Know Yourself
by Lindsey Griffiths
Throughout the course of my graduate education I have had one overarching goal: to learn about special education teaching practices and behavior management techniques for challenging students that can be applied in the general education elementary classroom. I am in my third year of teaching in a very small, rural school in southern Vermont that has a high percentage of student with special education (or borderline special education) needs as well as students presenting with difficult behaviors. Due to the size and resources available to my school it has been challenging to meet the needs of all these students through 'traditional' means, such as the special education department or self-contained classrooms. I felt that it was very important for me to develop a stronger foundation of knowledge of current best practices in how to work with these students in my general education classroom in order to help meet their needs with the support of other expert professionals. I knew that I had garnered some of the basic skills and methodologies throughout my undergraduate education, but I also knew from the time that I decided to continue my education through achieving a master's degree that this was an area in which I wanted to grow, and therefore special education became the focus of my graduate program.
In addition to the general needs of my school influencing my decision on concentrations, the timing of me re-entering the program was based on another specific factor: the class I knew I would have during the 2013-2014 school year. I had been switched from teaching a fourth/fifth grade classroom for two years to teaching third grade and not only was it my first year at a new grade level, I knew that this class was likely to present some fairly serious behavior issues. During their second grade year their teacher had to unexpectedly leave for medical reasons after Thanksgiving break and was unable to return for the duration of the school year. For a variety of reasons, a long-term replacement was not able to be hired until after the February vacation. Therefore, during the time between those two vacations, approximately three months, the class did not have an official teacher. Daily substitutes were hired, some of the, able to stay for several weeks and others for a few days. There was very little consistency and nobody I charge of curriculum planning. It took the efforts of almost every individual in the school to keep that classroom I some degree of order. A result of these issues was that a class of students that was already likely to present challenging behaviors became nearly unmanageable. One student became likely to run out of the classroom and/or building on a nearly daily basis, others would become excessively angry at the least provocation, and others would shut down, cry, or throw temper tantrums. I knew that I would have my work cut out for me helping this group to find their equilibrium again, and although I felt fairly confident in my skill set, I also felt the time was right to continue my master's program and strengthen my skill set in order to be as effective and influential as possible.
In addition to the general needs of my school influencing my decision on concentrations, the timing of me re-entering the program was based on another specific factor: the class I knew I would have during the 2013-2014 school year. I had been switched from teaching a fourth/fifth grade classroom for two years to teaching third grade and not only was it my first year at a new grade level, I knew that this class was likely to present some fairly serious behavior issues. During their second grade year their teacher had to unexpectedly leave for medical reasons after Thanksgiving break and was unable to return for the duration of the school year. For a variety of reasons, a long-term replacement was not able to be hired until after the February vacation. Therefore, during the time between those two vacations, approximately three months, the class did not have an official teacher. Daily substitutes were hired, some of the, able to stay for several weeks and others for a few days. There was very little consistency and nobody I charge of curriculum planning. It took the efforts of almost every individual in the school to keep that classroom I some degree of order. A result of these issues was that a class of students that was already likely to present challenging behaviors became nearly unmanageable. One student became likely to run out of the classroom and/or building on a nearly daily basis, others would become excessively angry at the least provocation, and others would shut down, cry, or throw temper tantrums. I knew that I would have my work cut out for me helping this group to find their equilibrium again, and although I felt fairly confident in my skill set, I also felt the time was right to continue my master's program and strengthen my skill set in order to be as effective and influential as possible.
One of the courses I took that I found to be highly influential was Behavior Management in the Inclusive Classroom (CEP 841). I enrolled in this course in the summer of 2013 with my upcoming class specifically in mind. As stated in the title of the course, its intended purpose was to teach strategies that would help teachers to manage a student or group of students that presented challenging behaviors. We were taught about several major strategies and tools that could be useful including Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), how to conduct a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA), and the development and implementation of Behavior Intervention Plans (BIP), all with the focus on behavior prevention rather than reactions to problem behaviors. My culminating project for this course was a special topics presentation in which I developed a PowerPoint presentation that delved deeply into BIPs, why they should be used, and effective strategies and resources that should be incorporated into their design. While FBAs are extremely helpful for identifying the specific problem behaviors for certain students, the antecedents to them, and teacher reactions to them with how effective the student responses are, BIPs represent the ‘plan of attack’ a teacher or team of teachers will use to support the student in changing those behaviors and making more positive choices. Both of these activities are connected to steps or tiers in programs such as PBIS. Essentially, by correctly identifying the behaviors and causes of them, we can more effectively use programs like PBIS to develop BIPs. This information has been vitally important throughout the past school year and will continue to be influential both for me individually and for my school as I move forward in my teaching career.
Educating Students with Challenging Behaviors (CEP 832) was another course that covered similar content, but using a different lens. This class included instruction on the psychological and behavioral characteristics of these students in addition to effective, research-based strategies for working with them and their families. We discussed several major categories of difficult behaviors including aggressive, impulsive and active, shy and isolated, and failure oriented behaviors. The culminating assignment of this course was to use a student example from your own practice who exhibits one of the behaviors covered in the course as a case study and design an intervention plan to support that student's learning and ameliorate their behavior. Not only did this class allow me to practice implementing some of the strategies taught in this course as well as previous courses, it allowed me to see how they function in the real world for real children. I was able to discover certain methods that were very effective for both me and my case study student that helped to lessen her difficult behaviors and gave her greater access to her education because of it. This course positively impacted my teaching practices and the learning opportunities of my students before it had even been completed. Now, having already used some of the content taught in this course and received feedback on my implementation, both from course instructors and my peers at school, I feel better prepared to continue using the knowledge with future children in my classroom.
Content Area Instruction for Students with Mild Disabilities (CEP 842) was the course I found to include the most new and useful information for teaching students with special education or borderline special education needs in my general education classroom. The use of the special educators and their time in my building is often solely dedicated to the children’s abilities to read, write, and compute basic operations in mathematics. They are often left to fend for themselves or with the minimal support available in the general education classroom outside of those content areas, topics such as science and social studies. There are also many students who do not qualify to receive a high level of service due to the comparatively extreme needs of other students in the school. As the general education teacher responsible for differentiating to meet the educational needs of all of the children in my class for all subjects, I found this task to be extremely difficult in my current teaching situation. This class specifically covered instruction methods for students with mild disabilities that may or may not qualify to receive special education services in the content areas of reading, writing, and mathematics in addition to the use of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) teaching model, collaborative planning, content enhancement, secondary and transition services, and creating a classroom environment that supports the academic and social success of all students. I was also provided with the opportunity to work with two of my fellow classmates to develop a three day professional development program that could be administered for a group of general education teachers. My group chose to focus on implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) through a UDL perspective. My district only began to implement the CCSS standards for instruction last year, so they were still fairly new to me. Because they represent a significant jump in the expectation of abilities for students I felt this was an important content area to focus on for my own improvement in knowledge and ability to teach.
Content Area Instruction for Students with Mild Disabilities (CEP 842) was the course I found to include the most new and useful information for teaching students with special education or borderline special education needs in my general education classroom. The use of the special educators and their time in my building is often solely dedicated to the children’s abilities to read, write, and compute basic operations in mathematics. They are often left to fend for themselves or with the minimal support available in the general education classroom outside of those content areas, topics such as science and social studies. There are also many students who do not qualify to receive a high level of service due to the comparatively extreme needs of other students in the school. As the general education teacher responsible for differentiating to meet the educational needs of all of the children in my class for all subjects, I found this task to be extremely difficult in my current teaching situation. This class specifically covered instruction methods for students with mild disabilities that may or may not qualify to receive special education services in the content areas of reading, writing, and mathematics in addition to the use of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) teaching model, collaborative planning, content enhancement, secondary and transition services, and creating a classroom environment that supports the academic and social success of all students. I was also provided with the opportunity to work with two of my fellow classmates to develop a three day professional development program that could be administered for a group of general education teachers. My group chose to focus on implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) through a UDL perspective. My district only began to implement the CCSS standards for instruction last year, so they were still fairly new to me. Because they represent a significant jump in the expectation of abilities for students I felt this was an important content area to focus on for my own improvement in knowledge and ability to teach.
And one final class that did not necessarily add to my foundational knowledge of special education or managing challenging behaviors, but I found to be valuable in other ways was the Capstone Seminar (ED 870). This class represented the culmination of my master’s program and provided me with the opportunity to review everything I had learned and organize it in the form of a web portfolio. This portfolio allows me to keep a record of the courses and information I learned in addition to resources that were valuable in these courses. In the future, this could be very useful when I encounter situations with students or classes that present certain special education and behavioral needs that were covered in one or more of the courses I took in my program. I was able to look back to my though processes when I began this particular journey with my Goal Reflection Essay and see how my thinking has changed as I progressed through my master’s degree. The opportunity to look at where I was and analyze how I have grown has provided me with a great deal of insight on myself as an individual as well as a teacher. This class has also given me the chance to look forward in my own education and start the process of thinking about what comes next with the Future as a Learner Essay. It is important to never stand still educationally, but it can be hard to keep moving without a plan, and that is exactly what this essay has provided me with.
In conclusion, I find it rather amazing to look at where and who I was when I began this program and to identify the courses and projects most responsible for my personal growth into who I am today. My academic learning has been profound, which has allowed me to work with the special educators and paraprofessionals in my school in new and exciting ways because I understand more about the instruction methods and philosophies they use when planning lessons. I can say that my social and instructional skill growth has developed through learning about different ways to co-teach lessons and material, and then actually putting that knowledge into practice. These specific examples only touch the tip of the iceberg of what I have learned, and I cannot express how influential the information this program has taught me has been. I know that not only am I a better teacher because of it, I am also able to help my colleagues as they struggle with similar issues. Teaching is not an individual activity. We rely on peers within our school, experts outside of school, teaching institutions, professional development opportunities, our students, and many others in our quest to continually be the best teacher we can. We can never forget that one of a teacher’s most important jobs is to continually recognize his/her weaknesses and to find a way to address them. This master’s degree program has given me the opportunity to say that I feel much stronger in the area of special education instruction and handling challenging behaviors, and to ask myself, “What’s next?”
In conclusion, I find it rather amazing to look at where and who I was when I began this program and to identify the courses and projects most responsible for my personal growth into who I am today. My academic learning has been profound, which has allowed me to work with the special educators and paraprofessionals in my school in new and exciting ways because I understand more about the instruction methods and philosophies they use when planning lessons. I can say that my social and instructional skill growth has developed through learning about different ways to co-teach lessons and material, and then actually putting that knowledge into practice. These specific examples only touch the tip of the iceberg of what I have learned, and I cannot express how influential the information this program has taught me has been. I know that not only am I a better teacher because of it, I am also able to help my colleagues as they struggle with similar issues. Teaching is not an individual activity. We rely on peers within our school, experts outside of school, teaching institutions, professional development opportunities, our students, and many others in our quest to continually be the best teacher we can. We can never forget that one of a teacher’s most important jobs is to continually recognize his/her weaknesses and to find a way to address them. This master’s degree program has given me the opportunity to say that I feel much stronger in the area of special education instruction and handling challenging behaviors, and to ask myself, “What’s next?”