Student Profile and Pre-Philosophy Statement

Education 203 Week One Assignment

Part 1

My goal for taking this course is to learn how to communicate and try to understand

children with special needs. Often, I notice that these children are not given the correct

approach and that is when they decide to act up. I want to be able to change that in my future

classroom. My educational goal is to become an Elementary Education teacher. I enjoy being

around children and helping others. When I started my college career, I had my mind set on

becoming a pediatric nurse. Even back then, I knew I wanted to work with children. I figured out

that biology and I do not go well together. All I knew was that I still wanted to work with children,

and I decided on changing to teaching. Last semester I did my field observations and I loved

being in the classroom. I knew that the assignment would allow me to see if I actually wanted to

become a teacher. Something that I enjoy doing on my spare time is giving myself manicures

and even giving my mom a manicure too. I get to distract myself and just focus on the manicure

set designs. I would say that graduating high school with an advanced honors diploma was the

biggest accomplishment I have achieved. I don’t have any learning challenges, only that I am a

visual learner. I learn best by looking at examples to get visual direction. Lastly, my attendance

will not be affected by any religious holidays or practices.

Part 2

I know that schools need more special education teachers. More teachers who are

passionate about working with children with special needs. I am not taking this class to become

a teacher in special education but one day when I have my own classroom, I want to be able to

communicate to all of my students. During my field observations I did see that the teacher had a

student with autism that would get pulled out into hs resource class. While the student was in
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the classroom, he was not very social with his classmates. I want to be able to make my future

students feel involved with the rest of their classmates. I also work as a Registered behavioral

technician with children with autism. I want to get more knowledge to help me with my work as

well.

Someone that has inspired me to work with children with special needs is my younger

sister. She is currently going to school as a special education teacher and she made me realize

how important these children are. Many times, they don’t have a person they trust to speak up

to and my sister is really good at making them open up to her and telling her their issues they

are having. She helps them speak up and solves their problems or makes them feel more

comfortable and causes them to not act up frequently. I want to be able to build that connection

with my students. It has been a while since I have been in an Elementary school and I did not

remember how the school settings were. During my field observations last semester, I got a

refresher. Special education itself gets funded a certain amount of money for supplies towards

the students. Students get pulled out of their classrooms into Gate or their resources classroom.

When I am in my own classroom, I want to be able to determine which ways my students

learn. I do not want to be teaching everything visually just because that’s how I like to learn. I

want to be able to incorporate the specific learning method the students in my classroom need. I

also want to incorporate group work time. I found it when I was in school, I enjoyed group work

because if I was not understanding something and had already asked the teacher for help I

didn’t want to keep asking I would as a member in my group. Sometimes hearing it come from

another student made me understand things easier. I also want to make it clear to my students

that I am available to help them with any questions they have. I don’t want them to be scared to

ask me a question. The field observations also really helped me notice the difference between

boys and girls. I noticed the teacher was really heavy in boy students and had less than 10

female students. She mixed the female students into at least one girl in each group. She said

that the females stay more on task and helped the male students get their work done. I did
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observe that was true. I plan on having some sort of variability in my classroom like this. As for

assessments, even though I dislike taking tests I do believe that they are necessary. They are

necessary to see if students are actually understanding the material or just getting by. I think I

will implement short pop quizzes in the moment if I feel that students are not paying attention or

understanding the material.

When I started my new job working as a Registered behavioral technician I have more

understanding of what it is like to be helping a student with special needs. They lose focus

quickly or any little thing can cause an outburst. It is all about learning the child and what he/she

likes. This was my first step in helping me move forward towards my career but I also plan on

getting my substitute license so I can get more practice on what it’s like being in a classroom. At

the moment I am also applying to jobs as a teacher aide to be in the school environment more.

My philosophy on how students with disabilities should be treated with care. By

someone who genuinely enjoys being around children with disabilities. I have been working with

children with autism and they are all really smart. It takes time to get them to understand but it is

possible. From my field observations last semester, I did like the idea of children getting pulled

out of their class to go to their resources class. I liked how the child still got to be involved in the

classroom with other children but then go and get that extra help they need.

From taking this course I would like to learn on how the grading system works for the

students. How are the students moved up to a different grade level? How is homework

implemented to them or is everything just done at school? How are schools funded for special

education classes? Does all the money actually go towards these students? These are some of

the things I would like to know more about.