Why I want to teach special education

I have wanted to teach special education since I was a junior in high school. I was offered one day to help out in a gym class where most of the students had disabilities, this was the first time I had ever worked with students like this. I went in with an open mind and started out only helping them out once or twice a week by the end of my Junior year I was helping out everyday. Interacting with the students was my favorite thing to do we played many different games from volleyball to kick ball everyone had a chance to play and every kid in the gym class made we want to come back and help them out.
My senior year the teachers approached me again to help out again and again i accepted. This was the year that I had made my choice to want to teach them and get to help them out everyday. I saw the dedication in the teachers and I thought that is something I could duplicate.
When colleges started to come into the talk I noticed that the only thing that I really wanted to do was to be in a type of atmosphere in those gym classes.

The Special Education Process

The special education process is something that is very important and a very broad topic that is categorized into 6 steps. The first step is referral/request for an evaluation, this can be made by anyone person from a parent to a teacher or a friend. This is just someone that knows the student and thinks that he or she might benefit from special education services

The second step is Evaluation in this step the special education teachers might test the student one-on-one or they might compare him or her to how the rest of the class is progressing and diagnose the disability from there. It is very important that this evaluation is done within 60 days of referral otherwise the referral is void.

The third step is eligibility after the evaluation is done and the test results are calculated and the teachers see if this student would benefit from special education services.

The fourth step is the IEP or the individualized education program. This is the layout for the child's education, it is a meeting that involves a general education teacher, a special education teacher, a person who can read test results, the parents, and a school administrator. Everyone of these people are very important they all work out an agreement and see what is best for the child. In the end the parents make final choices for their own child's well being.

The fifth step is placement. In this step it is important to note that when the child is placed in special education and the school needs to provide all the needs that the student desires. From being handicap accessible or having braille books the school needs to make sure that they have the supplies for the student to succeed.

The sixth step is instruction. This is used to wrap up and put everything into motion, the teacher using the IEP and the parents guidance they need to instruct the student to make sure that he or she is getting the education that they need to succeed later in life.

The special education process

The disabilities covered in IDEA

The IDEA is the individuals with Disabilities Education Act was enacted to make sure that people with Disabilities get the free education that they need. The Act inlcudes Behavioral, Autisim, Learning, Mental Retardation, Other Heath Impairments, Emotional Disturbances and Deaf/Blindness.
The most of these are very self explanatory, but other heath impairments include things that ADD and ADHD which is one of the most commonly treated disabilities among elementary School Children and Adults.

How to Leave a Comment

Welcome to my Blog, the easiest way to leave a comment is by looking at the blog posting itself and looking for the word "comment" click on that it should be a hyperlink to get you to the comment screen. Then type your comment and click post.