change lab reflect
For my change lab project my group decided to focus on special needs students. We all have different passions and interests, but we all agreed that the treatment of special needs students in the classroom needed to change. We felt that just focusing on the classroom was too specific, so we broadened our focus to the student as a whole. We believed that included the classroom, sports/extra circulars, and their future careers. Mackenzie had a lot of experience working with special need students, especially with Special Olympics. Mackenzie has worked first hand with special needs students because of the programs available at her high school, so she had a lot of experience and expertise to bring to the table.
We felt that almost everyone was a stakeholder when it came to the issue of special needs students. Everyone knows someone or has family members that have special needs so we thought was a good issue to work with. Since we were focusing more on the school setting we thought more specifically that stakeholders would be the students, teachers, parents, and school administrators.
It was a priority for our group to think of a very practical solution for our change lab and that is when we thought of the idea of an after school program. An after school program is extremely practical for many reasons. For one, it provides the special needs students a place to go after school. Medical bills and counseling for special needs students can be expensive so the parents will have to work more. So, they might not be able to be home when their children get home from school and it is not safe for special needs students to be at home by themselves for long periods of time. It also gives a chance for the mainstream students at the school to work with special needs students that conditions are not as serious. Obviously, the children with severe issues would be provided a specially trained and certified adult to work with them. This will give the students time to build relationships and friendships with other students that they might not see as much since they are not in mainstream classes. It will also give the students necessary one on one attention that they need to be successful. This one on one attention would include tutoring for the subjects the students are struggling in. It will also include sports training for sports the students are interested in or organized games for students to practice teamwork and sportsmanship. Finally, it would include job skill development for basic jobs like secretary and receptionist so the students that are not on track to go to college would leave high school with useful skills. We believed this would be create a well rounded individual for not a huge financial investment for the school and the county.
Finding a practical solution was the most difficult part about this assignment. It was a priority of our group to find the more practical and productive solution. It was extremely helpful through the whole project that Mackenzie had experience and knew that putting in a program in the classroom isn’t always practical because schools can easily shut down those programs because the lack of funds and staff. We used Mackenzie’s friend as a real life example of why doing the program in the classroom can back fire, so we knew that was a possibility.
Our after school programs will have a lot of stress on service learning. The mainstream students that will get paired up with the special needs student will learn a lot through the program about themselves and how to work with others that are different than them. They will also learn to connect with the people they are serving on a deep level and truly understand what the student’s need to be successful. They will need to listen to the student and find out what the student is interested in and what the student wants for their future. This could include focusing more time on school if they are struggling or sports if that is something the excites them. But, it will also be the responsibility of the helping student to make sure the special needs student does a little bit of everything because it was a priority of us to create well rounded individuals.
I really enjoyed doing this project. I thought it was fun to think of an idea that you are passionate about and find a practical solution for it. I think it would be a cool thing to do if we could create a change lab for the Virginia Tech campus and implement it as a class on campus.
We felt that almost everyone was a stakeholder when it came to the issue of special needs students. Everyone knows someone or has family members that have special needs so we thought was a good issue to work with. Since we were focusing more on the school setting we thought more specifically that stakeholders would be the students, teachers, parents, and school administrators.
It was a priority for our group to think of a very practical solution for our change lab and that is when we thought of the idea of an after school program. An after school program is extremely practical for many reasons. For one, it provides the special needs students a place to go after school. Medical bills and counseling for special needs students can be expensive so the parents will have to work more. So, they might not be able to be home when their children get home from school and it is not safe for special needs students to be at home by themselves for long periods of time. It also gives a chance for the mainstream students at the school to work with special needs students that conditions are not as serious. Obviously, the children with severe issues would be provided a specially trained and certified adult to work with them. This will give the students time to build relationships and friendships with other students that they might not see as much since they are not in mainstream classes. It will also give the students necessary one on one attention that they need to be successful. This one on one attention would include tutoring for the subjects the students are struggling in. It will also include sports training for sports the students are interested in or organized games for students to practice teamwork and sportsmanship. Finally, it would include job skill development for basic jobs like secretary and receptionist so the students that are not on track to go to college would leave high school with useful skills. We believed this would be create a well rounded individual for not a huge financial investment for the school and the county.
Finding a practical solution was the most difficult part about this assignment. It was a priority of our group to find the more practical and productive solution. It was extremely helpful through the whole project that Mackenzie had experience and knew that putting in a program in the classroom isn’t always practical because schools can easily shut down those programs because the lack of funds and staff. We used Mackenzie’s friend as a real life example of why doing the program in the classroom can back fire, so we knew that was a possibility.
Our after school programs will have a lot of stress on service learning. The mainstream students that will get paired up with the special needs student will learn a lot through the program about themselves and how to work with others that are different than them. They will also learn to connect with the people they are serving on a deep level and truly understand what the student’s need to be successful. They will need to listen to the student and find out what the student is interested in and what the student wants for their future. This could include focusing more time on school if they are struggling or sports if that is something the excites them. But, it will also be the responsibility of the helping student to make sure the special needs student does a little bit of everything because it was a priority of us to create well rounded individuals.
I really enjoyed doing this project. I thought it was fun to think of an idea that you are passionate about and find a practical solution for it. I think it would be a cool thing to do if we could create a change lab for the Virginia Tech campus and implement it as a class on campus.