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TEACHERS.NET GAZETTE
Volume 4 Number 8
COVER STORY
New teacher induction . . . what does that have to do with me, a veteran educator?
It Takes a Community
to Induct a Teacher
...
ARTICLES
When the Teacher Becomes the Student by Joe A. Martin, Ed.D.
Treating All Students With Dignity by Laura Dombrosky
Working with Emotionally Disabled Students by Susan Rismiller
Considering Writer's Workshop by Judy Mazur
Create Language Arts Success at Every Grade Level By Using TEACH Observe Publish by Jacqueline Rhoades
Teacher Resource Book Reviews from the Teachers.Net Community
Creation vs. Evolution - How Do Teachers Respond? from the Science Teachers' Chatboard
Common Mistakes Made by New Teachers from the Teachers.Net Chatboard
Tips for Nervous New Teacher from the Teachers.Net Chatboard
Math & Literacy Learning Centers for Upper Grades from the Teachers.Net Learning Centers Chatboard
Weekly Tests by P R Guruprasad
Editor's epicks for August by Kathleen Alape Carpenter
Journal Writing in Pre-K by Vanessa Levin
Beginning of School Letter from the Teachers.Net Early Childhood Mailring
The Kindergarten Center by Kathleen Carpenter
What to Do About Biters from National Association for the Education of Young Children
Batik - Lesson & Rubric for Grades 10-12 by Carolann Tebbetts
Healthy Living Tips from the Teachers.Net Chatboard
Create the Sounds of a Thunderstorm in the Classroom submitted by Virginia in Idaho
Good Football Fight Music, Cavalcade of Mascots Site, Football Organizations Online from the High School Chatboard
August Columns
August Regular Features
August Informational Items
Gazette Home Delivery:

 
About Laura Dombrosky...
Laura Dombrosky, known as "Sunday Moon" to her Teachers.Net friends, is a 26 year old Special Education teacher in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Laura is an advocate for children with special needs, especially those with emotional and mental health disorders. Prior to becoming a teacher, she was a mental health therapist serving children and their families in a school-based setting. Laura credits Teachers.Net with helping her through graduate school, student teaching, and her first year of teaching. She enjoys reading, painting, being outdoors, and being with her friends and family. Laura has an orange cat named Bailey and plans on being married next summer (hopefully!) to a fellow teacher.

Teacher Feature...

Treating All Students With Dignity

by Laura Dombrosky


As my first year of teaching comes to a close, I realize that prejudice and ignorance is alive in education. Students are expected to fit a certain "mold" and those that do not are seen as deviates of the norm and treated as such. This disturbs me as I am a Special Education teacher and I hold an interest in "those" kids, the ones that are seen as outliers and outcasts.

I just finished up my first year as an Emotional Support teacher and taught in a self-contained classroom consisting of grades 3, 4, and 5. "My" kids, as they were called, were diagnosed with a myriad of disorders including: ADHD, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Specific Learning Disorders in Reading and Math. It was not easy for my instructional aide and for myself to incorporate all these types of students into one functioning classroom but we managed. We saw beyond the disorders and saw these children for what they were: CHILDREN. Kids who liked swings and monkey bars. Kids who liked to eat pizza and hot dogs for lunch. Kids who wanted to drive PT Cruisers when they got older. Kids who wanted to become teachers and doctors. Kids who NEEDED love and support as well as a sense of belonging. We loved our kids. We had high expectations for them and they met them on many occasions. I personally felt that many of these kids never had expectations for themselves. No one really expected much out of them. They did not feel as if they were capable of anything. This changed for them during our school year.

One thing I noticed and fought all year was prejudice against the kids. Not stemming from the so-called "regular" kids but from some teachers. Teachers who would "forget" to include the kids in field trips and outdoor picnics. Teachers who would come and tell me, "Your kids" are running in the hall. Believe me, "my" kids knew who treated them with respect and who did not. There were several teachers who looked beyond the disorders and invited my class to their rooms for special parties, who invited us to plant flowers out on the school grounds, who made a note to stop by daily to give the kids little treats and hugs. All I wanted for the kids was for them to be treated like human beings. It broke my heart when one of my 3rd graders said, "Why aren't we going on that field trip. We're in 3rd grade, too." All I ever wanted was for "my" kids to belong or to be made to feel like they belong.

I realize that people do not like to have violent children around them. Most of my kids were not violent; they were just "different" enough for others to be wary. They never really had a sense of belonging. I had to advocate for them all year, which I did not mind, it was part of my job, but much of that was unnecessary. I wanted others to see what I saw. Children that needed love and friendship. Children that needed caring adults in their lives. Children that should not have been judged by their disorders but by who they were as people. I saw that. Why couldn't others?

I am not bashing teachers here. Rather, I am trying to make others aware of the fact that prejudice goes on every day against kids who are "different." I will not accept, "That's the way things are." I think we, as teachers, need to change that. We need to overcome our fears and educate ourselves about different disorders and disabilities and how they affect children. We need to realize about how OUR treatment affects these kids. We are such powerful influences in the lives of children we teach that we need to be careful of how we act around them. I am using this article to implore teachers to look past disorders and SEE the kids. SEE who they are. Get to know THEM and not their disorders. Fight ignorance and prejudices and give these children chances to excel. They CAN and they WILL as long as we allow them to do so.


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