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The pros of teaching are seeing your students succeed and being happy. You show up every day for the kids! Being able to collaborate and build strong relationships with the other team members is very important to help your students be as successful as possible and receive all the supports they need. One of the biggest hurdles is the deficit narrative that many people have about our students and not expecting much from them. We need to have high expectations for ALL our students! Another problem is a disconnect between administration and what is actually needed and happening in the classroom. Support is coming from colleagues, not administrators. Behavior is a very hard part of the job and can be exhausting and stressful. Taking good data is very important to get the student's the support they need, however it takes ALOT of time to do it all, so you need to get help from the team. IEP writing is very time consuming when done right. It's hard finding the time to get everything completed, so more team planning time would be helpful.

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I got so much awesome advice from the teacher:
- have fun and don't forget to laugh because there will be many hard and challenging days
- don't be afraid to ask for advice from other teachers/therapists
- communicate with parents as much as possible and let them talk and vent to you to help with building trust, relationship and partnership
- a strong team = student success
- don't take student's behaviors personally
- keep on learning and improving your practice
- give yourself grace and time to become the teacher you want to be
- be flexible and willing to make changes
- the special education team will become your friends and there is a bond no one else understands (trauma bonded)

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This classroom teacher did an amazing job collaborating with not only the paraprofessionals, but also the vision itinerant, speech pathologist, related services staff, and social worker. There was a lot of push in related services in the classroom and they helped with centers, assisted students and sometimes did whole class sessions. Social worker pushed in for a SEL lesson once a week for the whole class. They worked so well as a team, and everyone was there to help and support the students. I surely want to have that kind of relationship with my paras, related services and other staff at my school. I could see how helpful it was for the teacher to be supported too!

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The students in class joined general education specials, Art, PE and Music with the general education classes according to their grade level. I was able to join in Art and PE. The Art teacher did an amazing job making sure to include the students. She provided modified glue and scissors when needed and helped them with their projects as well. She also provided coloring sheets to keep them occupied during times that she was lecturing.
In PE the students were a part of all the activities, just needed some redirecting at times. I loved seeing how some of the general education students really took to the special education students and helped them participate as well as cheered them on!

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The students in class really enjoyed music and their transition songs. They got up and danced together, sang and so did the teacher/paras. Many of the videos showed diverse student populations and there were different genres of music. It was so fun to see all the joy and happiness in the room! Many of the songs also had a learning aspect, such as days of the week, counting by 5's, phonics, ect.

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A behavior support in the classroom was WOW tickets. Students earned them for positive behaviors and could save up their WOWs and pick a prize out of the treasure box once they had 5. Students definitely seemed invested in the system and enjoyed earning the WOWs. It was a great motivator and redirected some negative behaviors from happening. I will definitely use a similar system in my classroom one day.

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They had four centers in the classroom that were labeled with a color. (Green, Blue, Red, and Yellow) Each student got a centers card that had each color on it, and they would get to check off once finished. Three of the centers was teacher or para led with different activities and one in a calming corner, 15-minute timer was set with 1 minute transition time. The centers were focused on Reading for first session, then after snack they had Math centers. If the students finished all their centers and marked off all the colors, they got a WOW! It was a great motivator for some of the students who had trouble with behaviors.

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I loved their circle time. Each student, teacher and paraprofessional took turns sharing their feelings for the day with a visual card of options. It was nice because even the student who was non-verbal was able to participate. They also took turns with singing bowls at the end which I thought was unique and cool. It worked on motor skills, taking turns, and it had a relaxing and calming effect.