Why are we putting kids in Special Education that don't need to be???

Today I was in my English class and we were doing presentations for our final project and two students had analyzed the difference between 3rd graders writing and oral language. They spoke of this one child saying she was a tier 3 level special education student and upon seeing her work it seemed quite normal for a 3rd grader and they spoke of how she was one of the best ones they looked at. I then asked if the student had social problems and they said she was very popular just a little unfocused. But clearly by this description it seemed the student should not be in special education and was perfectly able to function in the regular classroom. Therefore I just think it is a little ridiculous that we are putting students in special education that do not need to be because this may actually be setting them back more. Just because teachers do not want to deal with a slightly unfocused student, it is not ok to put them in special education because they do not wat to deal with them.

How can we truly understand?

Throughout the course of the semester we have learned about several types of technology that can easily be used in the classroom. We have also heard about or discussed several cases of students that have a great deal of trouble in school because for whatever reason the general way of teaching does not fit their needs. These students many times fail out of school like the man we skyped with who had Aspbergers syndrome who said it wasn't that he didn't like school but that he could not adjust to the way things were being taught and it was also incredibly socially awkward for him. I find these instances very interesting because often times it seems that teachers brush right over these kids and just assume that they are not trying or that they cannot perform the tasks that are asked of them. However this is not the case, I mean can any of us truly understand what it is like for these students. I don't think we can. Therefore I think this class has been very useful to me for situations just like the one described above. There are so many new forms of technologies that can be used with children in the classroom and when I am a teacher, I will try my very best to adjust the way I teach to meet children's needs that are unable to achieve in a regular setting. Also with those students that feel unable to be in a physical classroom I feel that with the new technologies of Google sites and wiki spaces it is very possible to include these kids in a way that they could learn and be successful in school and this amazes me because even just a few years ago this would not be possible. However with the advancement in technology maybe we can start to understand and help those that feel lost and make it easier for them to succeed.

Thoughts on Wikispaces

I love that our class had a wiki. I think these are incredibly useful tools that every classroom should have. They are a great way to post links for everyone to see. Also anyone is able to add things to the wiki. I think wikispaces are great for teachers, parents, and students. Teachers can post assignments, useful links and articles, get to know students activities and many other things. Students have access to these resources and are able to create their own pages in which they can express themselves as well as post their finished websites. With this tool parents are able to keep track of what their kids are learning in school. Also all questions can be posed to teachers with this tool as well. I had never used a wiki until this class and I really liked it. I felt that it also helped me to get introduced to a lot of new forms of technologies and I plan to use one in my classroom.

Thoughts on Social Networking

I have had a facebook since my Freshman year of college, however every time changes are made on it, I get even more fed up with social net working sites. One site in particular that I have always been against is Twitter. Every one kept telling me to get one but I continued to refuse. I found out that even my dad had one and he was constantly talking about how it could be useful for me in my profession career. He remarked that he had one because it was useful in making contacts that could be beneficial for him. However, my thoughts have slowly begun to change on Twitter due to the fact that I had to make on for my CEP 452 class. Upon making a Twitter I realized that you could basically follow anyone. However i did not realize that various organizations such a non- profit organizations dedicated to helping those with special needs had twitters. Upon realizing this and being told about all of the various cool features such as when we had class one day and our professor put out a tweet for all of those to say hi to our class and we got responses from all over the world. I found this very interesting and now realize that having a twitter could be very useful in a career and very helpful in building connections.

Stuck in the middle

Throughout the course of this semester I have worked in a pre-k/ kindergarten classroom. This was a general ed. classroom however there was one autistic student who received extra services. Although there was only one student who received services in the classroom, it was clear that there were many more students that were either behind or needed some kind of focus. Therefore I decided to have a conversation with my cooperating teacher about that the matter. After observation I could clearly observe one other student who was autistic and others that appeared to need some kind of services. After talking with my cooperating teacher, I found out that sometimes students had to be 2 years behind before they received any type of extra service within the classroom. I found this to be crazy because by the time they received services they would be significantly behind and have a hard time catching up. After finding this out, I became very interested in alternative methods that could be provided to those students. For my final project in CEP 452 I made a google site that provides a variety of websites in each core subjct with several forms of practice problems that could be useful for these students. The sites are all very interactive and easy to use and I feel that they can be used as extra help for these students since they do not receive any at school. The link is, https://sites.google.com/site/themiddlewhattodo/.