Thought provoking as usual. This would be an awesome way to start the year/semester as a get to know you. Create your own seed packet (what makes you awesome, and what key things do you need to grow within the classroom).
Commenting with a transcript for accessibility 🙂 Welcome to Five Moore Minutes, useful videos in about five minutes that support the teaching and learning of all students. I'm your host Dr. Shelley Moore. Today's episode is called I.E.Peas. Okay, so if you've been watching these Five Moore Minutes videos, you know that I am in constant turmoil about individual education plans [IEPs]. On one hand, I know that they're supposed to support some of the most vulnerable learners in our systems, and that they're supposed to keep school systems informed and accountable to learners and their families. I totally get that. On the other hand, they take an enormous amount of resources, and they aren't even entirely useful or often even available to the classroom teachers who are supposed to be implementing them. And they're also still very much created out of student deficit areas. I mean, who wants to focus on things that you're not good at. This is kind of problematic as we move more and more towards strength-based and competency-based educational planning for all students. So on one sunny afternoon during a live webinar with my IBFF (inclusion best friend forever), Katie Novak, my frustration about IEPs leaked, and by leak I mean that I said, “I hate IEPs.” This seemed to catch her off guard a bit. [She said], “Um can we pause, inclusion best friend? I think I just heard you say that you hated IEPs. Did I hear that correctly?” Okay so here's what I know. IEPs became a required process for students with disabilities because of the Education for all Handicapped Children Act of 1975. The tricky thing though is that in 1975, education was not very inclusive. Today, although inclusive contexts are considered more often, the other problematic legacy from this time is that IEPs are still viewed through that deficit lens and creating goals for students with disabilities that consider fixing or normalizing problems as indicators of success. I mean who's normal anyway? The origins of this perspective rely on a medical model of disability. This considers a student who is struggling as the problem. The difficulty with this model however is that having a disability is not the same as having a medical condition. People with disabilities can have medical conditions, but so can Danish people. The Disability community is advocating very hard to communicate that disability is just who they are. It's an identity as much as any identity, including race, culture, gender, religion; it's a thread in the fabric of humanity. How do we capture this idea in an IEP? Now there's a great quote that I've shared before, but I'm going to share it again ‘cause it's just so good. It says this, “When a flower doesn't bloom, fix the environment, not the flower” [by Alexander Den Heijer]. And I was thinking about this quote when I was getting ready for the gardening season this year. Every spring I always get so excited about all the different kinds of seeds that I could grow, but then I also have some panicking anxiety because I remember that I'm a brand new gardener. I don't really have all the background knowledge and experience to make sure that all these different plants are actually going to grow. I mean, they all have such different needs. My eye was drawn to the snap pea because well, it's a snap pea, and they're delicious, but then it hit me. Do you know what I did? Do you know what helped me to know what the snap pea needed to grow? The seed packet. Friends, I am telling you. There were emotions in my eyes when I realized this. What if IEPs were like seed packets? Okay let me walk you through this. Imagine a seed packet. The first thing you see is this beautiful picture of the plant. There's even a vision statement that tells you how amazing this plant is, what it offers to the garden, and how lucky you are to have it. And then you flip it over. It tells you how much sun it needs. It tells you how much space it needs. It tells you when to plant it. It told me everything I needed to know as a gardener to make sure that this seed grew in my garden. Do you want to know what was not on the seed packet? Nowhere on a snap pea seed packet does it tell you what is wrong with a snap pea (because there's nothing wrong with a snap pea). And nowhere on a snap pea seed packet does it tell you that the snap pea needs to become a cucumber. The snap pea seed packet does nothing but celebrate the snap pea. It communicates its strengths, its needs. It tells you exactly what the gardener needs to do so that it can grow. What if this was an IEP? Now after I explained all of this to Katie Novak, she immediately emailed me her own copy of a seed packet, and this my friends is your challenge for today. I want you to think about what would be on your seed packet. What are your strengths? What do you offer to the communities that you are a part of? Why are they so lucky to have you (because they are)? And then I want you to think about this too. What do you need in your garden? What do you need to help you learn and grow? But while you're doing this, I want you to remember that everybody has needs, but just like a snap pea, it doesn't mean there's anything wrong or that something needs to change about you. And the same can be said about every single one of our students. Thank you for watching today's episode of Five Moore Minutes. Don't forget to like this video, subscribe to our channel, and give it a share with all of your friends. Stay connected to learn more about the resources that align with the big ideas from this video, including discussion questions, a practical strategy, and the Five Moore Minutes podcast. I'll see you next time.
Can we write goals for teachers, staff and whole school approaches to make their learning environments inclusive for all on our IEP's instead, so everyone can experience the social model of inclusion to the point that it's not even a thing! 😊
Eeeeee!!!! I just found Shelley Moore this year during my Integrated Education Graduate Diploma program. And I cannot get enough!!!
So glad you are back!!!! Thank you for this seed packet idea!!❤
Thought provoking as usual. This would be an awesome way to start the year/semester as a get to know you. Create your own seed packet (what makes you awesome, and what key things do you need to grow within the classroom).
OMG, I love being a seed packet! More seed packets needed, saying what helps us learn and grow!
Oh I love this! ❤️
Love love love this. You are amazing and I appreciate your work.
What a brilliant idea! I am going to start working on my own seed packet.
How do you find such simple and effective analogies?!!!! You are a genius!
Great video Shelley!!
As a fellow gardener, I totally relate to this!
When are we starting the great B.C. éducation reform? I absolutely love that idea! You are insperational!
Commenting with a transcript for accessibility 🙂
Welcome to Five Moore Minutes, useful videos in about five minutes that support the teaching and learning of all students. I'm your host Dr. Shelley Moore. Today's episode is called I.E.Peas.
Okay, so if you've been watching these Five Moore Minutes videos, you know that I am in constant turmoil about individual education plans [IEPs]. On one hand, I know that they're supposed to support some of the most vulnerable learners in our systems, and that they're supposed to keep school systems informed and accountable to learners and their families. I totally get that. On the other hand, they take an enormous amount of resources, and they aren't even entirely useful or often even available to the classroom teachers who are supposed to be implementing them. And they're also still very much created out of student deficit areas. I mean, who wants to focus on things that you're not good at. This is kind of problematic as we move more and more towards strength-based and competency-based educational planning for all students.
So on one sunny afternoon during a live webinar with my IBFF (inclusion best friend forever), Katie Novak, my frustration about IEPs leaked, and by leak I mean that I said, “I hate IEPs.” This seemed to catch her off guard a bit. [She said], “Um can we pause, inclusion best friend? I think I just heard you say that you hated IEPs. Did I hear that correctly?”
Okay so here's what I know. IEPs became a required process for students with disabilities because of the Education for all Handicapped Children Act of 1975. The tricky thing though is that in 1975, education was not very inclusive. Today, although inclusive contexts are considered more often, the other problematic legacy from this time is that IEPs are still viewed through that deficit lens and creating goals for students with disabilities that consider fixing or normalizing problems as indicators of success. I mean who's normal anyway?
The origins of this perspective rely on a medical model of disability. This considers a student who is struggling as the problem. The difficulty with this model however is that having a disability is not the same as having a medical condition. People with disabilities can have medical conditions, but so can Danish people. The Disability community is advocating very hard to communicate that disability is just who they are. It's an identity as much as any identity, including race, culture, gender, religion; it's a thread in the fabric of humanity. How do we capture this idea in an IEP?
Now there's a great quote that I've shared before, but I'm going to share it again ‘cause it's just so good. It says this, “When a flower doesn't bloom, fix the environment, not the flower” [by Alexander Den Heijer]. And I was thinking about this quote when I was getting ready for the gardening season this year. Every spring I always get so excited about all the different kinds of seeds that I could grow, but then I also have some panicking anxiety because I remember that I'm a brand new gardener. I don't really have all the background knowledge and experience to make sure that all these different plants are actually going to grow. I mean, they all have such different needs.
My eye was drawn to the snap pea because well, it's a snap pea, and they're delicious, but then it hit me. Do you know what I did? Do you know what helped me to know what the snap pea needed to grow? The seed packet. Friends, I am telling you. There were emotions in my eyes when I realized this. What if IEPs were like seed packets?
Okay let me walk you through this. Imagine a seed packet. The first thing you see is this beautiful picture of the plant. There's even a vision statement that tells you how amazing this plant is, what it offers to the garden, and how lucky you are to have it. And then you flip it over. It tells you how much sun it needs. It tells you how much space it needs. It tells you when to plant it. It told me everything I needed to know as a gardener to make sure that this seed grew in my garden.
Do you want to know what was not on the seed packet? Nowhere on a snap pea seed packet does it tell you what is wrong with a snap pea (because there's nothing wrong with a snap pea). And nowhere on a snap pea seed packet does it tell you that the snap pea needs to become a cucumber. The snap pea seed packet does nothing but celebrate the snap pea. It communicates its strengths, its needs. It tells you exactly what the gardener needs to do so that it can grow. What if this was an IEP?
Now after I explained all of this to Katie Novak, she immediately emailed me her own copy of a seed packet, and this my friends is your challenge for today. I want you to think about what would be on your seed packet. What are your strengths? What do you offer to the communities that you are a part of? Why are they so lucky to have you (because they are)? And then I want you to think about this too. What do you need in your garden? What do you need to help you learn and grow? But while you're doing this, I want you to remember that everybody has needs, but just like a snap pea, it doesn't mean there's anything wrong or that something needs to change about you. And the same can be said about every single one of our students.
Thank you for watching today's episode of Five Moore Minutes. Don't forget to like this video, subscribe to our channel, and give it a share with all of your friends. Stay connected to learn more about the resources that align with the big ideas from this video, including discussion questions, a practical strategy, and the Five Moore Minutes podcast. I'll see you next time.
Can we write goals for teachers, staff and whole school approaches to make their learning environments inclusive for all on our IEP's instead, so everyone can experience the social model of inclusion to the point that it's not even a thing! 😊
And hopefully bring collaborative proactive solutions to the garden:))
Seedtastic !
Shelly and Katie - you are my heros. Is it possible to get the seed packet - in pdf ?
Yes!!! Where is this Katie Pdf???