Working with special needs children is completely different then working with "normal" children. Mentally and physically challenged kids may need to be taught in more than one way. They may have to be taught in many differnt angles and attempts. For me working with special needs children brings a ton of joy into my life. Seeing children accomplish a goal is one of the most rewarding experiences that you can have.
I am extremely excited to be adding a concentration of adaptive to my major. My dream is to teach mentally and physically challenged children in physical education. Many kids who are considered disabled are sometimes picked on or made fun of by other kids. Many disabled children for physical education class are taken away by a special teacher to have their own individual class. When I was youger I was jealous of these kids because it seemed they were able to participate in the more exciting activities. When I was stuck playing dodgeball, they were practicing balancing skills and rolling on the ground on a square-shaped skateboard. Every child deserves to participate in physical activity especially because the obesity rate in America is increasing every year! It's sad that Physical Education classes are the first to be cut from a budget along with Music and Art. These are the classes that children look forward to durig the day, not science or math but playtime and gym class.
In the high school I attended American Sign Language (ASL) was offered as a course to take. I live near Rochester in western New York which is the largest deaf city in the nation. I thought this course would be beneficial for me because I had run into deaf people all the time. Just after one year of taking the course we attended a deaf play at NTID or National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester. The play was incredible and being around people speaking a new language was fun. After the first year I decided to complete the whole course and take it for three full years. I would have never changed my experiences with this class and my friends. I learned about a new culture and a new life! Participating in this class and also peer leading with special needs children has inspired me to become an Adaptive Physical Education teacher. As I go through my time here at SUNY Cortland, I hope to achieve my goal and also learn the proper teaching techniques needed for these children.
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This was a very good article. It was a good way to show people who you really are and what your values are as a person. I'm sure you will be a great teacher Aly, and a lot of schools need to have teachers precisely for the reasons you explained in your blog; like getting made fun of, or needing to work on or learn certain skills. Sometimes it takes one person to make a difference in a person's life, and you can really make a difference doing this.
ReplyDeleteIts cool you get to work with special needs kids, I agree that it is a very rewarding job and in a lot of ways more rewarding than regular teaching. My girlfriend worked with special needs kids all summer long in a one-on-one program up in Rochester and she was always talking about how much she enjoyed working with the two students she was assigned to. Theres a bit more of a risk of things like sexual harassment and violent outbursts, but these things are rare and almost always innocent (for example, one of her students had to get over his urge to kiss her and once when they went swimming he could keep his hands off her...um...floatation devices) but if you can look past these things you'll be doing a lot to take the time and effort to help teach these kids, I commend you for it.
ReplyDeleteMy mother works with special needs children and I have had the chance to take some of the kids fishing along with doing other outside activities. It was a great time for all of us.I'm sure it might get overly stressful at times working with children of that nature, but what job doesn't right? I like the article and it has a lot of good points. It was a good read. Thank yoou
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