EDUC612 intro

Three interesting things this week:

1) I work in an LRC class with students with a variety of behavioral and learning disablities. Immediately I noticed that I was more aware of my own presence, tone, and attitude as the small behaviors arose in the class room.

2) I noticed myself thinking more as a special education teacher/case manager as I observed other teachers working with our SPED students. Often I am focused on supporting our students immediate needs but I found myself thinking deeper, trying to find ideas and methods to inspire and motivate some of our tougher students toward more long term goals rather than just managiing their class room behavior and finishing a modified task.

3) I have noticed that special education teachers spend far less time preparing interesting and usefull lessons than many regular education teachers. I understand that the daunting leagal paper work is a limiting factor in this area.

Questions/Wondering

I am wondering if I can find a balance between meeting the legal requriements and still create interesting lessons.

Behaviroal classrooms are may area of interest. I have experience working with kids in behaviors in a reactionary and managing, after the behavior, setting. I want to learn more about pre teaching behavior management strategies.  How will this goal fit into my classroom schedule, teaching style, etc. ?

Currently I work in two inclusion classes. I agree with this philosophy but I already see teachers stepping on each others toes. I could see myself in an LRC role in the future. the inclusion model isnot going away. How do teachers collaborate together to teach effective lessons?

I see special education as a place where I can make a small difference in the lives of individual students, make inclusion classes better for main stream teachers working with sped students, improve the over all school climate toward students with disabilities and hopefully impact the greater community outside of school.