Chapter 3-Low-incidence disabilities

Teaching a student with autism this year has helped me focus on what works and doesn't work with students with low-incidence disabilities. I've enjoyed the opportunity to work with students with disabilties over the past few years and work with their teachers to discuss strategies to use to help these children succeed in the regular education classroom. First, I realize that no two students are alike, so each lesson and strategy must be individualized. I make sure to keep a routine and structure in my classroom. I've found that students with autism do not like for their daily routine to be altered. I also use several forms of communication for my students to share their work. Just last week, the student with autism was able to make a powerpoint presentation for a project and share with the class because that helped him with his speech. Finally, I make sure to have lots of peer interaction. I feel that students with autism learn so much from their peers. When they feel included and important, they will perform better in the classroom.

Some things I would like to change in my classroom to help these students would be to use more hands-on materials and give these students more of a "role" in the classroom. Hands-on materials often provide more participation and helps engage the learner. I also believe that students feel a part of the lesson if they have a role to fulfill. I also need to assign roles when working in small groups so each person can do their job but still work as a group.

In the future, I would like to use more small group work in my classroom. I would like to give students more time to interact with each other and have more opportunities for communication. I would like to find some visual cues or prompts to help my students with autism to help them communicate their thoughts with the class. Finally, I would like to continue to use technology in my classroom. Students with autism often love to use technology and share it with the class. I want to do whatever I can do to make sure all students are succeeding in my classroom.

Chapter 2-High-Incidence Disabilities

It is important for teachers to learn strategies to use for students with high-incidence disabilities because most teachers will have these types of students in their classrooms. I've had students with speech disabilities, ADHD, and LD in my classrooms that I've taught. Also, these types of disabilities most often deal with reading and mathematics skills in the regular education classroom so it's important to know ways to help these students. In my 4 years of teaching, I've most often dealt with students with ADHD. I make sure to let these students get out of their seat multiple times during the day. I take breaks between each lesson to give students 3-5 minutes to get up and move around. I've let students with ADHD stand up at their desk while they take a test or during a lesson if they need to stand up for a minute. It does get hard for the other students in the classroom and they distracted. I also tried to make my lessons hands-on where students have a chance to move around and talk with their peers. I also try to stick to a strict schedule so this helps students know the routine and what is going to happen next in the room.

Many students with ADHD also struggle academically. I struggle with having time to meet with my students individually or with small groups. It is important to use RtI preventions and interventions with these students. I have a hard time teaching my regular lessons for the day and having time to work one-on-one with these students. I also struggle with students shouting out and being impulsive during class. I work hard to help these students manage these outbursts.

One of the skills I can work on with my students is being patient and finding new strategies to help my students succeed. It is important to remember that no students are alike and I have to vary my teaching strategies with all students. I often find it easy to use visual or auditory teaching and I need to make sure to use more hands-on learning in my lessons. I also want meet with my students with ADHD more one-on-one to help use these students succeed.

Chapter 4-Collaboration

I am fortunate to work in a grade level and school where collaboration is important and is constantly being done. The best example of collaboration I have is my 3rd grade team. We spend about 3 hours each Wednesday afternoon planning for the following week. We also spend many days during our school planning talking and discussing ways to improve our lessons. When we plan, we bring new ideas and thoughts about what we are teaching. We work together and hold each other accountable. We are not competitive with each other and love to share new ideas. We work together to ensure our students are receiving the best education they can get. We work hard to communicate well with each other and make sure everyone feels like an "expert" during our planning.

There are several issues of collaboration that I feel could be improved in my school. First, I teach two students from a special education classroom each day and work with their teachers on a weekly basis. I would like to have better communication between the teachers to make sure I am doing everything I can to make sure their learning experience better. Also, we do not have any communication with the grade levels below and above us. I feel it would be beneficial to collaborate with these teachers to hear comments about what we need to do in our grade level.

There are several things I can do to improve collaboration in my school. First, I could meet with the special education teachers each week and discuss strategies to use in my classroom to help my students. My grade level can also work on areas of improvement in our classrooms and plan a reteaching time for our students. In the past, my grade level has switched teachers to reteach information and the students also enjoy learning from a different teacher. Finally, I will continue collaborating with my parents to make sure we discuss ways to improve their child's learning in my classroom.

Chapter 1-RtI

Response to Intervention has proven to be successful in many classrooms and schools around the country. In my classroom, I am using preventive strategies to help students from having to receive extra services. I use small-group activities in math and reading to help with struggling learners. I also have learning centers for math and reading. I am constantly examing their performance in my classroom and finding ways that I can help them succeed. I am fortunate to have wonderful parents that are willing to help their child at home, too. I reflect on my teaching practices and work to find new ways to help my struggling students. At my school, we use universal screening through standardized testing to help with identification of students that need help through RtI.

There are several RtI strategies and practices that I feel are implemented incorrectly in my classroom and school. I feel that I could help my students more if there were more resources. We are in constant need of tutors or professional resources to help with guided reading. Also, the testing we use to put students into RtI is the national MAP test. I believe we could use other tests to help with identification, too. Not all of the students that qualify for RtI are able to receive the services. They also only receive extra services one day a week for 50 minutes. The teachers and RtI teachers do not communicate about the progress being made while they are receiving the extra help.

I believe there are many ways to improve my work with RtI in my classroom. First, I would like to know more instructional techniques to help my students in my classroom. I would like to attend more professional developments about RtI to help with my instruction in the classroom. I also would like to have an increase in collaboration between the RtI teachers and classroom teachers. I believe we could better help our students if were had better collaboration and communication about strategies to use with these students.