Week of 5/25

This week we had a couple of great opportunities to learn and understand more about special education along and special education law. We had the opportunity to participate in a mock court case and in a mock IEP meeting. Both these opportunities helped to further my knowledge and helped to solidify my understanding of the things involved.

During the mock court I had the opportunity to act as a hearing officer, which was a really interesting experience for me, in which I learned a lot. In this position part of my job was to interpret and understand the law, which is something that I have been working hard to do in my sped 310 and 380 class, and this court case really helped me to fell like I understand the law more and helped me to see how it would apply to me as a special education teacher. This also helped me to fee a lot more comfortable with my knowledge of special education law because I was actually actively using what I had been studying.

The mock IEP/MDT meeting was also really interesting to me, and helped me to learn a lot. Through this I had the opportunity to participate in the process as the special education teacher, which helped me to see what my role will be when I am actually a teacher. This also helped me to actually understand the process of an IEP and what happens in the meetings and what I covered. Because of this experience I believe that I will feel much more comfortable going into IEP meetings in the future.  Through this process we also went over eligibility requirements and test scores which can make students eligible for special education and coverage through IDEA. I found this really interesting and helpful because now it is a lot easier for me to look at the scores and see about where they would be considered for special education along with the severity of a disability.

This week was one that was extremely helpful for me because it helped me to feel more comfortable about my knowledge and how these things can apply and help me as a future special education teacher.