Standard 1 - Teaching Diverse Students

The competent teacher understands the diverse characteristics and abilities of each student and how individuals develop and learn within the context of their social, economic, cultural, linguistic, and academic experiences. The teacher uses these experiences to create instructional opportunities that maximize student learning.

The above artifacts are research projects all done on a specific Individuals with Disabilities Act disability. For this series of projects, I was assigned emotional/behavior disorders, created for a class titled Introduction to Exceptional Children. The purpose of this class is to give future teachers a deeper look into students with learning disabilities and different strategies to learn the best way to maximize your lesson for your whole class.

Standard 1 - Teaching Diverse Students states the competent teacher understands the diverse characteristics and abilities of each student and how individuals develop and learn within the context of their social, economic, cultural, linguistic, and academic experiences. The teacher uses these experiences to create instructional opportunities that maximize student learning. By researching this topic, I feel I have a much better understanding of different accommodations and modifications that would help teach students with a variety of learning disabilities. I am also now more aware of all the many resources available to teachers and parents regarding students with disabilities and everything they are entitled to from their school.

Standard 1D also states the competent teacher understands the impact of cognitive, emotional, physical, and sensory disabilities on learning and communication pursuant to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, Throughout this class we have gone through a multitude of disabilities and what we as teachers can do for these students. It is extremely important to understand different disabilities and how those students will understand your lesson.

Overall, my abilities related to this standard are strong, I feel as though the teaching strategies I have learned are universal to a "regular" classroom as well as students with learning disabilities. One area I would like to learn more about is teaching gifted and talented students. I have done some research on my own, but I would like to speak to current teachers and see how they handle their gifted and talented students. I think there is always room for improvement and teachers are constantly sharing new tips and tricks for the classroom so I believe I will always be researching about learning disabilities and the best way I can teach my students.