Assignment 10

1) Provide a brief plot line.
2) What important messages are within the film that are important to teachers?

Forest Gump

Forest Gump is a man who is learning impaired but does not let that get in the way of his ability to achieve greatness. The story starts by introducing you to Forest who is teased, labelled and bullied by those around him. However, within these dark situations shines the dedication of his mother, his friends that he makes along his way and the people that see potential in him. In this movie Forest plays college football, joins the army, earns a medal for heroism, plays professional ping pong, runs an inspiring trek across the United States, falls in love and fathers a child. Not bad for a man who was told he wouldn't accomplish anything!

Forest Gump is an inspiring tale that encourages us to look beyond the disability and instead see the potential in every individual. The idea that everyone is capable of greatness. In fact like the character of Forest many important historical figures were labelled as a child. Albert Einstein is a perfect example. While Forest Gump is a fictitious character I would urge people to see the honesty and sincerity in this movie. It's time that we take the time to find the talents in all students, to stop judging and to start clearing the path towards creating a world where EVERYONE can have the opportunity to meet with success.

Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment. Baltasar Gracian

Assignment 9

Please provide a reflection on your learning in Ed3602. What parts of the course are meeting your needs as you think about serving students with special needs in your classroom. How much better prepared are you today than 5 short weeks ago? Are there changes that you would recommend within the course to improve its nature? Please keep in mind that the length of the course is limited so if recommending additional content, what sections do we examine dropping -- always a challenge!

I feel that the most important thing that I got out of this course was the diverse nature that we may meet in our years of teaching. Much else was somewhat review for me having had my education foundations completed and having a mother and aunt who work with students with special needs.

One thing that I would have liked to learn more about is IPP's as they are a very big reality to us as teachers. I wold really have liked to make up some real examples more in depth in class. An area that I would recommend cutting down is the portion on Differentiated Learning as much of it is review for PSII.

I would say that I am a little more prepared to go into a classroom then I was prior to this class. Moreso due to that idea of becoming more aware of students needs. I found the WIKI's extremely informative and encouraging. There is a breadth of knowledge at our fingertips and therefore we need not worry about not knowing about our students condition.