MagnessTonya

=Magness,Tonya Inclusion in Art = = =

//M// y name is Tonya Magness and I am a artist. I have been an artist all of my life. I took all the art I could in middle and high school and then went onto earn a BFA degree in Illustration. My favorite medium is watercolor. I have previously taught art at Oregon Institute of Technology for 10 years.

My late husband and I also had a graphic design business in Klamath Falls providing graphic design services for print and the web for various businesses in Southern Oregon.

I really enjoyed teaching and always wanted to obtain a masters in teaching to teach either middle or high school. I have also taught children's art lessons and art camps. I love to open up the world of art to those who think that they can't draw or paint. Anyone can learn to draw and paint with the right instruction and effort.

//M //y greatest fear about teaching is not being able to reach those students with any and all types of disabilities. I want all my students to have success. I'm hoping to learn new strategies for reaching those students who are having difficulties for various reasons. I have a fifteen year old daughter who is a wonderful student but who is experiencing difficulties in certain subjects. It has been a challenge to work out strategies to help her.

==== I had difficulties with learning math in middle and high school and found that with a completely new teaching method I was able to understand and take math tests with ease. I really believe that with the right methods and desire anyone can learn anything. We as teachers need to have lots of tools at hand to be able to reach each individual. I'm hoping to gather those tools in this class and hopefully help my daughter along the way. ====

__ **Introduction to my topic: Inclusion Strategies in the ARTS** __

I choose Inclusion strategies in the arts because I am a art teacher. I have always known that the arts were a great way for students with learning disabilities to use another side of the brain and to be able to express themselves in a way that can access other skills that they may be proficient in but are not using in a language arts or math classroom. I would like to be able to adapt what they are learning in other disciplines to my art classes and include interdisciplinary projects.

__**Top 5 things I learned**__ I always knew that the arts are a great way to access all types of learning styles and that art is very adaptable to those learning styles. What did not know was that there are all these great websites for understanding and using art therapy and sites especially dedicated to integrating those with disabilities into all the arts. The Arts can benefit many students with all varieties of Learning Disabilities by allowing them a easy access to expression and comprehension.The arts provide a easy way to break down projects into steps and scaffold learning. Many of the sites listed here provide art projects that can be integrated into other disciplines. Using the visual arts in any curriculum can be especially beneficial to visual learners, those with speech, hearing and language disabilities and students with autism.

** __Research Topic: Inclusion Strategies in the ARTs:__ **

**[|American Art Therapy Association]** __**Top Resource**__: The American Art Therapy Association highlights the important work of art therapists around the world who use the creative process to help people of all ages improve their health and emotional well-being. The Association represents more than 5,000 members around the world. This site has some really great information about how art therapy has been used in K-12 schools across the country and the world.

** [|VSA: Very Special Arts: The international organization on Arts and Disability] **
 * __5 out 5 Stars__: VSA** is a international organization on arts and disability, that was "founded more than 35 years ago by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith to provide arts and education opportunities for people with disabilities and increase access to the arts for all." It is part of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. This website has videos, live broadcasts, and a huge amount of information on the arts and artists. This would be a great site to direct students to who show an interest in the arts.

__**[|Art Therapy]**__

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Art therapy uses the creative process of art by allowing anyone to access their creativity but especially students that are less capable and less comfortable expressing themselves using words and those that have speech and communication disabilities can benefit greatly from using art as their means of expression. Art therapists can help students with emotional disturbances process emotions and feelings that they struggle with. This blog has information about art therapy, various art project and links to other resources.=====

** [|Institute for Community Inclusion] ** This link will take you to one of their publications titled: Effective Career Development Strategies for Young Artists with Disabilities. It includes information on careers for students with disabilities
 * __4 out 5 Stars__: General Inclusion Strategies: Focus on Art Careers for students with disabilities:**

**[|National Arts and Disability Center]** __**4 out 5 Stars**__: This site has examples of art by students with various disabilities and grant programs and access to other resources all across the country to help integrate the arts with students with disabilities.

**[|Resources for Art Teachers on adapting curriculum and materials to students with disabilties]** __**4 out 5 Stars**__: This site has links to many other sites for art teachers and other teachers as well to adapt art projects to those students with disabilities. It also has links to art supply sites.

**[|General Inclusion Strategies]** This website has a incredible amount of information on inclusion strategies across all disciplines, it has lesson plans for all subjects and printable worksheets and graphic organizers. It is a membership site but it offers a free trial.
 * __3 out 5 Stars__: General Inclusion Strategies: TeacherVision**

** [|John Hopkins University School of Education] ** __**5 out 5 Stars**__: This is is a large website of the John Hopkins University School of Education, this link takes you to their New Horizons site which contains up to date educational research materials, links to journal articles and specific information on exceptional learners.
 * General Inclusion Strategies:**

**[|National Endowment for the Arts]** __**5 out 5 Stars**__: This website from the National Endowment for the Arts lists many organizations that assist artists in all disciplines, visual, music, dance, and drama with disabilities.

__** My CBL Project **__

I'm teaching at a Middle School this term and I interviewed one of the Special Education teachers at the school. The following information was obtained from her interview: They have two Special Education teachers at this school. They are usually in the resource room which is the room that they teach core classes to the IEP students in. They teach reading, language arts and math to these students. They have five assistants that work with the IEP students in the mainstream classes.

There are 15 IEP students per resource class. IEP students that are classified as dangerous get more assistants to accompany them into regular classes. The IEP teachers can have all types of disabilities: learning, communication, autism, speech, blindness and problems with fine motor skills. A speech pathologist comes in weekly to work with those students and a IEP teacher can request any type of specialist as needed.

Each teacher from each of the students classes is required to attend a IEP meeting to make goals for each student. Any modifications and accomodations will be discussed at the meeting. The students strengths will also be discussed. Each students needs as to language, communication, behavior and attendance will be detailed. As a art teacher I am not required to attend the meetings but we can request to attend them. Only teachers in the core classes are required. We can however read the IEP document and request aides as needed.

I have worked with IEP students in my high school placement during fall term. I had one class that had five IEP students in it. My CT had all of those students sit together at one table. Each student had a different degree of learning disability but all the students worked on the same projects as the rest of the class. One student had an aide that was with him most of the time, guiding him along and repeating instructions to keep him on task. Three of the other students did not have aides but benefited from sitting at the table with the aides as she helped to keep all students on task. When the aide could not be present, my CT assigned student aides to help with these students. I observed these student aides and found them to be very helpful, supportive and good at relating to these students on an student to student level.

 From my perspective, having aides to guide and keep the students on task is very helpful. An art class is a advantage to IEP students in that they can do the same projects and not feel that the work has to be modified to their abilities. Art is a great way to use all parts of the brain, and thus can be beneficial to all types of learning styles. The final product may or may not be at the same level as a non-IEP student but that does not matter to me as a teacher. In art effort goes a long way in my assessments.

I have talked to my CT at my fall placement about the IEP students and she has seen more progress if students are expected to do the same as all the other students. If you expect less you will get less. My current CT at the middle school has said the same as well, he has all his students work on the same projects to the best of their abilities. He has seen IEP students do exemplary work in art if they are just allowed to. My CT at the middle school does not request aides as the number of aides has been reduced by half in recent years.

__**Recently**__ I sat in on a Language Arts class taught by the other IEP teacher, Mr. Proseis. The classroom was a bright inviting space with windows all along the back wall. There were pictures of his pet hawk, I noticed the first week of school since he brought the bird to school. There were two posters in class that caught my attention. They were titled: Social Behavior and Classroom Behavior. The social poster talked about proper personal space and the classroom behavior talked about what was expected of a student that was done with a lesson. He had ten students in his class four of which were probably Latino.

I thought that these student were there because of a ESL designation. An aide came in and these students left with her. I found out after questioning the teacher that they were ESL and had a speech and communication disability. The aide was a speech pathologist that took them for testing. A student spoke up and offered that she was failing social studies and had a D in math. The teacher asked her why. She did not give a real answer but the teacher guessed that maybe she was not doing her homework. I asked the teacher if he was going to intervene on her behalf and he said that yes, part of his job was to get his students help if they were struggling in other classes.

The instruction at the beginning of class immediately directed the students to reading passages from text projected on the screen at the front of the room. He kept the pace quickly moving from one student to the next but always gave each student time to correct any mistakes. If they had trouble with words for too long other students would help out or the instructor would offer the correct pronunciation.

Some students were talking and distracted with a large pen. The teacher immediately reprimanded them by directing them back on task. His directions were always clear and to the point. Next the students were directed to copy their spelling words three times on paper. Again the pace was quick I surmised to keep the students engaged and on task. I should mention at the beginning of class the teacher had the agenda on the screen and told the students what they would be doing that day. "Come on lets get started we have a lot to get through today", he chimed.

He would rotate around the students praising good work. After spelling was group reading. The students retrieved their books from the back of class and took turns reading a story. Again, students would help each other along while the teacher would stop after each paragraph to check for understanding by asking questions. There were two students that were baiting each other and starting to argue. After asking them to stop twice he took one of them outside the room to speak with him. When he returned he took the other student out and spoke with him as well. It was obvious he was not going to tolerate any off task behavior.

After that the reading group went well. After reading the story the students had to answer questions in a workbook about the story. IF they answered 80 percent correctly they would each get a token to spend. They all received more than 80 percent. The teacher kept the pace quick, kept them on task, joked with the students when they needed it and showed a caring attitude. It seems to me that he is a successful teacher. He has been doing it for over ten years.  **//My Reflections on: //** __** DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION WITH EVANGELINE WEISS **__

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">I appreciated that we could get a viewpoint from a distinguisted professional working in the field who came here from the other side of the country. Evangeline Weiss has experience in conflict mediation in large scale systems, worked with the leadership of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and is a organisational design consultant. =====

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The first exercise she had us do was great at breaking through those barriers that you have up when you attend a meeting or seminar where you don't know everyone. We had to verbalize four aspects of our identity, two that are visible and two that are non-visible. It was a very interesting exercise and one that I was not totally comfortable with. Nevertheless I participated and I ended up enjoying it and learning just a little something about those **//human beings//** sitting with me. =====

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One of the first ideas she brought up was the difference between having diversity and being inclusive. An inclusive climate is what she is striving for, one in which everyone feels comfortable. Some examples she gave us would be for all types of people represented on committes, higher attendance at events organized by minority groups, diverse reading in the classroom and making sure staffing at the workplace is diverse. I believe if we just look at everyone as a human being and not categorize that could be a good cornerstone of inclusion. =====

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It was disheartening to learn that there is still a long way to go on creating a completely inclusive climate within our schools, our workplace and our communities. One idea that stood out was the fact that you cannot become too complacent when striving for a goal, there is always more to be done even you think you have reached your goal. It may be harder for me to understand that others may feel excluded when I rarely feel this way myself but attending a meeting such as this one is a great way to be reminded of this and for me to keeping brainstorming the ways in which I will create a inclusive classroom climate. =====