SCOS

In all honesty, the first time I looked at the SCOS for a single grade I was terrified. I just couldn't see any way in which I, as a teacher, would be able adequately cover all that the state wanted me to in a single year.

As I've worked in more and more classrooms I'm beginning to see that it's really not that difficult after all. You integrate the same goals and objectives in different lessons through out the year. There is a lot of information that needs to be covered, but you can do more than one goal in a lesson plan and, if you're creative enough, you can even incorporate many of the goals into play.

What book did you choose and why?

I chose 'Meeting Special Needs in Science Curriculum' as my book because it's more useful for my intended teaching path than the books suggested on the list. Though I have not recieved the book yet I know that there are parts that, for the intention of our integrated curriculum course, are not relevant (i.e. policy writing, working with TAs, etc). The sections of the book that I am most interested are those that will explain how to modify science lessons or create lesson plans that special needs students (both physically and developmentally delayed) will be able to have fun with and learn from.

In all the years that I've been working in special needs classroms I can not think of a single in depth science lesson that was taught. I'm sure that when your students are working on gross/fine motor skills, speech, and even feeding themselves, that it's easy to overlook science. Every once in a while you'll have a lesson about animals or weather, but never any real answers (why do frogs croak? what makes a cloud?). I hope to one day incorporate science experiements and hands-on lessons; I believe that special needs students benefit even more from these approaches that general ed students do, and it's vital that we give them the opportunity to do so.



Photo by Jillian L. of Chappy P. (Making a volcano in Wales, UK) 2007

What book did you choose and why?

What grade level are you interested in teaching and why? What's your host site?

When the time comes for me to have my own classroom, it will be a special needs class, ideally special needs kindergarten. My heart has always been in special ed, and though I value all children, I have found special ed to be the most rewarding.

My mom was a special needs teacher and I grew up in her class playing with her students, seeing them as nothing but equals. I knew that they were different, but so is everyone. My dad was quadriplegic for the last couple years of his life, so the adaptive equipment, therapists in and out, and learning how to appreciate all abilities, no matter how small, were part of my everyday life.

I think that both of these situations contributed to my passion for special education. For the last seven years I have worked at a special needs preschool, having had my own classroom these last two summers, and I couldn't love it more. It's hard, emotionally and physically exhausting, often messy, and things rarely go as planned, but it's worth it. Every so often you stop and realize just how far a child has come (seeing first steps at five years, witnessing a mother hear her child call for her by name after waiting for three years) and everything you've done is without a doubt, worth it.

My fieldwork placement is in a third grade classroom at Hall Fletcher Elementary. My first visit isn't till Thursday, but I have high hopes that my spent there will be a great experience. Mrs. Duquet, my host teacher, seems extremely kind and dedicated. She said that there were many high needs students in her class this year so I hope to learn how and observe her differentiate instruction for all different subjects.

*Photo Credit: Jillian L. Taken Summer 2007 from a science lesson during Constraint Induced Therapy Week at The Meyer Center, Greenville SC.

selected books

Books that I thought may be options for book assignment
http://www.amazon.com/Meeting-Special-Needs-Science-Curriculum/dp/184312159X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219946421&sr=1-4

http://www.amazon.com/Differentiated-Science-Teaching-Differences-Educational/dp/0335157068/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219946421&sr=1-5

If you don't think either of these are appropriate, I'd love to sit down with you and search for one that might be more of what you're looking for. Or, if you'd rather we just stick to the list given to us, I'll keep with Last Child in the Woods.

Ways in which a blog could be useful as a classroom resource

~Post homework assignments (page numbers, etc) so that students can't have 'forgotten to write it down'

~Keep parents notified of upcoming classroom events, projects, what's going on in the classroom environment (possibly a weekly online newsletter)

~Have links for students to use that are related to the material being covered in class

~Have a weekly extra credit problem on blog that students have the option of doing on their own time, encouraging them to become familiar with technology.

~Have a class blog. Each week one student can post a poem, story, or riddle they've written and a photo of themselves

~Post current events and news articles that may be of interest to students (again, getting them comfortable with technology.