Final Interview Presentation-Jennifer Toth

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by Jennifer Toth9 views·Updated Oct 21, 2021
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  1. yeah education is a field where we truly have to
  2. build relationships with our co workers to be able to
  3. succeed, we can try with a little help from our
  4. friends. Okay this is my field research presentation and I'm
  5. jennifer toth the purpose of this field research was to
  6. gain perspective into the realm of special education to help
  7. me the best educator for all students.
  8. My procedure was to contact the interviews interviewees in person
  9. and I asked them if they would be willing to
  10. participate in a research study in regards to special education
  11. copies of the questions to be asked were provided to
  12. the participants, dates and times were established and confirmed with
  13. emails, interviews were conducted, recorded, transcribed and reflected upon the
  14. interviewees. The people that I chose to interview were three
  15. people that I work with.
  16. I'm currently employed at homer in homer at William Young
  17. Elementary School as a pair of professional.
  18. I worked there for about a year and I work
  19. closely with Mrs julie Bernard who is a social worker,
  20. mrs Sarah Peters who was a 4th grade special education
  21. teacher and Miss Gina Polio, who is also a paraprofessional.
  22. Mrs julie Bernard was my first person to interview and
  23. she is a social worker at the school where I
  24. work, she works with Pre K Students Through 4th Grade
  25. Students. Um she has worked in the social work field
  26. for over 20 years and very various levels of education
  27. from pre K all the way up to high school
  28. and I'm just going to touch on some highlights from
  29. my interview with her.
  30. When I asked her why she chose this field, she
  31. told me that she has always had a passion for
  32. helping others.
  33. I asked also Julie to share with me one of
  34. the highlights of her over 20 plus career years and
  35. social work and she shared with me a story and
  36. I'll read it while working with the behaviour disorder program
  37. in high school.
  38. She had an interaction with this student who thought she
  39. betrayed him by telling a teacher about something he did.
  40. She had not, but that was how the student perceived
  41. the situation.
  42. She conveyed to me that she stuck with the student
  43. even after he became so vocally angry at her that
  44. others suggested that he switched caseworkers.
  45. She stuck it out and persisted and trying to communicate
  46. with the student.
  47. The student eventually calmed down and asked her you just
  48. don't give up do you?
  49. She feels like the student learned a lesson from her
  50. perseverance and was able to translate it successfully into his
  51. life. The challenges she faces are in a daily struggle
  52. with time and numbers, not enough time in the day
  53. to accomplish all she needs to and not enough of
  54. the people in a role to satisfy the demand for
  55. services. She also gave me some great advice, she said
  56. throughout your career, Just keep showing up, keep showing up
  57. for the kids, get to know the students and make
  58. connections. The second person I interviewed was mrs Sarah Peter.
  59. She's a 4th grade special education teacher and when I
  60. asked her about why she chose this field, she also
  61. told me she had a passion for helping students with
  62. disabilities. She shared with me one of her best moments
  63. was when a student that she had was released from
  64. her. I p.
  65. She said it was a very proud moment for her,
  66. the students and the parents.
  67. I asked Sarah whether she was worried about her failing
  68. after her accommodations were removed.
  69. This reminded me so much of Daniel's story in our
  70. exceptional people, lessons learned from special education survivors.
  71. Um but Sarah told me she felt confident that the
  72. student would not fail because she closely monitored her transition
  73. challenges in Sarah's role include administration, not understanding special education
  74. and the students needs in her classroom.
  75. She told me that just that week she had received
  76. an email from an administrator that went to all the
  77. fourth grade teachers.
  78. It stated that he visited all the classrooms and he
  79. was impressed that all teachers were on the same lesson
  80. and using the same materials.
  81. In other words, working as a team.
  82. That person had not visited her classroom and her students
  83. were in fact not on the same lesson, but rather
  84. five lessons behind and learning with different manipulative is and
  85. different materials.
  86. She said this is frustrating to her because she feels
  87. as though they don't have a grasp on the work
  88. that she does for the kids that she teaches.
  89. Sarah also gave me some advice.
  90. Um and I quote they won't remember what you wore,
  91. they will remember how you made them feel.
  92. She said make connections with the kids and get to
  93. know them and be their their advocate.
  94. The 3rd person and viewed was Jean Apulia and she's
  95. a pair of professional and the role that I also
  96. have at the school we work at.
  97. I asked her why she chose this occupation.
  98. She says she loves helping kids.
  99. Her highlight came from her senior inquiry.
  100. She is in school in graduate school um in the
  101. same program at louis in fact and she had, she
  102. did a senior inquiry research on project on autism spectrum
  103. disorder. She performed this research in Guatemala and she remembers
  104. big moments, can be little moments and should be celebrated
  105. and rewarded her advice to me was to create a
  106. safe classroom and to make sure to connect with the
  107. students. The common themes that I found on doing this
  108. research was that special education policies and procedures are mostly
  109. learned on the job familiarity and expertise comes with experience.
  110. I also had a common theme of focusing on the
  111. students. They will remember the connections you make with them
  112. and be able to learn better.
  113. My discoveries on doing this field research were that people
  114. in the field of special education have to have a
  115. passion for helping people.
  116. All three of the people that I talked to have
  117. this passion.
  118. Uh they also I also found that I learned the
  119. most about special education policies and procedures from on the
  120. job experience.
  121. Um, I also learned that I will be faced with
  122. many challenges.
  123. But if I keep my focus on the students, I
  124. will be successful.
  125. So what will I do next?
  126. I will continue to educate myself about issues relating to
  127. disabilities. This is one of the things that this class
  128. has taught me, and I'm so glad that I took
  129. it. I will decide in the future whether I'm going
  130. to be a general education teacher or a special education
  131. teacher. Thank you dr strom.
  132. It was a pleasure taking your course.