Help Teach

Help Teach: Episode 22 - Short on Time

Mihai Covaser: [00:00:00] Welcome, learners and learned alike, to Help Teach!

Mihai Covaser: [00:00:09] Hello, and welcome to our community audio project. I am your host, editor, producer, and project co-lead, Mihai Covaser. I'm also a youth living with a physical disability. My most formative experiences living with a disability have come in the Canadian public education system. Many students like me with physical, emotional, or mental challenges go through their years of schooling lacking the supports and accommodations they need to partake of the same opportunities offered to their peers. The vision of this project is to provide educators in Canadian classrooms, students with disabilities, and members of the general public with the tools and knowledge that they need to make our institutions more accessible and inclusive for all. Join me and a diverse cast of guests as we explore perspectives on disabilities in education in this podcast series. One last message for you teachers tuning in, listen in each episode for our key takeaway that you can implement in your classroom today to help us further this vision.

Mihai Covaser: [00:01:10] Hello and welcome back to Help Teach. I'm really excited to have you all back on the show to really get things back kicking and really hit the ground running in the New Year with some great episodes and some great advice for you. Today, I am very pleased and happy to bring on to the show another member of the Youth Leadership Committee under the Rick Hansen Foundation. You'll recall it's this group of wonderful, talented youths that have helped me get this show off the ground in the first place, with my co-leads, Maggie Manning, Peyton Given, Alexis Holmgren, and Élise Doucette.

Mihai Covaser: [00:01:47] And today, I am very happy to bring on another one of these Youth Leadership Committee members to have a great conversation today, Jordan Lowe. Jordan, welcome to the show.

Jordan Lowe: [00:01:58] Hi, thanks for having me.

Mihai Covaser: [00:02:00] So, as I do in all my episodes with all my guests, I'd love to start talking a little bit about you. I want to talk about who you are, where you're from and get into a little bit of your experience in education. So, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself to our audience.

Jordan Lowe: [00:02:15] Hi everyone, my name is Jordan Lowe. I am 24 years old and I live in the town of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia in Atlantic Canada.

Mihai Covaser: [00:02:30] Yeah, it's great to have someone on from the Maritimes. I know that many of our listeners might be aware that there has been some pretty significant turbulence out there in education and with teachers! Recently, there's been a series of strikes and other protests on behalf of teachers against government and, you know, against (or on behalf of) the teachers union and that kind of thing. So it's been quite a turbulent experience in education for the past few years and building over the last little while out there.

Mihai Covaser: [00:03:05] Before we get to that—into sort of the environment of education more broadly—I want to know a little bit about you and your disability, the obstacles you face in your daily life, just to give an idea of sort of the angle we're coming from on today's episode!

Jordan Lowe: [00:03:23] Sure. I was born with a very rare spinal condition. It's a super long name, but the shorter version that the medical industry gave it is called Fishman's Syndrome. I'm telling you right now. If you look that up on the internet, it is something that is extremely long when you see the medical name. But what it is, it's an inter-spinal lipoma that travels 85% down my spinal cord. It's not deadly. It's just a bunch of fatty tissues in there. And what that can do—it can really affect people's physical appearance and it can also affect their physical mobility or their verbal mobility, as well.

Jordan Lowe: [00:04:37] So I was very fortunate to catch the ability to use my voice because over the years it was also, I was also born with clonus and that's a rhythmic tremor, which during the show today, if you see any wild shakiness, it's just muscle spasms, and that is what Clonus is. These rhythmic tremors can happen at any time, and just, I call them miniature earthquakes. So, yeah.

Mihai Covaser: [00:05:17] Always, always great with a sense of humour.

Jordan Lowe: [00:05:21] Yeah, so if you see a miniature earthquake on today's show, then…

Mihai Covaser: [00:05:26] It's not in Nova Scotia.

Jordan Lowe: [00:05:30] Yeah, no need to duck and cover.

Mihai Covaser: [00:05:34] Right, right. So, yeah, what I wanted to also ask you about, in relation to that, is that you are a wheelchair user, and I know that you have a lot of great work that you do both with wheelchairs and a passion for models in that respect and, also, you do a lot of work with elevators! Do you want to give us a little bit of a, well, elevator pitch—pun intended—about your work and your YouTube channel and everything because I'm sure that people would love to hear about it!

Jordan Lowe: [00:06:04] Yeah, sure! For the past 10 years—well, it'll be 10 years—oh! It's been 10 years. I'm sorry.

Mihai Covaser: [00:06:14] Yeah, you had your anniversary! We celebrated a little bit.

Jordan Lowe: [00:06:17] Yes, it'll be 11 years this March. I have been running my YouTube channel: Jordan Lowe ElevaTours Canada, on YouTube. What I do is elevator reviews. So, what I do is, I use my iPhone as my camera because it's, well, I got the best camera on it right now for the production and—I kid you not, I started using an iPod touch to start that channel. But what we do in this channel is we get in the elevator and I start filming and, for example, let's say this is the elevator at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, and then I will explain the company that installed it, the overall specs on the elevator, all going up and down, once or twice. And sometimes, if I'm lucky enough, I may be able to get access to the machine room. If a staff member allows it, when I tell them about my channel. And, yeah, it's pretty amazing. I went from being afraid of elevators for, I want to say seven years, if not a little more, to now being a full-blown elevator nerd, I guess you could say.

Jordan Lowe: [00:08:06] And it's actually recently just led me to some really, really interesting opportunities because last year, the big ticket for my channel last year was that I was invited to the Canadian Elevator Contractors Association Convention when they had their convention at the Halifax Convention Center.

Mihai Covaser: [00:08:33] Congratulations on that! How was that? How was that experience?

Jordan Lowe: [00:08:37] It was actually, it was just, it was mind-blowing. Like, I thought for just 10 years of doing this, I know some guys get lucky and they get to explore like test facilities and all that jazz in the community. I haven't had that privilege of doing that yet. I hope to reach out to elevator companies in the future and I have had some connections with elevator companies from that convention and we've had some good talks. And in fact, I need to put out a new email to them and see how they're doing after the New Year. So yeah, I got to do that and it's just amazing the technology that goes into these.

Mihai Covaser: [00:09:44] Yeah. Yeah.

Jordan Lowe: [00:09:45] It is a real mind-opener.

Mihai Covaser: [00:09:47] For sure.

Jordan Lowe: [00:09:48] So, to the average person, when they get in an elevator, they just don't know a thing about them, I must say. Unless you're a repairman.

Mihai Covaser: [00:09:58] Yeah, I know I don't.

Jordan Lowe: [00:10:01] But, when I get in them, I'm assessing how good they're functioning. Even when I'm not filming.

Mihai Covaser: [00:10:11] Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah, I mean, it does do that, you know, it's interesting being—having this experience—really gives us, I like to call it a bit of a Spidey Sense, almost, for accessibility features in an environment. I definitely know what you're talking about. When I walk around, I'm looking—from my own personal lived experience—I'm looking at things like, you know, crosswalks and sidewalks and stuff like that in terms of physical mobility stuff, right? And I definitely, so I know, I know where you're coming from. One thing I did want to mention before we move to our second half of the conversation here is, what I didn't say, is that Jordan and I, like other members of the YLC, met in 2017 at the Rick Hansen Youth Leadership Summit, so that's where we sort of first interacted before getting in touch here again. And one thing I haven't said on the show before is that at the end of that conference, we actually made these little, placards, if you remember, where we wrote down a pledge, pledge boards they called them, where we said we pledged to do something in relation to advocacy or accessibility for the future. And my pledge was about supporting teachers and changing the education curriculum to better support teachers in the classroom as they work with their students with disabilities. I'm curious, what was yours? Do you remember?

Jordan Lowe: [00:11:37] I don't know if you can see it, but right up on the shelf.

Mihai Covaser: [00:11:43] Oh yeah! No kidding.

Jordan Lowe: [00:11:44] It's right up there. I pledged to come up with the ability to create technology to help benefit people with disabilities.

Mihai Covaser: [00:11:46] I want to take the chance right now as we move from this into talking a little bit more closely about that experience of support in education and educational assistance. Just before we get to that, I want to say to our audience that you are listening to Help Teach. And just before we get to that conversation, don't go anywhere. We'll be right back!

Mihai Covaser: [00:12:27] Welcome back to Help Teach. Today I'm here with another great member of the Youth Leadership Committee under the Rick Hansen Foundation and a friend of mine, Jordan Lowe. We just finished talking a bit about him and his experience. And we have a bit of a conversation today on support in the classroom and in the school more generally in the form of educational assistance. Now, I know that this is something that has come up on the show before. I've definitely talked about it. It's a pretty big deal for students with disabilities! It's a very key aspect of the sort of support network that students get in public education in Canada. Before we get to sort of your experience with it, I was wondering if you could just tell our audience a little bit about what is an EA? What do they do in your experience?

Jordan Lowe: [00:13:17] For me, with my experience with Educational Assistants (EA), they were not only there to help me with writing or getting around the school but they do help with some personal care—helping with my food. Over the past, I wanna say, over the course of my time in high school, or not high school, just in school in general, my needs became a little higher because of the effects of my disability. And, so yeah, it's like, I went from being a full-fledged writer, with my own two hands, to having someone to scribe for me, which, honestly, it's stressful. But at the same time, it's like, okay, autopilot, take over.

Mihai Covaser: [00:14:26] Yeah. Yeah, and I mean, that's, I really want to stress this as we talk about this topic today because, I mean, ideally I would actually like to follow this episode up with an episode with an EA, to sort of fill it in from the other perspective, but, again, really key role in the school system, and they do a lot. As you say, they can help students with any number of needs. It's usually non-instructional support. So in the sense of, like you say, getting around supporting students with just their self-care and everything throughout the day. You can also be supporting the teacher to operate equipment or to make sure that a student is receiving the support that they need in the classroom while they're learning, while they're doing the activities. How has that experience been for you?

Jordan Lowe: [00:15:15] I feel like it's had a 50/50 effect on me. I would have years where I would have the same, the same EA multiple times throughout the year or I would have her on a certain part of their shift. Or, I would have them maybe just to get on and off the bus, and then another EA would take over to help me the rest of the day.

But, there's been some good, and there's been some bad, and there's been some times where things got real—one resulting in an injury in gym class. Although it wasn't really their fault, they were just not notified to not run with my wheelchair in the gym class.

Mihai Covaser: [00:16:20] Right.

Jordan Lowe: [00:16:21] Which resulted in a minor concussion, but my parents took action and, well, it wasn't really the EA's fault, like I said, it was more of the staff's fault for not telling this assistant to not run with the wheelchair. So, yeah. Like, there's been that and then besides that, it's not just like, one of the key issues was having an EA that had the same, well not the same personality, but just compatibility. Like you want to work in school with an assistant that you get along well with, and they support your hobbies and they actually stay there a little longer than what they're scheduled to based on their pay. So, I really think if you have the right EA and they go to take that time and take care of you, even past their shift, I really think they deserve to be credited more than what their position really is labelled as right now.

Mihai Covaser: [00:17:57] Yeah, yeah, that's a really interesting point, you know, because I'm thinking back to my experience, and similarly, you know, I've had a number of different EAs. I've always been, I've mentioned this before, but I've always sort of straddled the line between chronic disability and no disability at all because, fortunately, I have quite independent mobility even given my disability. So it's this: yes, I was assigned an EA, but technically they didn't really need to do much. But also there's the whole liability issue in schools and that kind of thing about injury and all that so I'm thinking back to my own experience and yeah, I mean there are a lot of really great things that happen when an EA is there and there to support you and, you know, takes that in stride and, you know, really applies patience and compassion to the situation, and some less pleasant experience too can happen when that relationship isn't as strong, you know? And you're definitely right, I think EAs have a lot of skills, and they do a lot in the education system, so definitely some, maybe some lack of credit there, and that'll be interesting to talk to an EA about, like I said, in a future episode maybe. I typically gear this show toward teachers, of course, as you know, and as I mentioned in the introduction. Not to say that other parts of the school system aren't as important in some cases as this one. What I did want to ask, though, is, do teachers in your mind have a role in this trifecta of student-EA-teacher? Do they have a role in collaborating with EAs to support them as they, the teachers, learn more about their students in the class? Like, how do you see that relationship between EA and student, but also the teacher in there?

Jordan Lowe: [00:19:56] Well, with my mother being a former EA, she's actually noticed if the kids are not behaving properly, she'll step or put in there and be like, “Hey, listen to the teacher. Don't misbehave.” And sometimes teachers would go up to her and be like “thank you for helping me out here.” Like really, what they do is they try and go the extra mile to support the teachers. When really, especially if the kids are misbehaving, they're almost like a backup unit. Say if you were in law enforcement and you're the chief and the EA is your deputy chief. That's how I see things.

Mihai Covaser: [00:21:12] Yeah, yeah. Interesting point, too. Well, with that, I want to sort of turn to our takeaway for the episode! And I want to say I really appreciate you opening the door on this conversation with EAs, with the sort of collaboration system that we've talked a bit about before on the show. But I think this really opens the door nicely to, like I said, a future episode and to the conversation in general. What I did want to turn now to, as our key takeaway is what we were talking about, that setting aside extra time in the regular activities of a day, as a teacher in a classroom, can really make a night and day difference as far as how smoothly things go in the class. I think teachers tend to make their schedules based on the average student, which is totally reasonable. I mean, your average student is a lot of what you're going to have, but when you have a student with a different kind of set of needs and a different situation, 5-10 minutes of extra leeway in a day can really make a huge difference in how supported they feel and how much they feel like their needs are heard and how smoothly things go when you're not rushing for a bus or rushing on a walking field trip or something. Those extra 5-10 minutes can really make a world of difference. Did you want to add something from your personal experience or anything on that, Jordan?

Jordan Lowe: [00:22:44] Yeah, there's definitely quite a bit there that can be done because, like EAs, I know their job is to get the child to class, help them out with their daily routine based on whatever their disability is. Sure, they have to take their own courses and just prove themselves that they are capable to handle these children in these environments. But, I just feel like EA's haven't been trained to the full potential where they need to be trained based on a lot more disabilities out there. So sometimes rushing the child is worse than making the situation better. So, the more you rush the child, the more they could be defined against you and not only derailing your schedule as an EA, but also derailing the entire schedule for the teacher.

Mihai Covaser: [00:24:07] Yeah. Yeah.

Jordan Lowe: [00:24:09] So, I think what needs to be done is not only EA's need to be taught for more specific disabilities in the classroom, but I think teachers also need to be taught in a course where they need to know how to handle children with disabilities, whether it's visible or non visible. Yeah, because for me, even just the simplest things are like, it's a no brainer, like I can't write down things, so huge props to the teachers that helped write down my stuff when my EA was busy with another and they’re a kid in the class. But, yeah, so props to them.

Mihai Covaser: [00:25:09] Yeah, no, I'm totally in agreement with you there. That's a lot of what I want to do as well. So I really appreciate you talking about that need. And thank you very much for also coming on and sharing your experience. I will be linking, of course, your YouTube in the episode description for those of you that want to go and check Jordan out on YouTube. But for now, thank you very much for coming on and having this conversation with me, Jordan. It's been a pleasure to talk to you.

Jordan Lowe: [00:25:38] Hey, thanks for having me!

Mihai Covaser: [00:25:39] You've just heard another episode of the community audio project, Help Teach! I'd like to give a huge thank you to my other co-leads on this project, Payton Given, Maggie Manning, Élise Doucette, and Alexis Holmgren, all youth leaders at the Rick Hansen Foundation, who I'd also like to thank for their continued support in this initiative and others. My name is Mihai Covaser. I am your host, editor, and producer for this podcast series. Thank you to Every Canadian Counts and their #RisingYouth initiative for funding this project and for allowing us to put out our vision for change into the community. You can find all transcripts, episode notes, and links to other resources on our base site, Helpteach.transistor.fm, or listen to us wherever you find your podcasts. If you have any questions about the show or would like to get involved, now get in touch at helpteachpodcast@gmail.com. That's helpteachpodcast@gmail.com. Tune in next time for more great conversations and key takeaways that you educators can implement in the classroom today to make it a more accessible and inclusive place for all. Thank you for listening, and I'll see you next time!