Peter
"In recognition of my achievements and my hard work I got a national award from the Governor General."
Hamish
It's less about the teachers trying to force feed it to you and more that you two have to make a bond or a connection to both kind of learn as, it's a partnership thing instead of one person taking over the other"
Kayla
"When I am at school I need to be treated with a bit more respect when I am learning new things. When I put up my hand to answer a question they don't need to butt in. They just need to listen first and then they can answer after me."
Jessica
"We pretty much did lots of worksheets and just practised, we did SPEC, a whole book of stuff ... yeah did lots of worksheets"
Watch Hamish's film.
Hamish talks about learning as a bond or a connection. He talks about learning as a bond or a connection. He talks about partnerships between teachers and students
1. How can we set up effective learning partnerships in our schools?
2. Who are the people who can participate in these partnerships?
Knowing how to address or support a student in class requires learning about the students’ own perspective and ways of experiencing the world…The requested role of educators then is not to define who people are and aren’t or, for that matter, what they can be expected to be, but to be supportive in seeking strategies that could foster an unfolding life.
(Biklen, 2000, p. 351)
We all learn in different ways from each other. What makes it easy for one person to learn may not be the same for someone else. Katrina is a New Zealand secondary school student with Down Syndrome with some messages for teachers about how she learns best. Follow this link to find out about some of the ways people can learn together.
Perhaps some of the ways Katrina learns are similar to the ways you learn. Sharing information about how we like to learn can help our teachers as they work with us.
- What are some of the best ways to support Katrina’s learning in school and at home?
- How does Katrina work with her teachers to do these things?