Exceptionalities in the Classroom

As a teacher you will encounter many different exceptionalities and or disabilities in your students including: hearing impaired, visually impaired, autism, ESOL students, etc."An exceptionality doent necessary mean a student has a disability a student can be "Gifted" which means they excel in a certain area sometimes more than one. With "Gifted" students you still have to make your lesson where they benefit from it as well.Gifted" which means they excel in a certain area sometimes more than one. Being a proficient teacher means that you will have to make your lessons where every student can understand them inclulding your students with disabilities. In most classes today schools have what they call "Inclusion" which is where students with special needs are included in the classroom with the other students the majority of the day instead of being in a Special Education all day. I believe that inclusion really helps benefit the students both disable and not. It gives the children who don't suffer from a disability a chance to be around students who do and learn how to treat them and understand more about their disability. And it gives the student who has the disability a chance to be around a normal setting, a chance to learn from other students, and not feel left out.

MY I AM POEM

I am determined and beautiful
I wonder what my future holds
I hear encouragement
I see success
I want that success
I am determined and beautiful
I pretend that I've achieved all my goals in life and am already living the life I've planned for myself
I feel optimistic
I touch ALL my goals
I worry that I've set some of my goals to high for me to reach
I cry because sometimes the road to success is hard
I am determined and beautiful
I understand that faith without work is dead, so I work hard for the things I believe in

The Treasure Box!!!!!

One morning I wasn’t feeling very well and when I arrived to class Mrs. Windham informed me that she had just received her order of things to put in the students’ Treasure Box. I was sort of excited because I wanted to see what different kinds of things she had to put in the box, but I was in a sort of gloomy mood and the Treasure Box really wasn’t anything that I would do flips about. This is where children come in and one of the reasons I want to be a Elementary School teacher, young children get excited about the smallest of things and they can really changed your outlook on something. When class began Mrs. Windham informed them that she had received the new knickknacks for the Treasure Box. The whole class went wild!!! They started whooping and yelling like she had told them she was going to give each of them a million dollars. Their reaction to her telling them about it was nothing compared to the reaction she received while showing them all the new toys that were now in the Treasure Box. I have never seen a more excited group of children in my life!! I was both amazed and amused at how excited and happy they were about little toys like Poppers or even for a pencil with a colorful eraser. It made me wonder if when I was that age would I have reacted the same way. I remember this day because of the effect the students’ reaction had on me they really brighten up my day just with their happy faces about a Treasure Box.

Waiting for Superman

Monday October 3, 2011 I viewed the documentary "Waiting for Superman" at my school. My opinion the documentary was very up front and revealing to the issues in the public school system. It told the story of five parents and their children who were enrolled in different types of schools and trying to get into a better school. The documentary also showed how bad the public school system really is. I was aware that public schools weren't the best, but I had no idea how bad they truly were. An issue in the documentary that really caught my attention was the fact that even if there was a bad teacher and the school and administrators knew she/he was a bad teacher they couldn’t fire them due to Tenure. It just makes me wonder how many students and schools are suffering or have suffered due to this? Another part that stuck was the story of the mother who was paying for her daughter to go to a private school and when her hours were cut at work she got behind on her payments and the school her daughter was attending would not let her daughter attend graduation with the rest of her classmates. And then when the mother entered her daughter in the lottery for a charter school her named wasn't picked. I really found this to be sad because I could relate to the mother, being a future single mother I could understand how she felt about wanting to provide for her daughter, give her a better life, and having to try to do all this by herself. My daughter isn't even here and I'm already trying to do all I can to make sure she has the best in life, but it is a struggle trying to do it on your own. In whole I really enjoyed "Waiting for Superman" it was really insightful on the problems with in the public school system. And as a future educator it really opened my eyes to what’s in store for me.

My 21st Century Class Room

Since I want to be a Kindergarden teacher my classroom would consists of a lot of the things I remember from my kindergarden class room like my favorite "station" the House Station. In the House Station there would be of course the basics for a small house kitchen,living room,bed room,etc the reason I would incorporate this in my class room is because I believe in todays time it' s important to teach kids that there are other things in the house (other than the video games and the tv) that can be fun to help out with; for instance helping mom or dad wash dishes, prepare lunch or dinner,set the table. I would also include in my class another thing that I remember from my kindergarden days which an computer with interactive games that fit my students age range like those read aloud storybook cdroms where the kids can be read to,read along, interact with the characters on each page,and at the end of the story answer questions or play games that help show their comprehension of what they just read. As for the class room setting itself I would like to have a lot of bright colors and pictures that I would change every other week or so that would attract the children's attention and I would make sure that the stundents knew that I put the pictures there for them to be curious and ask questions about and we could make that into a class discussion. Also I would love to have different kind of learning songs that I could play I know for a fact that music is a great way of teaching and to this day I still use singing to help me remember things. I would especially like to use the music during nap time so the kids could be learning while sleeping. Most of all I just want my classroom to have a warm welcoming feeling like I felt my first day of school. It may some of my future student's first time in a class and away from their parents (as it was mine) and I want them to be as comfortable as possible and enjoy the room as much as enjoyed creating it.