In Exchange of the Promising Practice Conference

       I was not able to make the Promising Practice Conference. I was also not able to find another conference to attend. So, instead of this I decided to write about the movie that we watched in class on different students who are mentally disabled going to California Public Schools. I wanted to write about this movie anyways because it made me open my eyes to see what is really going. It has allowed me to see all of the problems and other thins parents have to do to make sure their child gets the same type of schooling as any other child. In the movie Going to School "Ir a la Escuela". In this movie it talks about five different students that mentall challenged, or mentally disabled, and they all have IEP's.
        All of the students in this movie reminded me of many different articles. The one that kept sticking out to me the most is Kliewer's article on students that are special, or have down syndrome. He states many different resons why they should be in normal classroms, and have the same chances as other students. This is what this movie talked about. It talked about five different students Richard, Sally, Ana, Cynthia, and Aaron. All of them were either mentally challenged and mentally disabled. But, they were able to participate and learn in a normal classorm just like all of the other students. They may have had to do this in a different matter, but in the end they accomplished everything that a normal sutdent was accomplishing and sometimes better. Also, some of these students parents that were in this movie were in a group that helped these students get the right care and the best oppurtunites. For example, there was one student named Richard. He was in a wheelchair, because he was born premature, and had multiple disablites. His mother had to go to his classes with him for 3 years because he was not given an aid. Other students would be in normal classrooms, but they would jsut be placed in the back of the room and not given the right help to learn.
       All of these were problems that the students faced that did have disabilites. The parents formed a group to not only get them individual help, but place them in the correct classes, and allow for them to have certain needs. This was a great movie and it showed how hard it was until all of the laws and programs came to be. It was hard when they did have certain things to help them. I think the country has come a long way in the teaching of students with disabilites. There are many more opportunites now, and it allows for the students to learn in different calssrooms with different students each day. This will eventually help them to pursue their goal in life, and just by doing that I tihnk is a great accomplishment.