Join us as Gigi Crowder, Executive Director of NAMI Contra Costa, discusses how individualized education for all students goes beyond IEPs and 504s. Gigi highlights the potential for positive change when students with different strengths are paired in the classroom and learn from one another. Traditional sage on-the-stage teaching is ineffective, and Gigi offers a more holistic approach to elevating our work with students in ways that can make a real difference for ALL young people!
Transcript:
Individualized Empowerment Plans!
"All kids need an IEP, that's the individualized educational plan. But let's, let's, let's, let's work with those letters. They need individualized empowerment plans because there are young people who might struggle a little more academically, but they have great social skills. And so we put a value on education and we've diminished the value that social skills have. But I love it when the very bright student who might feel a little socially awkward, connects with a a really, you know, brilliant, they're together and they're working together. And then they both get the best of two worlds. And you see great improvements from both sides. And it, it happens over and over in a classroom. But who's looking and saying, Hey, why don't we pair up this person who's doing great academically with this person who may be struggling, but they're a great kid and they're really nice and they would be a great buddy for this person who's having a difficult time. And then there's magic that can take place. But we tend to silo all the smart kids here are the ones who are challenged here, and then they feed and they're stigmatized. And the ones that are, emotionally, um, challenged get stigmatized. And academically they get stigmatized. And that's what we have to do away with. But we need to hear from the educators that understand this and have their voice be the biggest voice when we're making policy."
-Gigi Crowder