Project ideas

 

Something I want to change: 

Education was supposed to turn to more of a social model for students with disabilities after the IDEA and FAPE went into effect. The current administration is making moves to return to a medical model. This history of disabilities is that of isolation and hidden suffering, and disability activists have fought to bring disabilities out of the shadows. This has been great in theory, but not in practice- in part due to funding, staffing, and training, but also due to the deep-seated ableism that is so common that it seems normal. In schools and polite society, disability is rarely discussed, and when it is, it is either in a dismissive or benevolently ablist way. That won't change until we start freely talking and learning about disability. For actual change to take place, and for non-disabled people to realize that they are not the standard, discussing disability has to become normalized. In schools, more students with IEPs and 504s should be leading not only their meetings, but also their education.

A belief about how students learn:

I believe that all students benefit from learning about disabilities. Children are generally more open to changing their perspective, and the best way to help them do that is to expose them to information and allow them to question that information and come to their own conclusions. I also believe that when students are given the chance to learn about people in a way that allows them to understand their own similarities and differences, they will form a compassionate and open understanding. 

Media and tech tools:

In 2027, I'll be helping to found the Lower School special education program at The Greene School. I want to plan ahead for how to empower students so that they are well prepared to participate in their IEP meetings as soon as possible and lead their own meetings by age 14. Beyond that, I want students to understand and feel empowered to learn how they learn throughout the year.

I also want students who don't receive special education services to understand their classmates and realize that they are typical, but not the norm, and their classmates may think and access things differently from them, but they're not any less important to the classroom. 

I want to start this by having students work on projects where they research a disability starting in 6th grade and do a project about what they learn. I'm thinking that I would like to start with a podcast. When students get older, the project can expand to other mediums as well. I was thinking about also narrowing it down to one disability for the class to research for the first year. At The Greene School, they have classes called Crew, which are similar to advisories. If I understand their model correctly, I'd be with the same students for all of their lower school years. This project can exapand each year