Lesson 06 Reflection

This weeks learning focused on collaboration and teams. The reading explained many of the ways that general educators, families, and support staff interact and work together, with the main goal of assisting the student in progressing. I feel like I typically have and focus on the parent's perspective and the student's progress from that side of things, and I was wondering a lot about how the professionals tend to look at this. In my reading this week, I was able to understand that other side a little better. I was impressed by how much the professional side of the student support team was encouraged to respect the family, their beliefs and to work to use family centered practices that encouraged the collaboration between family and school staff. I enjoyed learning a little more about the role of paraprofessionals and how I will be working with them as a general educator. Before I made the decision to pursue Elementary Ed, I was considering going to work as a paraprofessional so I was glad to get an additional peek into their role in the classroom and with the students.
In my future classroom (and to be honest, many other areas of my life) collaboration will be one of the keys to meeting the needs of all of my students. I by myself will not be able to do and provide everything that they will need to be successful. The tool of collaboration will help me fulfill my role as an educator.
In relation to a previous topic, I saw that a family from my hometown is suing the school district over their perceived harm to their special needs daughter's development. This is a link to the story: http://www.saobserver.net/news/380688991.html

Lesson 05 Reflection

This week we learned more about the laws governing special education. I was impressed by the level of detail and amount of revisions that some of the laws have undergone over the years. To me, it seemed that the more understanding we become as a society, the more we work to reflect that in these laws. It was hard to believe that as recently as the early 70's, disabled people were still institutionalized for something like cerebral palsy. I was fascinated as I was able to learn about some of the laws and cases that have affected the treatment of disabled persons.
We also learned more specifics and responsibilities of the teams that work to support students with special needs. That was extremely helpful, and I will need to continue to study and learn about those roles because I know that I will be interacting with this team and these professionals in my career as a general educator. The better I can understand what their goals and plans are to support my students, the better.
One thing that I would like to remember was mentioned in the law lecture video - that case law will always be ahead of statutory law, and to do what I can to keep current with case law regarding special needs students so that I can best serve them and their families.

Lesson 04 Reflection

Learning a little more about the inner workings of an IEP was so interesting to me. My mother was a Special Education Support worker, and often brought her students that she was working with home to meet us (her children) so I was aware in a small way that their education goals were different than mainstream students. She did not talk much about what those differences were (and I doubt I would have understood much about that when I was a child), so I enjoyed gaining insight in to that this week. I was so impressed to learn that the parent's rights are at the forefront, along with the best outcome for the student. The IEP really is individualized, and the student's progress is continually monitored. To me, it seems like this would be fantastic to do for every student but I understand why that is just not feasible. I know this may be controversial to say, but I wonder what would happen if mainstream or gifted students received as much individualized attention to their educational progress and goals as those students with special needs. I understand the need to monitor and help the students who are behind, obviously, but how amazing would it be if every student was able to receive that amount of support and monitoring and personalized goal-setting?! Wow, that opens up a whole world of possibility in my mind. Grade-level would cease to hold meaning and each student would be able to progress at their own rate and not be held back from learning something if they were ready for it. Sounds a little Utopian, but so exciting as an idea.

Lesson 03 Reflection

I have to be honest, the videos of the Serbian institutions that we watched this week really affected me. I couldn't help but think of my own mother, who passed away two years ago due to the effects of frontotemporal dementia. As I thought about the care she received in stark contrast to what the Serbian people were subjected to, I was appalled. I had a hard time dealing with my own feelings, even knowing that she was under the full time care of a full and competent staff in a comfortable, loving, supportive environment and can only imagine in my worst nightmares what the families of the Serbian patients must have felt, giving up their children to the government without knowing where they were or the conditions they were living in.
After watching those scenes, I was able to take heart in the fact that in our country we are doing many things to support the people who need care and help because of handicaps and disabilities. I hope with all of my heart that other countries are able to progress and move forward in their treatment of these people, looking to America if necessary (even though our legislation may not be perfect, it is an effort made).

Lesson 02 Reflections

As I have read the content this week, I have more deeply realized that mine is not the only perspective that I will need to focus on as a teacher. The students that will come into my future classroom will each be arriving with varying backgrounds, support systems, challenges and goals for the year. I think that it would be incredibly rare to have a classroom full of typically developing, on-grade-level students who come to the class focused and ready to participate and learn. I do know that most schools have access to a specialist or support staff that can help the students who have various specific challenges, but I feel that if I am able to be prepared in some way to help them that it will be a greater benefit for them and for our classroom as a whole.
As much as I hate to use the word "entitled", I do feel that it works when describing how students with special needs and challenges should feel in relation to receiving help. It would eat me alive to feel like I was not able to ask for or receive help when I needed it, and although the kind of help that special needs family may require can potentially be very great and time consuming and specialized, it is my belief that the kind of help they need should be available and accessible. I know that I will not be able to develop all the skills I need to be able to help every family and student that I will encounter in my career during this one class, but I am hoping to become more aware through this experience and learn about resources and types of help available so that I can at least be sympathetic to their needs and provide some kind of supportive direction.