1.3 Learning Differences

Candidates cultivate the educational and personal development of all members of a learning community, including those with diverse intellectual abilities, learning modalities, and physical variabilities.

During my first semester in graduate school, I look SPU 500: Special Education in a Standards Aligned System. The course was designed to identify and characterize different types of disabilities, effective collaboration, inclusive practices, and classroom management procedures. While enrolled in the course, I created a presentation identifying and showcasing the disabilities under IDEA. 

This was my first special education class I had ever taken, and it taught me so much. I knew basic information about intellectual disabilities and autism, but was introduced to learning disabilities and behavior disorders on a grander scale. This class also taught me about the history of special education, and special education law. 

In creating this PowerPoint, my goal is to inform others about special education. It broke down each disability under IDEA. Each category contains definitions, etiology, prevalence, common disabilities, characteristics, identification, impact on parents/family/students, educational practices, and current trends. 

In learning about each of these categories, I realized that characters who fall into these categories are hard to find in books. Most times, if they are featured in a story, they are not represented accurately. In thinking about curating and creating my own library collection, I want to be sure that I can find books where characters are represented nicely and accurately. I want to raise awareness as well as help all of my students to see themselves in materials that the library holds. 

Librarians recognize what makes learners different from each other and help to bring everyone together by creating a communal space to learn. The more informed that we can be, the better off we are in helping others learn and explore what interests them. One day, when I have my own library to look after, I want to champion diverse learners. Every student learns differently and it is my job as a librarian to nurture their curiosity and want to learn.