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.