As a first year teacher, you will be faced with a diverse learning community in your classroom. Most likely you will have students from different ethnic, cultural, and social backgrounds which impacts the way they learn. Chances are you will also have students with special needs that are mainstreamed into the classroom. In addition, the classrooms in some school districts are overcrowded with up to 40 students grouped together in a single classroom.
So, how does a first year teacher reach tackle the sea of diversity that awaits them in their new classroom?
The first step is to learn everything you can about the students that will be present in your classroom. Learn about their backgrounds, academic achievement, and conduct in the school environment. For the special needs students, learn exactly what their special needs are, as well as their academic progress up to the point where they will enter your classroom. You can achieve this by talking to school officials as well as staff members in the district who have worked closely with these students.
When it comes to reaching all of your students, you can begin by focusing on two strategies:
Learning in the Traditional Classroom Environment
Taking everything you have learned about your students, you will need to design lessons that will adapt to every learning style that exists in your classroom. The lessons should be designed to indicate an outcome which will enable you to assess the progress of the students. It will tell you who is grasping the knowledge and who will need your help and assistance. It will also serve as an indicator of learning styles and provide you with the information your need to adapt the lesson to the student’s learning styles.
Integrate activities into the lessons that encourage all students to interact. You can do this by creating different scenarios and asking students to apply what they have learned to various real-life situations. Students like to know why they are learning a particular skill and applying it to everyday life sends the message that the skill is important and useful.
Vary the lesson by adapting the materials to your student’s individual experiences with learning. You can do this by asking the student to apply the lesson to another learning experience they have had in the past and ask them to compare the experiences. This will tell you a lot about the manner in which the student identifies with learning. In addition, the more you integrate the learning with the student’s individual experiences, the more likely they are to absorb the material being taught.
Learning in the Technology-Infused Classroom
Technology has changed the face of education and provides teachers with innovative tools for reaching students of all learning styles and abilities. Some students learn visually and technology is a really great way to engage these students by teaching through graphics and imaging with programs such as Microsoft PowerPoint among many others.
In addition, technology provides the teachers with the tools they need for a classroom of diverse learning and allows the students to learn at different speeds in a single classroom environment. This is a blessing to the educational system, especially in school districts with classrooms that are crowded with a diversity of learning, not to mention being able to reach special needs students through the invention of assistive technology.
If your student teaching experience did not prepare you to teach with technology, there are a host of instructional technology workshops and classes available to help teachers integrate technology into the classroom. Not only does technology improve learning, it also prepares the students with the necessary skills to survive in the world beyond public school education.
By: J.C. Sprenger
Posts Tagged ‘Interact’
Misconceptions In Parenting And Teaching Special Needs Children
December 14th, 2009
Having a special need child in the family doesn’t mean you have to panic. Just like other kids, special needs children can learn to live a normal life and reach their full potential. Guidance, teaching and love are primary ingredients in rearing a special child and helping him reach full potential.
The “panicking” of parents upon learning about their child’s situation can be attributed to some common misconceptions in dealing with special needs children. These misconceptions lead to the thought that there is no bright future for special needs children. Unless these myths are fully understood and corrected, parents will never know that special needs children will still reach their full potentials. Here are the top 3 common special child misconceptions and the truth about them:
Parenting and teaching a special child will take away all your happiness and replace it with difficulties. This may be true to some persons who don’t love the child at all – but does this type of person exist? How can parents not love their own child no matter what his needs are? Parenting and teaching a special child is not a reason to be unhappy. It is all in the attitude! Rearing a child with special needs doesn’t take away your happiness. You may be unhappy but it’s your choice. You can choose to be happy and satisfied caring and teaching your special child. Rather than letting yourself be imprisoned by the situation, be in control. Plan exciting activities that will help you enjoy at the same time leave an effective learning experience to your child. Special needs children will never reach their full potential. This is another myth. Just like any other children, special needs children can reach their full potential. They can learn to speak, read, and interact with other people. They have the ability to live a happy, satisfied and complete life. But they won’t be able to achieve these on their own. They need guidance and proper teaching for them to be the best person that they could be. You should not be the judge of your child’s potential. Let him explore and learn. There are several education materials that cater to teaching special needs children reach their full potential. Nobody understands the difficulties of parenting and teaching special needs children. No two persons are the same. The individual difference theory is true but it doesn’t apply to situations. You may be facing the challenge of parenting or teaching differently abled children but you are not alone. Many other parents or teachers have been through the same situation. The only thing that differs is the way people handle special situations like this. There are even foundations and organizations that cater to helping parents and teachers cope up with the challenge of teaching and parenting children with special needs.
Parenting and teaching special needs children is an easy task if you know how to handle the situation. Don’t panic! Know what is true and what is not. Don’t judge a situation based on pure misconceptions. As long as you know what to do, parenting and teaching children with special needs will be a satisfying and fulfilling experience.
By: Monica Corral-lorica
Long Island Schools Putting Fewer Students in Special Education
November 15th, 2009
Over the last couple of years, Long Island schools have been placing fewer students in Special Education classes. Instead, some students at Long Island schools with special needs have been receiving tutoring to help them keep up with their school work.
Mainstreaming Students in Long Island Schools
On the face of it, mainstreaming special needs students attending Long Island schools into a regular classroom as much as possible makes sense. If the special-needs student can attend classes with his or her peers, there is a cost savings for the board of education. No matter what we want for our children attending Long Island schools, there are only so many dollars available for education.
For too long, children who were “different” were kept away from the mainstream. Students in the regular education stream didn’t have a lot of opportunities to get to know them or interact with them. Special Education students were the object of suspicion and/or ridicule, simply because other students didn’t understand them; all they knew was that these other children were different. Being different was not something to be celebrated at that point.
Any measure that helps students attending Long Island schools learn to be tolerant of others can only be for the good. Humans tend to be suspicious of things (and people) they don’t understand. With time, mainstreaming can help to reinforce the idea that there is no “Us” and “Them” at Long Island schools. All students are in the environment to learn together and to learn from each other.
Long Island Schools Need to Ensure Students Don’t Fall Through the Cracks
It would be most unfortunate if, in the interest of saving a few dollars, students who need to be in a different learning environment to do their best work were denied access to Special Education programs. We shouldn’t be too quick to either segregate students from their peers or to push them into the mainstream learning environment in Long Island schools.
Instead, we need to take the time and allocate the appropriate resources so that a thorough investigation is conducted when a student is having trouble learning at Long Island schools. Only with a proper diagnosis of a difficulty, can a plan be implemented in Long Island schools to address that student’s needs.
Our children are our most valuable resource. When they don’t get the support they need to become effective learners, we are setting them up to fail in life. It would be far better for teachers and administrators at Long Island schools to find out what the students’ needs are and find the resources to meet them, whether in the regular classroom or an alternate one.
By: Patricia Hawke
