By Kaila Barrett

What stood out the

most during this

course?

Go to next page to find out!

One of the most important aspects that I will take

from this course is how to effectively

communicate. I believe that the key to success in

ANY situation is communication. This will help me

know how to communicate not only with the

parents but the students, administrators, fellow

colleagues, etc.

Being a teacher is about much more than just

teaching there are so many different aspects to

take into consideration and communication is one

of them. There is NO school where you can work

alone and not have to communicate with anyone.

Another important aspect that I learned was the 7

principles of trust. I honestly didn’t put much consideration

into trust when becoming a teacher, I never really thought

about it and what it would entail. Now that this course is

almost complete it has really made me spread my outlook

on situations especially in partnerships. Now don’t get me

wrong I knew that there would have to be partnerships but

I guess I never really thought about what they would

include or how to maintain them. I believe that all the

principles will help me maintain and gain partnerships with

parents, colleagues, and students.

As I was doing the assignment for the 7 principles of trust

I gained a whole new perspective. This will help me

become a better teacher knowing the characteristic's and

what each one entails because I will know how to maintain

and fix situations. I believe that each principle is just as

important as all the others.

I really enjoyed doing the assignment timeline on the

historical events that have affected students with disabilities.

I have don’t assignments like this before but this book

provided more acts that I have seen and more information

along with those acts. I believe that this will help me as a

teacher because I will have an understanding of the past

and how much better the present is. It will also allow me to

advocate for the future of special education.

I love to excel and succeed at what I do because it makes

me feel that I have a sense of understanding and that I tried

my best. To some people they may not care about the past

and what happened back then. They like to focus on the

present and future but in my opinion how do you know what

to work towards if you don’t know what has happened

previously. The past may give you better ideas of how to

handle a situation.

Families are

Partners!!!!!!

This was important to me because I basically learned how to

include the family when evaluating a student, obtaining

consent, and how to read the results.

In my opinion the most important part was how to include the

parents and how to read the results to them because as I have

mentioned before it can be an extremely scary situation for

some parents and it is important to know how to read the

results and include the parents as much as they want to be

included.

This will make me a better teacher because I wont be the main

decision maker, as it was in the past, the families will be

involved as much as they want to be and I will know how to

handle those situations and what may come from them as well.

I really enjoyed learning about how to take into consideration

the families perspective because each family is different and

they have different needs and practices. This helps me know

how to grasp on to the new concept.

IEP’s are one of the main aspects in special education and it is

important to know what they entail and I have learned SO much

about this. This will extremely help when I become a teacher

because I will know what is in an IEP and an IFSP. I have also

learned about who can be involved in each of these plans.

I already knew a lot about IEP’s and have even helped to create

one in one of Dr. Moeller’s classes but I don’t have much

experience on the IFSP and I believe that when a student will be

transitioning into elementary school and the IFSP will provide great

insight into the student and what they are working on/towards and

an IEP will be created to continue this.

This will help me as a teacher because I will actually understand

what people are talking about and be able to interpret what these

plans are and what they entail. I cannot express how important

knowing these plans are to a future teacher. The plans will help you

to understand some of your students and what they have troubles

with or what they are very good at.

It is important to help families as best as you can and I

believe that the chapter on meeting families basic needs

helped me to know what resources are available for

families who need the extra help and support. As a

teacher my job is to help the families as best as I can

and I have confidence that I have learned a great deal

about this subject.

I really took into consideration the needs for emotional

and informational use just because, I feel those are very

important to families. This will help me to provide

adequate help and support to families that need more

than I can provide.

It is important to have empathy and put yourself in their

shoes, it can be a very scary situation and they may

need somebody to talk to who KNOWS and

UNDERSTANDS what they’re going through.

I continued to read the book because outcomes are a huge part of special education. I also learned about partnerships in

homework, sharing information about students progress, using assistive technology, friendships and community, as well as

positive feedback.

One of the most important aspects I took was assistive technology and how it can help students. In another class I

actually made a “tool kit” of different technology resources for students with disabilities. This will help me because I will know

what can help and what cant with different disabilities.

I also think it is important for the school or even the special educator to be involved with the community because it will help

when the students are ready to transition into adulthood or postsecondary education. Collaboration will go a long way in

communities and schools.

This will help me become a better teacher because I will know how to assist students will different technology and I will know

how to collaborate with different people such as parents, educators, communities, etc. This will help the student become

more successful and that is the key!

My life revolves around becoming a teacher, without that I would have nothing to strive for. I truly believe that I will be a great teacher but

like others, I still need help to become the best applicant for students. I do not know if I will be in a

special education classroom or a general education classroom but I do know that no matter where I go there will always be students who need

extra help and knowing this information I will be able to do my best. All of the concepts that I talked

about will help me be the best that I can be and that is because I have an understanding of what needs to be done and what I can do. Teaching is my dream and knowing how families are affected by me and the decisions we make only makes my decision for becoming a teacher much more real.