Before this semester I did not know a lot about special education. I have learned so much about it since then. I had no idea that there was so much involved in special education. I think it is amazing that we have all of this so that we are able to help these students who need specialized help so that they can live life to their fullest potential. An “ah-ha” moment I had was I learned about all the different types of disabilities. I realized that there are so many students who need some kind of special help in order to learn and achieve in school. It is amazing how many different types of disabilities and special needs there are.

Some skills that I would like to implement into my future classroom is to teach students independent learning skills. I think these are so important to have. We need to help people with disabilities become as independent as possible. We can do this by teaching them these skills early in their childhood. I also want to implement differentiated instruction. It is a great way to meet the needs of all my students.

My philosophy has not really changed. I think it has been strengthened a lot though. I am now even more of an advocate for helping all students learn and succeed in school. I believe that all students can be successful when they are given the right tools and accommodations.

This simulation was not too bad even though it was still embarrassing. I asked for directions on how to get to a restaurant that I wanted to go to. Honestly, I found it difficult to imitate a stutter. I had to keep reminding myself to pause and repeat some sounds. While ordering I stuttered. Again it was hard to remind myself to stutter. I was so embarrassed. I already hate drawing attention to myself in any way so imitating a stutter just made it worse. The clerk was very patient with me though. It made me grateful though for being able to speak fluently.

This week I did a visual impairment simulation. This was a tough one since I already have astigmatism and am far sighted. I really gained an appreciation for my glasses. Especially when I took off my glasses for the astigmatism part I became very fatigued. For me at least, having a visual impairment affects my whole body and mind. I found it harder to focus and did not want to do much because it required to much effort from my eyes.

This week we learned about responding to student behavior. We learned about how teachers can prevent negative student behavior as well as how to reinforce good behavior. I think it is so important to know how to prevent behavior. By doing so a teacher can eliminate so many problems in classroom. It is better to be proactive instead of reactive. By preventing behaviors teachers can help all students have a more positive school experience. One technique of responding to behavior that I found interesting was extinguishing. It seems like a very passive response. I feel like teachers have to be very selective when using this approach or else the behavior could get out of hand.

This week we learned about ways to evaluate student learning for those students with disabilities. I think it is amazing how many ways there are to assess student learning and the accommodations that can be made to assure that all students are being assessed appropriately. I do not know how teachers can remember all of them. It is like they would need a sheet that listed all the different ways to accommodate all students so they could remember them all.

We also watched a presentation on visual impairments. I can relate to this since I have astigmatism and am far sighted. When I do not have my glasses on it is almost immobilizing and I don’t even want to do anything. It is really hard to do things and enjoy doing things when you cannot see properly. I got glasses when I was in kindergarten, I didn’t know I couldn’t see well until I received my first pair of glasses. I think it is important for teachers to be aware of signs that students have visual impairments because many times children do not know the difference. Not being able to see is the norm for them and they will not seek help or say anything because they don’t know that they have a problem and need help.

This week we learned about strategies for independent learning. I never knew there were that many strategies that students can learn to help them to learn. Teaching students, especially students with disabilities, these strategies helps them to build their self-advocacy and their self-determination. I think it is so amazing that not only are we able to teach students with disabilities basic knowledge in reading, math, science, etc but we are also able to help them gain those skills that will help them help themselves. They can use them throughout their education, work, and all of life.

My group also did a presentation on emotional disturbances. It was interesting to learn about that. We did not go into much detail but I still learned a lot.

This week we learned about differentiating instruction and cognitive impairments. It was cool because we also discussed differentiating instruction in one of my other classes this week which helped me a lot. One thing that stood out to me this week was all the different ways a teacher can change his or her teaching, assignments, and other things to help each student be able to succeed. It was interesting to me that most of the differentiation would not be noticeable to other students. I thought this was good so that the student does not feel bad and other students will not make fun of the student with the differentiated instruction.

This week we learned about students with special needs other than disabilities. This includes students who have ADD/ADHD, students who are gifted and talented, students from culturally diverse backgrounds, students who suffer from abuse, neglect, poverty, and substance abuse (either themselves or their parents). These are things that would normally escape one’s notice as being something that can have a negative impact on a child’s learning and education. It is very important to create a classroom environment where these students feel safe, comfortable, and accepted. It is also equally important to create a curriculum with modifications and accommodations so that every student who suffers from one or more of these conditions are able to succeed. I think it is also important to realize that as teachers we can do our best and sometimes it will still not be enough. But we shouldn’t let that discourage us, we need to keep doing our best.

This week we studied about a strategy for analyzing classroom and student needs known as INCLUDE. The INCLUDE strategy is a process used for differentiating instruction. Individually and as a group we got to use this strategy to analyze the needs of a student who was struggling in school. Part of INCLUDE is to identify the student’s strengths and potential areas of success. I really liked this because it does not just focus on fixing the weaknesses of the student but rather it focuses also on using the student’s strengths to help them progress.

One phrase that stood out to me in the textbook was “everyone in schools works with students with disabilities”. This is true. Even though I am not planning on being a special needs teacher I will still work with students with disabilities. It is so important for everyone working in the education system to informed about students with disabilities.

This week I did a learning disability simulation. I had to complete certain tasks while not being able to use words that contain “n” or “l”. The tasks I completed were ask for directions to a place and ask questions to clarify the directions and order something at a restaurant and ask questions about the order. The object of this simulation was to help me understand a little about what it would be like to have a learning disability. Speaking in this way made me slow down my speech and stumble over my words a lot. It was interesting to watch the girl who was taking my order. She filled in a lot of the words that I could not say. She was very patient. This helped me better understand the difficulty that students with learning disorders have. It will help me in my future career as a teacher to be more understanding of these students and be more willing to provide help for them.