Special Education Leader Analysis

The video “Beyond F.A.T. City: Look Back, Look Ahead-Conversation about Special Education”is an excellent source to utilize for special education teachers, parents, and general teachers alike. Richard D. Lavoie has a direct approach on helping children with disabilities succeed. The in-depth discussion opens the eyes of teachers and parents regarding what is fair in the classroom, how to bring the concepts of fairness to the home environment, and the importance of not assuming things about individuals.

Over the past three decades’ educational leadership has been in search of ways to increase student literacy in urban middle schools in the southeast sections of the District of Columbia. The quest to closing achievement gaps in urban school districts have and will always be an on-going issue for educational leadership (Daly & Chrispells, 2008). Findings from research studies suggest that school leadership accounts for fully one quarter of total school effects on pupils, making it second only to classroom instruction among school-based factors affecting student achievement (Leithwood, Louis, Anderson & Wahlstrom, 2004).

Thesis: To master the job of a Special Education teacher, it is important to have the right skills such as teaching, communicating, and patience.

*Jack is a Primary 2 student who has attended our school since nursery. He is diagnosed as having ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), MLD (Moderate learning difficulties), SEBD (Social, emotional and behavioural difficulties). He is nonverbal and is currently being toilet trained. His frustration with not being able to communicate using words often results in him lashing out, trying to harm himself and others.

1. Ways in which special education is viewed by society and the background of the subject.

Others may think the team could easily be just the general and special education teachers, but I believe that every member is crucial and dire to a successful IEP meeting, whether it be to mediate or to pitch in ideas. Another aspect that I really like and appreciate in the meeting is the inclusion of the child. This is important in my eyes because the student may think the IEP is made only to slow down or show that the teachers are against the student. The inclusion of the student in the meeting shows the collaboration of both sides of the classroom and with the student’s parents. Every step and piece of an IEP or IEP meeting is critical to the child, its learning, and the parents. I believe the IEP meeting is also very beneficial to the parents because if this is the first-born child with disabilities, then this meeting could enlighten the parents on things that would come off as confusing or

Special Education is an umbrella title for an educational department that focuses on the rehabilitation of students and providing services for students who require extra academic support to be successful in the current school setting but are also in need of learning life skills that will help them to be successful later. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines special education as “classes or instruction designed for students with special educational needs” (Merriam-webster.com, 2017). To assist students with disabilities, the United States government continues to use the current reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004 which is currently known as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of December 2015

Henry Ford once said, “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress. Working together is success” (Brainy Quote). From here, the concept of inclusive education, including students with and without learning disabilities as peers in the same classroom, originated. The aim of this type of education is to get students with learning disabilities involved in the society. Teachers and fellow students will also provide help for students with disabilities; in this way, students with learning disabilities will be motivated to study as they feel that they are a part of a group instead of being isolated in special places. Thus, they will achieve higher grades. Moreover, they will be greatly engaged in the society as they are building bridges with their peers from several backgrounds. On the long run, teachers, parents, and the society as a whole would develop. Students with learning disabilities should be included in the “normal” classroom because it improves their academic performance, social behavior, and communication language.

I spent my fifteen hours observing two special education classrooms at Sulphur Intermediate School. One focused on math and the other on reading, though many of the children I observed worked in both classrooms. The students were in the third, fourth, and fifth grades. Most of the students had mild to moderate disabilities and simply needed extra help in reading, math, or both subjects. They did not stay for the entire day, but rather came for certain periods. During this time, they primarily worked on worksheets designed for the special education classroom as well as working on achieving their goals for accelerated reading. There were a few students who came in for an hour with work from their general education classroom and needed extra help completing their work. There were two students who had more severe disabilities, but they worked with paraprofessionals and did not do the same work as the rest of the class.

One most important tip is for teachers should educate themselves and learn as much as they can about intellectual disabilities. There are some techniques and strategies that teachers can also use to support children educationally. First teachers must recognize that they can make a difference in student’ lives by finding out what their strengths and interests are, focus on them, and create opportunities for success. Teachers must also be concrete as possible by demonstrating what they mean rather than giving directions verbally and tasks that are longer in steps should be broken down into smaller steps and provide assistance when necessary. As it relates to student skills, teachers should teach life skills such as social skills and occupational awareness and exploration by involving students in group or club activities. Finally, teachers should provide the student and parents with immediate feedback and work with the student’s parents and school faculty in creating and implementing an IEP that is tailored and meet the student’s needs (Center for Parent Information &

Fusco and Mr. L, my own discussion with the students, and the invisible research I gathered by having all the students fill out an “All About Me” worksheet. It was very helpful and interesting to hear input about the students from Mrs. Fusco and Mr. L. Mr. L only spends periods 3 and 4 with these students and only sees two of the three outside of the English 8 classroom. However, Mr. L knows a lot about the non-special education students as well. By the way they talk about all of the students and the ways in which they interact with them show me that they are sincere and passionate about teaching, their students, and the success of their students. Working on the Learning Profiles also enabled me to see and learn about the students as individuals in and outside of the classroom, which is important. Mrs. Fusco, especially with Aiden and Alex, would love to have access to their IEP plans to be able to visually see their needs in order to meet them at their level. She thinks that getting to know every aspect of your students is important to reaching them all and getting them all to succeed, because every child is different. I was able to catch certain students walking in and out of the classroom, and during a break in the block period, and sat down with them to get to know them. I think the most effective strategy was sitting down and talking with the cooperating teachers and

Leadership in early childhood brings out a lot of responsibilities and the need to be able to maintain quite a lot of skills. Some of the skills which are needed in the early education sector are “communication, decision-making, problem-solving, interpersonal and organizational skills,” (Narasimhan, 2012) this helps the leader to be able to encourage and support the team to achieve the goals. “Successful leaders” use their team member’s individual abilities to help create powerful ideas, plans and a focused vision for the future. Leaders of an early education service should be able to bring their individuality into the service and carry out responsibilities by being charismatic, outgoing, influential, and philosophical or action oriented.

According to Ripley, S. (1998), traditionally, special education teachers worked with students in a self-contained environment as well as the general education teachers worked in a room alone. However, overtime, learning disabled students more and more are being included in regular education classes. Therefore, the need for collaboration between the regular education teacher and the special education teacher continues to grow. Today, many schools are setting up cooperative teaching programs that team a special education teacher with a team of regular education teachers in order to reach all students and have them all benefit from the same lesson plans. The special added exception is that the learning-disabled students have the extra benefit of having someone who specializes in

Every human being is equal and has the right to education irrespective of race, sex and religion. In the past generally people with disabilities were discriminated against and excluded from society. However, people’s attitudes, towards this group have started to change and they are beginning to enjoy article same freedoms like any other people. Many argue that children with disabilities should be placed in separate schools. However, in my opinion, they should be enrolled in regular school for several reasons.

Have you ever think about the similarities and differences between Regular Education and Special Education? Regular education is the term often used to describe the educational experience of typically developing children. By the other hand, Special Education programs are designed for those students who are mentally, physically, socially or emotionally delayed, which places them behind their peers. As you can see, these two provide an example of different types of education. We can find differences such as their educators, academic content and methods of teaching, but we can also find similarities in their academic content.