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.
Artifacts
Emotional Behavior Disorders PowerPoint- A presentation including strategies for teaching students with EBD.
Causes and Characteristics - A research paper on the known causes of emotional behavior disorders and the characteristics observed.
Teaching Strategies - A research paper on valuable teaching strategies for students with EBD.
Rationale, Standard Connection, Self- Evaluation
In my Introduction to Exceptional Children course, I was assigned emotional behavior disorders to research and write about. The three assignments and artifacts listed above are a presentation on emotional behavior disorders, the causes and characteristics of the disorder, and teaching strategies for students with this disorder. I chose these artifacts because they sum up what I learned from the course.
In my presentation, I taught my peers about the teaching strategies for students with emotional and behavior disorders that I had found in my research. I discussed the needs of students with emotional and behavior disorders and also the abilities that these students have. As an educator, it is important to identify a student's weaknesses and strengths in order to give them an appropriate education. According to Standard 1, the competent teacher, understands "how individuals develop and learn within the context of their social, economic, cultural, linguistic, and academic experiences". My goal for this assignment was to present unique ways to learn more about students with emotional behavior disorders and discover the ways to assist them in their academic experiences. I asked the class to get involved with my lesson so that I could demonstrate one of the strategies I had learned about emotional behavior disorders, and give them a better understanding of the strategies. The video included in my presentation provided a scenario about students with emotional behavior disorders that most special educators will experience at one point in their career.
The first paper assigned covered the known causes and characteristics of emotional behavior disorders. I listed the possible causes of an emotional behavior disorder as well as some common characteristics that all teachers should be aware of. According to Standard 1, The competent teacher, "understands the diverse characteristics" of their students. For this assignment, I was able to gain knowledge on the characteristics of emotional behavior disorders in order to understand my students with similar needs. With this knowledge, I will be able to properly identify the signs of emotional behavior disorders and adjust my teaching to fit students with these needs.
The strategies paper required me to dig deeper into the needs of students with emotional behavior disorders so that I could discover strategies for teaching these students. All students learn differently, and it is up to educators to adjust their teaching strategies to fit the needs of their students. For this paper, I found ways to properly teach students with emotional behavior disorders so they not only gain a proper education, but so that they can learn to cope with their emotions and behaviors. It is the job of the educator to provide students with a safe learning environment. In order to maintain a safe learning environment, I need to ensure my students with emotional behavior disorders feel comfortable and confident that they have someone ready to assist them.
This course taught me so much not only about disabilities, but about my role as a special education teacher. I discovered new ways to teach students with various needs and gained a better understanding of my responsibilities. I think the goal of this course was to give future educators the important basics needed to become a special education teacher. During completion of the artifacts above, I learned the characteristics of a common disability as well as ways to help students with this disability. Through the journey of my career, I will remember that the needs of the student will always come before mine and I need to express this in my teaching.