Phase 1- Integrated Reflection For my first semester taking a full load of professional special education classes in addition to 10 hours

a week of practicum at a local elementary school, I learned a great deal about essential strategies and skills when working with students who have special needs. I spent my time for phase one in a 2nd and 3rd grade cross categorical classroom in a local elementary school. The last time I had been in an elementary school was when I was attending one, so this experience was very fresh and challenging. The classroom started the year with ten students, two paraprofessionals and one special education teacher. While other cross categorical classrooms in the school hosted only five or six students, our class was by far the biggest. There were students in the classroom with a diverse array of cultural backgrounds, personalities and special needs. The students were placed in this classroom for everything from behavioral disorders and autism to health and wellness issues. The students were all on the academic track, but they all had different strengths and skill levels that needed to be carefully addressed. Some students worked very independently, while others required a lot of guidance from either me or the paraprofessional while the teacher instructed. Throughout the semester, I presented three fun Friday lessons to the students, which usually included a short lesson, a read aloud and then a craft. I had to carefully plan how I was going to teach these lessons so that each of the students could benefit from the information in their own unique learning style. I also learned the importance of setting the tone before beginning to teach a lesson, especially for children at this age. As I was preparing the lesson, I quickly realized that the kids werent going to care about what I had to say about the pilgrims and Native Americans on Thanksgiving unless I made it sound like the coolest thing in the world. So I pulled out some of that intense enthusiasm I had learned from years of being a camp

counselor, and we had a blast learning about the holiday and making the fun Friday craft. (This lesson I taught on Thanksgiving traditions can be found on the Course/Featured work page). I had taken an assessment class the previous semester and during the semester, I was learning about different ways to collect and analyze data, but I was very new at implementing it or evaluating it effectively. I worked with my cooperating teacher to see how she collected data and what she did with what she learned from it regarding math and reading (the periods of the day that I during which I did my practicum). I learned the importance and usefulness of taking data correctly and consistently in order to deliver instruction to students in a meaningful and comprehensive manner, as well as providing necessary interventions in areas the students struggled in. I also got my first taste on the unpleasant task of giving students a state standardized test that was several grades higher than their current reading and math levels, which was really and sadly hard on the kids. During the time that I gave baseline assessments and developed instructional programs for two particular students, I got to know them both fairly well and built a rapport with them as the semester progressed. I learned how to applaud their successes appropriately as well as kindly deliver constructive criticism. I had made a Good Work! chart for one of my students for a Managing the Learning Environment assignment, but ended up implementing the chart for both my students and it proved to be more effective for the child that it initially was not intended for. If the students only had to be redirected to their work three times or less during the work period, they got a sticker for the day on their chart. For the little girl I worked with, I learned her love for princesses and bought a sticker book full of her favorites as an incentive to complete her daily work. This proved to be a very effective incentive and I used it throughout the rest of the semester.

Working with the special education teacher and the paraprofessionals to develop lessons and instructional programs that would have a positive impact on academic areas that the students struggled with taught me a lot about what it meant to be a young professional in the school system and the effect we have as leaders of a classroom. I became more comfortable in front of a classroom of students and different strategies to classroom manage while facilitating a fun, safe and effective learning environment. The special education teacher divided the students into groups between me and the other two paraprofessionals to allow for a more individualized learning environment for the students math and reading intervention programs. The students would rotate between the adults in the classroom and I soon learned the different approaches to take when working with each different student. While I did spend more time with the two students I did my instructional programs for, being in a classroom with only 7 students (3 students left the class for various reasons) by the end of the semester made our room a very small and intertwined group. I also learned to appreciate the tasks of collecting and analyzing data on a student in order to develop an instructional program for them that would function according to their skill level and bring them back up to grade level standards. Many of the children came to school distracted by shifts in their environments (such as a switch up of meds) on a daily basis, so one of the challenges in this room was to do what was best for each child not only academically but socially and emotionally. Between implementing effective instruction and caring for the students nonacademic needs, I learned that a lot of patience, understanding and creativity can go along way in a very dynamic special education classroom.