Description:
In this podcast, we’ll hear students share their experiences and insights on education. We’re excited to have you join us.
Big thanks to the Milford Public Schools and the podcast team for helping us bring student voice to the forefront of education.
A Walk in my Shoes was developed through the Special Education Youth Advisory Council, currently in its seventh year of representing students from across Connecticut. The Special Education Youth Advisory Council creates a space for students to share their experiences and increase their capacity to make informed decisions regarding their education. The Council is funded by the Connecticut State Department of Education, bureau of Special Education, and coordinated by SERC, the State Education Resource Center.
We hope you enjoy the first episode and look forward to having you join us for future episodes to hear the brilliance that our students have to share.
Transcript
Please Note: This transcript is machine-generated and may contain errors.
Welcome to a Walk in My Shoes. In this podcast, we’ll hear students share their experiences and insights on education. We’re excited to have you join us. Big thanks to the Milford Public Schools and the podcast team for helping us bring student voice to the forefront of education. A walk in my shoes was developed through the Special Education Youth Advisory Council, currently in its seventh year of representing students from across Connecticut. The Special Education Youth Advisory Council creates a space for students to share their experiences and increase their capacity to make informed decisions regarding their education. The Council is funded by the Connecticut State Department of Education, bureau of Special Education, and coordinated by SERC, the State Education Resource Center. We hope you enjoy the first episode and look forward to having you join us for future episodes to hear the brilliance that our students have to share.
Speaker 3:
Welcome to a walk in my shoes. I’m Cameron Wilkitis, digital content Specialist for the Milford Public Schools. Joined by Nicole Vitale, a consultant at the State Education Resource Center. In today’s episode, we’ll speak with students who participate in a statewide youth advisory council in Connecticut that’s designed to increase student involvement in the special education process and to help students develop strong, effective leadership skills in order to make positive changes in their school and community. To ensure the privacy of the students, we have not included any names or the name of their high school. We have two students here with us today who are both seniors, and we’ll share a glimpse of their high school experience with our listeners. First off, welcome to both of you, and thank you so much for joining us. Today we’re going to be talking about various aspects of special education. Our hope is that by the end of the podcast, listeners will have heard your perspective on what it means to have an IEP, the importance of knowing your IEP and why these things matter. So let’s get started. Some people may know that an IEP is defined as an individualized education program, but can you please share with us to you, how would you explain what an IEP is and what it means?
Speaker 4:
So for me, an IEP is, it’s like you being on a bike. Everyone has the same bike and not everyone has the same ability. Some might be shorter, some might be taller, some might be even in a wheelchair, and one would be perfect, perfect for you. You have to have a bike just for you, for your size or for your ability, and it helps you achieve a goal that you wouldn’t really be able to if you had just that regular bike. And that’s kind of what I see as an IEP.
Speaker 5:
I see it as a whole separate learning curve for learning in my school. So some people might have the normal education, but I might have the same education, but with accommodations and things that would me to achieve the normalized education plan. Now I’m still learning with everyone else. I’m just learning at my own pace and still achieving my goals.
Speaker 6:
Great. Thank you so much for that insight. It’s very powerful to hear directly from students about educational services and supports that they’re receiving in school. So given that each IEP is individualized, meaning that it’s a plan just for you, why do you think it’s important for students to know their IEPs and the services that they’re receiving through that document?
Speaker 5:
There’s a lot of important information in those documents, and I feel that not enough people read them and understand their accommodations. In those accommodations. You get extra time, you get extra help with any assignments. We have a learning center where we get our work done and we’re able to get help on anything that we might have, any questions or any concerns.
Speaker 4:
I fully agree with him. I just feel like you need to understand that it is for you. You have to fully know that it’s for you, that all this is so you can succeed in your school. And if you don’t know what you have, you can’t succeed. You need to be involved in stuff that is about you, especially with your IEP and especially with your accommodations.
Speaker 6:
Do you think that students should actually look at their document? For
Speaker 4:
Sure. Yes.
Speaker 5:
Yeah, I think it’s very important. It’s just like a report card where you get your report on what you are learning, what
Speaker 4:
Can help you and what you need help with. Because sometimes you can understand something, but you might actually still need the help. And it’s nothing wrong with that either. You shouldn’t be saying that you need help with something. If you need help, then you need help, and you should take that help and flourish with it.
Speaker 5:
I feel that many students around with IEPs, 5 0 4 plans, they are getting judged for their learning, and I think that we should stop that because they’re still learning. They’re learning just like normal people, but they shouldn’t be judged on if they have a plan or not.
Speaker 4:
Exactly. I feel like sometimes people want to judge something because they just don’t know about it, and that’s why I’m kind of happy we’re doing this. We can actually talk about the conversation and the being known and not being scared of it.
Speaker 3:
We’re also really glad that you’re doing this, and it’s a great perspective that focuses on how each student is receiving their own personalized supports to ensure they’ll be successful in school. Our third question is about why an IEP matters in education and why it matters for students.
Speaker 4:
An IEP matters in education because you have to have that help. You have to, it’s not all the same for everyone else. If everyone can have a problem with something or it can be perfectly fine for others, but it matters in education because you don’t want to end up not succeeding. You don’t have the things that you need. Some people are fine with the education that are provided for them. You can say it’s normal education. You can say it’s whatever, but some people aren’t. And you have to understand that IEPs matter in education because they need help and nothing’s wrong with
Speaker 5:
That. I think it really matters. It is very important for these students, and like she said, was that there are separate learning curves for separate students. I’m sorry. All the kids with IEPs do not learn the same. Just because they have an IEP does not mean they learn the same. It is individualized because they have their separate plan. Think of you’re on a subscription and that portal is your individualized subscription. Everyone subscribed isn’t going to see all your information. They’re going to have separate portals for their needs.
Speaker 4:
So like Netflix, yeah,
Speaker 5:
Netflix, wifi.
Speaker 4:
You can have all these information, all this stuff, but sometimes you have to have it chunked down for you or for me, I know I have extra time. I have a processing disorder, so sometimes I need people to read it to me.
Speaker 6:
A lot of students have said that all students should really have an IEP because everybody learns different, and there’ve been a few conversations about normal education and normal and this, that and the other thing. But in reality, what does normal really mean? Because the reality is every single person is different and everybody learns in a different capacity. So just because somebody has an IEP doesn’t make them any less normal. It just means they may learn different, but in reality, everybody’s learning in a different way.
Speaker 4:
Honestly, I hate the word when they say normal, everyone’s normal. Everyone is their own person. We should have had that word at all because normal is not something you should say. Everyone acts differently. Everyone has different backgrounds. They might speak a different language, and that’s why they have IP You would never know. So for you to say normal or normal education might, it sucks. It might zone them out. It might make them feel alienated, and you don’t want that.
Speaker 5:
I feel that normalized is something broken in society, and that normalized really doesn’t mean what it actually means. Everyone has their own learning curves. Everyone has their own plan. Someone really could speak another language. Someone really could struggle in a certain subject. I know I struggle with math, English, but it really helps to get that support. And I’m also a visualized learner, so I need to see everything on the board. I might have something read to me, so I might have my separate issues, but I’m still able to get it done and accomplish.
Speaker 6:
And I think that speaks to some of the other points that we’ve been talking about, the importance of knowing your learning styles, what works for you, what accommodations you have, because in reality, that’s what’s going to help you to be successful, right? Yep,
Speaker 5:
Exactly.
Speaker 6:
And everybody should really know their learning steps,
Speaker 4:
Right? Extremely. I know people who didn’t know their IEP or 5 0 4 plan, and that’s insane to me. I had teachers, well, I would ask teachers what this is, and they would explain it to me, and then it was a teacher that sat me down in middle school and thoroughly went through it with me. And I feel like everyone should have that connection with a teacher that they would actually care enough to go through it with you and talk to you about it and explain it and tell you, well, do you actually agree with this, or I just feel like that’s how I became a good learner and everything, because I feel like they helped me with that. But I know a lot of people don’t get the help that I get.
Speaker 5:
Another point is that I feel that people are discriminated and they feel that once they feel embarrassed, they hide that they have a IEP or 5 0 4, and they’re realistically, they keep suffering because they know that they are different, but reality, they’re just the way they are. And I feel that I’ve struggled with that. She struggles with that and that I feel that people should stop and think, well, am I really discriminating someone because of their learning styles or am I discriminating on their human abilities and their traits as a person and that people shouldn’t be judged on how they learn? Because at the end of the day, people are all the same in their own way. Yeah,
Speaker 4:
We’re all human. You don’t have to be the same as everyone else. It’s good that you don’t want to have, even twins aren’t the same. You need to honestly think to yourself and be like, do I really have to have this validation from someone that doesn’t know me? If these people do not know you, and you need help, they’re not going to help you. They’re not going to go out their way and give you a whole paper about what you need in class. You have to get that yourself. You have to know that if you can’t have that place that you feel comfortable in, you have to make that yourself.
Speaker 5:
I feel that other people don’t know what advocacy is and how to be an advocate, and that people should learn independence and learn how to be an advocate. So for instance, if I had a missing assignment, I’d go up to my teacher and ask what was the assignments and get Otto help on it, and then bring it back down to my learning center just to get OTO help. But I wouldn’t be doing every single item on the assignment with my learning center teacher. I would be doing it on my own. And if I was really struggling, I would ask for help, but I wouldn’t rely on that teacher just because I want to or feel like, oh, I’m lazy. I don’t want to do the assignment.
Speaker 4:
Extremely. You don’t want to make IEPs a bad thing. I have had people be like, oh, you only have an A in this class because you have a para. And I’m like, no excuses. Yeah, but I’m here. I have an A because I work for it. I don’t play about my grades. I never want to feel like I’m using, I’m abusing the help that I’m getting. So for a while, when I was really proud ful, I would not help ask for help even if I needed it. But now, if I really, really do, I will ask for help because that’s just how I am now. You have to distribute what you actually need. You don’t want to keep on making excuses for yourself because when you’re working or when you’re outside in the real world, you’re not going to bring the IEP and be like, okay, well this is what I had in high school. This is what I had in middle school. This is what I had in elementary. You have to think for yourself. You have to really think about what you need and not what you can get because you can get extra help, but do you need it? You don’t want a whole list of stuff, and then the things that you actually need are covered by the things that you want because you just don’t want to do it.
Speaker 6:
I think you both bring up some really amazing points. You bring things up about the importance of all students schools in general, knowing what it means to have special education services. There’s a lot of myths out there about it, A lot of misinformation out there about what it means to receive special education services. So the hope is that we can kind of dispel some of those myths as we’re moving forward with our work and about the importance of self-advocacy and self-awareness, and also the importance about really knowing post-secondary, what this looks like once you transition out of high school. So those are all things that our hope is to be able to cover in future podcasts. So we have one final question for you. And so for us, we like to imagine the IEP as having a secret formula that supercharges your education. The IEP is like the superhero of the education world, fighting for the rights of students. By creating a personalized plan, IEPs can help students access all of the tools they need to be successful in school, just like you all have mentioned, and help to unlock their full potential and shine the stars that they are. So our last question is, would there be anything that you would tell students who are new to receiving an IEP?
Speaker 4:
Don’t be scared of it.
Speaker 5:
Don’t be like,
Speaker 4:
Don’t be ashamed. Don’t
Speaker 5:
Be scared. Yeah, don’t be ashamed. That is your personalized plan is alright. You can still be the way you are with your human traits. It’s not going to be a roadblock in your high school education, middle school elementary. Honestly, it’s
Speaker 4:
Going to be better because
Speaker 5:
It’s going to make your life even better.
Speaker 4:
Honestly, if you had that block from education and stuff that you just couldn’t read or couldn’t understand that it helps you. It honestly helps you way more than what you might’ve been helped before. You don’t have to be ashamed of needing help because everyone needs help. And at the end of the day, everyone needs help and everyone might not get the help, but you are, and you should be grateful that this is happening for you. It’s a good change. It’s nothing bad.
Speaker 5:
I know back then I was very, very lost and that I couldn’t even pick up a book and say, read the text without struggling. Now with the boost of my plan, I’m able to pick up a novel and read the pages perfectly and get the help knowing that I am supported. Even with math, I’ve struggled for years. Years and I feel that now that I have this boost of confidence, I’m able to complete what I need to do.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, I feel like, yeah, I agree with him. Me and him have been going to school since elementary and I feel like me and him had certain times that we would help each other because we’re just too scared to ask for help. And I feel now it’s just easier to, when you get older, you’re going to, it’s going to be easier for you to be like, okay, this is what I need. This is how I need it. You have to really think about your sources and how you can get that help.
Speaker 3:
Yeah. This was a great conversation we’ve had. I mean, first of all, this is cool because this is one of my first extended in studio interviews and you both knocked it out of the park. So again, we want to say how grateful we are to have you two sharing your experience with us. It’s very, very valuable. It could help other people listening, and you’re powerful reminder of the importance, listening to our young people and showcasing the value of the student voice. We hope you’ll join us again and continue learning from students, families, and educators from across the state.
Speaker 4:
Hey, thank you.
Speaker 2:
This podcast was created in a collaboration between Milford Public Schools and the State Education Resource Center. SERC provides resources, professional learning, and a centralized library to educators, families, and community members. To learn more, please visit ctserc.org. Links to resources will be provided in the show notes. The views of guests are not necessarily the views of the Walk In My Shoes podcast, the State Education Resource Center, or the Connecticut State Department of Education. This conversation has been edited.