Autism and Education Article

This article jumped out to me as soon as I saw it on my desk. Since I am going into Special Education anything having to do with a learning disability or behavior disorder intrigues me right away. This mother in the article deals with a very hard subject for most educators to even talk about. A lot of money goes towards Special Education every year, and many people think that other parts of education should receive more money as well.

I agree with the mother when she states that maybe more money should be put into gifted education. Not enough is done to help out the students who fall into the gifted education program. She talks about her daughter who "hides a book in her desk and reads while the teacher talks." I think that the daughter in this situation is not being stimulated at all. I think that yes the school could put more money in their gifted and talented program, but also I think that the teacher needs to make sure that she is stimulating all of the students in the classroom. The mother states that only 7.5 million dollars are put into grants for gifted education programs, compared to the 24.5 billion dollars that are allotted by NCLB for Special Education. Although I do believe that more money needs to be put into gifted education, I don't think that taking a lot of money away from Special Education is the way to do it. The money that is put into Special Education is all ready being stretched out throughout the schools and districts. And, if more money is going to be put towards gifted education I think that we must also put more money into the arts as well, because those subjects in the schools are also lacking in money to build the systems. I think that the overall distribution of money into schools needs to be reexamined.

The mother who writes this article also talks about how the goals for Special Education students are a lot lower than those goals of students who take part in gifted and talented programs. Although this is true, I think that we as educators cannot say that just because the goals of some students are lower than others they do not deserve the right to all of the federal money that they are given. The Special Education systems have been helping out even more students now that they get more funding from NCLB, and numbers are rising of students who receive help and are now meeting standards that would not be possible to do without that extra money they receive.

Overall, I think this a hard position to be in. Whenever money is involved it is not easy to pick where it should go. It is hard to decide which group of individuals need/deserve the money more. I feel as though more money needs to be given to gifted and talented programs, but money should not be taken away from Special Education in order to do it, but this could definitely be my bias as I am going to be a Special Education teacher.

Steve Chambliss and our discussion

I learned alot from our talk with Steve Chambliss. It was nice to hear from a teacher who has taught for many years, and also to talk to someone who has done a lot of different jobs in the school system in general.

The first topic that really stands out to me that Steve talked about was No Child Left Behind. It was interesting how he said that it was a "wake-up call to public education." I never really thought of it this way and it really opened my eyes to NCLB being really good for our schools. I thought his solution to the problems that arise from NCLB were interesting as well. He stated "we need to improve teaching and create a better learning environment." And I think this is completely correct. We as teachers need to create a better environment for all of our students to learn better. It was nice to see a teacher who really stands up for NCLB. The only thing that he said was really hard about NCLB was the accountability. It is hard for some students to take standardized tests, and I think we should find a better way to make sure our students are accountable for the learning.

Another topic that really interested me was how he said we should start looking into graduate schools right after graduation. I was always told to take a couple of years before you look into that kind of stuff, but it makes more since with all the learning and test taking to jump into it right away (after starting to teach). I think it was really smart to point out that we should take the GRE right away when we are still used to test taking and are still very knowledgeable in those general subjects that are a part of the test.

What really interested me about his talk was all of the inspiring quotes he said at the end of the talk. It gave me goosebumps to hear all of the great things that come from teaching. Like when he said that teaching is "a life of service...and a very rewarding career." This makes me so excited to be a teacher. I cannot wait to begin my life of service and all the rewards that I will reap from being a teacher. He made me even more excited to be a teacher and I cannot wait to begin my journey of a life of service and rewarding experiences.

The quotes that Steve Chambliss were amazing for an inspirational teaching video click here.

New Teacher Panel

It was a great experience to listen to a new teacher panel as they told us about their first couple years in the "real world." The three teachers were all different and each told us something we could learn from them. The teacher I learned the most from was the male teacher, because he (like me) is in Special Education. It was kind of scary to realize that although they prepare us very well here at Luther College, we will come across situations that we never got taught how to deal with, which is when we will have to use what we learned and figure out the situation by ourselves.

What I found most interesting was the use of technology in the schools now. Two of the teachers stated at their school all students grades 5 and above have laptops. Although this is a good thing because of the saving of the paper when tests are given and such, it can also be a hassle. The students always want to be on the computers when they have free time. This I believe is not a good thing at all. In the free time the students are given they should be socializing and being active with friends. These two components are missing in a lot of our students. Our students need to become more social with each other and adults, they also need to be more active and physically fit. This is their chance to be kids and run around and have fun, with the computers in front of them the whole time they do not do this

Another subject I found most interesting was how the schools are beginning to teach manners to children. I think this is a great idea, because many children do not know basic manners to adults. By having the students say hi and thank you after everything they are learning lifelong lessons they need later in life. School is not all about the knowledge of subject matter like math and reading. You also need to learn those social skills in which manners falls into. I think this is a very good thing that these teachers are doing for their students.

After this teacher panel, my eyes were opened very much. I've always thought that you will learn pretty much everything you need to know in college and then you'll be able to deal with all those things when you are teaching, but I know now that I will keep learning once I'm out of college. This teacher's panel was a good way to see what life outside of the "Luther Bubble" is and what we might have to deal with on a regular basis.