Intro to Special Education
Final Reflection- Julie Tucker
Did the course meet your expectations?
I loved this course! I have thought about teaching special education, but I know it would be very hard for me. I get very attached to these students and I think it would emotionally drain me. I still don't think I want to just teach special ed, but I know I will spend some time with these students regardless. I learned a lot and you had so many great resources available to us!
Did you meet your own expectations of yourself?
I would say I did! You always had positive things to say about the work I turned in. Your encouragement and positive feedback always made me want to do better. I honesty looked forward to opening Canvas the day after I turned something in to see what you said! My goal for myself while starting this journey into elementary education was to not procrastinate. As you know, I have a little girl, so this was a little challenging, but for the most part I am proud of when I got my assignments turned in.
How did you “grow”? How did you learn?
I think having to use different tech tools really helped me grow. It sparked my creativity and made me want to know more about these tools. I learned by using your resources. I always had more questions and wanted to seek out the answers.
What learning experiences will you "take with you" as a future teacher?
I want to always be encouraging! Students aren't always going to do an amazing job, but when their effort doesn't go unnoticed they want to do better.
I plan to really get to know my students so I can relate to them and really understand their work.
What did you think of the course, the teacher, the students, the assignments, etc…?
I enjoyed the course and the students seemed fine! I didn't seem like we had a whole lot of interaction since this was an online course. For this course, I don't think that was a bad thing. I learned a lot from all of the assignments. I liked that they weren't necessarily challenging, but very informative. The links were very detailed and sometimes it was hard to choose what to put in my project, because there was so much valuable information. It shows that you really love what you do, which makes you an amazing teacher. Your attitude alone made me want to do well in this class and make sure I completed each assignment thoroughly .
What changes would you make, if any?
The only thing I would suggest is maybe host a Zoom meeting or something for the ILP. I feel like I really followed the directions, but looking at others' work I was a little confused if I actually did it right. I think by hosting a Zoom meeting you give students every possibility to be successful on the main project for the course.
Otherwise, this course was very straightforward. It was enjoyable and educational, making me even more excited to teach!