My Professional Goals Reflection: Special Education Skills in the General Education Classroom of a Small, Rural School
by Lindsey Griffiths
In
looking back to my mindset before I began my masters degree, I need to look
back to two different times in my life. The
first 9 of my credits were a part of my teaching internship year immediately
following the completion of my undergraduate degree at Michigan State
University during the 2009-2010 school year.
I then relocated to my home state of Vermont and decided to find a
teaching job and garner some experience before continuing my degree. After a year of substitute teaching in big
schools, I got a job teaching in rural, southern Vermont. Grafton Elementary School houses
approximately 85 students K-6 with one teacher at every grade level and represents
exactly what I thought I did not want in a long-term job. I now understand that the small school
setting is where I belong and where I can make the biggest difference. Had I continued with my masters before I
found this position, I do not believe I would have chosen the same
concentration or goals.
I applied to finish my masters degree after one and a half years of teaching a 4/5 multi-age classroom at Grafton. By that time I realized that we lacked the resources available to many larger schools with one of the primary issues being a lack of space and resources for special education services. We have a very high percentage of students requiring special education services in comparison with other schools in the district and state with no dedicated special education classroom and up until this year only one special education teacher. This makes it very challenging for everyone involved to provide the highest quality services to the students who need them. Knowing this, it was easy for me to choose to concentrate on special education for my degree and choose goals in that area.
My primary goal for this program was to learn and apply skills that I could use in my general education classroom to better support my special education and lower achieving students. This goal is still applicable and appropriate for me today. I feel that the courses I chose and that were required of me allowed me to achieve this goal above and beyond what I had hoped. I have a firm understanding of the basics of special education regulations, general categories for disabilities, the types of services that can be offered, and how to more authentically and accurately assess the knowledge and learning of these students. In addition, I have been able to learn similar content with regards to children who present behavior challenges. These students also make up a large percentage of Grafton Elementary. I now have a much larger skill set to draw from when supporting children with difficult behaviors with learning and changing those inappropriate behaviors. The needs of the student population of my school have not changed drastically since I re-started classes last summer, and because I am highly committed to the children in this school and this school setting my goal is still to support all of them in whatever ways that I can, which includes utilizing special education and behavioral challenge teaching methods. The biggest change now is that I feel better prepared to do so.
I applied to finish my masters degree after one and a half years of teaching a 4/5 multi-age classroom at Grafton. By that time I realized that we lacked the resources available to many larger schools with one of the primary issues being a lack of space and resources for special education services. We have a very high percentage of students requiring special education services in comparison with other schools in the district and state with no dedicated special education classroom and up until this year only one special education teacher. This makes it very challenging for everyone involved to provide the highest quality services to the students who need them. Knowing this, it was easy for me to choose to concentrate on special education for my degree and choose goals in that area.
My primary goal for this program was to learn and apply skills that I could use in my general education classroom to better support my special education and lower achieving students. This goal is still applicable and appropriate for me today. I feel that the courses I chose and that were required of me allowed me to achieve this goal above and beyond what I had hoped. I have a firm understanding of the basics of special education regulations, general categories for disabilities, the types of services that can be offered, and how to more authentically and accurately assess the knowledge and learning of these students. In addition, I have been able to learn similar content with regards to children who present behavior challenges. These students also make up a large percentage of Grafton Elementary. I now have a much larger skill set to draw from when supporting children with difficult behaviors with learning and changing those inappropriate behaviors. The needs of the student population of my school have not changed drastically since I re-started classes last summer, and because I am highly committed to the children in this school and this school setting my goal is still to support all of them in whatever ways that I can, which includes utilizing special education and behavioral challenge teaching methods. The biggest change now is that I feel better prepared to do so.