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Ed 490 Interview Reflections

The special education teacher described her typical school day which involves teaching core subjects in self-contained classrooms for students with disabilities ranging from mild to severe. She works closely with paraprofessionals and builds relationships with students and families. The most stressful part of her job is IEP meetings but she works to make them less stressful. If she could change one thing it would be reducing extensive paperwork. She avoids burnout by focusing on the positive impact she has and the progress students make. The pre-service teacher is student teaching biology at a public high school. She teaches inclusion classes and works to accommodate students with IEPs. While she has not been involved in formal assessment processes, she stays on top of

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
160 views

Ed 490 Interview Reflections

The special education teacher described her typical school day which involves teaching core subjects in self-contained classrooms for students with disabilities ranging from mild to severe. She works closely with paraprofessionals and builds relationships with students and families. The most stressful part of her job is IEP meetings but she works to make them less stressful. If she could change one thing it would be reducing extensive paperwork. She avoids burnout by focusing on the positive impact she has and the progress students make. The pre-service teacher is student teaching biology at a public high school. She teaches inclusion classes and works to accommodate students with IEPs. While she has not been involved in formal assessment processes, she stays on top of

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ED 490 Interview Reflections

Ashley Churchill and Ashley Upchurch

Interesting Perspective- Special Education Teacher

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.

1. What does a school day look like for you?

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

would go to a general education classroom during math. Since some students go to

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

was a challenge at the beginning. 

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. 

3. What is your favorite part of your job?

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

enjoyable part of her job.

4. What is the most stressful part of your job?

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

relationships with parents makes those meetings slightly less stressful. 

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

is necessary, but the large amount could be cut down!


6. We have talked a lot about mental health and teacher burnout rates, especially

special education teachers. What are some strategies or methods you use to make

sure you avoid burnout?

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.

3.  Do you play a role in the assessment process?

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.

4. How involved are you in 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

her write some tests for her classes soon!

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

make accommodations for all students.


6.  Do you feel comfortable identifying someone with special needs?

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

successful in the future.

8.  What are you most nervous about becoming a teacher?

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.

Parent of a child with special needs

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

also has ADHD, but he is successful in school without accommodations.

1. What role do you play in the assessment process?

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.

3. Who helped you understand the evaluation process?

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

helped her feel heard and understood during the process.

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

taking her out of the classroom.

5. What are some challenges that you have gone through?

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

and use them to the child’s advantage.

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.

8. What is one thing that could be improved?

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

they are something she thinks about!


School Psychologist:

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

now works mainly with preschool students.

1. What does your daily routine look like?

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,

but she enjoys each on.

2. What is your role in the assessment process?

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

a huge role in the assessment process.

3. How do you track a student’s needs and emotional progress?

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

of social and emotional development.

4. How do you help parents understand tests?

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.

5. How do you have empathy without being too involved?

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

as celebrating those small victories.

6. What is the most frustrating part of your job?

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

helps support her and keep everything running smoothly.

7. What is the best part of your job?

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.

8. What do you wish would change in the system?

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

educator because he originally went to undergraduate school for business management,

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

through ninth grade to his license. 

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

together for one class period.

2. Did you have any training in the special education field?

He did not have any formal training in the special education field, but he did observe

some aspects of the field during his observation hours in undergrad.

3. Are you expected to know about special education laws?

As a general education teacher, he is expected to know what is going on with his

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

of the legal stipulations of case conferences is to have a general education teacher

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

might have a different procedure.

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,

preferential sitting, and half the assignment load.


6. How do you make sure that you and your students are focused on learning rather

than just teaching/learning to the test?

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.

7. What is your favorite thing about being a teacher?

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

relationships is one of the highlights of being an educator. As a first-grade teacher, he

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.

8. If you could give us one piece of advice, what would it be?

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

consuming, so we should be prepared for that as an elementary teacher.


Administrator

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

background in that has helped in his administrator position.

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

they also receive funding based on this.

2. Do you ever receive requests directed to you for evaluation/assessment?

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

waiting for the next steps in the assessment process.

3. What is your training in assessment and in special education?


Special education is one area of expertise because he was a special education teacher

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

the student has grown.

4. What role does assessment play in your job?

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

prepared academically, socially, emotionally, and behaviorally.

5. What things do you do to make sure special education teachers and general education

teachers know about and are trained for evaluation?

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.

6. How is assessment related to funding?

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.

7. How has Covid-19 affected funding and assessment?

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

educator. In his teachers, he looks at personality because teachers need to be personable

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

in the end it is about loving kids and building relationships.”

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