Respecting all students

How did you teach your own children? I have always taken a very matter of fact approach. I tried to explain the disability and told my children to put themselves in the others place. How would they want to be treated?

I think when children are afraid of a disabled child (whatever the disability) they will tend to be less inclined to treat them as equals.

I think the first right step is in modeling the behavior you expect of your students. How do you treat your students with disabilities? Your other students will take their cue from your behavior.

And then if you encounter students teasing children with disabilities, you pounce on that behavior as unacceptable in your classroom where all people are to be treated with caring respect.

I’m a first year teacher and I teach an EBD class. My kids have different disiablities. At the beginning of the year we discussed what labels are and how they can affect people. I explained to them everyone is different and they need to be respectful others despite our differences. I found a cool lesson plan in my social skill book that help me get my point across. We also did some role playing. I still remind them of being respectful of everyone and their differences. There’s not one person in the world exactly like someone else.

There are some good books out there that may help. Check out Fred Rogers: I think the title is “Exceptional children.” I also talk to the kids and discuss that everyone is good at something. We all have likes and dislikes and it is good that we are so different or what a boring world it would be. It is important to emphasize that everyone has feelings no matter what they look like and you can’t tell what kind of person someone is by how they look. What counts is their heart and how they treat each other. A good activity is to have different colored shapes cut in half hid around the room. The kids find the shapes and match it with their partner’s shape. THen they have to find out 2 things about their partner to share. It can be something as simple as their favorite color or food. Good luck, I hope this helps some.