As part of my Bachelor of Education degree, I had the opportunity to volunteer in a school dedicated to students with exceptionalities where I worked with two girls who had severe cerebral palsy. After taking this course, I have been able to determine my strengths and weaknesses when working with students with CP, as well as students with various other exceptionalities.
Strengths
I have been fortunate enough to have a lot of experience working with students with exceptionalities, which has allowed me to learn some of the best practices. When teaching, I always try to have a visual aid to accompany what I am saying. Since I am a visual learner myself, the referential helps me to organize my thoughts while teaching. In this way, my lessons always stimulate multiple senses, which benefits all students (not only students with exceptionalities). I either write on the chalkboard/whiteboard, or have a handout that supports what I am saying. In this way, students can always refer back to the visual if they missed part of what I was saying.
Another one of my strengths is inclusion. To me, inclusion means everyone is involved and feels respected and safe in any given situation. I have been a camp leader with the City of Mississauga for three years now and every week I express the importance of inclusion in the camp. When I have a camper with an exceptionality, I teach the other students about the exceptionality and I encourage the other campers to make friends with them. I do not tolerate bullying or alienation of any sort. Last month, I had a camper who was autistic and we were playing a game where the campers had to find a partner. I had three campers come up to me asking if the camper with autism could be their partner. This proved to me that my lessons on inclusion are being received by the campers.
A final strength of mine is my desire to learn. When something is new to me, such as an exceptionality that I don't know much about, I love researching it to become more knowledgeable. Before I even graduated this past June, I knew I wasn't finished learning, so I signed up for this course and I intend on taking many more additional qualifications. I want to keep learning and keeping up-to-date with the teaching profession since it is ever-changing. I want to be the best teacher I possibly can and this course has helped me accomplish this.
Needs
When I first started volunteering at the school for students with exceptionalities, it was the first time that I was interacting with exceptional students in a teaching role. For the first few weeks, I would go home upset about their situations - they never chose this and for many of them, they would never live an independent life. Me feeling sorry for them impacted the way I would act while at school. I was very quiet and looking back at it, my role in the classroom was pretty useless during those weeks. One week, while commuting home from the school, I had a moment of clarity. I realized that if I kept feeling sorry for them and being upset all day, that nothing would ever change. But, if I went in with my normal cheerful attitude, maybe I could make a small difference in their lives. So that's what I did. I became more involved and I can honestly say it made a huge difference. After two week of my new attitude, a student with Down syndrome started to remember my name and would greet me with a big hug and smile whenever I came into the classroom. One of the girls with CP finally let me feed her and would use her "yes" and "no" cards to answer my questions. I think this was by far my biggest weakness, but also one of the best learning experiences that came from volunteering at this school. I would now say that my positive attitude is a strength of mine.
Another need of mine is that I need to promote independence more. At camp, when I have an exceptional camper and I see them attempting to do something and they're struggling, I immediately want to do it for them. Last year, I had an autistic camper and he was struggling to zip up his backpack and I could tell he was getting frustrated. I ran over and helped him zip it up. I have done this is several other situations. I realize now that most of the time, the child can accomplish the task by themselves, with coaching from me. I do not necessarily have to do it for them. I need to create an atmosphere where the child will come to me and ask for help if they need it and I need to promote independence as much as possible.
Strengths
I have been fortunate enough to have a lot of experience working with students with exceptionalities, which has allowed me to learn some of the best practices. When teaching, I always try to have a visual aid to accompany what I am saying. Since I am a visual learner myself, the referential helps me to organize my thoughts while teaching. In this way, my lessons always stimulate multiple senses, which benefits all students (not only students with exceptionalities). I either write on the chalkboard/whiteboard, or have a handout that supports what I am saying. In this way, students can always refer back to the visual if they missed part of what I was saying.
Another one of my strengths is inclusion. To me, inclusion means everyone is involved and feels respected and safe in any given situation. I have been a camp leader with the City of Mississauga for three years now and every week I express the importance of inclusion in the camp. When I have a camper with an exceptionality, I teach the other students about the exceptionality and I encourage the other campers to make friends with them. I do not tolerate bullying or alienation of any sort. Last month, I had a camper who was autistic and we were playing a game where the campers had to find a partner. I had three campers come up to me asking if the camper with autism could be their partner. This proved to me that my lessons on inclusion are being received by the campers.
A final strength of mine is my desire to learn. When something is new to me, such as an exceptionality that I don't know much about, I love researching it to become more knowledgeable. Before I even graduated this past June, I knew I wasn't finished learning, so I signed up for this course and I intend on taking many more additional qualifications. I want to keep learning and keeping up-to-date with the teaching profession since it is ever-changing. I want to be the best teacher I possibly can and this course has helped me accomplish this.
Needs
When I first started volunteering at the school for students with exceptionalities, it was the first time that I was interacting with exceptional students in a teaching role. For the first few weeks, I would go home upset about their situations - they never chose this and for many of them, they would never live an independent life. Me feeling sorry for them impacted the way I would act while at school. I was very quiet and looking back at it, my role in the classroom was pretty useless during those weeks. One week, while commuting home from the school, I had a moment of clarity. I realized that if I kept feeling sorry for them and being upset all day, that nothing would ever change. But, if I went in with my normal cheerful attitude, maybe I could make a small difference in their lives. So that's what I did. I became more involved and I can honestly say it made a huge difference. After two week of my new attitude, a student with Down syndrome started to remember my name and would greet me with a big hug and smile whenever I came into the classroom. One of the girls with CP finally let me feed her and would use her "yes" and "no" cards to answer my questions. I think this was by far my biggest weakness, but also one of the best learning experiences that came from volunteering at this school. I would now say that my positive attitude is a strength of mine.
Another need of mine is that I need to promote independence more. At camp, when I have an exceptional camper and I see them attempting to do something and they're struggling, I immediately want to do it for them. Last year, I had an autistic camper and he was struggling to zip up his backpack and I could tell he was getting frustrated. I ran over and helped him zip it up. I have done this is several other situations. I realize now that most of the time, the child can accomplish the task by themselves, with coaching from me. I do not necessarily have to do it for them. I need to create an atmosphere where the child will come to me and ask for help if they need it and I need to promote independence as much as possible.