Elijah's Page
*Coaches note - I helped Elijah
put his thoughts into sentences. I then wrote them out for him to
type.
I purposely did not edit his
work so that you can see how well he types.
my name is Elijah . I am eleven . I was born
with Down Syndrome.
I am in fourth grade. the class is good
Mr.wensley and Mrs.Baxter are funny. Kayla Y Heather charlemain, Rex
and clark are my friends.
I like PE, music and lunch. the clqocks drawn
on my desk help me know when it is time for specials.
my class voted for me for student council. we
get to eat candy , vote and tallk .
I palyed basket ball in special Olympics last
year.my team won . I got a medal. I have started practicing again for
this years special olympics!
mt.view After School
Sports
I joined the Mt. view after scool wrestling
Team. It was good we learned to do warm up exercises and rules like
dont hit or kick.
I wrestled with chis L. I got to wear a blue
wrestling uniform.
by Elijah
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Debra asked me to come to her calss
to talk about me and my calss. I brought some of my work and
read
them a paper I wrote. I was good. the calss was
good. shewants me to my come again inand tallk to her
new calss.Debra is happy whren I come to her
class I am happy too it is fun.
Elijah By.
*Letter from Debra:
I am Debra Sanders Dawson and I am a faculty
member at Kenai Peninsula College,which is our local branch of the
University of Alaska.
One of the classes I teach is called "Diversity
in the Classroom" and it is for students who will all be teachers one
day. It is the only class most of them get on how to teach students
with all kinds of similarities and all kinds of
differences.
In Elijah's case, we were talking about Down
syndrome and how everyone learns at their own rate and in their own
way (that's one of the similarities). Kids with Down syndrome
sometimes take a little longer to learn things (like learning to
read) and sometimes have some physical differences as
well.
I asked Elijah, his mom, his sister and Mrs.
Baxter to come mainly so these students, who will one day be
teachers, can see all the ways in which Elijah who has Down syndrome,
is LIKE other kids. Sometimes we hear things about Down syndrome and
we think " Oh gosh.....what does that mean??? Can I be a TEACHER to a
child with Down syndrome?" By Elijah and everybody coming to my
class, student- teachers learn not to be so worried and they learn a
few strategies for their classrooms that make it okay if all kids
don't learn the same thing at the same time... or even in the same
way.