Initial Reflection:
Going into this class I had already established a lot of my thoughts about teaching, but I was excited to see what this online course would offer me. The first thing that caught my attention about this course was the assignment to groups. I was not sure how I would learn in an online group setting and that made me a little uneasy at the beginning. I have had many online classes before, so that part of the course did not concern me. I looked forward to how this class would specifically prepare me with strategies and accommodations for students with disabilities. Having completed PDS at Brown Academy in the Fall 2012 and observations for other classes I have had many observation hours, so I was interested to see if I would observe anything new with hours for this class.
Final Reflection:
This class has been beneficial to becoming the best teacher I can be. The best thing that I have taken away is that there are many different perspectives to special education and all of them will benefit students. I had observed classrooms before but never followed an inclusion teacher. After observing the inclusion teachers at East Brainerd I realized that inclusion is very beneficial to the student. Not only does the student benefit from learning with his or her peers, but he or she still receives appropriate help needed from the inclusion specialist. Another important point to identify at the end of this course is the amount of application I got to do. Instead of learning definitions and terms, I got to discuss topics with class members and apply different methods to disabilities. None of the future students I will have will be black-and-white from book examples, so it has been beneficial during this course to identify and then propose accommodations for students in exceptional education.