Monisha Smith Case Study

NOW COMES, Stephanie Smith, the minor child in the above-captioned matter, and hereby moves this Court for a finding that the Department of Children and Families has abused its discretion, because the Department acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner, by removing Stephanie from the prison nursery, where she resides with her biological mother, Sofia Smith, and placing Stephanie with her paternal grandparents.

Anita Stanley came into the fiscal services department today about getting a reimbursement for the gas she had to pay out of pocket for a state van. She got very mad and upset when she found out she wasn’t going to get the money back today. There is a process when getting a reimbursement through the state. I could hear her yelling and telling Dee that she wanted the cash now. Anita even wanted Dee to take $20 out of her own pocket to give her. Yelling and demanding things are not good traits to be using at

As a result of my field observations and document analysis of Mike’s IEP, I am left wondering why Mike does not participate in more inclusive classroom. In fact, I believe the educational setting that is being given to Mike does not match what he needs to fulfill his full educational potential. I found Mike to be attentive and he did not appear to be a challenge in the classroom. This was evident in my observations of Mike during small group and independent time. I believe Mike behaved appropriately and was attentive to his surroundings. I found other students to lack both physical and common sense of awareness compared to Mike.

As a teacher when delivering any lessons planned we have to make sure that each students individual needs are met, so they will feel included in the lesson. “Inclusion is about creating interesting, varied and inspiring learning opportunities for all learners, ensuring all learners contribute and are never disadvantaged by methods, language or resources” Wilson (2008).

Imagine you are young teenage girl in the high school setting. You look the same as everyone else. Nothing on the outside appears to be abnormal. You want to be included and do everything else the other students are doing. However, you have this learning disability no one knows about except for you, your parents, the exceptional educator, and now your general education teachers. It’s not easy being different wanting to do everything the other students are doing. Well, this is why mainstreaming and inclusion are important for these students. They want to be successful like everyone else. They want to fit in. They want to go to the general education classes with everyone else. Leading up to this is why Individual Education Plans

Creating an inclusive learning environment is an extremely important aspect of modern education, which, according to Gravells (2008: p18), ensures that “[…] all learners are entitled to be treated with respect and dignity. Everyone is an individual, with different experiences, abilities and needs.” She also offers a brief explanation of inclusivity (2008: p18), which is “[…] involving all learners in relevant activities rather than excluding them for any reason directly or indirectly.” Inclusion has also been defined by John Tomlinson (1996: p26) as “the greatest degree of match or fit between individual learning requirements and provision”. In the other words, inclusive learning environment nurtures individual potential of all learners,

Inclusion is one of the very controversial topics concerning the education of students in today's society. It is the effort to put children with disabilities into the general education classes. The main purpose is to ensure that every child receives the best education possible by placing them in the best learning environment possible. Inclusion is a very beneficial idea, supported by law that promotes a well-rounded education while also teaching acceptance of others.

The notion of inclusion is progressively being accepted as a vital method of learning in our growing school systems. I believe that every student, those with and without exceptionalities, have the right to be included in a general education classroom. Students with learning, social and behavioral exceptionalities or varied abilities deserve the right to be provided with the same opportunities as any other students in the regular general education classroom. The information that I have acquired through my own experiences (in my observations and my classes) have molded my goals as a future teacher. I believe that teaching and education are fundamental in getting students to grow, learn, and flourish;

The effects of inclusion have different outcomes from the effects of non-inclusion. Over time the positive effects of inclusion affect the ADD/ADHD student socially and academically. The learning impaired student is affected socially in the inclusive setting (how?). The ADD/ADHD student that is perceived as having a learning-disability is more susceptible for student without learning disabilities to interact with a learning-impaired individual in an inclusive setting. (Indicate here some statistics of students communicating between one another in an inclusive setting). The

One major benefit that students can gain from being in an inclusion classroom is a heightened self-concept. “It is generally agreed that children who have learning problems and/or those who are behaviorally impaired often develop a poor self-concept.”(Dunn, 1963:113; Frostig and Horne, 1962: 11-12; Special Education in the Regular Classroom, 1969) One way that students can gain a better

Many children have had learning disabilities for many years. Each year more and more of these children are being helped. Schools are working to improve their special education programs and to have all kinds of students work together in the same classroom. The practice of inclusion was started because educators felt that special needs students would achieve more in traditional classrooms with non-learning disabled students than they would in special education classes. However, research findings suggest that there really is no difference in academic achievement levels for special needs students when they are placed in regular classrooms.

Schools in today’s society are rapidly changing and growing striving to implement the best practices in their schools. Nonetheless, before a school can implement a program in their school, they need reliable evidence that the new program will work. A new program that schools are aiming to implement is inclusion in the classroom because of the benefits inclusion could bring. The implementation of inclusion is strongly connected by people’s attitudes whether they are positive or negative. However, while inclusion is being widely implemented, there is comparatively little data on its effectiveness. It may be that inclusion benefits some areas such as reading and social skills, more than it does others.

Even as a girl of 10 years, Monique Mandy had set her sights on what she wanted to do. She was keen on a career with the United Nations, with her vision of peace and prosperity for the whole world, for which she was even willing to lay down her life. Her country, Liberia with just a 2.9 million population was war torn with powerful overlords like Charles Taylor, who spread the culture of violence even down to the gun toting kids. Slowly, as peace encompassed her country, her parents decided to give her a good education, and that is how she finally landed up at Harvard Business School in the US for her master's degree.

In order to get a true understanding of teaching in an inclusion classroom, I was able to observe a fourth grade classroom at Village School in West Windsor, New Jersey. The general education teacher was Ms. Welsh and the special education teacher was Ms. Wilush. Ms. Welsh has been teaching for many years, while Ms. Wilush has only been teaching for two years. Each teacher brings with them different strategies, that together make a wonderful classroom dynamic. The students make up an average size fourth grade classroom of a little more than twenty, but there are three students who receive additional instruction from Ms. Wilush in a resource room throughout the day. During my observation, I was able to sit in on writing lessons and science lessons. There was a wide variety of students in the class with all different strengths, weaknesses, and personalities. Watching and learning from both teachers through observation and interview was an extremely valuable experience.

Inclusive education is concerned with the education and accommodation of ALL children in society, regardless of their physical, intellectual, social, or linguistic deficits. Inclusion should also include children from disadvantaged groups, of all races and cultures as well as the gifted and the disabled (UNESCO, 2003). Inclusion tries to reduce exclusion within the education system by tackling, responding to and meeting the different needs of all learners (Booth, 1996). It involves changing the education system so that it can accommodate the unique styles and way of learning of each learner and ensure that there is quality education for all through the use of proper resources, suitable curricula, appropriate