REFLECTION PIECE

Teacher Philosophy
Special educators need to be resourceful, flexible, supportive, and have
strong behavioral management skills. As a teachers in the field of Special
Education I believe it is my job to help my students overcome barriers to
succeed in school and transfer those skills into adult hood. Children will face
different challenges while in school. My responsibility as teacher is to assess
students individual needs and provide services for that particular child.
Success in school is not only based on academics but it can also be
emotional, mental, or physical barriers holding children back from reaching
their full potential. As a Special Educator it is my responsibility to meet the
childs needs, teach them strategies to overcome obstacles that are
preventing them from reaching success. I believe education should be
challenging and engaging. Students cannot grow if they are not challenged.
I want to support students needs while still challenging them and showing
them the value of hard work. As a Special educator I need to be flexible and
adapt to situations as they arise. In education there is the potential for
almost anything to happen. Through strategic behavior and classroom
management skills I can control almost any situation still providing students
with optimal education opportunities.
Through the Alverno Abilities, Teacher Standards, and CEC Standards I have
guided my teaching practice to adhere the philosophy I believe in. The
standards have help progressed my teaching strategies to become optimal
for student growth and development. As I develop lesson plans I look to
these strategies to structure the best possible lesson. They have challenged
me to push myself to reach new goals while implementing lessons and
working with students.
Alverno Abilities
The Alverno Abilities has served as a guide while I develop my lesson plans.
I use the abilities while I create my lesson plans to develop meaningful
lessons for my students. Conceptualization guided me and my educational
framework to understand child development and learning process to
implement during lesson planning and instruction. Conceptualization assists
me in linking educational frameworks by developing a bridge between child
development and the learning process. I am able to understand how
students learn and grow and develop plans and instructions strategies to
ensure students are receive the best practices for a teacher. Diagnosis
supports me by interpreting behavior in given situations and developing an
educational framework to best foster a childs learning. I use diagnosis to
gather information about my students and determine the appropriate
teaching strategies for my students while continuing to monitor my own
practices applying adjustments as needed. Coordination helped me gather
my information about my students and apply resources into a lesson. I use
coordination to effectively apply all the information about my students,
common core standards, WI teaching standards, CEC Standards, and outside
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resources to effectively implement lessons. Communication is another

important aspect of the Alverno Abilities that I found guided me through my
development as a special education teacher. I use my communication
verbally, nonverbally, and through alternative communication methods
connect the lesson with my students. Communication has guided me to
apply my skills purposefully in the classroom and adapt it as needed in the
classroom for different learners and personalities. Integrative Interaction has
developed skills by challenging me to develop and implement lesson that are
scaffold and adapted for diverse learners. Integrative interactions kept me
mindful of the diversity in the classroom and use it to an advantage while I
developed lessons. The Alverno Abilities kept me mindful to use best
practice strategies while implementing my lessons.
Wisconsin Teaching Standards
The Wisconsin Teaching Standards provide me with guideline to follow while I
am practicing as a teacher and implementing lessons. Teaching goes beyond
just putting together lesson and educating students. The teaching standards
help me advance my lesson planning and implementation skills by using
resources and tools to make the lesson engaging, apply interpersonal skills
with students and families, consistently assess my students and myself, and
develop communication verbally and nonverbally. I used the Wisconsin
Teaching Standards as an outline for my teaching practice to ensure I am
developing students not only academically but also socially and emotionally.
I have continually thought how I can make this lesson more engaging based
on the teacher standards: what tools I can use, what resources would be
appropriate, what community ties I can introduce, how can I relate to the
parents as well as the children. These are some of the questions I asked
myself while I was instructing students to develop as a teacher and be a
meaningful person in the school.
Council for Exceptional Children Standards
The Council for Exceptional Children Standards has helped me develop as a
teacher in whole. I felt the standards touched on every part of what it means
to be a teacher. The standards spoke to how well you know your information
your teaching, the development of learners, professionalism, collaboration,
assessment, planning, language, environment, and instruction strategies.
Each one of these standards helped me develop my skills and advance my
abilities as a teacher. Collaboration challenged me to look outside of the
internet for help, I spoke with other staff, parents, and other professionals
outside of school to help in the development of my students. Pulling
together multiple resources gave me the abilities to try new strategies for
each individual child to see what works best for that individual. Content
knowledge, planning, and teaching strategies helped me develop lesson
planning and implementation techniques by researching scientifically proven
strategies for children, and mixing it with techniques, games, or explanation
strategies to help the lesson be more understandable for children. The
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content knowledge kept me practicing what I was teaching so I am able to

demonstrate full understanding of the lesson I was teaching. Providing me
with confidence while explaining the information and be able to answer any
questions the students have. Knowing how learners develop helped me
break down information into smaller amounts into easily understandable
information. It guided me to understand the steps needed in order to
adequately teach students appropriately. For example I know you need to
teach students what numbers represent before you teach them how to add.
Knowing how learners develop helped me develop my lessons into the
appropriate steps using the appropriate strategies for learners at certain
stages. Assessments kept me mindful to continually apply assessments not
only to the student but to myself. It is important to keep formal and informal
assessments of my student to adequately judge their abilities and their
growth. Every day I should apply some sort of assessment, formal or
informal, to assess my students growth and ask myself can I continue the
lesson, or should revisit the lesson with new explanations. The standards
helped me realize it is equally important to constantly assess myself to see
what worked and what didnt work during instruction. Self-assessments keep
me to continually reflect on my practices to change or fix anything that was
not working.
All the standard in whole helped me become a better teacher. The CEC
Standards helped me advance my abilities and adhere to special education
laws and procedures to develop students. The Wisconsin Teaching Standards
helped me develop as a teacher in the classroom and outside of the
classroom to continue to develop my abilities. The Alverno Abilities helped
me be mindful and advance my skills, as a check list, to make sure I am
applying those strategies while I am teaching. All the standards kept me
asking myself questions to make sure I am continually developing my
practice and applying best strategies.