Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

Just over Thanksgiving I was informed that my best friend's sister was sent to the hospital with a diagnosis of type two diabetes. Without research, the fast treatment that she received to survive, would not be in existence to save her. Due to this, I decided to look at more research that was going on to find out what causes diabetes in healthy children and what they are doing to make sure children do not have to live with diabetes.

The one research that I found most intriguing was that they are tracking the spectrum of insulin resistance in diabetes. They know that diabetes begins when the body resists the insulin that is being produced. They are not sure when and how the disease takes over.  The Joslin cohort study, which is ran by Dr. Patti and Dr. Goldfine are using different volunteers along the insulin resistance spectrum. This is done so that they can see the differences between a healthy person without diabetes to a person who has type two diabetes. With the spectrum they will be able to see the changes as they occur with each level of the spectrum. Dr. Patti stated, "if we can identify factors that are different in people at risk for diabetes, those factors may play a casual role in diabetes development" (Joslin Diabetes Center, 2012).

Through this research, they are developing new therapies to prevent and even treat the disease. Hopefully, in time, more research will find the cure so that no child has to live with this disease. There will be no more pricking with needles to check their blood sugar count and  no more poking with needles to give the insulin that they need.

References

Joslin Diabetes Center. (2012). Tracking the spectrum of insulin resistance in diabetes. Retrieved on January 20, 2012 from http://www.joslin.org/news/tracking-the-spectrum-of-insulin-resistance-in-diabetes.html

My Personal Research Journey

The topic that I chose to work with this course is inclusive classroom and whether they are beneficial or distracting to students. I chose this topic because it is one that my cooperating teacher (back when I was student teaching for my bachelors degree) always talked about. She was a big advocator for this, and it has always interested me on how it would work and if all the children would benefit from this. Recently, I went back to do an observation in her class and found that she was teaching in an inclusive classroom. Spending the day with her and her students made me realize that there were some great benefits, but there were some draw backs as well.

So now, this week I am in the process of reading research papers to find out the results. So far I have found that schools with inclusive classrooms, usually but not always, have a higher quality program. All the studies I have found so far is based off whether the teacher is qualified to handle an inclusive classroom. From first glance, it seems that an inclusive classroom can work as long as the teacher is prepared to make it work.

I know that some of my classmates and I have talked about this in another course, but I am curious on what everyone thinks about inclusive classrooms. Do you teach in an inclusive classroom or have children in an inclusive classroom? What are your experiences from this?

As I find resources that I find important for this course or my topic, I will be adding them here. I am excited to learn more about inclusive classrooms and to learn from all of you!