Lauren Weihe

EDS 375
12/3/15
Blog 4
I thought that todays lecture was one of the best we have had all year.
I was astounded by the confidence, reliability, and perseverance Traci talked
about. I think what most stood out to me was the fact that she never gave
up. There were many times that it would have been easier to just sit back
and allow something to happen, especially because she didnt have an
education degree, to allow herself to be convinced that these experts knew
what was better for her daughter, but she never did. This is something I
could incorporate into my teaching and classroom, but this was something I
took away as a person rather than a teacher.
As a future teacher the most important thing I took away was
teamwork. I know throughout Emilys journey there were dozens of people
that helped Traci take care of her. From her husband, to doctors, nurses,
physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech pathologists Traci
worked with all of them. As a teacher thats what I took away, work WITH the
people who are provided. The parents know that child better than you every
have any hope to. You are a small part of their life compared to the person
that kept them alive to this point. However, you deciding to work with their
parents will make a huge difference on the impact you leave with them. Did
you listen to the childs parents about how they learned so you could
implement that in your classroom, so the child would be prepared to move
on and learn the next thing? Or did you just lump them in with everyone else
and if they passed they did, and if they didnt, well that was their fault? I
want to be a teacher that tries to make every child successful, using every
resource I have. This relates to what we learned in class about the teams,
and how you can have interdisciplinary and transdisplinary teams. It made
me think about how much more effective transdicplinary teams are because
they have the dedication and expertise of everyone.
The other thing I took away was more of an advocacy thing. I think it
relates to person first language in a way. Person first language is all about
recognizing that a person is a person regardless of whether they have a
disability or not, but if they do have a disability you refer to them based on
their personhood rather than their disability. The thing that shocked me the
most from Traci talking today was why they were homeschooling Emily. It
astounded me that one of Emilys teachers had the audacity to say that
Emily could no longer learn. That made absolutely no sense to me, and as
Traci said she is learning things everyday so why couldnt Emily.
Overall I think I learned a lot today from the lecture. I got a true, real
perspective of what it was like to be the parent of a child with a disability.
Traci didnt gloss over anything, she flat out told us that some days it was
hard, but what I really got was what she didnt say. She never said it was

worth it, because she never had to, she never thought about it being worth
it; to her that was just Emily, just the way her daughter had said.