals are as followed. Communication is essential along with professional competence, respect, and commitment. The last three are equality, advocacy, and trust must exist for the child to be comfortable along with teachers and parents and what is going to happen within the classroom environment.

Smart shot videos are short clips that students can view at home with others in their family.  They support the student because they are able to review what the student was taught during the day, and increase independence with the student. Also, they are a great resource for students who have limited communication skills, which then they help with retention for the student. These are wonderful for not just students with disabilities.

Some strategies to make collaborative conversations with teachers and families are teachers visiting the family’s home themselves. This may be risky by teachers are able to see what struggles many of their students are going through first hand. Also keeping the contact with open communication is great for everyone. Lastly, keeping in mind and talking about the next step for the student is beneficial as well.

I truly enjoyed reading about this topic. I did want to do it,  so I am glad I was able to learn more about it from the paper and PowerPoint. Thank you Courtney! 

Jamie Diemert response to Kathryn Meleky

I found your paper very interesting and informative especially due to the fact that I suffer from anxiety. I never associated feelings I had as a student to the possible fact that I could been experiencing anxiety as a child as well as now that I am an adult. I never knew that there was such extensive testing that could be done to diagnose this disorder. As a child I was the student that sat in the back of the room and avoided any attention that I could. I did have close friends but other than that I did not care to meet new people, I never volunteered for anything, and when put in stressful situations I would panic, sweat, and have a lot of self doubt. I can remember being invited to sleepovers and faking that I was sick so that my mom or dad would come get me and I could sleep at home. Even though I had these experiences I feel they are mild to what children with anxiety disorders go through.

As an adult I use most of the techniques that you described when I have anxiety attacks such as relaxation breaths and self talk. I try to analyze the situation and talk to myself to calm down. The information you shared really does work and it is good that others can learn how to help others when an anxiety attack takes place. I was interested to learn that SWPBS is something that can be correlated to anxiety. We use this method in my school and try to turn behaviors around before we have to resort to suspensions or out of class punishments. It does make sense to me after reading your information how this system could be effective in reducing the stress factor for a student when dealing with negative behaviors. We first talk it through not only with the teacher of the classroom but a buddy teacher. This way if the student has some sort of uncomfortable or angry feelings toward their direct teacher another teacher can step in and reduce the tension by talking to them. We talk about consequences and other choices that could of been made to avoid the problems.

I enjoyed your paper very much and hope that others who do not know much about anxiety will read it and learn how much this disorder can affect a student. I believe that this disorder is sometimes brushed off and people feel that it can be outgrown, but that is not always the case. In today's society our students have so many experiences that could cause them stress and anxiety such as poverty, poor family structure or support, or personal self esteem issues it is very important to take each symptom and diagnosis very serious as a classroom teacher.

7A Amanda Johnson respones to Courtney Ronghi

I really enjoyed your Critical Issue on Family Systems: Role in Educational Process & Supporting Students with Exceptional Learning Needs. Your paper is filled with tons of suggestions and techniques that could increase collaboration between parents and students. The Smart Shot videos not only benefit the student and his/her grades but also the teacher and parent as well. The teacher's time will be utilized by not repeating him/herself 1000 times but redirecting the child to SMart Shot. Parents will benefit by not having the stress of "I can not help my child with homework because I do not understand it myself."

1. What are Bronfenbrenner’s five layers of structure of environment that affect a child’s development? Explain each layer briefly. 
• Microsystem: relationship a child has with his/her surroundings (family, neighbors, school, church).
• Mesosystem: the relationship the child's has with his/her parent(s), religion, school, medical services - also the relationship the child's parents and teacher have with one another.
• Exosystem: the relationship that indirectly involves the child (media, friends of family, legal services, family's workplace, crime rate in the child's neighborhood). 
• Macrosystem:the child's background, values, customs, social class and society's laws.
• Chronosystem:the relationship with time and the child's developmental process.
  
2.  What are some examples of family roles in the educational process? 
• parents are given an EQUAL voice when discussing their child's needs
• parents have legal right during the educational planning process
• parents are given the role of a teacher (their first teacher) 
•  parents are advocates for their child and his/her rights
  
3.   What are the seven principles of partnerships that will help form a healthy and collaborative partnership among families and professionals?
   •  equality
   • advocacy
   • trust
   • communication
   • professional competence
   • respect
   • commitment
   
   
4. What are Smart Shot videos and how do they support students?
   • short clips of what the child learned that day 
   • families can view at home or the library
   • can be used a resource for the students
   • increases independent-work
   • helps lessen anxiety in student
   • can track learning progress of a child
   
   
5. What are some strategies to make collaborative conversations between educators and families?

• constant connection with the parents (honest, open, and avaliable)
•  talking about the child's strength often with the parents
• have more than one plan for child's next step
• recommendations and suggestions to parents, co-workers, and families  
• encourage equal partners 

7A : Rumbidzai Mupinga in response to Cynthia Rocco

Firstly, I'd like to point out how I am not into any political aspects that occur within the United States, however this paper gave me great insight on an issue that is relevant but not pushed to be a bigger concern in our school systems. In  generally, children these days are being diagnosed with a variety of illnesses and while they need proper care they also need to sustain good education and be in a safe environment as well.

Having training and the ability to assist a student with Diabetes is very essential and can save lives. But what happens if a teacher administers too much insulin or not enough to help a student ? Won't that open up more lawsuits and be unsettling to parents or guardians?

I agree with the stressors mentioned that will affect teachers if they have an overload of coursework and can't fully be attentive to that one child in class. I see this affecting younger children until they get to the age where they can self administer. My sister who is in 7th grade has a friend that is always at our house who has diabetes and does self administer and has an insulin pump. Each time she is dropped off her mother still instructs us on what to do in case something goes wrong. My sister's friend is fully aware when her sugar is dropping, what she needs to do and who she needs to call. To me, that is effective parenting and puts her mom at ease knowing that her daughter can always call , ask us for an extra battery, ask for a food item or ask to take a break during a physical activity.

Being a 7th grader and having a great group of friends also puts her at ease knowing that if she has to leave because its too low or too high that her friends won't hold her illness against her because she is unable to participate in sleep overs or playing outside. Lately I've been learning different laws and regulations pertaining to the school system and education that I was never fully aware of, as an educator I need to be more knowledge on these issues at hand. This was a very good paper and very insightful over issues that others may tend to sweep under the rug.

7A: Kathryn Meleky response to Trisha Amato

 Trisha, I found your information extremely informative, helpful, and interesting to read with each component of Intervention Techniques, Implications and with whom they involve , and especially the topics that discussed assistance programs in Youngstown, Ohio. Very well done!! Your information will be extremely helpful for parents/caregivers and even Teachers/Special Education Teachers with resources that they can send along with parents and children diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. I  can definitely tell that you did your research and put a lot of thought and guidance with offering tools, techniques, interventions, and even supports for parents and teachers to utilize.

As I have previously mentioned before, working as a Therapeutic Staff Support Specialist back in Pennsylvania in the Mercer County area, I have worked with children diagnosed with ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorders, and Autistic Spectrum Disorders (to include Aspergers Disorders) and I only followed a treatment plan and applied behavior modification skills to decrease negative behaviors. I was pleased to read in your paper and also Power point that you discussed interventions such as " Applied Behavior Analysis", "Verbal Behavior" and also "Floortime". I mentioned only those three ( you also discussed in your paper/PowerPoint "Pivotal Response Treatment", "Relationship Development Intervention (RDI), "Training and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children (TEACCH), "Social Communication/Emotional Regulation/Transactional Support(SCERTS) and also "Early Start Denver Models") and I was not able to see first hand the last five techniques being applied. I was able to watch while my client was engaging in "ABA", "VB", and  "Floortime" therapy intervention techniques cause I would follow along with my client and their parents to their therapy sessions.I was not trained nor did I have the educational background to utilize interventions or even have the certification to apply interventions.  I found them to be extremely interesting and I saw how each intervention helped out my client and I told myself that someday I would aspire to learn interventions so that I can guide my client's more toward adapting to their disorders.

Trisha, your paper was very well organized, insightful and informative and I will be proud to pass along all the informative information that your project included. I am a Pennsylvania girl (at heart.. I live in Warren, Ohio currently)  and I did not realize that Youngstown,Ohio had all those intervention support programs such as "HelpMeGrow" and "Potential Development(I have heard of that program) not to mention the "Complementary Health Approaches" (CAM). I enjoyed how you broke down each intervention  and explained how they work, what age levels and how teachers and professionals can take part.  I also found it helpful that you included Youtube videos on each intervention so that I can see visually how each technique is utilized and applied and I will pass those along with future parents and children diagnosed with ASD. 

Teachers and parents need to be knowledgeable and aware of all the resources that our area has to offer. They also need to learn how each technique is applied and with whom are utilizing interventions. Exceptional Learners are striving to live a happy lifestyle and want to have inclusion in the least restrictive environment. 

7A- Tony Candel- Response to Jodie Gueneri

Jodi,

I really enjoyed your Critical Issue work on Spina Bifida. As an instructor working with students with autism, I understand the value of early intervention and have experience working with children with SB. On a (somewhat!) related note, my young daughter gave my wife and I the scare of our lives when our pediatrician expressed concern over a large, bright red birthmark on her lower spine when she was an infant. We were referred to Akron Children’s for a loooong ultrasound and lots of nail-biting. We were blessed that there were no internal malformations, but moments like that make us even more compassionate to parents coping with learning that their child may have special needs.

I was glad to see that you incorporated the importance of folic acid during pregnancy. In addition to the information you included, the history of the discovery of the importance of this supplement both before and during pregnancy to prevent neural tube defects and the public policies that have been implemented to support this is fascinating (see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15129193 for more detailed information). Simply adding folic acid to prepackaged food resulted in a dramatic decline in reported cases of SB. This is an important component of the history of the disorder that should not be overlooked. If only all disabilities were as easily preventable!

It was interesting that you pointed out that while SB is not considered “curable”, you also stated that “the brain’s neural circuits which form the foundation for learning, behavior and health are very flexible and ‘plastic’ during the critical first 3 years of life.” Therefore, you suggest that early intervention may help to improve skills and functioning and improve prognosis despite the pervasiveness of the disorder. This is a very hopeful perspective that would be welcomed by families and stakeholders. In addition to physical and occupational therapy, I would point out that behavior therapy and early educational education opportunities would be incredibly helpful in addressing toileting, feeding, behavioral concerns, and potential cognitive deficits. I appreciate that you pointed out the grieving process that families experience and you suggest that they may need support as an entire family unit.

In addition to the discussion questions you posed, it might be helpful to ask what we can do (as future special educators) to help young children with SB? What educational strategies can be incorporated into early intervention settings for these children? What special challenges does this population pose for educators?  Overall, I was impressed with your descriptions and information regarding the disorder. Early intervention is such a pivotal time for all children, and it’s an opportunity for educators to collaborate with family at an early age to set the tone for the child’s education career.

7A- John Chandler--Response to Megan Giesen

I read Megan Giesen's paper and reviewed her power point on assistive technology, specifically the newest advancements in AT. Giesen talks about the use of AT daily in the classroom, and various types and levels of AT.
She goes on to talk about advances in computer based technology, and adaption to the individuals needs. One specific item is the screen magnification which can change the resolution to a smaller, but in most cases larger for better viewing. She goes into detail on several apple products, with which I was unfamiliar with.
Giesen mentions devices integrated into main stream devices like cell phones which I'm a fan of especially if it helps alleviate stigma. It was informative about class Dojo, I used a similar program called Classcraft targeted at older students.
Reading about the Nav belt was particular interesting to me as I did not know that kind of technology existed. The paper and power point were very interesting to read and view.