Wow, so many people are treated differently... Okay, you probably thought that was a bad thing I just said, didn’t you? Got ya! It’s a good thing! Yes, you may argue bullying is not a good different…That’s true. I’m not talking about bullying. I’m talking about when I’m with my friends trying to understand, in the class room, on the field, and many other places… I WANT to be treated different because I WANT to understand at the same level as everyone else around me.
One thing that has come up a lot is how kids with learning disabilities don’t want to be treated differently in the class room... Why? There’s nothing wrong with learning at a different level. EVERYONE on this world learns at a different pace. There’s not ONE person who is exactly the same as someone else. I have grew to learn that being treated different in the class room HELPS me. I just received a 504 plan for this fall, and WOW it’s a lot of help. I was always very hesitant about leaving the room to take tests, and asking for extended time on school work. Look, if I wasn’t able to leaving the room for tests, or receive extended time on school work I would be a wreck. I wouldn’t be able to concentrate with 30 other bodies in the class room, and I just wouldn’t be able to get things done on time… There’s no way. It’s stressful! I need to be treated differently to be at the same level as everyone around me in the class room. It’s just the way it works, and that’s 100% okay!
You know when there’s a lot of commotion going on and you don’t understand what is happening? Yup, been there done that, every day. I don’t want to just stand there pretending like I understand.
Everyone-*A lot of talking and conversations….I turn and listen in to one conversation*
Me -“Ugh, what are we talking about?? Haha”
Chris- “Don’t worry about it”
Me- “No what????”
Chris- “Haha, it’s no big deal”
Sarah- “Wait what are you talking about?”
Chris- “It’s a long story, haha”
I don’t want to be treated like everyone else here! BECAUSE I struggle 24-7 with following conversations I would much rather be treated differently. For example, during my field hockey practice the other day, my coach was trying to explain a drill. I was totally confused and I said just slightly frustrated “I’m confused”. While he was still talking, my teammate turned to me (and she knows I have APD) and said “I’ll help you in a second”. To me that means SO much that someone my age is going to be patient with me and help me. All it took was for me to be treated different.
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So really, when I have to be treated differently like in the situations I explained to you, I’m thankful for it. I’m happy I can have the same level of understanding as my peers around me… It just takes me more steps. Don’t feel ashamed for whatever the extra steps you need to take to get where you want to get. Be glad you are going to get there!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
The Evil Words: School Tests
Well, I am in my third week of school of my junior year of high school (11th year) now, and it’s been a rough start. Getting into the groove of things, figuring out where all my friends are after a long summer, getting used to teaching styles of my 6 teachers, and school work. Doesn’t sound too bad, right? For me it takes a lot of brain power, and so does taking tests!! I am going to share a story about test taking that has happened to me not just this past week, but happens sometimes pretty often.
So just this past Thursday I had a United States history test. Wow, just the words “History test” starts to enlarge my eyes and scramble my mind. All of the reading comprehension, all the history vocabulary terms, all the memorization involved, and all of the lecturing in class shines a light on Auditory Processing Disorder. This class is very hard for me to keep up. My favorite teacher although teaches it! He’s very approachable ,and is very understanding about my APD. Even though he’s one of the better teachers I have, he can’t snap his fingers to make my APD go away and he can’t always make me grasp the concept at the same pace as the rest of the class (but man I wish he could!). I still have to have my mum help me and my tutor help me with every lesson. There are just so many details involved in history.
Anyways, let’s talk about that test! I am a very hard worker in school. I get frustrated when I don’t do well in school. I studied very hard for this test. There were 63 vocabulary terms, and an essay I had to write for the test. Because I didn’t grasp all the vocabulary terms very well during the lessons, I looked them all up and studied them ALL not just once, but many times. I knew what they all mean. Now it’s time to walk down to the guidance office (where I take my tests), pull out a pen and start taking my test… Wait, that definition does not look the same as the one I wrote…. Either does that one… Or that one… Or that one... WHAT?! Here is what I’m feeling…*I’m very confused, stressed out over all the re worded definitions, stressed out because the whole week has been just tiring and stressful, and I studied SO hard for this, and now I’m about to fail.* Have you ever studied super hard for a test and thought you understood everything, then the test gets passed out and you say to yourself, “WHAT?”. Yeah, that is what is happening. I could not process all the TEST definitions and compare them to MY own words I was studying from. I could not make sense of what the heck the definitions were even saying. I got so upset, and started to cry. I tried writing in a few answers, but it was just too much. I sat there for an hour trying to figure it all out and trying to make sense of all of it. To this minute, my test still has only a few answers filled out, no essay written yet, and is with my guidance counselor. That test gave me a glimpse of what I’m going to be dealing with the rest of the year, and I was just taking it all in way too quickly. I’m going to have to really work 10X harder than I did.
This is what we are looking at right now… When I have to re-word something, or my teacher rewords something it isn’t fun for me. I can literally FEEL my brain working super hard to understand, but don’t get any results back. It just looks like gibberish. It’s almost as if I have to re learn EVERYTHING. Try learning about something that takes three weeks, then right when you thought everything made sense it didn’t, so now you have to go re-learn it. This doesn’t just happen a few times for me, it happens often.
(Thanks readers! Sorry for the delay! School is hard and it’s hard to keep up with writing my blogs. If you have any suggestions on questions you want answered let me know, and I will dedicate my time to write a blog about your questions.)
So just this past Thursday I had a United States history test. Wow, just the words “History test” starts to enlarge my eyes and scramble my mind. All of the reading comprehension, all the history vocabulary terms, all the memorization involved, and all of the lecturing in class shines a light on Auditory Processing Disorder. This class is very hard for me to keep up. My favorite teacher although teaches it! He’s very approachable ,and is very understanding about my APD. Even though he’s one of the better teachers I have, he can’t snap his fingers to make my APD go away and he can’t always make me grasp the concept at the same pace as the rest of the class (but man I wish he could!). I still have to have my mum help me and my tutor help me with every lesson. There are just so many details involved in history.
Anyways, let’s talk about that test! I am a very hard worker in school. I get frustrated when I don’t do well in school. I studied very hard for this test. There were 63 vocabulary terms, and an essay I had to write for the test. Because I didn’t grasp all the vocabulary terms very well during the lessons, I looked them all up and studied them ALL not just once, but many times. I knew what they all mean. Now it’s time to walk down to the guidance office (where I take my tests), pull out a pen and start taking my test… Wait, that definition does not look the same as the one I wrote…. Either does that one… Or that one… Or that one... WHAT?! Here is what I’m feeling…*I’m very confused, stressed out over all the re worded definitions, stressed out because the whole week has been just tiring and stressful, and I studied SO hard for this, and now I’m about to fail.* Have you ever studied super hard for a test and thought you understood everything, then the test gets passed out and you say to yourself, “WHAT?”. Yeah, that is what is happening. I could not process all the TEST definitions and compare them to MY own words I was studying from. I could not make sense of what the heck the definitions were even saying. I got so upset, and started to cry. I tried writing in a few answers, but it was just too much. I sat there for an hour trying to figure it all out and trying to make sense of all of it. To this minute, my test still has only a few answers filled out, no essay written yet, and is with my guidance counselor. That test gave me a glimpse of what I’m going to be dealing with the rest of the year, and I was just taking it all in way too quickly. I’m going to have to really work 10X harder than I did.
This is what we are looking at right now… When I have to re-word something, or my teacher rewords something it isn’t fun for me. I can literally FEEL my brain working super hard to understand, but don’t get any results back. It just looks like gibberish. It’s almost as if I have to re learn EVERYTHING. Try learning about something that takes three weeks, then right when you thought everything made sense it didn’t, so now you have to go re-learn it. This doesn’t just happen a few times for me, it happens often.
(Thanks readers! Sorry for the delay! School is hard and it’s hard to keep up with writing my blogs. If you have any suggestions on questions you want answered let me know, and I will dedicate my time to write a blog about your questions.)
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