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.
Barry Levin, welcome to the thinking cluesive podcast.
Thank you for having me. I appreciate the time that you're giving me to talk about our topic today.
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?
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.
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.
So for me that that was the last 10 years of my teaching. And so then, you know, I shared that with our group. And, you know, my goal was to get them to feel a little bit more comfortable, when they get to high school, give them that exposure, and give them some confidence. So when we started talking about what we could do, we kind of came up with a we all learn differently approach. And we really felt that middle school would be an area of need, where they're starting to come into their own. And, you know, what we wanted to do is just give the exposure out there and start sharing that we all we all do learn differently. I know I'm a visual learner, and I have to see it on paper. And it helps me to understand things a little bit better when I see it visually. Some people are auditory learners. So what we decided is to create a video that we we received well, let's go back that we ended up pitching it and we got the grant. So we got a grant to be able to implement the we all learned differently. And so we had components to this grant, which was create a video to talk with some teachers from middle school students. And Aaron, who is the founder of I am Abel Foundation, he that his gift is to be able to talk and get kids and adults talk about their learning differences and get them very comfortable to share their story. So we created this video, we created a playbook where we have you know, we'll talk about that in a minute. So and then the third component is is getting it in the schools. We have pre and post surveys, to get students and teachers to gives us some feedback. And that allowed us to that will allow us obviously to collect some data. So that way we know that we could share with schools all around that it is making an impact. And ultimately our goal is we want people to just start having discussions in them Will school classroom because it allows people to be understood, it can create empathy. And it allows also, you know, the peers to hear some of the stories that maybe they're going through that might be, you know, not on, you know, truly understanding that they might have to go to a special ed classroom. And there's a reason why it and they're not that much different from them. And it just brings up that conversation. So really, we all learn differently as a way to start the conversation. And it allows us to have some middle schools, you know, it's also not an added on curriculum, because being an educator, I understand completely, that when you hear all this, here's another curriculum that we need to do and add into our day, this could be done, especially in middle school, because again, I know, middle school life, typically they have an advisory. And they could do this during an advisory time. So you get all the students that a teacher might have, it can also be done in an art classroom, because there's some art projects in the playbook. So the art teacher, if they are comfortable enough, you know, they could do the art project. And you know, talk a little bit about it. And then, you know, if there's days where they may have a half a day, and they do team activities, because I know at the school where I taught, we had like seventh grade team, eighth grade team, sixth grade team, fifth grade team. So it would allow them to do something as a team level, to talk about discussions. So I definitely know there's there's opportunities in the middle school to start these conversations and do it a couple of times a year, three times a year, hopefully, or even more if they really get into it. And it just allows them to, again, start the conversation and build that empathy and hopefully allow the students who have learning differences to feel a little bit more empowered as well. Sure,
yeah. So I actually have, well, I actually have two middle schoolers, I have a an eighth grader and a sixth grader, one one's about to do or we're ending the school year now. So everyone's about to move up. But I, I think that this is potentially very powerful, because a lot of schools, they don't know how to discuss disability or difference at all, they just don't know how to, they just don't know how to talk about it. So this seems like a really easy way. And a simple way to start the conversation. And like you said, a lot of middle school, a lot of schools in general, but especially middle schools, have those advisory periods, advisement, enrichment blocks, stuff like that, where you could fit something like this in. And like you said, it's only maybe once or twice a year. And if you look at the playbook, and we'll talk about it in just a second, but there's lots of different options for practitioner and and so this could be a general education teacher, it could be a special education teacher, it could be a counselor, it could be assistant principal, like Were there particular people in a school district or in a school building that you were thinking would use it?
No, I just totally agree what you just said, because it could be anybody in the building exactly what you just said, because one of the things that I also want to share that it is free. So yeah, it's an opportunity where it doesn't cost the school district any money to do this, if they want to reach out to me and you know, I would be happy to help out and start, you know, the process with them, but they could go to the website, they could watch the video on the website. And we the reason why we feel the video is so important because the conversations in the video, and you got some middle schoolers really sharing completely being open about what it's like having ADHD or dyslexia. And it also it brings that emotion which then starts the conversation and that's what we really believe in getting access to people to start the conversation by having In this video, and then it can go, you know, any way through using the utilizing the playbook. But it's important to again, have that conversation going, especially at middle school level.
So how can someone get the playbook and what is in the playbook? Okay.
So basically, we through that I am able Foundation, we also we have a link on there and it will take you to we all learn differently.com Or you can go to we all learn differently.com because basically the I am Abel foundation is spearheading this now. And so we're the organization that is, you know, contacting the schools, and, you know, working with teachers, and administrators, so they could go to again, I am Abel foundation.org. And the we all learn differently.com. And there's videos up on there. And all you need to do is put your email address in to get the playbook. And then I usually will send up a follow up email after they download the playbook. So again, because we do have pre and post surveys, which would also help us to continue getting some data. The playbook is basically there's three parts to it. And the first part is just talking a little bit about what we all learn differently is. And it also just gives some tips on how to start the conversations and why we chose to do this. And then it goes into questions for the teachers to ask. So once a conversation is going on, and again, it can go at any time, you know, throughout it could You could start this conversation after you do the video, or because of the video, you can start conversations on your own just talking about the video, and then get into the questions. So basically, we have questions that teachers, counselors, social workers, psychologists can use to start conversations. And again, the goal is to do it with special ed in general ed students together to again, start that conversations and to allow, hopefully, some kids who have learning differences to maybe feel empowered to talk a little bit more, or maybe a student who realizes Oh, you know what, I do learn differently, I'd never realized that I learned this way. And then they could maybe talk to their teacher afterwards and say, you know, you know, I have some concerns about how I learn. So those are things that can come up. The second part is we have a section where we have our projects. So we created different types of our projects in it can go from learning styles to talking about how you learn best in your classroom. And, you know, different approaches to that. So again, conversations can be sparked in our class. And even if the teacher art teacher sees these projects, and they might do or some of them already, it will allow them to maybe, you know, create more of a discussion afterwards. And then another pieces, we did create some games that they could play in the classroom. And that would be maybe after they've done some more sharing, to discuss more learning differences. And you know, how everybody learns differently. And then the last piece, we created questions for parents. So another area where we have is parents don't always feel comfortable talking to their child about learning differences. And, you know, when I first started teaching way back in the day, there was a lot of the students because I did do direct instruction for math and reading. A lot of the kids didn't even know why they were even in my classroom. So as you know, we'd have you know, evolved. They started learning a little bit more. But again, some parents are really good about being very honest and open but we still have today again, because it goes back to the stigma of waste still have today people who don't feel comfortable, really talking about it with their child. And that's a key component again, especially at middle school. Will level because it will allow the conversation between the parent and the child to have a better relationship. And just start asking questions about how they learned in the classroom can also be very important. And it empowers the student, and it empowers the parent, that they could really bond and have that conversation, especially before they go to high school, because we want to give the students the, the confidence, because as we know, and also, as we all know, it is important for that confidence level. But we also want kids to talk about their straights in the classroom, and at home, because that's really, really also key. Because a lot of kids with learning differences, and even other students who are on the cusp, or who are at risk students, they don't have that confidence level, but they also don't know about, you know what their strength is and start using that tool. I do that also on my a lot in my classroom as well. And that's why I felt it was really important that with the I am Abel Foundation, too, we talk a lot about strengths. Because that allows them to feel comfortable with who they are, and embrace their learning difference, and say, Okay, I may struggle here, and I have a challenge here. But I'm also great at this. And so it allows them to feel more confident with who they are, and start sharing a little bit more at home, at school and beyond. So that's really something that we feel was really important that we created in the plate. You know, the playbook is having that parent component. Right?
Yeah, that's that, that feels like a really important piece to all this. So I'm a former special education teacher, I taught 16 years in the classroom, mostly like disability specific classrooms. And just from listening to you talk, I can tell that the, the experience you had with your students in your classroom really informed a lot of this. So you can tell. You can tell it's, it's, it's really important to you, it's really Can I Can I ask you about your, your journey into being a special educator.
Um, you know, I went in to college as a child psycap child psychologist, I always knew I wanted to do something with kids. I just didn't know what I wanted to do. But I went into school with child psychology, and I was struggling with, you know, general psychology class. And I just think because this professor was going to retire that year, and I just did click and it just wasn't clicking for me. So I kind of withdrew from the class and started talking to a counselor and, and boom, special ed teacher. And it was just like, whoa, Yes, totally. And then I wow, it was just like, I always knew that I wanted to do something with kids and help kids. And so this was like my, my wake up call of Avenue. I got really involved at that point as a student at, you know, Illinois State University was getting involved in the, as a student, a student Council for Exceptional Children. So it really got me into, you know, doing different activities on campus about disabilities and all kinds of disabilities and went straightforward on the Add to that and you know, taught for 34 years and, and once you find your niche of, of area teaching, you know, the middle school, that was it, you know, I loved it, but I mean, I taught third and fourth grade I for a couple of years here and there, but Middle School was definitely the source of where I wanted
that that's fantastic. I I never taught middle school I taught mostly third, fourth, fifth, and then my first teaching job. Middle School was called junior high and it was seventh and eighth. So sixth grade was kind of lumped in with that. That elementary group but yeah, I never actually taught at the middle school level but when I did my I was like a support specialist for my district. I got to visit a lots of different schools. So I think middle school teachers are unique Oh, yeah, they're unique, unique.
And I think one of the things is, and this will also help with the teacher relationship, because again, I really develop relationships with my students, because if I didn't have that relationship, they weren't going to work for me, and have that trust between them. So that was a huge focus of mine. And to this day, I still talk to a lot of my former students, you know, sometimes I get, like these emails out of surprise, or they find me on LinkedIn, and, you know, social media. And it's just, it just, it makes my day to endlessly Wait, you know, a contact back contact from a former student, because then I know, I did my job. As an educator and relationships again, with, we all learn differently. It brings it all back to relationships with parents, and the teachers to make these kids feel comfortable with how everybody learns.
Do you have any stories about how we all learn differently has impacted middle schoolers? You know, since since the campaign started,
yeah, you know, it's funny, because, um, you know, we do have, I am able, has a YouTube channel, with, we share stories. And it's funny, because I guess one of the students that Aaron had gone to one of the schools and speak, and some, this kid must have gone, he went on our site, our YouTube page, looked at the videos, and he made a comment on one of Aaron Wolf's video that he did for us from the foundation. And this kid said, I totally love this, I love what you're doing, and thank you or something like that. So he saw it out, you know, these videos, so that was really, you know, cool. We've gotten some feedback from some students, and we actually went into the school that we shot the footage from. And one student actually said that, you know, I, the students said, they were that this, that the kids that talked, had a lot of guts doing what they did to feel comfortable enough to be on this video. And they were cheering, you know, they, they like thank them and shared them on. So that, again, is another avenue, I think one of the things that, you know, I truly feel is important, as well, is because we hear a lot of the negative when you know, the stigma of learning differences. What we want to do is build that positive atmosphere, so that peers can understand what they're going through. And a lot of the neurodiverse kids and learning differences, they they struggle with that stigma, and they're not very open and wanting to share. So sometimes it's very difficult for them. And so again, having this video and this playbook helps. It was eye opening, one of the students share that they were able to hear what their their classmates think. And again, it brings it out. So it brings out having that video and showing emotion and realizing that these are middle schoolers talking really does help. So I think having the feedback that we've gotten, we've gotten some great feedback. And a lot of the kids really felt that the video was very, very effective. And the questioning from the playbook as well. So what we want to do potentially is to continue growing this into more schools. We would like to have schools submit some maybe some of the artwork that we could post on our website and continue we are working on the website to add some of the quotes from students. And we do have a video of the school. We want to add that a video clip it's like a one minute video video clip of what it was like in a school that we're going to add on to the our website as well and try to make it a little more interactive at some point in the near future as well. out
so are you are you trying to look for more funding? Are you sponsors are like how does I know you want to continue that I know you want to continue to grow the campaign and create more content? Where where's all that coming from?
Yes, I mean, again, yes, to do the proper videos, it does cost money. I also personally would like to be able to, you know, do some speaking engagements to get this out there and, and talk more about it. And then, you know, get, you know, again, because it's very cost effective, you know, I would be the contact person to help, you know, talk to the teacher to get this going. So, again, the campaign is not very, it's not costly at all, to just even get this into the classroom. So, that's where I would like, for first and foremost, to get this into more schools, and then we could grow, you know, on that, and then the playbook could be ever changing. Because, you know, once you get more student feedback, you know, they might have some input that we could ask them what would they like to see so again, it's it could be ever growing and changing as we have evolved.
Great, and so people can go to we all learn differently.com You can go to the IMA, Abel foundation.com Is that right? Bad org.org I am Abel foundation.org You can stalk Barry on LinkedIn is what that's what I'm hearing.
Here me at I am Abel foundation.org.
Any other resources that you would like to mention, either from we all are differently, or I am Abel foundation.
Basically, the I Am Abel Foundation, again, because I was a teacher. And I know what it's like we had been creating. So we have a couple of things we have the link for we all learn differently.com We have some empowerment groups. We do have another project coming up soon, which I can't, you know talk about yet. At some point, you know, but it's gonna be dealing with more adults than the kid aspects. But we have story, you know, sharing stories. We also have the AI enables storytelling there. We also have resources, where anybody could share resources and send it to me at Berry I am Abel foundation.org. Because I'm always adding new resources, we have college resources, we have adult resources, we have podcasts, we have books, all for Neuro diverse, the neuro diverse audience for students, kids, parents, we have educational sites, we have just website. So I am building a resource right there on our I am Abel Foundation, page website because I feel it's important to have a lot more resources as well. Because again, when I know teachers, they our time is limited and if you find some great a spot that you know you can go to that has a lot of resources. You know, I would love for them to come and check out our resources and add you know, and again continue to send me and I can always keep adding more and more resources. Tremendous podcasts, tremendous books on there. And again, I keep meeting so many new people in the field and it's just been incredible since I've been out of retirement for it's hard to believe first of all it's three years. But wow. Being involved with I am Abel foundation and being involved in building the we all learn differently. A campaign I've just met so many incredible people, adults, and, and kids, we also have some young adults who are in college that had become on our advisory board. And they're going to actually look at our playbook this summer, and see what we could do to tweak it as well. So having a younger generation involved as well is really important to get feedback about we all learn differently, and with what we're doing with the foundation as well.
Awesome, awesome. Very, I think, is there anything else that you wanted to mention? You know, before we go to our next segment,
I'm just check this out. I would love to hear from everyone, you know, help help us get this out to that some more middle schools. And that's ultimately my goal. You know, I truly believe it. And I think because the fact that I taught for so many years, and what I did for my last years of teaching was really to make an effort to develop that relationship with kids about understanding their learning difference, will they remember everything? Absolutely not. But it gives them that exposure and to start feeling confident with who they are. And, you know, having knowing that they have a teacher to back them. You know, a lot of times I encourage my students to talk to their gen ed teacher about what they were struggling in. I said, you go to them first. And then if you don't feel like you got your message across, then I will get involved. But my goal was to really to teach the kids to advocate for themselves and feel confident with themselves. And so that was really, really important. And, you know, just the goal is to make a difference and feel that they were they're heard and all students be heard at the middle school level.
So yes, that goes out. All right. Barry, are you up for a you have for the mystery question,
sir. Absolutely.
Okay. Okay. All right. I'm gonna pick a card, and then we'll both answer the question. All right, here we go. Does your name have a special or significant meaning? If so, what?
That's interesting, because, you know, a lot of people will say, My name is Barry. Barry.
Oh, I didn't completely see that. Okay, it's just I wanted to see if it does, you're there.
So people always mispronounce it, but it is Barry and you got it right the first time or actually because I met you before.
I cheated.
But now my parent my mom, I think like this ballerina and I don't know if it had berry in it or if it was buried, but that's kind of how it supposedly came about. So there's no special meaning it's not a nickname by
interesting Okay, yeah, yeah. Yeah, bury
something funny though. I mean, I've had oh, here's a real funny story because my very good friend from preschool her husband started calling me Oh, barrel No, wait. Oh, man was a barrel. I had barrel Liska barrel
no doubt no doubt so many different names.
Remember what they call but they always thought my name was in bury that it was this other name? Because yeah. Because they and they were like almost adult when they found out my real name was Barry. So that's really funny. But yeah, I've had bearable bear Liska you know, all fun and games. Interesting.
Well, so my name is actually Timothy. And it comes from the it comes from the Bible. That you know, Timothy was a well it's a book in the Bible. And it's one that now I'm on the spot because I'm supposed to know what it means but I I think it means like God is hurt or something like that. I'm sorry mom and dad. If I got that wrong, I'm gonna look it up later on But my parents called me, Timmy, you know, for the longest time, but no one else called me Timmy except for like my family. Like my immediate family, mom and dad, aunts and uncles and stuff like that. And then, when I've always been Tim, and then when I got to college, since my last name is Vegas, I had college roommates that would call me Vegas. And so that stuck pretty much throughout college. And even after college, all of my close friends just call me Vegas. And so, if you look at my social media handle, it's the real Tim Vegas. That's why it's, that's why it's Tim Vegas. And I kind of embraced it. I didn't like it at first, but I embraced it. And so no one really, in my like, immediate life really calls me Vegas because a lot of my college friends I moved and they're kind of all spread out everywhere. So unless they see me or we interact, then they call me Vegas. Very few people still come to Vegas, but it's really just Tim That's great. We love the mystery question. Very Levin, thank you so much for being on the thing conclusive podcast. We appreciate your time.
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. Check us out. I am Abel foundation.org. And we all learn differently dad calm. Thank you
that time that means it's free time. Listen, y'all. We've produced nearly 50 episodes this season, when you include bonus episodes and feed drops. I mean, just a while we have a lot of content. So thank you to everyone who listened to season 11 We're gearing up for I think our biggest season yet. So here are just a few people that are slated to show up in season 12. And so this is like in no particular order. Charmaine Tanner, Kevin Schaefer from supporting inclusive practices. Jenna Ruffo, Eric Carter, Emily Liddell, Emily Kirschner, Morris and Amanda Morin, Elizabeth bunker, Kayla Coburn, Shelly Moore, Nancy Ward, our very own Brittany salmons. And so, so many more, stay tuned. And also, remember, if you are listening this far into the episode, don't miss our bonus episode with Ashlyn rich coming out before the end of June. Not exactly sure when I am going to publish that one. But state tuned for that. Also something you should know about season 12. I've talked about it a little bit throughout season 11, season 12 I'll be producing video and audio versions of the podcast so you'll be able to watch and listen on YouTube, as well as listen on your regular podcast platforms like Spotify or Apple podcasts. All right, that is it. For this episode of thinking inclusive, thinking inclusive was written, edited, designed, mixed and mastered by me in Vegas, and is a production of the Maryland Coalition for Inclusive Education. Original Music by miles credits. Additional music from melody thanks to our sponsor this week, the described and caption media program. Learn more at DCMP dot orgy. Thanks for your time and attention and remember, inclusion always works.
