Drink the Coffee. Teach the Things.

With the end-of-semester craziness in full swing, I wanted to use this blog post as a space to step back, briefly reflect on the last pieces of content we have covered in class, and then zoom out and think about EDU 342, the semester, and my progress as a pre-service teacher. In class this past week, we discussed stakeholders in special education, as well as the procedures and details about transition services. As a whole, the week was a lot more broad in terms of content than past weeks, where we would focus on one disability, or process, such as RTI. We definitely zoomed out and analyzed the "bigger picture" of special education. I really enjoyed, and learned a lot, from the FlipGrid activity we did in class on Tuesday about different stakeholders in special education, and how to best navigate collaborating with them as special educators. It is so important for all of the stakeholders to be on the same page in order to best support the students, this includes parents

Act I: Reflecting on Reflection.  Sometimes I feel like I am double majoring in education and in reflection. I can reflect on literally anything at anytime. I reflect on not only what I do, say, or think, but also what others do, say, or think, as well. As a pre-service teacher, I see great value in proper reflection, as it is a major tool used to improve teaching practices. Meaningful reflection requires a balance of positive and negative comments, and analysis of how to improve or what to differently. In this blog post, I will be reflecting on the good parts of my UDL lesson and the not so good parts. My lesson was on Thursday from 9-10 (even though it ended up being 9:15-10:00...), which is whole group reading time. I taught a lesson on shades of meaning, which pulled from their prior knowledge of synonyms, and fit nicely into their word meaning and context clue unit that they began earlier in the week. Act II: The Good.  I recently observed a few parent-teacher confere

I know I've done another blog post that explains what Universal Design for Learning is, and how it can be implemented, but during the past few weeks of class, it has become apparent to me that UDL is so so so helpful in supporting students (duh! but also it is just SO RELEVANT!). I feel that we have been forced to cover a lot in a quick amount of time due to classes being cancelled, and life happening. So,  I would like to backtrack to the past few disabilities we have covered, and describe some strategies that can be built into a learning environment, a class routine, or a lesson so that every student becomes equal, and has access to the same materials, curriculum, and supports. This will help me process the information we covered in class. Autism Spectrum Disorder.  Book definition: "... a variety of related disorders that affect a child's social development and ability to communicate and that include unusual behavioral manifestations..." (p. 143) Tier I/UD

In my EDU 211 class, we often discussed the value of evidence-based practices to guide our teaching. We explored a plethora of evidence-based practices used by teachers, and then went into the field and watched our own CTs use them. I left the class having a lot of knowledge surrounding the idea of evidence-based practices, but discovered a hole in my understanding during our EDU 342 class about data. I never thought about how the "evidence" part, and where teachers get their evidence from. I just assumed that an education researcher conducted a study and proclaimed a certain practice to be "evidence-based", and then everyone used that practice in their classrooms. It never dawned on me that teachers frequently use their own class data as evidence to create their own evidence-based practices. It makes perfect sense, considering every class is different, just as every student is different. Teachers use their own data to tailor their instruction and interventions spec

Emotional and Behavior Disorders (EBD) is the term that encompasses all emotional and behavior disorders. The textbook defines Emotional Disorders as " The internalization of difficulties and challenges, which can lead to stress, depression, and anxiety that interfere with life" (G-4). Behavior Disorder is defined as "A condition in which a student consistently violates social and school rules and disrupts the classroom and requires educational action to meet success" (G-2). This category of disorders/disabilities is both specific and broad. The spread of emotional and behavior disorders is broad, yet the manifestation of EBD is specific to an individual student. In this blog post, I want to discuss four friends who collectively have helped me unpack EBD. The first two friends, Jim and Molly, come from the textbook. They are both eight years old, and have EBD, but they are extremely different. Jim externally deals with his emotions. He is extremely aggressive and

The Least Restrictive Environment is defined by IDEA as: "To the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities, including children in public or private institutions or other care facilities, are educated with children who are not disabled, and special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational environment occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability of a child is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily” 20 U.S.C § 1412(a)(5)(A). In other words, the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) is the educational setting that is deemed to foster the most success for students with disabilities. There are many components and things to consider when finding the LRE for each student. This can include:  This list is not exhaustive, but it does show that deciding the LRE for a student with a disability is not simple or easy. Placi

In class this week, we discussed IEPs and Specific Learning Disabilities. These two topics tie in nicely together, as children who have SLDs receive IEPs to help them achieve success in the classroom. I really like the activities we did in class that simulated some of the different SLDs, such as dyslexia and dysgraphia. This allowed me to step into the shoes of my future students and really feel what it is like to have a brain that works in a different way. I feel like it is so easy for teachers to get frustrated with students with disabilities--even though this frustration is really a lack of empathy. I want to be able to know what my students are feeling, experiencing, and learning, and how I can positively impact their experiences to increase their learning. One other activity that really stood out to me was the Marta Case Study we did in groups. We all read the scenario, and chose a character in the scenario to role play during a mock resolution meeting between Mart

Being a sophomore in Intro to Special Education class, I feel that I have not planned a lot of lessons compared to other students in the class. I am not enrolled in a methods course, and I do not take any other courses this semester where I need to have a field placement. I have experience planning for tutoring sessions--which I know is not the same, but it still involves planning activities around certain goals and objectives. I know that my future will contain multitudes of lesson plans, but I feel that I do not have a lot of experience, yet (#growthmindset). Listening to the UDL talk that Meg Jones gave on Thursday was a treat! I really enjoyed hearing her personal experiences from her years of teaching. The UDL model opened my eyes to the importance of planning really strong lessons--I never realized that even the verbs used for planning student objectives matters. These small, intentional details are trademarks of UDL and its pedagogical practices. Supporting every studen

For this post, I wanted to share my opinions regarding the RTI model, but I have very little field experience with this model. Instead, I will comment on an article I found about a survey about the RTI model. But first, here is my very minimal experience with the RTI model: Last semester, I was placed in a first grade classroom for EDU 211. My CT was very open to my questions, and even shared some personal background information with me about the students. She shared that a few of the students in the class were underperforming in reading, and were placed on a tier II support level. Because of this, they were pulled out once a day for reading enrichment with a reading specialist. There were two students, MT and MH, that were on tier III support for reading. My CT shared that these students were also candidates for retainment. These two students had contrasting situations in regards to their parent involvement. MT's parents were completely opposed to any extra support, or servi

Due to our class discussion surrounding the history of special education, and our person first language assignment, I have been thinking a lot about the evolution of special education. As a future educator, it is important to know and understand what special education looked like, what it looks like right now, and how it might continue to evolve in the future. Here are a few things that I have found to be especially profound this week: 1. Changes in language Within our exploration of the history of special education and the treatment of individuals with disabilities, I have noticed and continued to think about the shift in language. I was first struck by the use of the word "retarded" while watching the WillowBrook video, as that was the only way they referred to the residents. I understand that retarded was the word used to describe disability, but maybe because I have grown up on the notion that retarded was a derogatory term to use, I was a bit taken aback. Re

During my freshman year, I decided to enroll in a volunteer tutoring service called the It Takes a Village Project. This program provides literacy and math tutoring for local school aged children ranging from kindergarten to high school. There is a strong presence of Spanish speaking families, underserved children, and struggling readers and math learners. I attended the mandatory training, which provided me with basic information on how children learn to read, and what I need to do as the tutor in order to help my tutee the most, including quick diagnostic tips and ideas for activities. The very next Wednesday after the training, I was assigned the sweetest third grade student--we will call her Rosie. Our first session went well! Rosie struggled to blend sounds when reading, which made comprehension difficult for her, as she was focused on reading the word correctly, and not what the words actually meant. After the session, I talked to Rosie's parents about her reading struggle