Reflection On Special Education

The amount of people who live with disabilities is a controversial number. Depending on what law and diagnostic tools used, a person may have a visible disability, or one that may lie beneath the surface of his or her appearance. Some people believe that the term “disability” is merely a label use to hold back, or prescribe helplessness. Meanwhile, individuals who have been properly diagnosed with disabilities struggle to maintain respect and acceptance every day. In plain language, there is a lot of misunderstanding between people with disabilities and those without. It is firstly important to get everyone on the same page regarding the definition of disability.

My philosophy of education, specifically special education comes from what I am learning and my general beliefs and values about people. I believe learning occurs throughout life, in everything we do as we are born without knowledge. I believe every child can learn and has the ability inside them to grow and advance although some may learn more than others and in different ways, but all can learn and should be treated with the respect.

Before entering this course I had little idea as to what we would be learning. I knew little about each disability and how to deal with it in the classroom. I was very interested in this class because in my high school, students with disabilities were not handled very well. They were treated exactly the same as every other student. This may be a good thing sometimes but each student needs their own needs and if a student needs a special version of a test, or needs extra help to succeed, it is important to give them what they need. My high school did not handle each student the way they needed to be handled. I am very open about disabilities and did not really have any biases. I love to learn more about each person I meet and getting to learn about each disability individually was really interesting to me.

When Public Law 94-142 was passed in 1975 it had a positive impact on the education for children with disabilities. Millions of children in the United States were supported by the law. These children had previously been excluded entirely from the education system.

My personal philosophy of special education drives not from teaching in the field, but from, observations, and personal experience, and the workshops I attended. I have had the opportunity to work with individuals with special needs in many different settings, all this help cultivate my knowledge in handling the needs of the special needed student. Special needs students have the ability to learn, to function, to grow, and most importantly to succeed. The difference comes into how they learn or how they need to be taught. There are as many beliefs about the "hows" as there are teachers and each of us forms our own philosophy through our experiences and research. As a student in a special education teachers’ program, learners with

During my time as a special education teacher there were many students who posed challenges when it came to school, but there was one boy who was by far the worst and most challenging case I had ever experienced. The boy was diagnosed with ADHD at a young age. By the time I encountered him in high school, he had used his diagnosis as an excuse to avoid any substantial work. The problem was that at his high school his English teacher saw through his laziness and with the approval of his guardian decided to press the child for better work. I was left with the task of working with him and keeping him on task.

The purpose of schooling is to help our special education students to be functional and independent in the real world. I want them to learn how to deal with real life situations and to be able to understand and adapt to the changes it may bring. For example, being an autism teacher of high school students, my philosophy is different than of an autism teacher of elementary students. The most important thing of concern for the older students is to make sure they are as independent as possible and teach them some type of job skill to help them acquire a pay check to help with their care. I also help them have an

Many factors come into play to determine whether or not a child in special education can succeed in the classroom. Some of these factors include: school climate, teacher quality, family and community engagement, effective leadership, and efficient use of learning time. But what issues seem to be affecting children the most today?

In life we do not decide where we begin. Some of us our gifted at birth, with intellect,wealth, and health. While others such as I are not so fortunate. I was born with a disorder called Autism. This disorder made it so that I was different from other children. While most children could speak when they were two or three years old. It took me until I was five years old to speak. I also could not focus that well in school. As a child I did not enjoy doing school work. I prefered to do others things, such as Imagine things that I saw on television. Due to my autism and lack of focus,I placed into an autistic support class. Often as child I wondered, why was I different? Though I performed decently academically. I was still in an autistic support

Philosophy is the most basic beliefs, concepts and attitudes of an individual or group (Williams, 2011). A philosophy seeks to answer questions such as; what do you live for? What is your purpose on earth? As well as many other questions that are based on personal beliefs and principles. I believe that education is one of the fundamental needs of every human being and every child or human being should be in a position to enjoy education with minimal restrictions regardless of their special needs.

A second grade English Language Arts and Reading educator in the Seminole Independent School District was asked to partake in an interview about the disproportionality of African Americans students in special education programs. In the interest of confidentiality, the interviewee’s name will not be disclosed throughout this paper. To discuss questions surrounding the aforementioned topic, it was important to gather the educator’s experiences about special education programs in general. In her third year of teaching she taught in a self-contained classroom, where students had severe and profound disabilities. She quoted seven years of teaching experience, where she have taught general education co-teach classes and one inclusive class. She

In order to get a true understanding of teaching in an inclusion classroom, I was able to observe a fourth grade classroom at Village School in West Windsor, New Jersey. The general education teacher was Ms. Welsh and the special education teacher was Ms. Wilush. Ms. Welsh has been teaching for many years, while Ms. Wilush has only been teaching for two years. Each teacher brings with them different strategies, that together make a wonderful classroom dynamic. The students make up an average size fourth grade classroom of a little more than twenty, but there are three students who receive additional instruction from Ms. Wilush in a resource room throughout the day. During my observation, I was able to sit in on writing lessons and science lessons. There was a wide variety of students in the class with all different strengths, weaknesses, and personalities. Watching and learning from both teachers through observation and interview was an extremely valuable experience.

Throughout my career I have always been amazed by how little regular education teachers know about the special education process. On numerous occasions I have had teachers ask me, “Why don’t you just test him, to see if he qualifies?” And when I tried to explain that there was more to the process then just testing, most of the time the teachers would walk away in disgust, without knowing the steps we had to follow in the process.

Ever placement is different, especially when you get the opportunity to work with a special education classroom. For this placement I had the opportunity to observe a classroom with 10th-12th+ grade. The 12th+ means that some of the students, in this case two of them, have already graduated high school and are able to be in the classroom till they are 21 years old. The classroom is a behavioral unit with severe to profound students aged 15-19. During my time in the classroom I got a better insight for the things that I could do in my classroom and the things I will not be doing and do not agree with. Throughout the placement there were times that I had to sit back and bite my tongue from some things I observed. I was able to build a connection with the teacher, Mrs. H, and one of the students in the class, by the end of my last day I was sad to leave.

     Special Education 332 (Education and Inclusion of Individuals with Special Needs) has been enlightening for me as a secondary mathematics educator. In the beginning of the semester, my feelings towards special education were those of apathy and insensitivity. I now understand that my feelings were due to my lack of knowledge and my judgment based on stereotypes.