Shyness Video.
In Thursday`s class we viewed the video Shyness, which is produced by the National Film Board of Canada in 1953. I really enjoyed viewing the video and although it definitly provided perspective in terms of the progress that special education has made in the past 60 years it also provided great insight into the concept of differentiating instruction for students. It was interesting to see that the concepts that are being implemented into education today were known over 60 years ago and in a primitive sort of manner they were also implemented. Something that I found really interesting about the video was that it was difficult to see through the stereotypes biases that were presented. The fact that the video was made in the 1950`s contributes to the flawed views of gender discrimination, but the important concepts, such as differentiation were definitely present in the video. Shyness provided a cases study of three children, each exhibited different characteristics of a shy child. The first child was Anna, she was described as a child that wanted to participate but was constantly excluding herself. Anna was described by the video as a typical shy child. It was discovered in school that Anna had a gift for dancing, the teacher used Anna`s gift to differentiate her instruction and allowed her to use dance to overcome her shyness and build confidence. The second child in the video was Jimmy, he was constantly excluding himself and would run away scared when confronted by his peers or the teacher. The video described Jimmy not as shy but rather as being mentally ill. They proceeded to state that there was no cure for Jimmy`s condition but instead that he needed strong support for his condition. the third and final child that was decribed in the video was Robert. Robert had a strong desire to be alone and he enjoyed the time that he spent on his own, and had high self esteem despite his lack of communication with other children. The video gave a desciption of the home lives of each of the children and it was clear to see that it had a profound effect on the personality of the children. I think that it is important as a future teacher to remember that where a child comes from has a great effect on the disposition of a child and as a teacher it is vital that we do our best to educate the child based on their needs. Differentiation can be instrumental in reaching the needs of all students and ensuring that they each recieve a valuable learing experience in the classroom.
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