wow!
Today I had a chance to hear Richard Lavoie speak and it was great. I don't know when I first got to watch his video FAT City - How Difficult Can This Be? but it seriously changed my teaching life. In the video, Rick manages to make the audience feel the frustration of being learning disabled. I remember a few "a-ha's!" when I first saw it. The first was when he says something to the effect of, "You all have been learning disabled for 10 minutes and you've shut down; imagine being disabled for 16 years." The other was that fair doesn't mean everybody gets the same, it means that everyone gets his/her needs met. After that, I did a "lesson" every semester in every class explaining that in my class, not everyone got the same thing all the time. It was a basis of my teaching philosophy that students got used to that idea.
Every class that Bob and I have ever taught together, and many we've taught individually, have been required to watch the FAT City video. If I had my way, everyone working in education would be required to watch it, probably yearly.
So it's fair to say that I felt like I was in the presence of a rock star is an understatement.
I think there are a couple of powerful points that Rick provides. The first is that, after 30 years, he's obviously still passionate about what's the best thing for kids. The second is that we need to stand up for kids with disabilities. Today he said that we need to shift the paradigm from "that kid is a problem" to "that kid HAS a problem." It's so true, and I hope I can take that shift with me as I work in schools, or with teachers. Today he talked a lot about how schools work with the families of kids with disabilities. He made it so obvious to me that it's an area where we're not doing the best job we can.We need to love students, and we need to treat them the way we would want our own children treated. Every day, all day.
It was very cool to have Mr. Lavoie in Fairbanks today. Very cool.
Every class that Bob and I have ever taught together, and many we've taught individually, have been required to watch the FAT City video. If I had my way, everyone working in education would be required to watch it, probably yearly.
So it's fair to say that I felt like I was in the presence of a rock star is an understatement.
I think there are a couple of powerful points that Rick provides. The first is that, after 30 years, he's obviously still passionate about what's the best thing for kids. The second is that we need to stand up for kids with disabilities. Today he said that we need to shift the paradigm from "that kid is a problem" to "that kid HAS a problem." It's so true, and I hope I can take that shift with me as I work in schools, or with teachers. Today he talked a lot about how schools work with the families of kids with disabilities. He made it so obvious to me that it's an area where we're not doing the best job we can.We need to love students, and we need to treat them the way we would want our own children treated. Every day, all day.
It was very cool to have Mr. Lavoie in Fairbanks today. Very cool.
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