Ed 490 Interview Reflections
Ed 490 Interview Reflections
Introduction:
She is a special education teacher at Tri-County Junior-Senior High School in Wolcott, Indiana.
She has been in the education field for 11 years, and she originally started teaching in Alaska
where she stayed for two years. At Tri-County, she works in a contained classroom with three
paraprofessionals. The classroom services students in grades 7-12 with disabilities ranging from
mild to severe.
Her day starts with a meeting to assign her paraprofessionals where they will go and what
they will be working on. Students enter her room earlier than any general education
students would, so she spends the first part of her day talking to her students about
anything and everything. Then, she teaches the four core subjects in the morning. The
classroom works around small groups, so she tries to evenly split the work between the
paraprofessionals. For example, if one para teaches a small group for reading, that para
general education classes, the paraprofessionals move in and out of the classroom
throughout the day to support a wide range of students. She is always in the classroom
with at least one other paraprofessional. After lunch, the class works on life skills and
more concentrated areas of study. She teaches whole group science and social studies,
and then works in small groups for lessons on independent living and occupations. For
example, some students go to agriculture class in the afternoon. To finish her day, she
“debriefs” with her paraprofessionals to see what worked, what did not work, and what
needs to be changed. One comment that she made was that the job of telling
paraprofessionals what to do was something she was not prepared for. Coming out of
college, she was not expecting to oversee other adults, so this was one area of the job that
2. How do you go about building relationships with and getting to know your
students?
Since her classroom is self-contained, she might work with students from 7th grade until
they graduate or turn 22 years old. This means that she needs to build a good relationship
with each student and each family. First, she sends a contact sheet out to families at the
beginning of the year. This has her contact information, but it also has some questions for
the parents to fill out. She works with students who are nonverbal or do not have high
cognitive abilities, so she likes to find out about students’ home lives, interests, likes and
dislikes, etc. This is a great way to get conversations started with students. She has found
that if you let the students share what they want to share, you will get so much more work
out of them. Finally, she mentioned that her classroom environment is very relaxed and
conversational. The students are all a part of the family, so they joke and talk throughout
the day. In the setting she is in, she gets to know her students very well, so she likes to
start building relationships early with conversations with the students and their families.
As many teachers would say, the students are her favorite part of the job. She sees a wide
array of struggles that the students go through, and she feels like their lives are not
always fair. But then she sees them make progress, and she remembers that she is a part
of that growth. She works with transitional IEPs, so she enjoys showing families the
students’ strengths. She also enjoys setting life and future goals for her students. Overall,
seeing the growth and realizing that she has played a role in that growth is the most
The most stressful part of her job is the IEP meetings because there are a lot of people
that hold a lot of power sitting at a table, and she is the one that is expected to lead that
discussion. She sees the student the most during the school year, so she is expected to
have a report about how that student is doing. So, the most stressful part of her job is the
time and energy that IEP meetings take. To help make the meetings less stressful, she
builds a solid relationship with the parents of the students. She lets them know, from the
beginning, that she is on their side and wants the best for their student. Building
5. If you could change one thing about your job, what would it be?
If she could change one thing about her job, she would change the paperwork. She
mentioned the importance of paperwork to ensure that students are receiving the
accommodations and modifications that they need to succeed, but the paperwork does not
need to be so extensive. She mentioned that the paperwork is not the best way to
communicate with parents because the wording is not in layman's terms. If the paperwork
was not so extensive, the job would not be as stressful. Overall, she said that paperwork
special education teachers. What are some strategies or methods you use to make
The biggest thing she reminded us of is that we should always remember why we are
there. We should remind ourselves that we are meant to be doing what we are doing. She
also mentioned that in education, sometimes we will feel like we are not making a
difference or making any progress, but we need to focus on the students who we know
we are reaching. We will not be able to reach every single student, so if we focus on the
ones that we are influencing, it will be easier to fight off burnout. She also told us that she
focuses on the positive every day. She goes through a process of debriefing with her
paraprofessionals but also with herself. She takes time at the end of the day to sit down,
analyze what went well and what went bad, and then she decides what she needs to do to
make sure the same things do not happen the next day. The most important thing to
remember is that we need to focus on the positive instead of letting the negative control
our minds.
Finally, she told us that whether we are getting a degree in special education or not, we
should take these special education classes seriously because they will help us in a
general education classroom too. The methods and resources will help us educate
students with disabilities as well as those without. She emphasized the importance of
general education teachers supporting special education teachers and vice versa!
Pre-service Teacher
Introduction:
She is in her final semester at the University of Evansville, but she is student teaching at
Evansville Vanderbilt High School which is a public high school. She teaches a little over
100 students during her eight-period school day. She has two regular biology classes, two
inclusion classes, two honors biology classes, a homeroom class, and one period prep.
1. What work do you do now that you learned in school about assessment of
children?
During her undergraduate studies at the University of Evansville, she learned the most by
visiting schools and doing things with students. She learned how to work with students
and how to assess students by observing methods and materials in a classroom setting.
During her junior year, she interned at a school and learned about some accommodations
that students might need, such as the tests read to them or a longer period to complete the
tests. Finally, she emphasized the importance of getting into classrooms and working
with students because that is when we will learn the most about assessing and evaluating
students.
2. Do you work with any special needs students in your classroom?
Throughout the day, she works with special education students quite often. Some students
with IEPs are sprinkled into her general education classes, and in the inclusion classes at
least half of the students have IEPs. She also has experience working with ELL students
and accelerated students in the high school, so she spends much of her time collaborating
with the host teachers to create seating charts and make sure students are not bored. The
wide array of students’ needs makes it more challenging because she does not want to
work too fast for those students who might have learning disabilities, but she also wants
to make sure her accelerated students are challenged properly. Therefore, she spends a lot
of time planning with her host teachers to ensure that all students are receiving a proper
education.
She has never been in a case conference before, so she has not been involved in the
formal process of assessment and evaluation. The inclusion class she teaches has an
instructor that specializes in special education, so she is learning from that teacher and
the students in their room. She does half of the grading, and the teacher has emphasized
the importance of staying on top of the grading in the inclusion classes. The more
accurate the grades are, the easier it is during the assessment process.
At this point, she is not very involved in the assessment process because she has only
been student teaching for a month and a half, but her host teachers are planning on having
5. Are there things you learned in school that differ from what you are seeing now?
As she explained, education is a very hands-on field, so she explained that until you are
looking at an IEP you will not fully understand everything. Special education teachers
have a lot on their plate. She mentioned that not all teachers realize how important it is to
keep people on track and help all students, but special education teachers are there to
She believes that special needs is an umbrella term, so as a general education teacher she
focuses mainly on the IEP. She focuses on the information listed and how that
information might apply to her classroom materials. She also mentioned that not all the
information in the IEP is accurate for all the students. For example, one IEP listed a
student as aggressive, but when she came into the room, she was very sweet and caring.
7. What are you most looking forward to about becoming a teacher?
She explained to us that she went through a honeymoon phase when she started her
student teaching because she was so excited to be in a classroom, but now she is realizing
how much work and pressure comes along with it. Despite all of the hard work, she loves
the content and loves molding students into citizens who will make this country
She is most nervous about disciplining students in her classroom because she doesn't
think her personality matches with the discipline side of teaching. She mentioned that she
looks like a young sweetie with bright blonde hair, so students do not always take her
seriously. She also told us that she is finally realizing how much time grading takes up.
Introduction:
She is a parent of four children of various ages. Her youngest daughter was adopted from
China at a young age, and she is the child who needs the accommodations. Her oldest son
Her role in assessment is to bring all the information that her family has on the child. For
her biological son, she had all his information and a comparison to his biological siblings.
On the other hand, she did not have all the information for her adopted daughter since
there was a two-and-one-half year gap of time where they did not receive any information
on her. It is harder to know what brain trauma occurred during these years.
2. How do you advocate for your student throughout the assessment and evaluation
process?
The biggest way she advocates for her child is to make sure all the information she has is
provided to the school. Along with that, she makes sure school personnel understand all
the information she has. Her daughter had assessments done in preschool, and they are
now beginning to redo them since there are so many unknowns about her brain
functioning. She also mentioned how she advocates for the work to be done well. One
way she advocates for her child is to talk to her teacher every week. They discuss what is
going well and any possible concerns that may have come up. Finally, she highlights that
this process has been trial and error for her family, and it takes time, effort, and
communication.
The student’s teacher helped this mom understand the entire process. She went through
meetings which helped her understand the evaluation process. She highlighted that
everyone plays a role in the process. During the meetings, the goals and observations
were explained very clearly to her. The person that coordinated the meetings helped her
understand each step that was taking place. Finally, she was able to ask questions which
4. How did you prepare your child for the process and the assessments?
Her child does not have the capacity to understand that she is going through tests, so she
just ensures that the child knows what is going to happen. For example, if the child is
going to be observed in the classroom, she will make sure that the child is prepared for
this. It is not helpful to prepare the student because of her lack of understanding, but she
does prepare the school educators and psychologists about what they might encounter by
There are many various challenges that she encounters day to day. One of the
overarching challenges is completing all the forms. The forms are often hard to
understand and very generic. Some of the forms are for elementary through high school,
so some questions do not apply to her. Another challenge is getting the information in a
regular and timely manner. Early on, she had an instance where her daughter was hitting
or biting out of the blue when this behavior had been occurring at school without her
knowledge. This was very frustrating to her. Now, she has an open forum of
communication with her daughter’s teacher, so she text and brainstorm every day.
6. How did you feel when you were given the results?
When she first received the results, she was not surprised. She knew her daughter had
limitations. Now, her daughter is receiving assessments and has made so much
improvement since the last time she was evaluated. These results might hurt a bit, but she
tries not to get discouraged and look more at the strengths, rather than the weaknesses.
This is an important thing for her to do, and she told us to always leverage the strengths
7. How supported do you feel now? Who gives you that support?
She feels more supported this year than before because she receives support in various
ways. The main support comes from the teacher since they have such a great relationship.
She also receives support from community resources, parent Facebook groups for
families with special needs, advocacy agencies, and doctors. Each of these provide
different types of support for her. Another form of support that her daughter receives is
from the after-school care program. In the program, she is with everybody else. This
allows her to experience what it is like to be with all different types of children and have
different experiences from her special need’s classroom. She finished answering this
question by talking about expectations. She did not have many expectations coming into
these supports, but they are all exceeding what little expectations were there.
There are a few things that she wishes would be improved throughout the process. First,
she wishes the communication and expectations would improve. This has been a crucial
part in the process for her. Next, she wishes the IEP meetings could be less formal
because sometimes it seems that they forget about the child with the disability and feel
like they are just marking off a checklist. She is unsure how to change these aspects, but
Introduction:
She has been a school psychologist for 17 years with the Center Grove school system located
in Johnson County. She has worked with student in preschool through high school, but she
Her daily routine can vary, so instead she gave us an overview of things she might be doing.
She does preschool evaluations for the entire district, and her job is to help students transition
from first steps to elementary school. She also does all the transition meetings with parents
when the child turns three. These meetings cover when the student might start receiving
services in the school setting as well as what are the eligibility areas and what it takes to
qualify. With that, there are also interviews with the parents. She works with six different
special education teachers in her position. Needless to say, her job as many different aspects,
She explained that there is a team who works on the assessment process together. The team
includes her, a speech and language teacher, an OT, a PT, and another teacher. She helps do
evaluations every week, and some of those evaluations may be done in groups of two to three
students. She does a lot of cognitive assessments, but sometimes, with three-year old’s those
can be very challenging. She works with speech and language pathologists to look at
communication skills. Parents play the role of completing the rating scales. She explained
how she is basically the case manager of all the evaluations. She decides who needs to attend
a certain meeting, and she also writes a big report to review at the case conference. She plays
She starts tracking students’ needs once the student is enrolled in the program. The teachers
oversee tracking growth in five different sections, which include academic skills and
cognitive skills. This tracking is usually based on teacher observations, but there is also a
screening tool called Panorama that her district uses. She described it as being a behavioral
screening that is like RTI academically. It allows teachers to rate students in different areas
Since the Covid-19 pandemic has started, she holds meetings with parents over Zoom which
has been very different. She must share her screen to put up a graph with the child’s
performance. Communication from the beginning of the evaluation process is the most
important thing for her, so she is clear with parents to help them understand as best they can.
She makes sure to always look at things academically. Lastly, she will discuss the possible
special education services and how the child may qualify in the school setting.
This is very hard to do, but she explained that one of the only things she can do is be a good
listener. When you listen, you show the family that you care about them and their situation.
She also makes sure the parents feel like they are being heard. Parents might not be ready to
say all of what they have to say the first time, so she makes to consistently keep checking in.
She also said that since she has become a parent herself, her perspective has changed. As a
school psychologist, she tells us to see the bigger picture to help the child and family, as well
The most frustrating part of her job is the amount of work and how easily it can pile up. She
also mentioned that managing the work as it comes in can be difficult. Lastly, it can feel
challenging when you do not have access to everything you need. She has a great team that
The best part of the job is working with the kids. She loves meeting them and working with
them. Since she works with preschoolers, it is important to build a positive relationship. She
is the first person those students work with, so she must make a positive first impression. It is
her job to introduce them to the school and give the students and parents a positive
interaction.
She mentioned how change is slow in a big district because they need buy in from everyone.
She ended the interview by telling us to keep fighting the good fight because it is worth it for
the children.
Teacher:
Introduction:
He is a junior high math teacher in the Tri-County School Corporation. He also taught in
first grade for seven years before moving to the junior high position, so he brought an
excellent perspective for both grade levels. He had an interesting path to becoming an
but then he went back to school when he was 30 years old to gain an elementary
education degree. After teaching for seven years in first grade, he added math for seventh
1. How do you work with special needs children in your general education classroom?
As a general education teacher, he has students with special needs in his classroom, but
they are with a teacher’s aide or paraprofessional. Students who have special needs have
a paraprofessional with them when they are in the general education classroom. He also
mentioned that at Tri-County, the junior high students with IEPs all rotate through their
general education classrooms together, so all the students with IEPs are in his room
He did not have any formal training in the special education field, but he did observe
students, and he is expected to follow the IEPs very closely. He does not know the
specific special education laws, but he knows how important it is to stick to the IEP and
the accommodations/modifications that come along with it. He also mentioned that he
works closely with the special education teacher, so the special education teacher makes
sure that all general education teachers know what is expected. Finally, he explained that
he knows the legal consequences that could happen if he does not follow the IEPs.
4. Have you ever sat in on an IEP meeting? What was your role here? What was the
experience like?
He has sat in on many annual case conferences as a general education teacher since one
present. The first thing that happens is the special education teacher sends out an email to
all the general education teachers to ask for an update on a student. He responds to the
email with grades, observations, concerns, standardized test results, etc. Then, he attends
the meeting. Usually, the general education teacher shares first and then is dismissed so
another general education teacher can share. Since the students see many different
teachers throughout the day, all the teachers must have a chance to share updates. One
difference between middle school and first grade was that he had to sit in on the entire
meeting for his first-grade students because he was the student’s only teacher. He
mentioned that he has only been a part of the Tri-County school system, so other districts
5. Do you have to accommodate or modify any of your lessons for students with IEPs?
He must accommodate as the IEP states, even if it does not match with what he is
expecting the students to do in his room. For example, if the IEP says that the student is
allowed to use a calculator, he must let the student use the calculator. Other types of
accommodations or modifications that students use in his room are guided notes,
He explained that standardized test results are used to evaluate teachers less now than in
the past, so it is easier to teach without always stressing about those tests. He also
mentioned that the tests are based on state standards which means that he is not
necessarily teaching to the test but teaching to the standards. This can be a challenge with
IEP students because they often struggle more than others to understand the materials.
Some students are at a different grade level, but they sit in on the class to experience the
material.
His favorite thing about being a teacher is seeing growth in his students throughout the
year. He looks forward to the standardized tests because he hopefully gets to see the gains
from his students. As many teachers say, seeing his students everyday and building
became a celebrity, and now at the middle school level he enjoys bonding with those that
are excited about school and trying to get the others more excited.
One piece of advice that he gave us was to take a day off when we need it and have the
chance. Teaching is a very stressful job, especially early on, so if we feel stressed and
overwhelmed, take the day off. He did mention that making sub plans can be time
Introduction:
He is the principal of an elementary school in the Center Grove School District, and this
is his 14th year in administration. He was once a special education teacher, so his
1. What people do you work with in the school to help with assessment of children?
Since he is the principal, he works with many different people to help with the
assessment of students. There are classroom aids that help with classroom assessments,
and teachers are responsible for the pre and post assessments. His school also has RTI
time with three personnel that are RTI trained aids. They work to find which students are
in the yellow and red section of the RTI standard. The school is a Title One school, so
He does occasionally receive requests directed towards him for evaluation and
assessment of students. When this happens, he tries to be thorough with the parent and let
them know the process. His job is to be an advocate and guide for the parents, so he tries
to give them all the data that he has. By meeting with parents and discussing the data that
they have, the parents might have a different mindset which helps ease their minds about
previously. This sets him apart from many administrators because he knows all about the
processes regarding tracking data, monitoring progress, and giving pre and post
assessments. He also likes to know the data of every student in his school. He emphasizes
this to parents because it shows how much he cares for all students in his building.
Finally, he likes to find other data points because grades do not always show if or how
He described this question as one big mushroom cloud because not all schools are created
equal and not all students are created equal. It can also play a political role in his job as
well. He takes assessment and his role in it very personal because he wants all the
students in his school to be prepared for their next level of education. He really cares
about each of the students, and he only expects them to do their best and feel loved. He
also strives to make sure that parents and students know where they are at based off the
norms that the school has created. His overall role is to make sure that each child is
5. What things do you do to make sure special education teachers and general education
He explained that just hoping teachers know and have some sort of training in evaluation
is not a good strategy. He makes sure that teachers know and have a basic understanding
of special education law through the interview process. He says that the interview process
is very thorough, so that he can get the best teachers for his students. For him, it is
essential to hire good people who can do the job that he is expecting of them. He also
makes his presence known and is an active participant in case conferences. It is important
for him to show how they are all a part of the process, not just the special education
teachers. He thinks this helps all teachers and parents see the importance of special
education. He finished the question by explaining how there is a customer service piece
in being an administrator.
To him, this question is a lot bigger than just his job. Assessment is usually more related
to funding when a school is not doing a great job. That is why performance plays such a
big role in how the state funds the school. In the past, his school received the second to
last amount of money per student in the district. He also explained that the funding and
assessment relationship is always changing, especially now. He does not like the politics
of his job, so he tries his best to stay out of it and focus on the children in his school.
He chose to mainly focus on the assessment aspect of this question. One of the main
things Covid-19 has taken a hit to has been attendance because of positive cases and
quarantine. When a student is not at school, they are not receiving the instruction they
need. This has set a lot of students back in his school. In order to not have the complete
loss of instruction, makeshift lessons were done to try and keep students engaged online.
This helped a little for some students but not for others. Students from a poor
socioeconomic backgrounds and students with special needs struggled the most. His
school is still seeing the side effects from Covid-19. He touched on funding slightly by
explaining how people were not spending money during the pandemic. No tax revenue
was generated, and tax revenue is what helps fund the school.
8. How do you encourage teachers, parents, and students about standardized testing?
He requires two things when the students are at his school. Those are to feel safe and
loved. He strives to make relationships with students by greeting each student at the bus
in the morning. He explained that kids do not care how much you know until they know
how much you care. We, as teachers, must care and build relationships with our students.
If working with kids does not make your heart full, then you are going to struggle as an
and approachable. Educators need to be clever and find ways to engage kids in the
learning. He left us with a final statement: “You can ask questions about assessment but