Week 3 Reflections

This week was midterm for Special Education interns. I have had a great experience with this school and the students. I have learned so much about special education and myself.
Something that I have learned about myself would have to be my ability to keep control over high school students, even when the class is not my class. Today, September 9, 2010 I had to cover a class for another teacher. I found that it was a very difficult class. They did not want to listen to me, nor did they respect me. I felt very helpless and confused because I was not sure of her rules or how things are ran. I wanted them to complete tasks without being defiant. I had students constantly not listen to me and put their head down. I felt that this was something that was an uphill battle, there was no way they were going to really listen to me. When I had a discussion with them about needing to read and follow directions the students said things that were very frightening. I was very shock to hear some of these life long plans. I did however hold my ground, I continued to monitor the students, I made sure that I let them know that I would be sharing the information their teacher. They were not phased by this, but they did understand that it was not okay to "walk over me" because I am a student teacher.

Part of my experience has given me experience that I need to gain first hand. I could read from a text book for several days, but wont be as meaningful.

The state department came to the school this week and I learned a lot of rules that need to be followed to make the school an effective environment for students.

Throughout these weeks I have been working very closely with my teacher and the counselors and other teachers to make sure that all of the students are in the classes that they need to be. I feel that this has given me a great insight on how the school system runs.

Overall, my first week of lessons written by me, has went really well. I started research with my civics class and they really are getting the hang of research. I have made modifications as we are going so that they will have the best opportunities to learn.
The English and reading classes are coming together. We are finding the reading levels and interest of the students so we can get into the programs more.
I feel that this program is really going to be helpful for these students. I am sad that I wont get to see some of the progress of the students, but I am sure that there will be great strives with some of the students reading and language art skills.