Victoria Dickerson Summary

Teaching students with exceptional abilities requires funding, training and planning. Being in a regular classroom with children from various cultures, ethnic backgrounds and intellectual ability help students learn how to work together toward a common goal: reduce discrimination and stereotyping people with physical and mental limitations. Instructional strategies that break the work down so everyone learns better can improve education as well as reduce cost. This is achieved by including special education students in environments that will allow them to develop normal social interactions as well as receive specific attention to their learning needs. ("What is Special Education”)

As we grow in education, it always seems as in there is someone that is left behind. Educators need to be able to reach out as many students as possible, but some may argue that it does not feel this way. Often, students with special education needs are considered to be too difficult to teach, or simple just a “lost cause.” The way we interact and care for all students not only shows in each student, but it shows in the impact it has on the community as a whole.

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) identify expectations of what the students will be able to achieve by the end of the school year. The standards provide teachers and curriculum developers the opportunity to use their best findings and available tools to meet these ends (California Department of Education, 2013). The reader needs to understand that the teaching principles implemented by individuals who received extensive training in college-based teacher training programs in order to understand how the CCSS identifies and supports According to Artiles (2003) the Individual with Disability Act (IDEA) 1990 changed the classroom structure in the united states dramatically in the past thirty years. The refinement of the special education

This course has such impact knowledge about exceptional students. It helps teachers who choose to be in special education field understand most common categories that students have, and what kinds of teaching strategies teacher shuld use to able teach them.

Wehmeyer (n.d.) explains that there has been what he describes as three waves of educational practices for individuals with disabilities. In short, these waves, or generations, have moved the ideas and opinions of educating children with disabilities from the use of a functional model to one that now focuses on instruction in the general education classroom. The third generation, educations current focus, first “presumes a student’s presence in the general education classroom” (Wehmeyer, n.d., para. 21). This is not to say that functional skills are no longer necessary or that providing a more restrictive setting is no longer needed. As mentioned earlier, IDEA (2004) requires that individual with disabilities be provided a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) and also requires that they are provided access to the general curriculum. What this change in practice does is move the idea of educating children with disabilities with their non-disabled peers from simply providing access to, first, including them in the general education setting (Wehmeyer, n.d., p. 23). What most people do not realize are the positive effects that this has on the rate of learning for children with

Over the past few decades, education has dramatically changed. Educational laws were made to protect individuals with disabilities and to provide free and appropriate public education (FAPE) for ALL students. No longer are there institutions or special schools where disabled students are sent. Today we must educate all students and for most teachers, these exceptional students are in their regular education classrooms right alongside their same aged peers. How do you include and teach these students? Throughout this course, you will learn how to meet the needs of exceptional students, which will not only enhance your own teaching but enhance the lives of exceptional students.

Observation experiences in the classroom provide the opportunity to the general education teacher and a special education teacher team approach to serving students in the inclusion setting. In the collaborative classroom, students with disabilities should go unnoticed and seem to flow along with the rest of the classroom. The collaborative teacher knows the modifications that a group of students with disabilities need. She works alongside a general education teacher, even helping regular education students when needed. An instructional team approach provides the outlook that these students aren’t any less capable than the rest of the general population in the

As an educator my beliefs regarding education and my overall student teaching experiences go way beyond the basic stand and delivery mode. Student teaching consists of rigorous lesson planning, creating innovative ideas, and finding ways to deliver the information so it will reach each student in the classroom regardless of his or her disability. In fact, collaborative special education is a field that crosses all borders; therefore as a teacher it is indicative that one creates the proper atmosphere for each student on a case-by-case basis. Having afforded the opportunity to student teach allows a teacher to experience the responsibility to plan for all class periods, and even make modifications for the

Today’s modern classroom is diverse. This creates a number of challenges for teachers who need to create a balance of high standards while meeting the needs of their students. The U.S. Department of Education reported that almost ninety-six percent of general education teachers have students in their classroom with learning disabilities. This report also showed that there are over six million students with disability classifications in the United States (26th Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities

When two or more people work together to achieve a common goal they form a collaborative team. With collaborative teaming student with a disability can be included in a general education environment. Collaborative teaming glue inclusive schools together by serving all students despite their abilities. In collaborative teaming special educational programs are planned and implemented to support individual students (King-Sear et al., 2015). Mrs. Smith and her paraeducator will fill many functions of an inclusive program such as facilitating social interaction among the students. As a team the two teachers will assist each other in the reduction of barriers in practicing inclusive programs, encourage each other, building a strong peer support as well as designing a well-coordinated plan to ease student translation between classes, grade school, college and job and in embedding related services in the school day.

The learning disabilities can prevent the students from comprehending the course information, cause them to experience intense frustrations with the inability to quickly grasp concepts, and the students often struggle to perform at reasonable levels during testing assessments. The difficult challenge and overwhelming frustration can in turn impel many overaged special education students to quit and drop out of school. However, tutoring programs can relieve this problem. The school can provide experienced tutors and exceptional mentors to assist and encourage the struggling students. For instance, the tutors can concentrate on certain subjects or concepts that are challenging the students, spend sufficient time addressing and clarifying those issues, and utilize advanced resources to help the students most effectively understand and apply the information in the given courses. The tutors can also provide assistance to prepare the special education students for impending examinations (Allensworth and Easton, 2007). Thus, tutoring programs can help reduce the dropout rates by instilling the students with confidence, motivating them to continually improve, and by providing direct assistance that can help them understand difficult concepts and succeed in their

The competencies that I will focus on throughout this paper are developmentally appropriate practice, special needs strategies, and modeling fairness and respect. Several of the examples that I observed fell under the same practice. The content of the video presented a classroom teacher who actively participated with his classroom of students. I am beyond amazed at how interactive the teacher remained throughout the entire video. While watching the video, I learned there several aspects of learning that can be built into one center.

Special education teachers are trained to work with children who have a wide range of disabilities. One of the primary responsibilities of a special education teacher is to assess her students' cognitive abilities, and modifies the standard age-appropriate curriculum to create a custom plan for the student. This plan is called an individual education program(IEP). An IEP often includes a number of social and emotional development goals as well as specific academic areas to be taught. The special education teacher’s core task is to meet each of the goals established in the students’ IEPs. In some cases, the special education teacher is located in a separate classroom. When this is the case the teacher will creates lessons geared to meet the objectives of the students’ IEPs. In many instances, special education students are placed in regular classrooms. In that situation, the special education teacher attends classes with her students. She often will work with students on life skills and behavior modification techniques as well. Skills that special educational teachers should possess include, better than average stress management, great multi-tasking abilities, quick thinking, and creative problem solving. A special education teacher must be able to think outside the box and develop an array of teaching methods and techniques to meet the needs of each individual student. Special education requires a vast amount of detailed record keeping, so it is essential for these teachers

Schools use many different strategies to help students receiving Special Education services in order to succeed in general education settings. Some of the strategies are assistive technology and modifications (“Understanding”). Assistive technology is any type of software, equipment, or system that can be used to improve the education of a special needs student. Modifications are lessons or sources that are changed to meet the level of needs for each student. Each student has different needs, ability levels, learning methods, and how they understand what they are being taught. Different instructions and individual teaching methods are needed for each student. This is another different, sometimes difficult, task Special Education teachers have to do compared to General Education teachers. It is harder in multiage classrooms (Ferry). Teacher may also have to use special software to create lesson plans and IEP’s. Technology is becoming a huge part in teaching special needs students. Soon, the education field will have more than the strategies they do now.

The modern classroom has many challenges that face it. Shrinking budgets, less parental involvement, higher expectations, and growing class sizes, just to name a few. If this list was not daunting enough you also have the special needs students that have an array problems in your classroom that need specialized attention, lessons and seating. There are many forms of diverse learners from students who suffer from ADHD to physical disabilities to students with autism to ones that are bullied in school. There are so many things going on in our students lives we sometimes forget they have lives, pressures and disabilities that affect their performance and attitude in our class that have a profound impact on how they learn. For this paper I