Karen McGuckin

Describe one significant idea or issue that has arisen for you as you were engaging in the topics during the course and relate to your understanding of role as a teacher:

One specific issue that has arisen for me as I was engaging in the topics during this course is the need for early intervention strategies with many of the concepts covered and my ability to reflect and apply these strategies at the secondary school level. In certain activities I felt it quite difficult to think about how the elementary type strategies could be used when working with young adults. As an educator of high school students it is particularly important to the students that you are treating them as young adults and providing them with confidence in their own ability and decision making. Many of the special education strategies I have found could belittle the student at a high school level and so I have been spending time throughout each activity to attempt to reflect on how I could use the ideas and strategies effectively for my students. I have also found it challenging to think about my role as the educator following already instilled special education plans and strategies. Due to early intervention many of the students that I receive in my classes already have existing IEPs or safety plans. I have reflected upon how to better identify with these students and work to successfully include these students in my classes. I hope to now connect more with the special education department head, other teachers, parents and the individual students in order to develop the plan that would work the best for my math classes for this student in order to continue on using the strategies that have worked. This will then provide the exceptional pupil with consistency in their development as a learner from elementary education and secondary education. By speaking to other teachers and the special education department head I hope to continue to be able to connect the activities and information from this course to high school education further and better my own role as a teacher for all students.

Elaborate on how specific resources, ideas or experiences in the course so far that have contributed to your learning e.g. reading material, course activities etc:

So far in this course the tasks that have been explored throughout the diverse learning experiences have been the most rewarding piece of this AQ Cou