Reality 101: CEC's blog for new teachers

Charmelle: A Teacher’s Journey to Learning Self-Advocacy, Part Two

In my last post, I shared with you about my personal journey to self-advocacy and how it was not only a valuable skill for me, but a valuable skill for us to teach to our students. As special educators, we look to find ways to empower our students and encourage their growth every day.

The one skill that is sometimes unintentionally overlooked is self-determination. Self-determination is not only having the ability to self-direct one’s life but it encompasses many  skills, including making choices, problem solving, making decisions, setting and attaining goals, self-awareness, self-regulation, self-advocacy and self-efficacy (Wood, Karvonen, Test, Browder, & Algozzine, 2004).

Charmelle: A Teacher’s Journey to Learning Self-Advocacy, Part One

“Being yourself is the best thing that you can do for you and those around you.”-Anonymous

I have to agree with this quote and I think it speaks to the nature of self-advocacy. Many times our students with exceptionalities are faced with the challenge of feeling sad, confused, humiliated or even inferior for being considered different than their peers and needing support to be successful. So many of the students I work with resist asking for help and even accepting help in the general education classroom setting or within their communities because the thought of being ostracized is just too much of a burden to carry.

John: Self-Advocacy Topics and Tips, Part One

We used “the D word” a lot in one of my classes recently. No, not that one. For those teaching high school students with disabilities, the D word is “disability.” It’s one of those words that your students don’t like to hear. Recently, my district implemented a self-advocacy and disability awareness initiative. Part of the program was a survey given to students and parents to assess how much information stakeholders knew about a student’s disability. Surprisingly, the survey revealed that both students and parents knew very little about a student’s disability. Some parents even angrily denied having a student with a disability.