Lesson 4, Chapter 3

Reading through the chapter this week gave me some great insights into collaboration and how important it is for a Special Education teacher. Building good relationships with those you work with and the parents of those who teach can make or break different situations. It is important to make sure that those who you are collaborating with have the chance to speak up too.

This chapter discusses the prerequisites for collaboration which are: reflecting on your personal belief system, refining your interaction skills, and contributing to a supportive environment. These three prerequisites are great helpers to get you to a stage of collaboration that all of us hope to achieve. As a teacher it is important that I know and understand what is going on, that I can communicate effectively with other members of my collaboration group, and also that I do what I can to create a good environment for others to be around.

As we worked in heterogeneous groups and did a mock trial this week it really showed me how much collaboration is needed to be successful and do what is best for the student. The school district and family both had to work together and figure out a solution with the help of the hearing officer.

Also. today doing a mock IEP showed very well how collaboration is used to best help the student who may have special needs. In these meetings all participants must work together and collaborate together to decide the best outcome for the student. As I participated in this mock IEP it opened my eyes more to what I will be doing a lot of as a future educator. I need to do all I can and know as much as possible to collaborate with other professionals and parents.

I especially liked in the chapter when it talked about working effectively with parents. It is essential that the parents are involved in what is happening with their student. The parent need to be understood but they also need to be educated in what is going on. Having parent conferences and open communication is a great way to maintain good collaboration with parents and it helps them so that they understand what is going on. Today during the mock IEP in my group, the specialists and school faculty and staff worked together and made sure that the parents were understanding what they were discussing. They made sure to ask how the parents felt and what their opinion was. This helped the IEP run smooth and everyone walked away happy and aware of the results.

Co-teaching is another big subject I learned about this week, The textbook discussed different methods of co-teaching that help you work collaboratively with another person. There are many different types of co-teaching. Usually this includes a special education teacher and a general education teacher that work together to teach their students and help them get the most out of their learning.

 

Working collaboratively with others can help you better find and identify the problem and also help you find the best solution. Sometimes multiple pairs of eyes are better than just one pair. As I am preparing to become a teacher it is important that I learn now how to collaborate well with those I work with and interact with. Having heterogeneous groups in class is a good way to practice this because each different major will have a different opinion and perspective on what we are learning, but we all work together to find common ideas and to learn the content to the best of our ability.

Lesson Three: Special Needs Law and Services

Going into the field of Special Education, it is important to know what goes into it. This includes knowing all about the law and the different services that all come together to make up the field of Special Needs. The last couple of weeks in class we have discussed many times about IDEA and what that entails.

This week I want to talk about how the different principles of IDEA and how important it is for me to know them. As a teacher of young children, I will be a big part of helping those with disabilities get the help they need as they need it. In my heterogeneous group we have talked about the treatment of special needs people before IDEA and other laws were put into place. We discussed that even with all of the changes that have happened, there is still room for improvement where special needs are concerned in education. We may have come a long way from where we were but everyday we can begin and continue to do things that will make a greater difference in the education of those who have disabilities.

There are 6 principles of IDEA. One of those is the LRE or Least Restrictive Environment. This is important because more than just being a place, it also includes the services that are given in an educational environment. There are two prongs (Criteria) that go along with the LRE: 1) did the school do all they could to help keep student in the same setting, and 2) did the school do all they could to keep the student with their peers? As a teacher in special education, it is important to remember that each student needs to be put in the LRE that best fits for them. In order to do this, a teacher must work with the parents and the parents must give their consent to allow for any change or testing to occur.

Another principle and big part of IDEA is Free Appropriate Public Education or FAPE for short. This principle includes giving free and equal education for all students regardless of their physical state; meaning that if a student has to go to a special school or needs anything specific to learn, the school will provide it.

One of the most important things I got from this chapter and lesson is that there are many services and people that go into making sure each student is given an equal education that will best fit their needs. As teachers, it is important to remember that the parents must be notified of any change or any type of test is given to the student; so building a relationship with parents of your students is key to having things run smoother and to give the child the best learning environment and education. I have worked in a special needs preschool and on a special needs bus as an aide, and I can see how much work goes into making sure these laws and acts are being met in schools. As we have gone through this lesson, it is clear to me that knowing and keeping up on special education law and changes to them are key to being the best teacher possible.

Lesson 2, Chapter 1

Learning about SPED Law this week in class has been really beneficial. I know that going into Special Education will add to the amount of paperwork that I have to do, but I believe that it is well worth it if it means help and protection for those with disabilities.

Seeing the videos about Serbia really made me think about how important laws for special needs are. I was so sad about how bad the circumstances were for those people in Serbia, it isn't right for them to be closed off from the world and stuck inside a facility their whole lives. Everyone deserves the chance to receive an education and to get the help needed to rise to their potential and the laws we have help protect those rights.

In our heterogeneous group in class we discussed these videos and how we felt after watching them. We felt that the reason for many of these conditions was because many people do not know and do not have the training needed to work with the patients living in those facilities. We all thought that if there were more laws put into place, then more knowledge and training on how to deal with those that have special needs could take place.

While learning more about our philosophies and having the chance to rewrite them it was easy for me to see that my thoughts and philosophies will constantly be changing. As I gain more knowledge and work more with education, I will change and so will my philosophies.

The court cases we learned about made it easy to see how much involvement different people have in special education law. Brown VS. The Board of Education was a really remarkable case and one of the most known court cases involving education and how it changed. It made me see just how much I need to be an advocate for these things. I, as a future educator, need to be strong in my opinion to help others and be a strong advocate in what I believe to be true. As I thought about this case over the week, it was clear to me that "separate is inherently unequal" is a very true statement. As an educator I do not want to hold others back because they learn differently or at a slower pace, I want to be able to help them learn their best in a setting that is the same as everyone else. This case and the others we read about and studied show that the laws are very important to know so that help can be given to those who need it.