Internship Week 5

Although our discussions are intended to focus on our time in the school, I would rather make this blogpost about what I learned at training this week.  On Wednesday,  I went with my mentor teacher to a training on Common Core and how it coincides with IEPs.  Going into this training, I really did wonder if it would be a review of what I have learned in class about the Common Core standards, or if I would gain new information from it.  I can honestly say it was one of the most effective trainings I have been to in regards of incorporating the new standards into IEPS as well as how to write IEPs.
We first started out by talking about the new standards and how we want to show growth as a school.  I thought this was a great way to connect the school to the new standards.  Instead of our content taught being a mile wide and an inch deep, it is an inch deep and a mile wide.  I feel that the new standards will certainly help our school growth rate, as we are really unpacking topics and digging deeper to understand what it's all about.  I feel that my classroom I am in really unpacks what the students are learning.  My teacher does not move on until the students really understand the topic.  I have already seen growth in my students in this aspect.
Moving onto the special education aspect of the training, I learned many things.  For example, I did not know that once a student was identified as having a disability, that 'label' is with them the rest of their life.  No matter how much they have improved, if you are categorized as having a learning disability, you will always have that learning disability, even if you do not possess those qualities of the disability. In a way, the term that was used, "labeling", rang through my head.  It makes me sad to think that students are considered as 'labeled' because that is exactly how I feel some people view them.  There are many close-minded people that view them as their disability, but not as the person they are.  This is what I would like to comment on.  I would like everyone to have the experience I am having in my classroom this semester.  I have seen 15 students work their hardest to complete tasks that we take for granted daily.  I have seen them frustrated because they couldn't quite 'get it' and I have seem them triumph for working through their frustration and confusion.  I do not feel that students get the respect and POSITIVE recognition they deserve.  For me, I will make it a personal goal to show my students just how proud I am of them each day and I want them to feel proud of themselves, as well.