Special Education Reflection Essay

Special Education 332 (Education and Introduction of Individuals with Special Needs) has been informative for me as a secondary mathematics educator. Initially of the semester, my emotions towards exceptional education had been those of apathy and insensitivity. I now recognize that my thoughts were due to my not enough knowledge and my common sense based on stereotypes. I always understood that producing fun of students with learning disabilities was incorrect.

However , I never experienced that introduction of special education pupils in general education classes was plausible or made sense. I experienced that unique education college students belonged inside their own classes; and that is why we certainly have special education educators. Like a prospective extra mathematics educator, I felt that it was unfair that I would have special education students inside my classes. I would personally rationalize my personal attitude simply by saying that I actually signed up to show normal pupils, and that the unique education pupils were not my own problem or responsibility.

I did not want to handle them. Some see these people as those who seek meaning through learning. As a constructivist, my target as an educator is to offer students with meaning by simply imparting know-how. As I reflect on my emotions towards unique education students, I ask myself why do I not really see them in the same way.

If they are students too, why should i discriminate against them? Why is it, when I think about teaching learners with learning disabilities, I actually get uncomfortable? It is as a result of my insufficient knowledge of college students with learning disabilities. It was not till I saw film production company (before our class) I Am Sam, my thoughts about people with learning disabilities started to modify.

The movie transformed my perception that emotionally challenged folks are strange naturally because they do not seem to understand when people talk to them and is different from myself. The movie confirmed me that they can do know information, include feelings?nternet site do, and many importantly, i have mistakenly stereotyped their very own differences. This system not only gave me the knowledge Required to understand pupils with learning disabilities, I had been also capable to empathize with these learners through lively participation in the sensitivity activities.

Participating in the actions during each of our class was eye starting; I was capable of have a taste of what it was just like for people with learning disabilities. I always believed that there was something wrong with people with learning problems, and thus categorized them because abnormal. The actions made me understand that with their learning disability aside, they were simply no different from me.

People with learning disabilities had their pros and cons, and I had mine. Those activities, without fail, made me frustrated. I needed to eyelash out in the world, and I always considered why students with learning disabilities had emotional challenges. I reached realize that people who have learning problems live with their particular disabilities for the rest of their lives. That these tenderness activities were only temporary for people, but it was reality for those dealing with the disabilities.

This is just what changed myself the most, noticing this straightforward truth. Through my years at Lehigh, I have proclaimed that I possess a passion to train, to show pupils that math concepts is not so difficult, and that they have the ability to understand math concepts. However , in regards to special education students, my own philosophy altered, due to their learning disability. I had been ignorant to the special education movement of inclusion, because I terrifying the idea of instructing students who were not normal.

I use the word normal in quotations mainly because I now understand that special education students are like anybody else, and that all of us, special and general education students equally, are all typical. There is nothing wrong with particular education learners. Special education students are individuals who wish to learn.

My own feelings towards special education students have changed through my therapies psychology category. In the class I learned that every scholar, whether they will be homosexuals, rape victims, Judaism, Christian, or perhaps special education students, will be students. Just about every student must not be discriminated due to who they are; rather they should be treated as children who need to master. I was annoyed to find out that students, who had special requirements, were incorporated into classes where teachers are not trained or perhaps educated and for that reason did not understand how to instruct these kinds of students.

I actually strongly think that the particular education movement of addition will succeed only if general education teachers become aware of what it means to have learning disabilities and understand the concept of universal style. One of the greatest equipment that this category has offered me is definitely universal design and style. Universal design for learning is a procedure for with the needs of all students in the classroom and designing curriculum, instruction, and evaluation with sufficient versatility so that each student benefits (Turnbull, Turnbull, Shank, and Smith, 2004). I will be unable to teach my personal general education class with special education students in it, by using universal style to teach everybody.

I believe that the tool is the most powerful one which will advance the addition of special education students in general education classrooms movements. Fortunately, I had been placed in a classroom (for my pre-intern teaching experience) where there was obviously a student who learning problems, and was included in an over-all education classroom. I was capable to experience having a special education student within a general education classroom. Through this knowledge, I was in a position to get to know the student, and found that he was an awesome kid.

I liked him so much because irrespective of his IEP’s, he impressed me along with his determination to learn and receive good marks. He was a particular education pupil who searched for meaning through learning. My transformation became most obvious to me in writing my proposal letter. I desired to condemn the publisher with the Website and provide him a bit of my mind.

Just how dare he condone such blasphemy? Truly does he certainly not see the harming affects that his Site has on the special education community? What I did not discover was that I used to be just like him once. I used to be also uninformed and apathetic towards learners with learning disabilities.

Despite the fact that, I understand exceptional education learners better than I had developed in the past and empathize with them, I need to be careful about how I instruct others. How can expect other folks to listen to me and change their views basically do it in a manner that makes them protecting immediately? I must be sympathetic towards all those once within my position, and must communicate myself to produce a change in their particular view of students with learning problems. Furthermore, I must not become disillusioned in thinking that I possess learned every thing about students with learning disabilities and that I have performed a complete one-eighty in my look at of these learners.

There was several times where My spouse and i caught myself using the term retarded, in describing a thing that was unintelligent. I must recognize that my care towards this problem will only grow if I carry on and find out more about learning disabilities, to watch what I declare, and to be mindful when aiming to teach other folks to change their views. General, I must declare that I have been completely blessed by taking this course.

I feel that I possess grown over the course of the students, where We once stereotyped students with learning afflictions to understanding students with disabilities. Many people judge and sort what they do certainly not understand, and through that ignorance can be birthed. I actually am thankful that I have taken this course as I are getting to be aware of my own ignorance and still have a much deeper understanding and acceptance of people with learning disabilities, inside and outside in the classroom.

Referrals Turnbull, Ur., Turnbull, A., Shank, Meters., Smith, S i9000. J. (2004). Exceptional Lives: Special Education in Today’s Schools. Uppr Saddle Lake, NJ: Pearson Education.