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5 out of the 7 students were ID which is intellectually delayed, meaning they struggled to comprehend and work as fast or as well as their fellow classmates.

1 student I observed had autism.

The last student I observed was ED (emotionally delayed) and also struggled with a behavior disorder.

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I ended up shadowing a para who took me to observe three different classroom environments. I observed a 2nd grade, 3rd grade, and 5th grade class with a few SPED kids in each class. All classes were at Nelson Elementary in Haysville, Kansas. I observed a total of 7 students (3 2nd grade, 2 3rd grade, and 2 5th grade students). All of the student were observed in regular classroom environments.

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All of the students had similar accommodations in what I observed. Each student has some different accommodations than others that I did not see in my observation because they were not needed at the time. I made some notes on some of the strategies they used for teaching the students:

Each student got extra time on their work

Each student spoke their answers to someone, and then they would have someone write it for them

Someone would have to read out the instructions to each student

If a student got a certain amount of work done in the time given to the class, the teacher did not worry about them fully completing it since it is a lot harder for them to get it done

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I thought that these observations were a great learning experience, and opened my eyes to how much work goes into teaching. One thing that the teachers let me do when I was observing, was help some of the students with their work. I got to experience first hand what it is like to work with special needs kids. I thoroughly enjoyed it because it wasn't necessarily easy explaining the questions in ways that they could comprehend, but it showed me how you have to adjust your teaching style to fit all of your student's needs. I even discussed with the teachers about the program they have for special needs students and some of the stuff they go through and deal with. They told me that funding for the SPED program was recently taken away completely and that without this funding they are starting to put SPED kids that need certain classroom environments in with regular classrooms. This is making it hard for paras and teachers to properly work with them. I want to end my thoughts by giving recognition and gratitude toward the SPED program at Nelson Elementary for working so hard to keep their students involved while also giving the best education they can. Nelson had great teachers doing great things!