As a future educator, I have reflected on how my own personal experiences have formed me into the person that I am today, and how I can use my experiences to help my future students. I have also reflected on how I can information about family systems as well as risk and resiliency to better understand families that I will work with in the future, as well as how children with special needs impact a family’s structure. I believe all of these components are essential for teacher, student, and family collaboration and success. Identifying protective and risk factors in children has led me to look into how I use particular prevention and intervention strategies from my own past experiences. At the age of two, my parents divorced. This was the first …show more content…
Unfortunately, a lot of parents may have a difficult time accepting their child, and coping with their needs and the responsibilities. From the book “The Elephant in the Playroom,” some families dealt with depression and physical and mental deterioration of their health. These struggles were shown in the story by Laura Cichoracki. Laura’s son’s name was Patrick. Patrick was a 6-years-old boy with autism. “I wasn’t eating right, I wasn’t showering regularly, I wasn’t sleeping well” (Brodey, p. 64). I also read the story told by Susan Marrash-Minnerly, which highlighted emotions that parents face. Susan also shed light on how wonderful children with special needs can be to a family, such as her ten-year-old third grader who had autism. Susan talked about how it was normal to feel angry at times, especially with the ups and downs a child’s disability may come with. “When I look back, I want to tell other parents that a child’s future is worth grieving over – but it’s not the end of the world” (Brodey, p. 75). After reading these stories, it became apparent to me that families who are raising kids with special needs, need support, kindness, and available resources. “I was fortunate to be surrounded by other moms who understood my pain…who could be supportive and emphatic.” (Brodey, p. 67). Overall, educators can use this kind of information that was shared in “The Elephant in the Playroom” about family systems and risk/resiliency by creating lines of open communication between families. This is to connect parents together that share similar struggles. By creating open communication is can allows for the teacher and parents to be on the same page when it comes to the issues affecting special needs students and
Perhaps if everyone realized the wisdom in the famous proverb, “before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes”, people would have more empathy for those who may seem to be atypical. The video How Difficult Can This Be? The F.A.T. City Workshop presented by Richard D. Lavoie effectively gets participants to experience the feelings and stress of children with learning disabilities. Lavoie draws his participants into the classroom experience with well developed exercises that elicit the frustration, anxiety, and tension of children with
As Moms, we are always hopeful that we will deliver perfect children, and most of the time we do. When Mother Nature steps in though, and that doesn’t happen, it’s those parents that step up to the plate to raise and love that child that deserve the accolades. One such family that I personally know is my daughter-in-law. Her younger brother is a special needs child and she grew up as a middle-child with the focus on the younger brother. She recently graduated with a degree in Special Needs Education, but instead chose to pursue another path with younger children. After a life-time of dedication to her younger brother, she decided to take a break. When I met her family, I was in awe of the love and care, the dedication to the brother and the sacrifices that the other family made in order to raise him at home. He just turned twenty-two and graduated from a special school, with honor and pride. Much of what I read in this amazing book remin...
Volunteering at a children’s crisis treatment facility, volunteering with Special Olympics, coaching children’s sports teams for 10 years and working as a substitute education assistant has increased my understanding of childhood development. Grandmound Elementary School provides me with opportunities to strengthen my leadership and collaboration skills, through teaching art (as a volunteer) to the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade and serving as PTA president. I was able to implement many enriching opportunities for students in areas of art, science, and reading. I learned to work as a team, set targets, achieve goals, give and receive guidance. Participating in these activities has confirmed that working with families and particularly children are my purpose.
The students in our classrooms, both special education and general education classrooms, require individualized education to reach their full potential. Each child’s potential is different just as each child’s road to reach it is different. Our job as teachers is to be there for the student’s to help them reach their potential through their own unique way.
In order to help students develop these meaningful relationships there must first be a base of communication and collaboration between teachers, parents and paraeducators who all share a stake in supporting and empowering students with and without disabilities. Downing and Peckham-Hardin found that both teachers and parents cited communication and working as a team were essential for truly inclusive education. Some of the most important components of this communication and team work ...
Standard 1.1 discusses how special education teachers need to understand how language, culture, and family background influences the learning of students with exceptionalities. Standard 4.3 discusses how teachers should collaborate with other teachers and parents to use multiple types of assessment information in making decisions. Standard 5.5 discusses the transition plans they have to implement in collaboration with the students, families, and teachers. Standard 6.3 discusses how teachers understand that diversity is a part of families, cultures, and schools, and that they can interact with the delivery of special education services. Standard 7.0 discusses the collaborations that teachers need to start having with families, educators, and related service providers. 7.3 discusses the promotion of collaborations for the well-being of the individuals with exceptionalities. These standards show what the teacher is beginning to do with the families that have a child with
A lot of people ask what inspired me to become a special education teacher, and why I am continuing to pursue a career in a field where many unfortunately decide to leave. I wish my answer were as simple as saying “I love children and I want to make a difference.” Although there is obvious truth to that statement, what I love more is celebrating the achievements, both big and small, of a child who faces adversity every single day. Nothing brings me more joy than watching students succeed beyond the expectat...
The Elephant in the Playroom is a compilation of essays written by parents of children
I cannot recall a more rewarding experience than helping facilitate a child’s education while enabling parent participation alike. These experiences have drawn me to my current position as an Educational Assistant where I am constantly interacting and establishing relationships with students, learning about their goals and aspirations. It is that same desire to empower our future students that has steered me towards a career as a school counselor. By enrolling in the Masters in counseling program, I aspire to develop methods and experience to become an effective, experienced, and adaptable school counselor that promotes self-awareness, allowing students to realize their full potential and impetus them towards a promising future. I want to learn skills that facilitate personal and career development, ensuring that our students grow accomplishing their goals and ambitions. To discover techniques that help students improve in all areas of academic achievement, establishing relationships with students and parents alike. By becoming a school counselor, I am determined to become an advocate for underserved youth. I aim to become an effective agent educational reform, providing support for students in the various institutions that may disempower
The parent discussed the fact that it was hard to decide on what aspect was most challenging since the “challenging aspect” had changed depending on the age of the child. This is an important aspect for all special needs educators to remember when establishing and fostering relationships with families of special needs students. As the textbook states, “Each family is a unique unit that changes as it goes through the stages and transitions of the family life cycle” (Martha E. Snell, 2011, p. 60). The textbook goes on to explain that special education professionals need to be aware of life cycle stages and transitions. “Two dimensions of the family life cycle that are important for educators to understand include (a) life-cycle stages and (b) life-cycle transitions” (Martha E. Snell, 2011, p.
In conclusion, I am in a profession where I can help children and their families be empowered. I am passionate and dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for children and their families. Participating in this assignment allows me the opportunity to reflect on the various areas I can improve on to better meet the needs of children and their families. Feeney 2012 stated, “Self-knowledge is demonstrated when individuals consider the impact of their personal characteristics on children, families, and other adult’s; when they examine their relationships and teaching practices to see what is working and what isn’t” (p.83). Being able to reflect and apply these changes allows me to see what works well and what doesn’t. This information allows me to grow as an E.C.E. and effectively serve children and their families.
In order to insure that children with disabilities can reach their maximum potential they need to have a strong support system. To accomplish this, there needs to be an increase in educating families and caregivers about their child's disability. In addition, improving current support programs and ensuring the mental health needs are met in LMIC. Caregivers need to be educated properly about their child’s disability in order to provide them with the proper support. A lack of knowledge about their child’s condition leads to negative feelings, parent–child interactions, child behavior and development (Colins, 2017). This has to do with existing support programs lack of inclusiveness.Need for developing specialized training programs aimed towards
In society today, we are working with families and children are more diverse than ever. We are servicing families and children from so many different traditions, beliefs and values. Every family has their own stories. We will find that families and children
She believes some of the challenges contemporary families are facing are the economy, healthcare, loss of employment, lack of basic necessities, and broken homes. Despite these challenges, schools and families can work together to make schools stronger by creating a positive learning environment and show the student that they are there to help the student in any way possible. She also states that it is important for the teacher and parent(s) to be on the same page and support each other in regards to learning styles and techniques.
As I ponder over my personal professional development experiences as an educator the realization of how one has developed over time is personally satisfying. Educating children especially children with special needs is a challenge within its self. As a teacher it is important that this writer makes a positive influence with students. There are going to be certain ideas that one tries to uphold and other discriminations that one will not allow. Everyone has their own beliefs teachers should do what is necessary not to infringe on others, but show children different way to think so that they have all the information needed to make educated choices. Children are open-minded they have not yet had to deal with or understand the injustices that they will encounter. If children are taught from an early age they will have the ability to succeed especially children with special needs as an educator my main goal is teaching the purpose of public schools, and education reform. It is my purpose to influence children and be positive influence.