Standard 1: Educators value and care for all students and act in their best interests.

Posted on September 24, 2010 by John Ames

Killarney Indoor Track Meet Grades 8 & 9Artifact: Halloween Student Day Killarney Secondary School: October 29, 2010.

Reflection: This special day has been a tradition at Killarney Secondary School for the last twenty four years; it was originated to ‘burn up’ the energy of students preparing for Halloween and is for grades eight and nine students. What I found very touching about this particular artifact is the mindful attention the instructor depicted in the photo towards students with learning exceptionalities. What I noticed about the behaviour of all the other students that moved me so much was the utter acceptance and inclusion of the above pictured students. I had made friends with one of the teachers of special education while on my practicum – Kathy Hartman – and learned a great deal about the problems and difficulties instructors of students with exceptionalities face. Kathy and I are meeting outside of the school with other teachers to discuss and exchange information about our interests and community work. I was so impressed with the information and exemplar models I have witnessed in how education has shifted positively in the things I value and care about in terms of ‘fair treatment’ for students and all people since my attendance in school (many years ago) that I am now incorporating this into my own teaching philosophy as well as choice of special education as a teaching diploma. Further, from this experience and commencing my special education diploma, I have met a special education professor, Dr Marion Porath, whom shares an interest of mine close to my personal teaching philosophy of ‘community-based learning’ – (community inspired lessons whereby community subject matter experts work directly with students and their teachers in schools, as well as students learning directly in their communities) – undertaking restoration and powder coating projects which will mirror two California based educational successes – Team Isetta and Team Sprite. Community-based learning is valuable in my view as it matters little on a student’s academic abilities, but rather fosters community involvement and emotional growth for all students based upon interest in tangible, real life issues.

About John Ames

My first Masters degree specialized in Literature and Science of the Late-Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries, focusing on how scientific trends in English and French circles of thinkers, such as Erasmus Darwin (C. Darwin's grandfather) and numerous French Philosophe scientists, influenced 1st and 2nd generation Romantic literature, such as that of John Thelwall, William Wordsworth, Percy & Mary Shelley, and John Keats. In becoming a teacher I quickly became attracted to problems in special education research, embarking on a second Masters' degree in the field that continues to this day as a PhD student. During my Masters I was a Research Assistant for The Libretti of Learning: Portraits of Journeys to Operatic Accomplishment, examining how opera singers overcame learning disabilities through opera instruction: research that sparked my interest to this day. Building upon my interests in community- and place-based learning and evolutionary roots of human emotional articulation, my PhD research looks at how multimodal arts-based methods, especially children's “muzik-theatre,” may promote literacy in writing and reading for students with learning disabilities. One of my collective public aims is to create classroom adaptable training methods that will teach children the elements of creating their own short operas from conception to completion, thus promoting emotional growth through narrative development. It is my hope that through facilitating this method -- adapting one representational signing system to another -- greater cognitive understanding of writing and reading will generalize to learners.
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