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A Larger Vision for Students Leaning: Education for Civic and Moral Responsibility

As a teacher it is your main goal to support your students, drive them to reach their
highest level of achievement, and build future minds that will keep our community sustainable. A
sustainable community is a community that is economically, environmentally, and socially
healthy and resilient. (Institute for Sustainable Communities). In order to create a sustainable
community we need to support its diversity, focus on its equitability, and ensure it is healthy for
everyone. Communities are made up of all walks of life and that is what makes them so strong.
Taking everyones diversity and using the varying strengths individuals bring to the table creates
a community that can thrive. Also when it comes to diversity it is important to keep things fair,
or equitable, because when you have a varying group of people often things can become
unbalanced. Having individuals in your community that are focused on equity and supporting the
diverse members will ultimately lead to a community that is full of mental, physical, and
emotional healthy members. When people are happy and feel equal while still remaining
individuals it allows them to reach their full potential and be healthy members of their
community. As an educator you are one of the people who passes on these values to the next
generation. However this is not always the case. Sometimes schools and educators do things to
divide a community, make things unfair, and do not always create a healthy learning
environment.
Up until a year ago I wanted nothing to do with the education system. I felt it was unfair
and treated certain members in a way that was almost cruel, especially when it comes to special
education. I went through this system, watched how it virtually distorted my cousin, and am now

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watching my younger cousins go through it. It wasn't until I really sat down and reflected that i
decided that instead of turning my back on a career I knew I would excel in, I should use my
experience and skills to address the problems I saw and work to fix them. The main issue I felt
needed to be addressed was how we view members of special education and how they are so
often given up on.
Growing up I was part of the special education system. I carried an I.E.P (Individualized
Education Plan) from second grade until my junior year of High School. The special education
system is made up of a broad group of individuals. It has students with physical disabilities like
hearing and visual impairments, minor learning difficulties like ADHD, and some more sever
learning impairments like children on the far end of the autism spectrum. Each I.E.P is meant to
give teachers a roadmap on what the child needs to succeed. Sadly due to the fact these students
can be a bit harder to teach and sometimes have behavioral problems they are often swept under
the rug, and are usually viewed as a waste of time for educators. When I was a student I felt this
bias throughout most of my educational career. It made me feel out casted from my peers, and
like I was being judged before I could prove what I was truly capable of. I also saw my cousin,
who was in the same class as I was go through the same problems, sadly though he did not turn
out as well as I did. The special education class we were in was made up of less than 10 students
and stayed the same all throughout elementary and middle school. This created a strong sense of
community to us and often is what got us through feeling out-cased and ignored. To me part of
being a teacher is looking at every students differences and how to take this diversity and create
a fair and healthy learning environment so they can have a strong community in school. This way

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they can take what they learned about the importance of community and become an informed
citizen that helps keep our community sustainable.
While doing my service learning at a local high school I came face to face with a system
that I was once a member of, only this time I was on the other end of it. I walked in the door
ready to make difference. The teacher I was shadowing was kind enough to let me take over his
Core level History class for two weeks. First I started off spending roughly three weeks
observing all of his classes. He had a large variety when it came to what he taught but for the
most part it was history based. He had two Core level History classes, two AP Government
classes, and one Finical Literacy Class. My first day there I started feeling a mix of emotions.
Before this point I had never sat in an AP class and was slightly intimidated. I looked most
forward to the Core classes. This is where I figured I would feel most at home and where I could
relate to everyone the most. Only I was very wrong about how they would accept me and view
me.
The core students did not accept me well, while the other levels made me feel like a part
of their class right away. Too be honest it didn't even seem like they had a strong community
among themselves in the Core class. They would fight with and make fun of each other all
throughout the class and in the hallways. When I expressed this to the teacher during our lunch
period he explained to me that the students in his Core class are not very open to new comers.
They have to deal with teachers on a daily bases that just don't care about them and don't respect
them. This has made them feel uneasy toward any new faces, especially those in the position of a
teacher. I remembered feel that way too when a student when it came to new teachers and

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authority figures, and knew that it just meant I would have to work that much harder to win them
over.
The first Core class was made up of about twenty-five students that all had I.E.Ps.
Roughly a forth were failing in almost all of their classes, and almost all had serious behavior
issues. Even the teacher said he has never had a class like this one and it was his most difficult
one to date. The second one on the other hand was made up of about fifteen students, again who
all had I.E.Ps, but were much better behaviorally. There were the occasional problem children
but this class was what I was more used to from my experiences. I was faced with the task of
creating a two week lesson plan that would keep things fair to all learners, keep all of these
students engaged, and would allow their different strengths shine. I also decide that I wanted to
figure out how to make them embrace their diversity along with bringing a sense of community
back to them.
The topic I had to teach was the pre-civil war, focusing on the three main things that
divided the South from the North. The class already had a normal routine they followed during
the week so I did not want to deviate too far from that. That meant on Monday I had them do
bookwork like the always do. Only mine was slightly different. Normally they just answered the
questions at the end of the chapter with sentences right out of the book. I wanted them to think a
bit deeper than normal. I created a question sheet that had some question that were basic
definitions but there were also some that involved the why and how. They had really think
about importance of specific things and even had to put themselves into the mindset of the
people during this time. I wanted them to engage in Problem Based Learning, or learning where

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they had to address real world problems and how to solve them. The goal was to get them to
think about the things that happened leading up to the Civil War and how we see similarities in
todays society. I wanted them to ask themselves why we are learning this and how we can use
this knowledge to create a better society now. Originally I was met with a lot of resistance.
Students started complaining that this was too hard or that they couldn't do this. I knew
that they were very capable of completing it and where most of their other teachers would have
backed down or gave up I decided to sit down with them and work through it. Never giving them
the answers but instead walking them through how to get the answer. There were some who just
didn't do the worksheet and others who attempted but gave up after a while. As for the ones who
did try the ended up having a sense of pride after class. I knew we were just going to go over it
the next day and they would be getting the answers eventually, but this was more of a tool for me
to see if they really could give me this level of thinking I knew they were capable of. I needed to
be sure my goal to achieve this stronger community of thinkers was attainable, and while I knew
I wasn't exactly their favorite person after this class, I felt successful and felt that we were off to
a good start. The next day, however, I hit a major road block.
All classes have off days, days where they students are just completely uncooperative and
almost seem to be set out to make your day hell. Unfortunately for me this was how the students
were my first day up in front of the class lecturing. This was the first time I ever stood in front of
a real class to give a lecture. The goal for the day was to go over the worksheet from the day
before together as a class, and then look at different pictures and quotes from the pre-civil war
and interpret them together. I felt like I had jumped head first into a pool full of hungry sharks.

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No one was listening, they were just yelling things out that had nothing to do with the lesson,
about two or three students tried to participate but the rest completely ignored me. I wanted
nothing more than to run out of the room crying and never come back. Instead after several
attempts to redirect the class I ended up focusing on those who were trying. After the class was
over I went to the bathroom and cried, I didnt know what to do. My goal of trying to fix this
problem of a lack of community seemed to have backfired in my face. When I returned to the
office the teacher asked me how I felt after the lecture. After discussing with him how I felt he
explained to me that these kids dont have someone that pushes them really. Its not like the AP
and Honors kids that are pushed to be their best. Most of their teachers just expect them to pass a
test. This is the only class they are pushed and he is met with resistance every day. After this
discussion I felt that fire inside me again.
I wanted to make a difference to them and fix this problem I see in the school system.
These kids deserved to have someone push them to be the best they can be. It isn't their fault no
one instilled a sense of community in them, or that no one told them it was ok to be different
than their peers because a diverse community is a strong community. Just because they were
different didn't mean that couldn't be equal. I decided to completely revamp my lesson plans. I
needed to find a way to differentiate my instruction, or vary the instruction I was giving to give
in order to allow all types of learners flourish. I was wrong to try and force them to learn like
everyone else because they were different. By doing this I was no better than all the teacher I had
that made me feel worthless and stupid; I was being the very thing I set out to change. These
students all had different strengths that made them diverse, but they all had abilities to reach
conclusions that were more creative than most and they could see thing a bit differently than the
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average student. Day three I walked in the door ready to put the lesson I stayed up all night
writing into action.
The new lesson was created around Project Based Learning, where students would work
in teams to create something to share with the teacher and class that shows what they learned. I
decided on doing a debate project because it was the one I felt I could differentiate the most. I
also picked it because of how opinionated they all were and I knew it would be a fun outlet for
all their energy. Plus I could see these kids were competitive and if I offered a reward to the
winning team they would go for the gold. Before I could introduce the new project I had to get
them back on my side. I knew I lost a lot of their respect the day before and I had to get them to
listen to me. I decided to take the behaviorist approach and knew that with rewards they would
want to participate. After a few classes of giving them rewards they would participate even
without a bribe. I told the class that we were going to go back over the worksheet (I didn't
want to give up on it and let them win) only this time the student who answered a question
would receive a lollipop. You could have heard a pin drop in the classroom. Obviously the
students who actually did the worksheet got the lollipops but the next time around almost every
student did their worksheet. Before I could explain the project I knew I had gained some of the
respect back. The project itself was created around each individual and differentiated in a way
that worked for each students strengths. Each class had two main teams; the North and the
South. Then each of the teams had three mini-groups that were the three main causes of the civil
war.

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Over my observations I saw who was more of a leader and which students were a bit
above the rest, these students became the captains of their teams. After that I broke them up in a
way that each mini group had; a student who was good at reading text and pulling out facts
(based on the worksheet), a student who came off as a problem child but I knew deep down was
creative and had a different approach to things, and then finally a student that i knew would keep
everyone on task. The goal was to differentiate the lesson in a way that each student had a role
that fit to their strengths, all while grouping them in a way that they would use their diversity to
make their group strong. This was giving them a hidden lesson on the importance of diversity in
a community.
Overall the debate project when over very well. Watching students who didn't say a word
the entire time I was there speak in front of their peers and come up with arguments even I didn't
think of was amazing. There was one student who had a speech problem and often stuttered. He
was very shy and never really spoke in class but during the debate he gave his mini teams
opening statement. He stuttered through it and it took a bit longer to get through but the entire
class listened. One boy even encouraged him to keep going when he became embarrassed and
wanted to stop. Then there was another boy who was the main problem child in the class. He
didn't do any of the work he was given while I was observing the class and often fought the
teacher when it came to work. One day when I was doing hall duty he came up to me and asked
me how long I was going to be teaching for because he really enjoyed when I was there and
didn't want me to leave. By the time the debate started he did a complete 180. He ended up
stepping up in his group and actually memorized the beginning of the Gettysburg Address and
recited it in the beginning of his debate. Seeing the way these kids thrived when given the
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opportunity to embrace their differences and had someone there to push them a bit out of their
comfort zone really reaffirmed that this is what I was meant to do.
After completing my service learning I determined that I wanted to make it my main goal
to change how we treat our special education students. On a smaller scale I can make a
difference with the people I know directly affected by this system. I can support them as much as
I can and remind them that I am always here to fight for them when needed. While making a
small difference is good I want to change things on a bigger level. In order to make this change I
plan on furthering my academic career so I can receive my degree and becoming an educator.
Doing this will put me in the career where I can make a real difference in the lives of these
students. I can work one on one with them and make sure they know there are people who care
and see them for who I know they can be, not what a piece of paper says they can become. I also
plan on taking additional special education courses and different psychology courses so I can get
a better understanding of how each individual learns. Psychology is something I have always
been fascinated in and something I find I have a natural talent for. The knowledge I already have
in this field helps me significantly when it comes to looking at how people are different and also
how these differences can be used to benefit the individual and others around them. Adding the
special education courses will help me take the psychology knowledge and apply it specifically
to children with special needs. While I plan on changing this on a large scale I cannot do it alone.
That is why it is important to spread the word to others.
I want to spread the word about how unfairly special education students are being treated
in our schools and I want others to understand the significance of all of this. We are creating our

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future, the people that are going to keep our society and community going. Instead of focusing
on diversity and how to take those who are different and use it to take our society further, we are
just tossing them aside and making them feel useless. We all need to do our part in fixing this
problem. Whether it is speaking up as a parent or stepping up as a teacher. We need to let these
kids know they are important too, and we need to let schools know they need to readdress how
they handle special needs students. I already know how I plan on fixing this problem and
hopefully others will start to think of how they can help too.
When I decide to become a teacher it was because I wanted to change the problems I saw
when it came to how we treat a specific group of children. Going through my service learning
hours I really became aware how big this problem is getting. When I was going through it there
was only about 10 of us dealing with this issue in my school. In the high school I was teaching in
there were about thirty. With so many of them they hadn't really created a sense of community in
the classroom. Without community they didn't have a support system, like I had, to get them
through the injustice of being treated as though they are below the other learners. To me there is
a large importance of community in a classroom. Children learn what a good community is and
why it is important both at home and in school. As a teacher you should push the importance of
diversity, equity, and health in your classroom community so students can apply that to our
sustainable community.

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