Robin Ayers

Dr. Joan Brook

11/25/21
Reflection Paper

I liked this course because of the field experience attached to it. In the field experience, I
gain knowledge of how to use specific strategies in specific situations that are happening. In the
lecture version of this course, I had to read about strategies and then come up with my own that I
might eventually in my classroom. I think the real-life and imagined situations could all happen,
but I am never going to know how to help in those situations unless I can experience them in my
classroom.
My favorite assignment was the “Strategies at a Glance Chart.” This chart is going to be
useful in the years to come because I will be able to look back at it to find information about
specific diagnoses that I might see in my classroom. I have different options of strategies that I
can try, and, if they do not help, I can always research and implement others. When I find
strategies that work, I can add those to my chart. I can also add new diagnoses to my chart as
they are recognized by the special education laws. This resource can be shared with other
teachers, especially if they do not have a similar one. It could be very useful to them.
The Field Note Papers helped me identify different classroom management strategies in
my field experience that I can eventually use in my classroom. My field experience teacher told
me there were no students in the class that could be written about for the last paper (Case Study
II). For all the field notes papers, I liked how we used our notes to write about what was
happening in the classroom. The notes gave us a foundation that we could expand on, and,
personally, it helped me keep track of what I had already written about in previous papers. I tried
to avoid being repetitive, but sometimes I was able to find ways to expand on what I had
previously written about. Each of the field papers built upon the last, and they became an
enrichment tool that we completed as we learned more about different diagnoses.
I understood why we turned in our observational notes as practice field notes first, but I
think we could have had a better understanding of how we were supposed to be taking notes. I
wrote paragraphs for each day that I was at my field experience, but others wrote bullet points. I
liked how our peers were able to explain what we needed to expand on though. I feel like that
was more busy work and just a check to make sure we were taking notes. I do not think it needed
to be graded.
I enjoyed completing Case Study I because I was able to search for lesson plans that I
could use in a music curriculum and then specialize it to fit the student’s needs, with extra
support. If a lesson plan was too differentiated, we could remove some of the aspects to fit what
exactly we need to be using it for, or we can add to it. This assignment helped us look at the
‘normal’ lesson plan through our student’s eyes instead of just trying to get it written out and
completed. We paid close attention to minute details that some other teachers might not pay
attention to.
 I did not like the forum discussions. I did not learn anything from them because I felt like
we were just repeating ourselves constantly. The only good thing I thought came out of those
was being able to see the different ideas that came to us when we read the articles. I think we
could have had a zoom discussion over instead of writing about it.
For the focused listing guide, I just put the notes that I took while I was reading the
assigned chapter into the assignment upload file. I handwrite notes then I put them into google
drive. I understood that you were trying to get us to think outside of the box for assignments that
students could complete, but most of us had so much going on that, I just did what I would do,
which is usually different from everyone else.
I did not like when we had to summarize articles when we could have just discussed them
over zoom. I think it was a waste of our time outside of class, especially when we could not see
other people’s summaries, when they may have picked up on a different topic than the rest of us.
As for the conference documents, I did not like them personally because I kept changing
my project. It took me forever to decide on one. I needed something where I could showcase all
my work, but also talk about new sources that I have been looking at. I do not think it was
necessary to have us make a conference document.
The special education timeline assignment helped me because I was able to document
when different laws changed special education for the better. I was also able to realize how much
more change needs to be made to the special education laws. I can use this as a resource to show
that some change has been made. I can also give it to other teachers, and they can use it in their
classrooms.
I also liked the learning objective assignment because I was able to find specific topics
that I wanted to do more research on, such as students with hearing impairments or child who has
a sensitivity to loud noise but wants to be in music class. I am not a fan of loud and high-pitched
noises. I switched from flute to cello for this reason. I don’t like playing in the upper register on
the cello, even if it sounds beautiful. I just must get used to it because I love the instrument and
music in general. There is always information on different strategies that we may not realize
would work for a student because we have not experienced it ourselves. We must be able to find
these sources and make them work in our classrooms.
I learned from case study two, but it also was not my favorite assignment. I did not have a
focused learner, so I had to make an imaginary student that I could find ways to show that they
might have a specific disability. I used my strategies at a glance chart to come up with scenarios
that I might see in my classroom, and I showed how the symptoms were affecting the student’s
academic, emotional, and behavioral achievement. I then came up with strategies to help the
student. I do not know if they would work because I have not had the real experience of using
them.
I like the pretest, midterm, and posttest. Personally, the pretest gave me a foundation of
what I should know by the end of the course. The midterm and posttest made sure that I knew
what terminology was because it was a grade. I think they are useful, but I do not think that they
should be the same questions every time. I like the introductory reflection assignment that
coincided with the pretest. I love to draw, so this helped me visualize how I want my students to
feel in my classroom: safe, welcomed, included, important, and happy.
I think that the large final projects are not needed for this class. I think we could have
chosen what we wanted to do with each of our assignments. I would have loved to be able to
draw a concept map that shows how all of the concepts are connected just like all students. I
think the project research sources forum should have been posted at the beginning of the
semester. We should have used it to make an overall resource list that combined all of ours onto
one document.
When we first started this class, I was very intrigued about how students on the autism
spectrum would be given differentiated lessons because I am on the spectrum. Now, I would like
to know more about helping students with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
have a more stable environment where they can focus better. Mandy Frantz’s article, Identifying
Music Interventions to Support Students with ADHD in the Classroom, talks about how using
mnemonic devices could be used as the daily warm-up because eventually, students will already
know what it means when it is assigned. Using auditory and visual cues also help students with
ADHD. I have read in other articles that some teachers have color-coded music for the students
with ADHD to help them focus, and that is something I am more interested in learning about. In
my mind, colored-coded sheet music seems too confusing, but I also can understand why it
might not be because it is just organized labeling without words.
I also read is L.C. Brown’s article, Tips for Teaching Students with ADD or ADHD, that
making everything the students learn into a story could help them focus because they know
exactly what part they should be at. I think that programming music that exudes a storyline
would be useful to some students with ADD and ADHD.
Overall I think that this class was well put together, and I learned about many strategies
to use, and it also makes me want to keep researching. I think that some of the assignments were
useful, such as the “Strategies at a Glance Chart”, Field Notes Papers, and Case Study I.
However, there were many assignments that I thought were just busywork. I wish, instead of
getting the busywork assignments, we could have discussed more music-related strategies and
made a document as a class where we added all of our found resources to it with an abstract
explaining each one. Overall, I did like this class, and I learned a lot. I think it could have been
compacted some at the end though. I think I am much more comfortable at recognizing
disabilities and diagnoses, but I do not think I am going to be fully comfortable teaching them
until I have had experience in a classroom setting because I did not get any this semester in my
field experience.
 Works Cited

Brown, L. C. (2010, June 23). Tips for teaching students with add or ADHD. NAfME.
Retrieved November 20, 2021, from https://nafme.org/tips-for-teaching-students-
with-add-or-adhd/.

Frantz, Mandy, "Identifying Music Interventions to Support Students with ADHD in the
Classroom" (2020). Student Research Submissions. 376.
https://scholar.umw.edu/student_research/376