Blog #2

While there have been a variety of helpful topics our class has gone over recently I though one of the most helpful in getting a greater insight into the school atmosphere was the counselors panel. While as a teacher you won't always run into every situation, a counselor tends to run into all sorts of different issues and can be a bank of knowledge. Being able to pick the brains of seasoned counselors was an opportunity to see exactly what goes on in schools today. While I didn't have much contact with my schools counselors it was interesting just how much each of the three counselors were involved in the school community. Maybe the most helpful object that I was able to pick up was the fact that as a future teacher it's important to build that strong relationship with your counselors and to not simply forget about the fact you do have that extra support system in place. Simply it's important to not be afraid to go looking for help and going along with much of the themes in this class is that it's essential to continue to build strong relationships with everyone in the school as you'll never know when you will need that extra support in class.

While I wasn't able to be in class when the paras came I have gotten the opportunity to see paras work in class. While I was completing some of my past field experience I got to see a para come into our class and work more of a one on one with a couple students. The paras for the most pat seemed to be a great resource for the students as children who needed that extra assistance wee able to have their needs meet. One of the greatest benefits I saw was for the students with disabilities were given extra attention during tests. Three of the students were taken out of class to get into a more productive environment for each of their successes. Hopefully in my future class I won't be afraid to build a strong working relationship with any paras who are there to help my students succeed. One of the biggest issues I would want to critique with the working relationship with paras I saw is that even though you want to give freedom to paras to work one on one with students it's still essential for you to help out paras with the content material. Since paras pass through a variety of subjects it's important to create an opportunity for the para to receive any assistance with the material and for the teacher to also be there to help educate the para when needed. Creating that working relationship with the para can only better prepare your students with disabilities to succeed in school.