Today we had a district-wide special education workshop day. We learned about RtI, IEP's, BEST, and all the other acronyms you could ever want! Really, although there were some boring parts, many parts were informative. I have 3 things I am going to take away:
1) The picture is from one of the workshops I went to (I was actually misplaced into this one). It talked about the vulnerability of individuals with disabilities and the statistics about abuse in their population. It was staggering. 83% of women with developmental disabilities will be sexually abused in their lifetime. 56% of those women will be sexually abused more than 10 times. Individuals with disabilities are 4 times more likely to have personal belongings (such as their bank account, physical items, etc) stolen than the typical population. There were so many other stats as well. We need to give them a voice!
2) Behaviors always have a function- either to escape or to obtain. (this is probably old news for you teachers). I will look at behaviors differently from now on and hopefully have a better approach to dealing with them.
3) Laughter is key. We had a comedian/comic motivational speaker come and talk to us. He reminded me that life is so much fuller, healthier, and lovelier with a little bit of laughter. I am making it my goal as I enter this school year to have more gratitude in my life. I am also going to do my best, but not expect more than that out of myself.
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