Special Needs Classroom

I have always admired all of my teachers, the grumpy children, the back talking, the state standards and worst of all, the parents. I did not always want to be a teacher, I wanted to be a forensic psychologist until I got into the teaching program at my high-school and fell in love with the kids. I applied to the University of New Mexico on a whim and put my major as Elementary Education and the rest is history. There are not really internships for teachers, there is always after-school care or daycares but you do not really get to talk to the teachers or talk to them. I observed Susan Hillmeyer at Albuquerque High-School and learned so many incredible things in just a short amount of time.
In a special needs classroom, things are always going …show more content…
We taught how to engage the students to have them pay more attention and as stated previously, you do not normally lecture in a special needs classroom although it may be a higher functioning classroom. Although this differed from what we normally learned, it was very intriguing to see how the students reacted to the lecture. While most of the students participated Susan did have to redirect a few students at times when they would lay their head down or stop taking notes in their notebook. It was clear that she had to be stern and show the children that they could not play around in that …show more content…
Coming from a school that made every person check in, get their identification checked and a picture taken made me expect to have every other school take security as seriously as they did at my school. I always felt extremely safe in my classes knowing that my school had great security. When I first walked into the school the secretary at the front desk, I did not have to sign in and she simply told me the directions to go to the classroom. I did not even have to show my identification. That made me wonder if the students felt safe knowing that I could have been anyone. Another surprising point is the lack of the modern technology in the classroom. I was very used to having smartboards, iPads, laptops and other amazing inventions in every classroom that I was in. All of the special needs classrooms had these as well to help them learn in different ways in the classroom, it was surprising to me to see how far advanced Texas seems to be compared to New Mexico.
In conclusion, observing Susan made me remember why I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to inspire the children and I wanted to make a difference. I realized that you did not need all the modern technology to teach, although it is very handy you just have to be passionate about what you want to teach. Although it made me more passionate about wanting to become a teacher; I did realize that even though you do not need