September 28, 2017

{EDUC 350}
Monday was a workday for our cultural competence project, so we did not meet for class.
Wednesday in class we learned about IDEA, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This is the law that governs how students with disabilities are taken care of in schools. IDEA requires that we give students with disabilities a "free and appropriate education." This aligns with Standard 2d, "Teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of students with special needs." We also learned about IEP's (Individualized Education Plan) and LRE (Least Restrictive Environment.) This is what I learned about LRE in class (these are my notes):

4 settings for LRE: (ranked 1-4, 1=least restrictive and 4=most restrictive)

1. Inclusion (What I will teach/traditional classroom in which EC kids are functioning below grade level, but with support, can be in a traditional classroom. Kids are included in traditional day and we just provide accommodations.)
2. Resource (The EC kids are still in the traditional classroom, but they go to a resource teacher as they are pulled out during different times of the day.)
3. Self-contained (EC kids are still at your school, just in their own classroom.)
4. Separate setting
5. (May have a few students that are on monitoring… these kids have an IEP and the EC teacher comes in and checks if they’re still progressing)

While doing my outside research I found a quote that sums up what I learned in class this week. It says, "Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) isn't a place; it's a principle that guides your child's educational program."
source: https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/special-services/special-education-basics/least-restrictive-environment-lre-what-you-need-to-know

{EDUC 410}
This week, Natalie led our seminar, and she did a great job! Our seminar was about rubrics, why they are helpful and important, and how both teachers and students can benefit from them. This is what we decided on rubrics during the seminar:

• Rubrics help the teacher to grade assessments without having bias, because the rubric holds each student up to the same standards/expectations.
• Rubrics help the student to know what is expected of them when completing assignments.
• Rubrics help the student to know in which areas they need to focus on improvement for the next assignment.
• Rubrics provide a great way to give feedback by allowing the teacher to write comments on the page.
• Rubrics allow for constructive criticism and focusing on the positive things that the student did in the assignments.

I think that rubrics are equally important for students and teachers for these reasons. Teachers using rubrics for grading assessments aligns with Standard 4g, "Teachers communicate effectively." This is because rubrics help teachers to effectively communicate what they expect from their students.

What does this mean for my future classroom?

I will ALWAYS follow the guidelines that meet each of my students' needs under IDEA and for students with IEP's, because it's all about their well-being and how I can help them learn. I will also provide rubrics for my students in order to better the communication in the classroom. Rubrics will help my students know what is expected of them and will help me grade all of my students' assignments equally.