Week Thirteen: Professional

After the Easter weekend I realised I only had a month left in Oxford and a lot of work and tests to complete before I left. The next few weeks are going to be the busiest yet, with finals, essays, and unit plans.


As I arrived back in Oxford on Monday night, extremely tired after the madness of easter, and with a lot of unpacking and washing to do, I had to start straight into revision for an online test on assessment.  Although an online test may seem easier, they are actually quite difficult, as the questions are often worded in a confusing way, so that sometimes it seems like there is more than one answer.  However I have become accustomed to them over my weeks at Ole Miss, and the more you do the better results you tend to get.


This week I have also had to start working on my Notebook for my Introduction to Special Needs class.  I am lucky to have had some experience already in this field which makes the work for the class easier.  However for this class we are required to put together a notebook of the 13 categories of special needs recognised by IDEA, 2004, an American law passed to protect the rights and needs of many individuals with special needs.  These include: Autism, Deaf- Blind, Developmentally delayed, Emotional disability, hearing impairment, language or speech impairment, intellectual disability, multiple disabilities, orthopaedic impairment, other health impairment (including ADHD), specific learning disability, traumatic brain injury and visually impaired.


For this Notebook we had to put together class notes on each of the areas and come up with two additional strategies for each area.  We then had to organise it so that it is the correct order and place it in a binder.  The idea is that we will always have this folder with us.  As we get older and gain more experience with children with different needs, we will have strategies and knowledge of how to deal with them, and we will be able to add to the folder as we gain experience.


This notebook has been incredibly time consuming yet worthwhile as we will always have it to refer to whenever we need to.  This class had been extremely educational and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.  Although I had a basic knowledge of children with SEN, I now feel that I know a lot more about how to teach and provide for these children.