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• A public secondary school
located in the College Park
section of Orlando, FL.
•It is operated by the Orange
County Public Schools system
and is an “A” school.
•Total Students- 1876
• Female-53%
•Male-47%
•Total Teachers-93
“Edgewater High School is
committed to providing all
students the opportunity to
pursue personal and
academic excellence while
learning to use a variety of
technology tools to
communicate, create, and
problem solve. In this
environment students are
encouraged to engage in
rigorous, relevant, and
real-world experiences,
motivating them to become
life long learners.”
Tutor students individually
Help each student finish assignments
Teach students lessons about the importance
of the community
Read with students
Play games such as Uno, Charades, and
Pictionary with students during their free time
Help students clean cafeteria
I.D.E.A“Any individual child with a disability who needs
special
education and related services, even if the child has
not failed or been retained in a course or grade,
and is advancing from grade to grade.”
Intellectual disabilities- limit intellectual
functioning and adaptive behavior,
affecting every day social and practical
skills.
Emotional disturbances- An inability to
learn that cannot be explained by
intellectual, sensory, or health factors. An
inability to build or maintain interpersonal
relationships with peers and teachers.
•Traumatic brain injury- Open or closed
head injuries resulting in impairments
in one or more areas. This disability
effects cognition, language, memory,
attention, reasoning, abstract thinking,
judgment, problem-solving, sensory,
perceptual, motor abilities,
psychosocial behavior, physical
functions, information processing, and
speech.
•Visual impairment- The term includes
both partial sight and blindness. This
disability reduces a person's ability to
function at certain or all tasks.
•I thoroughly enjoyed working with Mrs. Goodspeedsclassroom. These children taught me so much through their eagerness to learn. All of the individual tutoring work I did with the students involved excitement on their part which made it easy for me to teach them.
This community experience gave me a
better understanding of special
education services, emotional
disturbances, and low vision.
Special Education Services are services that are
provided to the student based on his or her disability. Mrs.
Goodspeed did an excellent job of explaining why she
things in the classroom as she did them because she
knew that I could learn from her. When it came to
instructional accommodations, how to simply keep up and
organize the IEP process, and lessons that are beneficial
to teach in an exceptional classroom, Mrs. Goodspeed
provided me with the advice and resources that I would
need.
Emotional disturbances are
characterized by behavioral or
emotional responces that are different
from all norms and referent groups with
adverse effects on educational
performance (Tyler, 229) Because
there were two students with emotional
disturbances in the classroom, I
experienced these particular students
acting out a few times in the classroom
where the student would either have a
tantrum for asking to do something
simple or running out of the room
because he refused to do his work. In
both situations, I observed as I saw
how well Mrs. Goodspeed handled the
situations. Both of these students had
externalizing behaviors.
Low Vision is defined
as the degree of visual
loss when students
can still use their vision
for learning but their
visual disability
interferes with daily
functioning.(Tyler, 376)
Two students in the
classroom also had
Low Vision and I was
able to work with them
a lot throughout the
semester. All of their
worksheets and books
were blown up into
larger print so that they
could see better.
These students also had a
whiteboard on their desk so
that when they needed
assistance, the person who
was helping could use the
whiteboard to explain.
Civic EngagementThrough this activity I saw
the need for civic
engagement in Exceptional
Education classrooms. All
students in general can
benefit from another person
who can guide them in their
education and sometimes all
students need is a little
scaffolding instruction in
order to move forward in
assignments.
Volunteering with a Special Education
classroom is beneficial to educators and
the community because it teaches life
skills and useful talents to individuals who
have been dismissed from the society that
they live in. Volunteering also helps
students build confidence in themselves
and gain energy for new accomplishments.
I think service learning is an
incredible method of learning
as it allows us as college
students to take what we
learn in our books and
through lectures and apply it
in an actual classroom
setting. The biggest
weakness I have noticed in
myself in a classroom setting
is my ability to want to be a
student’s friend so bad that it
affects my ability to keep
students focused on material
and enables the students to
receive the discipline they
need. I would have never
seen how much I lack in the
area of authoritative teaching
unless I had experience in
the classroom.
This experience has given me a
desire to be more engaged in the
future because I witnessed how
much students benefit from one on
one time. All though it will be tough, I
want to be able to spend time with
each of my students when an
assignment is given so that they are
provided with an opportunity to ask
questions and I am able to
encourage them to keep trying.
I think every educator should
experience service learning
before entering a classroom so
that they can observe their
strengths and weaknesses and
see what techniques work best
when teaching. Throughout my
college experience I have
noticed how different teachers
educate so differently, however I
could not imagine Mrs.
Goodspeed teaching the same
way the teacher I volunteered
for last year taught. All teachers
are incredible but they have
different ways of teaching that
work best for their teaching
styles. Through service
learning, it is possible that you
will learn what type of teaching
style works best for you.
These students
have impacted
my life in so
many ways. I will
miss coming
home to my
roommates with
all of the stories
involving how
these students
made me smile. I
have never seen
such a desire to
learn from a
group of students
in my entire life.
Work Cited
"Edgewater High School in Orlando, FL | Education.com." Education.com |
An Education & Child Development Site for Parents | Parenting &
Educational Resource. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.education.com/schoolfinder/us/florida/orlando/edgewat
er-high-school/>.
Smith, Deborah Deutsch, and Naomi Chowdhuri Tyler. Introduction to
special education: making a difference. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River,
N.J.: Merrill, 2010. Print.
