Special Education Teachers Essay Example for Free

Special Education Teachers Essay The current directions toward inclusion are varied. Some hear opinions that students with mild and moderate disabilities will be placed in classes. Then, there are also those who say that special education students will be placed in inclusion, including those with the most severe disabilities. Definitions of inclusion already abound including issues on its subsequent translation into programming. On the question, â€Å"Which students with disabilities will most benefit from inclusion, the different levels of responses are: Level 1—Students with mild disabilities participate full-time in regular education classrooms. Students with moderate to profound disabilities attend separate classrooms on the regular education camps. Level II – Students with mild and moderate disabilities participate full-time in regular education classrooms, with the elimination of all pull-out programs. Students with severe or profound disabilities would be served in a separate classroom on the same campus. Level III – All students participate in regular education classrooms except students with the most severe disabilities who would be in normalized and age-appropriate classroom on the same campus. Few students are excluded. Level IV – Despite the degree of disability, all students are fully included in general education classrooms. Specialists and teaching assistants provide support for students with the most severe disabilities within the classroom. The regular education teacher is responsible for structuring social interactions with typical peers. The least inclusive proposal places most students with mild disabilities in regular classes, but excludes those with moderate through severe disabilities, placing them in separate rooms within the regular school building (Lilly, 1986). This proposal is closest to the traditional manner of service delivery and is the easiest to implement in terms of using available special educators as support personnel and providing training in methods for regular education teachers to include these children. More inclusive is the proposal to place students with mild or moderate disabilities in regular education classes (Reynolds Wang, 1983; Wang, Reynolds Walburg, 1987). The essence and meaning of inclusion evolved from the historical concepts in early childhood special education, that is, mainstreaming and integration. Bricker (1995) discusses the evolution of these terms, noting that mainstreaming refers to the â€Å"reentry of children with mild disabilities be served totally in these settings eliminating the need for pull-out programs. While students with organically-based learning disabilities or moderately demonstrated behavioral disorders would not have been included in regular education rooms in the Level I proposal, they would be included here. Yet, proponents of both levels agree that there will be students with severe and/or multiple disabilities whose needs will not be served optimally in a mainstream environment. They feel that these students will need to participate full-time in separate settings. Level III includes a more extensive involvement of severely impaired students in regular education. All students are included except those who are unable to be involved in academic or social interactions (Gartner Lipsky, 1987). However, even these students would participate in nearby classrooms which would be as normalized and age-appropriate as possible. The most extreme view is that of full inclusionists, who propose that all students should participate in general education classes. Claiming that to do otherwise would be to support a â€Å"dual-system† for the most disabled, Level IV proponents propose the integration of even profoundly-impaired students into totally normalized classes (Stainback Stainback, 1984). This position has prompted the strongest reaction of implausibility from those opposed to the Regular Education Initiative. Yet parents and professionals supporting Level IV inclusion do acknowledge that there are situations in which these students cannot be grouped with other s because of instructional differences. Thus, the Regular Education Initiative gives a sense of inclusion for students. Yet, a number of researchers and educators have opposed the Regular Education Initiative strongly. They cite the historical inability and lack of desire of regular education to meet students’ needs. That is the reason why the IDEA cropped up. They worry about the loss of funding and parental right. They also note that most regular educators are not trained to have students with disabilities in their classes. They say that teachers cannot meet societal demands for excellence if they are expected to have vastly different levels of student academic and behavioral performance in their classes.

Henrik Ibsens A Doll’s House :: A Dolls House Essays

Henrik Ibsen's A Doll’s House In A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen reveals how society and authority hinders the development of individuality. By examining how Nora’s father treated her, the way Nora’s husband talked to her, a woman’s social expectations, and the social status of women, Ibsen sets forth the image of a stiffed woman, trapped in an unhappy marriage. Nora’s father treated her as if she was just a little play doll. He belittled her and treated Nora like a baby. Referencing to her father, Nora illustrates this by saying, â€Å" . . . He called me his little doll, and he played with me just the way I played with my dolls. Then I came to live in your house . . . I was passed from Papa’s hands to yours,†(Act III 1120). The way Torvald, Nora’s husband, talked to her showed how he degraded and belittled Nora. He talked to Nora as if she was inferior to him. He implied that he was a better person due to his social status. In Act III of A Doll’s House, Torvald shows his vulgar and subservient manner towards Nora by saying, â€Å"Oh, you think and talk like a stupid child,†(Act III 1123). A woman’s social expectations were to stay at home, and conceive the offspring. It was thought that women had to depend on men for everything. What ever the woman wanted to do, had to be approved by the male spouse. â€Å"Oh, I wish I’d inherited more of Papa’s qualities,† exemplifies Nora’s urge to become more powerful (Act I 1074). At that time, women’s status in society was a step below those of men. Women could not vote, open their own bank account, or have a management position. In some extreme cases of the women’s low status, they were told to marry the man whom their parents told them to marry. Torvald depicts how men were thought to be higher than women are by claiming, â€Å" . . . but no man can be expected to sacrifice his honor, even for the person he loves,†(Act III 1123).

The Language of Performing Arts

On being given the task of creating and performing a song based on the stimulus provided, it seemed doable and was approached by my group and I with enthusiasm and determination. We achieved roughly what to set out too. With some effort and contribution, every member of the group provided a vital input into the making of our final piece. Although all group members could have put in more effort to provide a more tidy finish to the performance, I believe the song written was of a good quality. When given the stimulus our group came up with several ideas based on â€Å"Of Mice and Men† for lyrics, although only those who knew the play were inspired by this particular stimulus. The other stimulus was ‘Dustbowl Days' by Nicole S.Porter and this again provided vague ideas for lyrics. The group however took more specific ideas from â€Å"Dustbowl Days† and used ‘Life' as a topic for the song, the lyrics were then written around this. As far as music is concerned the group decided that the lyrics could not be written out until chords and melody were fitted into place. As I was the most experienced with music in the group it was my job to find chords that created a sad yet effective pattern for a deep and meaningful song. After tampering with a E, D flat minor, G sharp minor, B chord progression for the verse I finally came up with just a simple A minor, F change over. Then every eighth bar a G fitted well. The rhythm was straight and of a moderate tempo, we decided working with a straight 4:4 rhythm would be easiest and besides that would fit our song better too. We practised improvising melodies over these chords until the group agreed on one fitting better than the others. To do this we took notes from the chords and practised singing them over the top of the chord to try and create a sad yet beautiful sound, this was achieved by holding the first note of the first chord of each verse and then using notes which fitted into the scales of both chords for the rest of the verse. Two members of the group then wrote the lyrics while I taught the other two members the chords and appropriate piano and guitar parts. We felt we wanted to include more instruments to give a thicker texture to make the song deeper. The piano part consisted of a simple set of notes (A, C, E, F) linking each chord before each change over. These harmonised very well as the notes were taken from the chords. The timbre of our song was very important to all members of the group and we decided that the lead guitar should be dominant and of a more clear sound so in order to do this the rhythm guitar used palm muted power chords while the lead clearly picked the notes from the chords. This did not only prove more practical but also have a more calm and tranquil effect as intended due to the songs nature. We then decided we wanted to try and make the audience ‘fall in love' with our song, this was ambitious but in order to do this we intended to take advantage of the G chord every eighth bar and create a hook from it, this we achieved and although the singers did not harmonise with each other they did harmonise with the chord creating a hook line. A chorus proved quite difficult to make as our verse had come to us so quickly we were puzzled as to what to do. As the verse was in a minor key we decided the chorus should be in a major key. We came up with possibilities for a chorus and decided it should definitely consist of C major as the first chord as this fitted the well with the song. Certain members of the group then wrote more lyrics and insisted they had to be the lyrics for the non-existent chorus; this made writing it an even trickier job. After agreeing to all meet up and work on the chorus during a free block only two of the members of our group turned up, this added insult to injury and we finally decided as a group we shouldn't spoil our song by adding another melody and set of lyrics which were of poorer standard to the verse' and instead we should simply just have a guitar picking chords C, D Bb, and G. This didn't turn out to be too badly and fitted the song well, and after speeding the tempo of the chorus up it fitted the song well. The transition from verse to chorus was immediate and very smooth, and then from chorus to verse it was paused with a two beat rest. As far as the performance of the song went it could have been better, the picked intro went as planned as with the fist verse and chorus, but one of the members of our group had decided to change the structure of our song at short notice, therefore the song did not end properly as not all group members had been informed of the removal of one of the verses. The part of the song that did go to plan was played pretty well and with little mistakes. Intentions were met as far as the audience were concerned although our mistake was noticeable it was not really commented upon. Little feedback was given but the audience responded all the same as the general tranquillity of the song was felt by most. If we got the chance to make and perform a song again I would insure more harmonising was done to create a deeper feel in timbre, and possibly more instruments were used including drums to maintain time. I would also ensure all group members were at rehearsals as appose to just two, this would mean more work could be put in to a shorter space of time.

The Document Common Sense By Thomas Paine - 1714 Words

The document Common Sense by Thomas Paine was written in 1775, and published in 1776. Though, in order to be shared with the public, Thomas Paine had to be inspired first. Some of the more common inspirations were derived from the ideas of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. The main points of Thomas Paine’s document were to separate from English rule and to form a democratic nation. Some of John Locke’s most common ideas of the human nature were that humans needed independence to thrive, a statement aligning with Paine’s strongly. Common Sense was written when America was on its way to the American Revolution, but what made Paine write this masterpiece? Paine truly believed that in order to get the freedom they wanted, the thirteen colonies need to break off from England completely. Paine applied â€Å"simple common sense† in the pamphlet to show the people that the only way to protect their rights was to declare independence. His true inspiration was the fact that he really wanted to obtain freedom from England and everything that was going on around him helped him in writing this. Paine was not only influenced by what was going on around him, but in ways he was influenced by the writings of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. The enlightenment gave Paine some in ways unexplainable but during the years he was in London, â€Å"Paine soaked up the ideas of the Enlightenment.† Paine had ideas like Lockean liberalism, classical republicanism, and Leveller radicalism all displayed in hisShow MoreRelatedPrimary Source Analysis Common Sense Essays796 Words   |  4 Pages Primary Source Analysis Thomas Paine Common Sense Context: In result of The Seven Years’ War Britain controlled American trade and territory. 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Common Sense by Thomas Paine and Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson plays major contribution in American Revolution which made common men realize true color of selfish and unfair monarchy system of Britain. A revolution occurs when a king or government is misusing their power and mistreating their people. American