Blog 3

In my classes I have a very high percentage of special needs students. I am also fortunate to have the help of paraprofessionals to assist me with them, but this still doesn't mean that I don't have to teach to them as well. I review their IEPs on a monthly basis and try my best to see that they are getting any services that they are entitled and I also give a variety of assessment types. I try to keep in mind that success does not always mean going to college and getting a degree for all of my students. Of course I have some students of which a college degree is a goal but many of my students will probably go into technical trades, the arts, or a variety of other fulfilling careers. I feel that it is my duty as an educator to not expect a fish to climb a tree. For example, I have one student who seems to understand most of the material when I speak with him but he isn't very good at writing. But this student can draw. He can draw better than I ever will and he can draw anything. For his summative assessment I am going to allow him to draw diagram of the digestive system and I will help him put on the labels. In the end, I hope he does this drawing poster size and I plan on hanging it up on my wall in the classroom for future reference and may even use it next year. I hope that this student takes pride in his work and gains some confidence from the activity. He may never win the Nobel prize for science but he can understand how his body functions and do what he is good at to demonstrate this to me. I have seen special education students do things this year that I never thought were possible and I hope that this trend continues.

In conclusion, special education students may need to have lessons adapted to include what they are good at and us as teachers must learn to think outside the box. If a student needs to talk through the material I try to give them a chance to do that. If a different student draws or sculpts I advocate for giving them the chance to do it. As long as they can demonstrate understanding of the material let them do what they love.

Blog Post 2

Teaching, unlike many other professions, requires the teacher to reflect on what works and what doesn't in the classroom in order to improve and hone their skills. I feel like the craft of teaching can only be taught up to a certain point. After that it is left for new teachers to beg, borrow, and steal. For the material that is acquired through these methods is not guaranteed to work for your class. What works for a master veteran teacher may work in their classroom but not yours. Or it may work for them and not for you even if you say the same words. The problem is that ultimately teaching is a long game of trial and error. The final puzzle piece of this is reflection. It is necessary to get an idea, try it, and then reflect on how it works. If it works, then you must analyze why and see if maybe it can be used in a different application or improved. If it doesn't work, it must be analyzed as to why it didn't work and what can you can learn from the data acquired from the experience. Either way, it is important to be able to take a step back and look at what you did, what the outcome was, and how to improve it or whether to use it again or not. Teaching without reflection is not truly teaching because in teaching you also are supposed to be learning constantly. I believe that occasionally even veteran teachers have things they've tried in the past absolutely fail. They must still learn from this and adapt their teaching to show that they've acknowledge this. That doesn't make them a bad teacher, but means that they are simply still learning. I think the only true "bad teacher" is one that has evidence that what they are doing isn't working and isn't willing to reflect and adjust and keeps doing something ineffective because that's the way they've always done it.