Reflection On Special Education Process

I enjoyed this 20-hour field experience, special education has always been a passion of mine. This gave me the opportunity to see first-hand what my future teaching job could look like. I noticed there was numerous amounts of paper work that must be filled out for each student that is in the special education classroom. There is also a lot of data scores that must be collected and used when determining a student’s IEP. Time management is very important when creating a daily schedule to meet the student’s needs.

By implementing this idea in Area Two schools to support special education students, we will create a more data driven approach to increasing student achievement. By following this idea the team will also do a better job of implementing professional development and mentorships that greatly increase teacher effectiveness. The idea will also increase understanding of the diversity of the schools and promote community involvement by establishing more open communication with the parents and the community to support their students’ needs. The leadership teams will work together to set goals and objectives to support achievement in all grade levels. They will develop a framework for good communication between teachers and leaders so there is

The leadership of the special education director is an essential role in the educational realm. Two of

The problem initially begins with the evaluation process. Federal law offers little guidance in the process of assessment and referral for special education services (Vallas, 2009). This leaves teachers, to complete the evaluation and referral process on their own. Teachers already have a large workload, and often times they will rush through the process or inadequately fill out the evaluation and referrals due to timely matters or the lack of knowledge on the process. Bolden in his dissertation states, “The special education decision-making process is one in which a student is referred, often for vague and subjective reasons.”

Special education teachers remain in high demand. Although there are numerous special education teaching jobs, there aren't enough individuals in the field to fill these positions. Children suffering from mental or physical disabilities often need special learning method and require more time and energy from their instructors. Currently, approximately ten percent of individuals working in this field lack the necessary credentials, and states are authorizing temporary licenses. Teachers with a temporary license are then given a predetermined period of time to complete their license. As the need for teachers in this field is expected to grow by approximately 35 percent over the coming decade, those wishing to become a special education teacher will find they have numerous job opportunities.

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

Respond to the prompts below (no more than 8 single-spaced pages, including prompts) by typing your responses within the brackets following each prompt. Do not delete or alter the prompts. Commentary pages exceeding the maximum will not be scored. Attach the assessment you used to evaluate student performance (no more than 5 additional pages) to the end of this file. If you submit feedback as a video or audio clip and your comments to focus students cannot be clearly heard, attach transcriptions of your comments (no more than 2 additional pages) to the end of this file. These pages do not count toward your page total.

The key to any successful school district is the administration. Teachers essentially provide structure, organization, and the background of a child’s future. To educate students with learning disabilities, it is essential that the staff has the training and resources needed for the appropriate people, place, and time (Lazarus) (What is Inclusion, 2001, n.p). It is unrealistic to expect that regular education teachers will always be aware of the latest research or be able to readily adapt the school's

According to the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities, 89% of children with moderate learning difficulties, 24% of children with severe learning difficulties and 18% of children with profound multiple learning difficulties are educated in mainstream schools. Something so prevalent must surely be effective. However, that is not always the case. It’s disheartening watching these mainstreamed students struggle socially and academically. Either looked over or coddled by general education teachers; teachers without the proper training, no less, expected to properly instruct these students with intellectual disabilities. Kids that are always expected too much of or doubted indefinitely. These are the children that don’t belong in a general education classroom. While mainstreaming, the act of blending general education and special education classes, can possess benefits for both general education and special education pupils, it should not be implemented in school systems as it creates a more disruptive environment that campaigns for inhibited learning. But that’s only the inauguration of the series of issues present here.

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, individuals with disabilities were granted the right to receive free and appropriate public education back in 1975. () Unfortunately, the education most of these individuals receive is that of 1975. Special education programs are dying due to the lack of funding and the lack of fundamental research on the disorders that are rapidly increasing in today’s society. It seems, as the number of children diagnosed with mental disorders rises the number of programs that aid these children in the education system declines. It is estimated that 1 in 68 children in America are affected by autism alone each year. () Most of these children will be pushed through the education system without receiving proper education on essential skills that will aid them later in their lives. Consequently, these children will be forced into adulthood without the proper tools needed to succeed. The conversation on how to implement improved programs into schools for children with autism is ongoing and is a constant struggle as the funding for said programs is dwindling rapidly. Parents and teachers alike demand for change as it is these children’s right to receive an education that will help them later in life. Two articles that add to the conversation are an article from EBSCOhost--“All Children can and Should Have the Opportunity to Learn” and an article from TIME--“Autism: Special Education Isn’t Giving My Child Life Skills.”. Each article individually provides solutions to the issues the education system faces with the implementation of programs specifically designed for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, however the TIME article by Katherine Sanford provides a singular look at the issue from a parent’s perspective and the EBSCOhost article by Erinn Finke provides a compiled look at the issue from educators who worked directly with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. (Should I add a thesis statement here or is the previous statement good enough to be the thesis? Should I make a statement of effectiveness?)

This past term I had the privilege of observing a couple special education elementary classes. They brought me new insight on the special education world as I had never observed a special education classroom before. Being able to observe these classes helped me add resources and tools to my teacher toolkit and also allowed me to build relationships in my local school district.

     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.

Throughout sequence three, we touched on two main topics: policy and assessing diverse students. In the policy module, we focused on learning about policies that will affect all students, including minorities. We went over policies like No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and saw how these policies and others like them played out in the classroom. The objective of the class was to learn how policy affects teachers and schools at the micro and macro level. During TLSC 220, we learned about assessing and supporting students with diverse needs, mostly English language learners (ELL) and children with special needs. In the ELL section, we were assigned a student who was identified as ELL and assessed them on their

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.

Throughout my time at Parkway, I have encountered many different situations where I step in and engage with the students. I find it very important to work one on one with the students that seem to be struggling with a task. At Parkway I was in the Physical Education class observing classes ranging from Kindergarten to third grade. The skill level was very diverse when it came to different units.