S11 E38 Bari Levin

Tim Villegas44min

Tim Villegas

00:01

This is thinking inclusive. I'm Tim Vegas. How can we celebrate individual differences in learning to create inclusive and supportive environments in schools? Barry Levin with the we all learn differently campaign is here to talk about just that. We'll be right back after these messages Welcome back to Think inclusive where each week we bring you conversations about inclusive education, and what inclusion looks like in the real world. Barry Levin, an esteemed special education teacher with 34 years of classroom experience, holds a bachelor's in elementary and special education and a master's in special education. She has dedicated her career to students with learning disabilities, autism, social emotional challenges, and ADHD, a field close to her heart as a parent of a child with ADHD. Renowned for her passion and energy. Berry's advocacy has empowered countless students to succeed academically, and personally by boosting their self esteem and self advocacy skills. Her leadership extended to the special kids networks executive board, directing over $1.5 million to programs for youth. As a co coordinator for a local ch a DD chapter. She supported parents and educated teachers on ADHD and learning differences. Currently, as the executive director of the I am Abel Foundation, Berry champions neurodiversity in education and the workplace. steering a $75,000 grant to promote inclusive learning through the we all learn differently initiative. In this episode, Barry and I discuss who we all learn differently campaign, and our focus on creating awareness and understanding of learning differences, especially in middle school students. Before we get into my conversation with Barry, I want to tell you about our sponsor for this week. In the entire month of June, the Described and Captioned Media Program. DCMP is the nation's leading source of accessible educational videos. Membership is free for families and school personnel with at least one early learner through grade 12 student with a disability and includes free access to 1000s of videos and educational television series with captions, audio description, and American Sign Language. The CMP also provides guidelines for captioning and describing educational media as well as professional development and elearning resources. The CMP is fully funded by the US Department of Education. And did I mention it services are free? Check them out at DCMP dot orgy. And now my conversation with Barry Levin. Oh, and for free time this week. We look ahead to see what is in store for season 12.

Tim Villegas

03:22

Barry Levin, welcome to the thinking cluesive podcast.

Speaker 1

03:25

Thank you for having me. I appreciate the time that you're giving me to talk about our topic today.

Tim Villegas

03:35

Yeah, and in our topic today, is the campaign that you are involved with called the we all learned differently campaign. Why don't we start there? What is we all learn differently? And from what I understand, it really focuses on middle schools that Right, correct?

Speaker 1

03:57

Yeah. Well, we got invited to this community, it's an action from educating all Learners Alliance. And when Aaron and I who represent the I am Abel Foundation, where we work on storytelling and, and creating atmospheres to remove the stigma for the neuro diverse community through storytelling. And one of the ways that we were able to also get involved with ILA was that we went to this community in action. And we had other organizations and it was an opportunity to create a project together with different organizations and get funded so you had a pitch your your your topic and In the group that we were talking with, I know Aaron and I felt very strongly about, again, the storytelling and how we can get the message out there. So with talking with other organizations we came up with, we all learn differently. Originally, we wanted it to be a, you know, all audience, and then we realized we had, you know, on it in to be a little more smaller of an audience where we can make an impact. And we came up with a middle school and I was a special educator for 34 years, and the majority of my career was working with special education students at the middle school level. So, to me, that was really important. And, again, because I was actually in the classroom, and I saw what I was able to do with my students, the last I say, 10 years of my teaching career, where I really honed in about talking to the kids about their learning differences, to share with them what their IEP was. Talk about their disability a little bit, you know, the ADHD, you know, if they're on the spectrum, learning disability and reading or math or whatever it was, and learn for them to help them to feel comfortable with who they are and learn to advocate for themselves in the classroom. So I also started having guest speakers through Skype at that time, and having them talk about their learning issues. People who are successful, that was able to, not so much in a way overcome, but they learned to adapt and utilize their strengths, it with their ADHD or their learning difference.

Tim Villegas

07:00

Can I interrupt you for a second? I saw I have a question about that. So that you so when you were in the classroom, you had like virtual interviews with, with people that you contacted outside of outside of the school, right in the community, and you had interviews, like to add as a class period? Correct? Oh, wow. Yeah. So yeah.

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