3/19
I still have so many questions, but I think it's important that I learned how to answer my own questions and also that I can deal with issues as they come. The main thing I'm still wondering: is the education program at MSU preparing teachers to meet individual needs to the best of their ability? I know not everyone is as interested in this subject as I am, but I'm wondering if most people feel adequately prepared based on our 12 hr. special ed cram session? I'm curious what interns or recent grads would say. I feel like this is a really important topic and it's doing us a disservice to have such minimal exposure to and instruction about the topic. (Although the instructors did the best they could given the circumstances.) I'm wondering also if there will be a sudden demand for bilingual para-pros and special ed teachers, or if students will be expected to take language classes without any of the additional resources they might need? I think it will be very interesting to see how things will change in the next few years as the new graduation requirements come into play. Although I didn't fulfill my goal of researching every single type of disability that requires an IEP, I feel that I answered my initial questions and learned where to look for the answers so that I can grapple with this issue as I continue in my career.
Here is the link to my final PowerPoint: http://richa521.googlepages.com/ip
Monday, March 19, 2007
Sunday, March 18, 2007
3/18 Wrapping things up
I just want to use this entry to wrap up the project and make sure I'm (explicitly) meeting all the requirements. First, a summary of the new resources I played with while making this blog. (Actually blogging is a new resource for me on its own, along with making web pages!) A) I learned to use an RSS feed to discover new resources. I set my RSS feed to alert me to resources having to do with Special Ed, which is where I actually found a few of my other resources. I didn't like the RSS feed because I'm not devoted enough to check it daily, so I have hundreds of hits waiting for me to go through them. It was nice, on the other hand, to have a list of entries that were already filtered into what I was looking for that I would have available to me at any time. (You can't save a typical search that easily.) B) I had also never used any form of podcasting, so it was new for me to learn the websites to look for, and the whole experience was new. I wrote already that I didn't like this very much because I get too distracted, but it's nice that I could download that to my ipod and listen to it while I'm doing anything throughout the day. C) A professional discussion board/ forum is also new to me. (The only discussion board I've ever really read is movie or food reviews.) I enjoyed witnessing the interactions between teachers from all over, especially when they disagreed or debated something. I'm glad I learned these new things, I think I'm skeptical because I'm not entirely sure how to work them yet but they'll probably grow on me. Collaboration: A) The first time I collaborated was when I looked at Jessica's project, where she gave me the idea to check out AZ teacher forums. I'm really glad I found this because it ended up being my favorite part of the project! B) Then we created our group blog, and although we never really used it until the end, I added all the links to each of our inquiry projects so it was easier to navigate. It ended up being useful to have the group blog so we could share our final project with each other. C) Although they aren't my classmates, I was able to collaborate with other teachers using the AZ teacher forum. I didn't get much response to my inquiry, but that's understandable since it wasn't really a discourse. I was excited to get one response though, and enjoyed reading other threads. D) Again I collaborated with Jessica, she posted on my blog and I responded, and I also read her blog and posted a comment. It was interesting to see what other people in the class are doing, but our group was kind of a stretch as far as fitting together, so I wish there had been a closer tie-in. E) One of the organizers from the LD podcast commented on my entry about the podcast I listened to. It's always exciting to have a new opinion, and also to see how cool technology is! (I'm really impressed that someone from outside of our class read my blog!) Hopefully I will be able to figure out how to post my PowerPoint here, or at least a link to it, since it will go into more detail about what I got out of this project than I'm going to go into here. Overall, although I didn't end up doing everything I had planned, I think I answered the questions I wanted to answer. I still think it would be helpful to go over all of the different disabilities in the "alphabet soup" just for a starting reference point, but from what I looked at, it seemed that I really could generalize a lot of the accommodations. The line about anything that helps a special ed student will probably help most students, that our teachers kept drilling really is true. So I feel that I've learned where I can look when I have specific questions and I've learned a few more general things too...I count this as a success.
I just want to use this entry to wrap up the project and make sure I'm (explicitly) meeting all the requirements. First, a summary of the new resources I played with while making this blog. (Actually blogging is a new resource for me on its own, along with making web pages!) A) I learned to use an RSS feed to discover new resources. I set my RSS feed to alert me to resources having to do with Special Ed, which is where I actually found a few of my other resources. I didn't like the RSS feed because I'm not devoted enough to check it daily, so I have hundreds of hits waiting for me to go through them. It was nice, on the other hand, to have a list of entries that were already filtered into what I was looking for that I would have available to me at any time. (You can't save a typical search that easily.) B) I had also never used any form of podcasting, so it was new for me to learn the websites to look for, and the whole experience was new. I wrote already that I didn't like this very much because I get too distracted, but it's nice that I could download that to my ipod and listen to it while I'm doing anything throughout the day. C) A professional discussion board/ forum is also new to me. (The only discussion board I've ever really read is movie or food reviews.) I enjoyed witnessing the interactions between teachers from all over, especially when they disagreed or debated something. I'm glad I learned these new things, I think I'm skeptical because I'm not entirely sure how to work them yet but they'll probably grow on me. Collaboration: A) The first time I collaborated was when I looked at Jessica's project, where she gave me the idea to check out AZ teacher forums. I'm really glad I found this because it ended up being my favorite part of the project! B) Then we created our group blog, and although we never really used it until the end, I added all the links to each of our inquiry projects so it was easier to navigate. It ended up being useful to have the group blog so we could share our final project with each other. C) Although they aren't my classmates, I was able to collaborate with other teachers using the AZ teacher forum. I didn't get much response to my inquiry, but that's understandable since it wasn't really a discourse. I was excited to get one response though, and enjoyed reading other threads. D) Again I collaborated with Jessica, she posted on my blog and I responded, and I also read her blog and posted a comment. It was interesting to see what other people in the class are doing, but our group was kind of a stretch as far as fitting together, so I wish there had been a closer tie-in. E) One of the organizers from the LD podcast commented on my entry about the podcast I listened to. It's always exciting to have a new opinion, and also to see how cool technology is! (I'm really impressed that someone from outside of our class read my blog!) Hopefully I will be able to figure out how to post my PowerPoint here, or at least a link to it, since it will go into more detail about what I got out of this project than I'm going to go into here. Overall, although I didn't end up doing everything I had planned, I think I answered the questions I wanted to answer. I still think it would be helpful to go over all of the different disabilities in the "alphabet soup" just for a starting reference point, but from what I looked at, it seemed that I really could generalize a lot of the accommodations. The line about anything that helps a special ed student will probably help most students, that our teachers kept drilling really is true. So I feel that I've learned where I can look when I have specific questions and I've learned a few more general things too...I count this as a success.
Friday, March 2, 2007
3/2
Today I listened to an episode of the LD podcast, a podcast put out by parents of LD kids for parents of LD kids. This one was an interview with an administrator, Courtney Rau, the special education department chair at a Massachusetts school district. The parents seemed really excited to get an administrator's perspective. They discussed inclusion, and I was surprised that the mom was skeptical of inclusion programs. I would have thought that the parents were more supportive of it, but in some cases the school is just trying to cut back on faculty by throwing kids who need more attention into an inclusion class. They also discussed ASD quite a bit, which I of course found interesting since I've been looking into that. They talked about some programs that weren't balancing working on social and academics skills and the negative outcomes of that for ASD students. They also talked about some terms like "least restrictive environment" and "LD," questioning such blanket statements that are expected to cover all situations. What do these things mean? I was surprised when they were talking about "residential setting" schooling. At first I just thought this meant pull out classes or a separate building for special ed. But as I listened, I realized they were talking about boarding schools for special ed students. I didn't really think this kind of thing existed, it doesn't seem like that great of a solution to me, so I 'd like to learn a little more about this. (Maybe I misunderstood?) The main point the administrator reiterated is that teachers want to teach all of their students the best they can, and I hope that is a statement that is actually true! (I know some lazy teachers...) The website for this podcast is : http://ldpodcast.com/images/show20.mp3. This is probably a better resource for parents looking for support, it was long and I didn't feel like the information was very rich for my purpose. I'm not sure how I feel about podcasts either, I get too distracted to sit and listen to it!
Today I listened to an episode of the LD podcast, a podcast put out by parents of LD kids for parents of LD kids. This one was an interview with an administrator, Courtney Rau, the special education department chair at a Massachusetts school district. The parents seemed really excited to get an administrator's perspective. They discussed inclusion, and I was surprised that the mom was skeptical of inclusion programs. I would have thought that the parents were more supportive of it, but in some cases the school is just trying to cut back on faculty by throwing kids who need more attention into an inclusion class. They also discussed ASD quite a bit, which I of course found interesting since I've been looking into that. They talked about some programs that weren't balancing working on social and academics skills and the negative outcomes of that for ASD students. They also talked about some terms like "least restrictive environment" and "LD," questioning such blanket statements that are expected to cover all situations. What do these things mean? I was surprised when they were talking about "residential setting" schooling. At first I just thought this meant pull out classes or a separate building for special ed. But as I listened, I realized they were talking about boarding schools for special ed students. I didn't really think this kind of thing existed, it doesn't seem like that great of a solution to me, so I 'd like to learn a little more about this. (Maybe I misunderstood?) The main point the administrator reiterated is that teachers want to teach all of their students the best they can, and I hope that is a statement that is actually true! (I know some lazy teachers...) The website for this podcast is : http://ldpodcast.com/images/show20.mp3. This is probably a better resource for parents looking for support, it was long and I didn't feel like the information was very rich for my purpose. I'm not sure how I feel about podcasts either, I get too distracted to sit and listen to it!
Thursday, March 1, 2007
3/1/07
I have been looking at an article and online discussion about academic waivers for LD students. I have been using the site's RSS feed to follow the discussion. Here's the link to the site: http://www.ldresources.org/p=929. This was dealing with foreign language requirements in college, but since the requirements at the high school level are changing I thought it would be relevant. Some of the discussion was based on these questions:
-If you can waive a requirement for any reason, does your degree mean as much?
-Is it your responsibility to know what the college/university policy is on waivers before you enroll?
Things again got a little heated, as one side said students should look for a more accommodating school and the other said the system should change. They referenced legal issues BU was involved in, contemplating if it is right to receive a degree with a certain school's prestige backing it up if you didn't complete all of the school's requirements. I'm getting a little far from the high school setting with that, so let me get back on track. One post was by a foreign language professor. She talked about how students with disabilities in language areas can focus on cultural and historical aspects of the language/class, they might be more successful in sign language, and they will just have to realize they'll have to work harder at this than at other subjects. This combined with a teacher who is trying to make accommodations and help this student should make the goal of learning another language attainable. One thing I had a problem with on the discussion board is that one person kept saying, "what about people who cannot learn a language or do the math?" (They paralleled math to foreign language often.) I don't think it's acceptable to say that someone "cannot" do it; that's completely giving up on it and I'm not sure it's ever safe to give up like that.
I have been looking at an article and online discussion about academic waivers for LD students. I have been using the site's RSS feed to follow the discussion. Here's the link to the site: http://www.ldresources.org/p=929. This was dealing with foreign language requirements in college, but since the requirements at the high school level are changing I thought it would be relevant. Some of the discussion was based on these questions:
-If you can waive a requirement for any reason, does your degree mean as much?
-Is it your responsibility to know what the college/university policy is on waivers before you enroll?
Things again got a little heated, as one side said students should look for a more accommodating school and the other said the system should change. They referenced legal issues BU was involved in, contemplating if it is right to receive a degree with a certain school's prestige backing it up if you didn't complete all of the school's requirements. I'm getting a little far from the high school setting with that, so let me get back on track. One post was by a foreign language professor. She talked about how students with disabilities in language areas can focus on cultural and historical aspects of the language/class, they might be more successful in sign language, and they will just have to realize they'll have to work harder at this than at other subjects. This combined with a teacher who is trying to make accommodations and help this student should make the goal of learning another language attainable. One thing I had a problem with on the discussion board is that one person kept saying, "what about people who cannot learn a language or do the math?" (They paralleled math to foreign language often.) I don't think it's acceptable to say that someone "cannot" do it; that's completely giving up on it and I'm not sure it's ever safe to give up like that.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
2/22 ASD
I have been doing some research on Autism Spectrum Disorder, since that is what the only special ed. student in the classes I observe has. At first my research was not very productive because I kept finding articles and books that described diagnosis and treatment and didn't have much about adolescents with the disorder, since this is usually diagnosed in toddlers. Melissa was researching the topic too, since we field teach together, and she reminded me that I should search include "Teaching" in the search, and I found better results. (Obviously.) I did learn a lot about ASD from reading the general description and all the information about diagnosis, etc. which helps me understand the disorder in general. For example, now I know that I really don't have to worry about an un-diagnosed ASD student in my classroom, because it's pretty much impossible to miss in infants/toddlers, so it's not likely something a student would have developed later on and therefore had missed having been diagnosed. I also understand better why the name was recently changed to Autism Spectrum Disorder, since the student in the class I observe obviously has a very mild case. (He really only has one indicator or symptom off the lists I found.) I also learned that 1 in 4 with ASD experience seizures, which is a little scary, but if there was a possibility of that happening, I'm sure the IEP would mention it and I as a teacher would be informed of what to do in that situation. The websites/articles that I looked at that dealt specifically with teaching students with ASD were really interesting, and they reinforced the idea we've been talking about in our special ed labs that any accommodation you make for a special ed student will be helpful for any student. Many of the items on the list were things we've talked about in our methods course, like give an opportunity for choice, gage pacing and processing, and use activity-based instruction. Many of these things take no extra consideration because most teachers (hopefully) do them anyway since they know their students have varying interests. It was nice to have what we're learning reinforced by these articles. The one question I had involves the environment aspect of ASD, since these students may be extremely sensitive to sensory experiences. I guess this would again depend on the student and the IEP, but some of those sorts of things seem out of my control as a teacher. I can't force every student to sit still in silence so as not to bother their peer. I guess what I can do is ask the student what I can do to help him/her deal with such distractions.
On another note, I had my first response to my post on the a to z teaching page! It was from a early childhood special educator who works with 2-5 year olds, and she said her advice is to never view these students as kids I don't want in my classroom. It's heartbreaking to her to hear her little students referred to as "those kids." So my lesson learned here is the attitude part. I don't think I will have a problem teaching special ed. students in my class because I will have a good attitude about it, this is something I'm finding I really care about and I want to provide the best education possible to all of my students.
Another question I'm having is, with the new language graduation requirements, are more bilingual special educators coming up? It seems necessary, because even the kids that are in pull-out classes will have to take a language in order to graduate.
Here are the links to a few ASD websites that are pretty good:
http://chileda.org/resources/strategies.htm
http://www.education.gov/ab.ca/k_12specialneeds/autism.asp
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/autism.cfm
I have been doing some research on Autism Spectrum Disorder, since that is what the only special ed. student in the classes I observe has. At first my research was not very productive because I kept finding articles and books that described diagnosis and treatment and didn't have much about adolescents with the disorder, since this is usually diagnosed in toddlers. Melissa was researching the topic too, since we field teach together, and she reminded me that I should search include "Teaching" in the search, and I found better results. (Obviously.) I did learn a lot about ASD from reading the general description and all the information about diagnosis, etc. which helps me understand the disorder in general. For example, now I know that I really don't have to worry about an un-diagnosed ASD student in my classroom, because it's pretty much impossible to miss in infants/toddlers, so it's not likely something a student would have developed later on and therefore had missed having been diagnosed. I also understand better why the name was recently changed to Autism Spectrum Disorder, since the student in the class I observe obviously has a very mild case. (He really only has one indicator or symptom off the lists I found.) I also learned that 1 in 4 with ASD experience seizures, which is a little scary, but if there was a possibility of that happening, I'm sure the IEP would mention it and I as a teacher would be informed of what to do in that situation. The websites/articles that I looked at that dealt specifically with teaching students with ASD were really interesting, and they reinforced the idea we've been talking about in our special ed labs that any accommodation you make for a special ed student will be helpful for any student. Many of the items on the list were things we've talked about in our methods course, like give an opportunity for choice, gage pacing and processing, and use activity-based instruction. Many of these things take no extra consideration because most teachers (hopefully) do them anyway since they know their students have varying interests. It was nice to have what we're learning reinforced by these articles. The one question I had involves the environment aspect of ASD, since these students may be extremely sensitive to sensory experiences. I guess this would again depend on the student and the IEP, but some of those sorts of things seem out of my control as a teacher. I can't force every student to sit still in silence so as not to bother their peer. I guess what I can do is ask the student what I can do to help him/her deal with such distractions.
On another note, I had my first response to my post on the a to z teaching page! It was from a early childhood special educator who works with 2-5 year olds, and she said her advice is to never view these students as kids I don't want in my classroom. It's heartbreaking to her to hear her little students referred to as "those kids." So my lesson learned here is the attitude part. I don't think I will have a problem teaching special ed. students in my class because I will have a good attitude about it, this is something I'm finding I really care about and I want to provide the best education possible to all of my students.
Another question I'm having is, with the new language graduation requirements, are more bilingual special educators coming up? It seems necessary, because even the kids that are in pull-out classes will have to take a language in order to graduate.
Here are the links to a few ASD websites that are pretty good:
http://chileda.org/resources/strategies.htm
http://www.education.gov/ab.ca/k_12specialneeds/autism.asp
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/autism.cfm
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
2/20-- Last week in our special ed. segment of class, our teacher told us to check out the michigan.gov website for special education; that it had a lot of great resources, such as descriptions of different types of learning disabilities. I was very excited about this, but when I got to the website I was disappointed. I don't know if I was looking in the wrong places, but all I could find were articles about the political aspect of special education, law suits and annual yearly progress, etc. I know this is an important part, but the special ed. teacher will handle most of those issues (right?) so as a general educator it wasn't very helpful. If I'm wrong feel free to inform me, but I feel that knowing about IDEA and the fact that I need to follow IEP plans is enough information for me as far as the legal issues go. I did find one fact sheet that I thought was interesting, as it was specific to Michigan. It compared the percentage of special ed students in Michigan to other states and explained IDEA. There was also a section titled "how is the impact of special education measured" that I thought was interesting, but it was only a few bulleted points. Then there were some statistics, which I found the most interesting--it stated the percent of MI students with an IEP that take the MEAP, and the trends were surprising. From 4th to 8th grade the percentage goes up, but it falls again in 11th grade in both math and ELA. (Does ELA mean English Language Arts?) I would have thought the percentages would be continuous, so I'm wondering why it is that more 8th graders with IEP's take the MEAPs. Also interesting was the rise in graduation rate for students with IEP's: in 1999 the number was 5,027, and in 2004 it was 8,358. This could mean anything though because they don't give the number of students with IEP's each year, so it might be that the program is getting better, but it could also be that there were just more students with IEP's, or just that schools are passing more of these students with lower standards to push them through the system. I just thought it was interesting that the information on the government website, which came recommended by an actual special ed. teacher, was so vague and inconclusive. I think it reflects the situation of the special ed. preparation that teachers receive--inconclusive in my opinion. How, after 6 class sessions, are we supposed to be prepared to really do the best we can to meet all of our students needs? (Okay, my dissatisfaction is a side note, back to the topic...) The link to that fact sheet is: http://www.mi.gov/documents/05-01FactSheet_123888_7.pdf
I think I'm done with that website, it seemed to be generally a waste of time. Another thing I did today is return to the AZ teacher forum (the link to that is in my last post) and create an account. I then posted a message about my inquiry project asking experienced teachers to leave any advice they feel is crucial for a teacher starting out, since I feel like our program leaves us unprepared. I was a little nervous about this since I'm not very into exchanging information on the Internet and I didn't know what was okay to say, etc. but I'm excited about hopefully getting some responses!
the link to my post is: http://forums.atozteacherstuff.com/showthread.php?t=32427
I think I'm done with that website, it seemed to be generally a waste of time. Another thing I did today is return to the AZ teacher forum (the link to that is in my last post) and create an account. I then posted a message about my inquiry project asking experienced teachers to leave any advice they feel is crucial for a teacher starting out, since I feel like our program leaves us unprepared. I was a little nervous about this since I'm not very into exchanging information on the Internet and I didn't know what was okay to say, etc. but I'm excited about hopefully getting some responses!
the link to my post is: http://forums.atozteacherstuff.com/showthread.php?t=32427
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
2/13: A to Z Teacher Stuff Discussion Forum
Today I read a discussion forum on this website about special education programs from a teacher's perspective. It was really interesting to see general educators and special educators take sides. A special educator had had an experience in which a general ed teacher was rude to her because she missed class time to catch up on paperwork, and a whole discussion follows. I hadn't even really considered this aspect of special ed yet, but there seems to be some tension between the two groups, like both are ready to blame the other for not providing the best possible education for the student. This is why I want to find out more about special ed through this project so I can avoid being a teacher like that. It's sad that the two sides would push against each other instead of working together. I found this forum on Jessica's inquiry project page, so thanks Jessica- there was a lot of great Special ed. discourse between real teachers that will help me gain some insight into my project.
(The website is http://forums.atozteacherstuff.com/ and the link to this discussion is here.
Today I read a discussion forum on this website about special education programs from a teacher's perspective. It was really interesting to see general educators and special educators take sides. A special educator had had an experience in which a general ed teacher was rude to her because she missed class time to catch up on paperwork, and a whole discussion follows. I hadn't even really considered this aspect of special ed yet, but there seems to be some tension between the two groups, like both are ready to blame the other for not providing the best possible education for the student. This is why I want to find out more about special ed through this project so I can avoid being a teacher like that. It's sad that the two sides would push against each other instead of working together. I found this forum on Jessica's inquiry project page, so thanks Jessica- there was a lot of great Special ed. discourse between real teachers that will help me gain some insight into my project.
(The website is http://forums.atozteacherstuff.com/ and the link to this discussion is here.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
1/28/07 Update
We did start our special ed. labs, and this already helped to clear up a lot of the questions I had. For example, special education students will have an IEP, so I will obviously know about their situation and what my job is as the student's teacher. We were given a handout that explained IDEA, so now I understand the legal aspect much better as well. (Actually, before I had never really considered this as a prospective legal issue.) We also read an article about inclusion and discussed benefits and drawbacks as a class, which gave me a better view of the feelings I had before about my experience with inclusion. One of our assignments is to do some observations of a particular student in the classroom we do our field work in, so I talked to my mentor teacher about this as well. She said she really doesn't have many special ed. students, but there is a student who is mildly autistic in one of the classes I observe. If there was any question about my lack of experience here, I had no idea this student was in special ed. My mentor is looking into school policy about what she can disclose as far as his case, so I will be able to find out a little more soon, but it will be interesting to begin my observations and field teaching with this in mind.
We did start our special ed. labs, and this already helped to clear up a lot of the questions I had. For example, special education students will have an IEP, so I will obviously know about their situation and what my job is as the student's teacher. We were given a handout that explained IDEA, so now I understand the legal aspect much better as well. (Actually, before I had never really considered this as a prospective legal issue.) We also read an article about inclusion and discussed benefits and drawbacks as a class, which gave me a better view of the feelings I had before about my experience with inclusion. One of our assignments is to do some observations of a particular student in the classroom we do our field work in, so I talked to my mentor teacher about this as well. She said she really doesn't have many special ed. students, but there is a student who is mildly autistic in one of the classes I observe. If there was any question about my lack of experience here, I had no idea this student was in special ed. My mentor is looking into school policy about what she can disclose as far as his case, so I will be able to find out a little more soon, but it will be interesting to begin my observations and field teaching with this in mind.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
1/21/07 My experience with "special needs"
In eight grade we had an inclusion program, so that special education students were in the same class as the other students. I understand why this is great for them because they go through their lives feeling stigmatized and maybe resenting being left out, but I hated it. I was already probably on the "gifted" end of the spectrum, since there weren't honors classes yet, so it drove me crazy when we had to go slower so the other students could get extra attention. I especially hated it when the special education teacher, who co-taught in all of these inclusion classes, taught, because she was more experienced at teaching to their level, (I thought she treated us like we were in kindergarten) so for me it meant we would go even slower than usual. It also didn't help that I had "inclusion" classes for 4 out of 7 classes each day, which meant I had the same peers in all of my classes, and the special education teacher that I really didn't like, was impossible to avoid. (Of course, she was also my homeroom teacher!) So that's a little background on my own experience, (or lack thereof) with "special needs" students in school. In high school for the most part everyone was kept seperate, there were several different tiers of "special needs" classes. I never really understood the difference between them, and never was very interested in finding out. Now that I am going to be a teacher, I am realizing how inadequate my experience with this topic is, and hope to change this so that I know how to best interact with all of my future students. Our special education labs start this week, so hopefully that will be a start for me in this project!
In eight grade we had an inclusion program, so that special education students were in the same class as the other students. I understand why this is great for them because they go through their lives feeling stigmatized and maybe resenting being left out, but I hated it. I was already probably on the "gifted" end of the spectrum, since there weren't honors classes yet, so it drove me crazy when we had to go slower so the other students could get extra attention. I especially hated it when the special education teacher, who co-taught in all of these inclusion classes, taught, because she was more experienced at teaching to their level, (I thought she treated us like we were in kindergarten) so for me it meant we would go even slower than usual. It also didn't help that I had "inclusion" classes for 4 out of 7 classes each day, which meant I had the same peers in all of my classes, and the special education teacher that I really didn't like, was impossible to avoid. (Of course, she was also my homeroom teacher!) So that's a little background on my own experience, (or lack thereof) with "special needs" students in school. In high school for the most part everyone was kept seperate, there were several different tiers of "special needs" classes. I never really understood the difference between them, and never was very interested in finding out. Now that I am going to be a teacher, I am realizing how inadequate my experience with this topic is, and hope to change this so that I know how to best interact with all of my future students. Our special education labs start this week, so hopefully that will be a start for me in this project!
Thursday, January 18, 2007
For my inquiry project I will be researching and learning about special needs students in the classroom. Some (obviously not all) of the things I would like to look at are: which students are "special needs" in the classes I observe? (I will then pay closer attention to how they interact with their peers, the teacher, etc.), how do teachers know about these special needs- is it common knowledge in the school, do parents or counselors tell them?, what are different levels of "special needs," why are they classified like this, etc. (I am especially interested in emotionally impaired.) Basically I just don't know very much about the topic so I am interested in learning whatever I can get my hands on.
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