31 for 21 Day 12 Meet the girl that stared in Switched at Birth

 Meet  Sofia  Sanchez.  She is  a first grade student who is  also  making quite a name for  herself as a modal  in the Change the Face  of Beauty and has recently made a guest appearance  on Switched at Birth.

     In the  show   Toby, who is  the older brother  of Bay who was  Switched at Birth  with  Daphene,  breaks the news to his  family that he is expecting a baby with  Down Syndrome.   In an effort to educate themselves about the condition the two of them  go to a school for kids with  developmental disabilities.  There they  meet   Sofia who shows Toby that Down Syndrome is not the  end of the world.  Sofia stole the show and was supper cute.  I have been  Facebook  friends with Sofia mother  Jennifer  for a while  now She was kind enough  to let me interview her.

 AZ:

 I know Sofia was adopted can you tell me anything about where she came from

 Sofia and her  brothers.  Mateo,  Joaquin and Diego

 Jennifer:

She was adopted from an orphanage in Ukraine. She was abandoned at birth.

Her bio parents were married and she was their first child. We believe they were fearful of raising a child with a disability or maybe felt like they were equipped. Culture in Eastern Europe is about 40 years behind us in the U.S. in terms of people with disabilities.

AZ

How long have you been watching switched at birth ?

Jennifer 

 Just Season four ! 

AZ 

Was it hard to catch up on all the drama?

I have been watching since the   first episode  back in 2011

Jennifer 

It was pretty simple to get up to date. I did go back and watch the first few episodes of season 1

I am missing a few key players like Angelo but I do plan on going back and watching from the start.


AZ
How did Sofia wind up on the Show?

 Sofia  high five Lucas Grabeel -  who plays  Toby - for a job well done.
Grabeel also played Ryan in High School Musical     

                                             

Jennifer:

She auditioned for the part and was chosen by SAB

We got the audition from her agent Gail Williamson  at KMR Diversity

AZ
  How was it on set?

Jennifer
The set was impressive. Soooooooo many people behind the scenes to make it all happen. It was amazing to witness

AZ
What has the reaction been to Sofia's stardom?

 Jennifer
Her peers (other 1st graders) LOVED seeing her on TV and are so excited to say hi to her. Her teachers and family are so proud of her. Sofia loved it all. She loved the work, the people, watching herself on TV. She loved it all. 

   AZ: Any future projects?
 Jennifer: She has a modeling job next month for Freckles & Kitty and Zulily and she auditioned recently for a movie role that we are still waiting to hear about!

 Sofia on her first day of  First Grade 

School is her top priority! She's learning to read and write and working on her speech. This way she has a bright future ahead of her! But her love is modeling, acting, performing and making people smile!!!

AZ

 What does Sofia like to do for fun?

 Jennifer 

Sofia likes to dance, sing, read, swim and play barbies.

AZ

If there was one thing you want other people to know about Down Syndrome what would you want people to know?

Jennifer 

 That people with Down syndrome are PEOPLE with their own sets of dreams and hopes and wants.

  Thank you  Jennifer and  Sofia

  Have any other questions for  Jennifer ?    Leave a comment below. 

31 for 21 Day 11: Learning disabilities video

           This is a   great video I watched this last spring in my intro to special education   class.   I  hope you enjoy it.


                                                               

 

31 for 21 : Day Ten more about Unified Sports

   Earlier  this  week I  posted about Unified  Sports.  Here is more  information about the program from Special  Olympics   Northern California.

31 for 21 Day nine : Reflections from Kindergarten

     

   I remember

    Me in  Kindergarten.    I  was  so cute. 

      Sound books  esp  the letter /k/. The  teacher told me I was different.

               Jump rope  Every day at recess my  teacher  would  try to  teach me how to jump rope.  I was able to jump  rope by the end of the year.

                 Read Write and Type  Click here to read more about it.

                  Learning about community jobs  highlight   was   having my mom come in her scrubs to teach us about being a doctor.

                Learning different coin  values

                   Butterflies  We watched them in our classroom go from  caterpillars  to butterflies. It was very fun.

 Thanksgiving  play. I was the cat on the Mayflower.





 Not bad considering I was only  six.


   Eight Months  I will be   graduating with a  BA.




  Other posts

       In  Kindergarten


  Learning to read 

31 for 21 Day Eight: My inclusion Story

  Hi  guys for those of you that are new  here, or want to   watch my story again . Here is my inclusion story.  As   I  Countdown to College  graduation I will be   talking about my memories in more detail in  the weeks and months ahead but here is a quick overview of my story.

31 for 21 Day Seven: World Cerebral Palsy Day 2015

           Thank you everyone for sending  or agreeing to  let me use  your picture.     I hope you have an awesome day today.  Be sure to wear  Green today.  Here is the montage  It  is the longest it has ever been.    

   A member of a group that I am in made this for me.  I think it turned out  well.






   Wearing Green Today?  Let me know in the comments  or  share a pic on my  Facebook page or email me if you want. 

31 for 21 Day Six : Who’s the Slow Learner? A Chronicle of Inclusion and Exclusion

 AZ with  Sandra and Sean  March 2014 

Today is    Sean McElwee's  twenty second birthday.  I  have met Sean and his Mom  Sandra  at CA  TASH in 2014  .  

 Sandra  wrote a book about her son's educational experience  called  Who is the Slow Learner.  I  decided to  let her talk about  her book and  if you like  it then you can  enter for a giveaway  at the end of the blog 

 AZ: Why did you write the book?

 Sean in kindergarten 

Sandra: The real purpose was to educate and inspire while entertaining in the hopes that parents could learn, and educators could see that they hold the key to success…or hell.  Who’s the Slow Learner? A Chronicle of Inclusion and Exclusion was an accidental book.  Sean had a text-book perfect elementary school inclusion experience, but secondary school was a stark contrast. I started documenting the bad behavior of the administrators and educators and five years when Sean graduated from high school I looked back and thought, “I couldn’t make this stuff  up!” That’s when the idea of turning Sean’s story into a book, but it couldn’t just be the secondary school experience. Parent’s needed to know what to watch out for, but it would have been too depressing. So I broke out the elementary school communication notebooks, IEPs and started recreating each grade chronologically. 

I searched and searched and I couldn’t find one book that chronicled a student with special educational needs from preschool through high school graduation. We have plenty of the ‘baby born, parents mourn’ stories but none that provide practical realities of the school-age years.

I wrote the book as a memoir, simply because I enjoy reading real-life memoirs.  My hopes were that parents could learn first how inclusion was supposed to be supported and accommodated as it was in Sean’s elementary school…and what legal tools they have to use when it isn’t provided appropriately from the secondary school experiences.

 AZ Chapman : What has been the feedback for the book?

 A lot of people like  Sandra's story that shows that when you
 include   everyone benefits 

 Sandra: I am thrilled to have 31 Five-Star Ratings on Amazon.com.  Parents have told me they purchased the book for their teachers and administrators and have had them comment they never looked at Inclusion from a parent’s perspective before.  This has led to positive changes in their schools, and THAT is the feedback that makes my day. Some of the headlines from the ratings on Amazon ‘Highly recommended,’ A must read for teachers and parents,’ Invaluable resource,’ and my favorites comment that they couldn’t put the book down.

 Sean in forth grade 

AZ Chapman: What advice do you have for future special education teachers?

 Sandra: My advice for special educators and general educators alike is to always have high expectations for their students. To learn to collaborate as a team and to spend the time they are in school learning to differentiate instruction so they can teach one subject to learners of different abilities and learning styles.

 Sean  with the baseball team.  He was  an assistant to the team
during his  high school years 

 AZ Chapman: What is Sean up too now?

 Sandra : Sean is about to turn 22, and is attending community college focusing on acting classes. He is an assistant coach for a Challenger Flag Football team, volunteers in a SundaySchool class and goes dancing every chance he has.   He was just hired to work at Home Depot!  He has a full social life and enjoys doing presentations and signing books.  In his spare time, Sean loves to make music videos using an app on his Iphone.  He’s currently single, but has a girl that he is trying to woo.

    

 Thank you Sandra

  Enter for a chance to win a copy of this book  by leaving a comment on this post. The giveaway will close on  the 31st.   Winners will be   announced on   November forth. 

 Click here for  the book's  website 

 Click here  for  the book's Facebook  page