Alise Rutgers: 1) I am a strong and confident leader, both to my students and to my assistants. I knew I was highly qualified anyway, but now I have corroboration on that from NCLB! I have a sense of humor and an understanding that all learning is a process, not an event. I love my job and have fun at it, and it shows in the classroom. I am always open to new ideas and enthusiastically take classes and trainings to keep up to date, and I have reached a point in my career where I am frequently asked to assist in mentoring others entering the profession. I run a very structured classroom and I am demanding of my students, always giving them a little push to go to the next level. I am definitely the boss, and I don't put up with misbehavior. And my students love me.2) My class is highly regarded for our success in working with children who have challenging, often assaultive behaviors. Several times we have gotten students who had been removed from more than a couple! of previous class placements because of extreme behavior issues. My philosophy is that an appropriately structured, supportive classroom environment IS the behavior plan. We have very simple rules, and we enforce them very consistently. We give positive reinforcement for appropriate behavior, and often kids who are misbehaving will quickly change their behavior when they see that other children are being rewarded for different behavior. Our primary objective is to give the students enough support to help them be successful in achieving appropriate behavior - it's far easier, and more effective, to help a child to do the right thing, and then reinforce it, than it is to let them get out of control and then have to give consequences. But we are very conscious of fading our support as it becomes appropriate, so that the children are not dependent on an adult. What we aim for is for the students to take full responsibility for their choices. When they do well, we say, "! You had to work hard, but you finished the job. You must be s! o proud of yourself!" rather than telling them that we are proud of them - the idea being that they are responsible both for their achievement AND for the sense of satisfaction for a job well done. And when they need to make corrections - which includes cleaning up any messes made while misbehaving - we are clear and matter-of-fact: "When someone makes a mess, they need to clean it up. When someone makes a mistake, they have to fix it." Wouldn't it be nice if everyone felt responsibility for their own actions, both positive and negative?3) In addition to being a special education teacher, I am also a family member (sister with Down syndrome, nephew with autism.) I have worked as a supervisor in a work program for adults with disabilities, as a provider of residential care, and as a recreational specialist, in addition to teaching people with special needs from infants through adults. As a result, I take a long-term view in determining educational goals. My primary o! bjective is to help my students develop the skills they will need to become as independent as possible, and to have a productive and satisying adult life. This means that I have a particular emphasis on social and behavioral skills, because I know from experience that disabled adults who are able to get along well with others, follow directions and cooperate, and are pleasant to be with, have more opportunities than those who are noncompliant, uncooperative, and unpleasant. I love it when my students have the ability to learn academics; not all of them do, but I have had "severely handicapped" students who have learned to read to nearly grade level and do math above grade level as a result of individualized instruction. But in the end, those higher levels of academics will have far less to do with adult success than the social and behavior skills they have acquired.6) I do use some standardized assessment tools, such as the Woodcock-Johnson and Briggance, which can giv! e me ideas for what skills the students have already developed and what! the next level of skills might be. But primarily, with the input of parents and other members of the IEP team, I try to write goals and objectives designed to help the student be more independent and to progress in the school community. When the IEP goals have been approved, I create a data collection chart for each goal (not that hard to do, since the criteria for the goals has to be observable and measurable.) My assistants are great about compiling the data - I couldn't do it without them. Periodically (at least at the trimester reporting dates, if not more frequently) I look at the data. If we are not seeing significant progress on a particular goal, my assistants and I will discuss what barriers are impeding the progress, possible steps to remediate or changes to make in our instructional strategies, etc. I find that the progress on IEP goals is far more relevant to the individual student than the results of any standardized assessment tool.7) In a perfect world! , every child would receive a quality education in a school in their own neighborhood, in a classroom of their age-group peers. The school would provide the appropriate supports to see that each child, no matter what ability level, was receiving an excellent education that would prepare him for success in the adult world. Sadly, this is not a perfect world. As a special day class teacher, I have frequently had students placed in my class after a full-inclusion experience. In some instances, the parents were not initially in favor of special day class placement. But in every single case, the parents eventually (usually within the first month) agreed that the child was learning more and feeling better about himself after coming to our class. There are a lot of reasons for this, but a big one has to do with the fact that my assistants and I are experienced specialists. The general ed teachers have far less training and experience than we do in working with kids who have! special needs, and often the one-to-one assistants assigned to full-in! clusion students have good intentions but little to no training. Also, school today is far different than it was even 10 or 15 years ago; teachers need to focus on preparing the class to do well on the standardized tests that "prove" that they are learning, and as a result, things like music, art, and physical education are downsized or discarded. It's difficult for kids whose strengths are not academic to continue to perceive themselves as successful in that kind of setting. And if you pull those kids out of the general class into a resource or remediation program for extended periods of the day, the "inclusion" can end up being a bit of an "illusion." As time goes on, it often becomes apparent that kids with significant developmental disabilities aren't getting the training they need to have a successful adult life in general ed, and they end up in special ed. I am sure that there are many individual examples of kids with significant special needs who had a successf! ul and productive school career in an inclusion placement, but I rarely see them. I wish it was different, but that's the reality....Show more
Alphonso Brake: 1. I believe I am an excellent special ed. teacher...I attained national board certification in my area...I am constantly trying to learn/implement the latest techniques in my classroom, especially in the area of technology and augmentative communication. I am driven to see my students make gains in learning. I enjoy collaborating with therapists to help create situations where my students can learn/improve. I enjoy working with parents to help them work with students at home3 I determine goals based on students present level of performance, student interests, our county's special curriculum guide as well as the parents/students goals for post school adult living.4. One student was trainably mentally disabled, blind, language impaired and had severe behavior issues. I supported him by creating a strict classro! om schedule that was the very same each day. The routine helped him. I ! gave him breaks after work. I used assistive technology to allow him to hear the directions he needed for his work w/o having to ask an adult (ie, he could work w/o being touched). I implemented a behavior plan that relied a lot on if-then statements...if you do this, then.... It helped him understand what was expected of him. I worked with his parents in attaining additional services outside of school. Also, worked with therapists to get him cane training. 6. I assess student performance by creating data sheets based on IEP goals. I take a baseline at the beginning of the year and gather data weekly. I also use a portfolio system in my room. I use teacher designed checklists to check for comprehension on thematic units and community based instruction trips. I also use our districts alternate assessment.10 My most successful collaboration experiences have been with therapists.....having a good speech therapist who will come into the room and sort of co-teach with you makes! a lesson SO much more effective. A challenging experience was when I had to share a classroom with a vocational teacher...he felt he only had to teach job skills and I should to the rest...so rather than co-teach, he acted more as a paraprofessional....Show more
Sook Hershkowitz: 3.This has to be determined by the childs WHOLE IEP team, and not just the teacher.
Marco Stolarz: 1. Benevolent dictator2. Highly structured and consistent behavior management system. (Based on works of William Glasser and Fritz Redl)5. PPVT, WRAT7. I believe inclusion to be a fine social policy but a horrible educational practice. 3 ARD Committee....Show more
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