5) Planning and Managing the Teaching and Learning Environment
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Rachel and Leanne were expecting another great year co-teaching a combined 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade class with equal numbers of both general education and exceptional education students. Many students are returning from last year including Thomas, a fourth grader with learning disabilities and ADHD. When Thomas's mother has significant health problems, his behavior regresses and the whole class suffers.
Charlotte Dempsy is a teacher at a special school for elementary school aged students with severe emotional disorders. She feels that eleven-year-old Charlie is the only student in her 23 years of teaching that she can't reach. Coming from a highly dysfunctional family, and exhibiting extreme obsessive/compulsive behaviors, Charlie is also a master of manipulation. Almost out of ideas, Charlotte decides to reach out and hug Charlie every time he gets in her face. Charlie responds by accusing Charlotte of molesting him and threatens to tell his father.
Two special education teachers attempt to integrate a new student with severe behaviors into their class for students with language and learning disabilities. Because this student takes so much attention and time, they worry about how the other students in the class are faring as a result.
Jerry Hastings has been interning in Karen Warren’s middle school class for students with Severe Emotional Disturbance for several months. He didn’t always agree with her use of candy as a reinforcer, but this time she crossed the line when she bribed the kids to behave while she was being observed by District Review personnel.Ms. Taylor and Ms. Jones co-teach a middle school class in which children in special education programs are included with general education students. When Katy, a student with a behavior disorder, is particularly disrespectful and Ms. Jones dismisses it lightly, another student objects and points out that other students in the class would be sent to the office for such a remark.
A new 11th grade student at Lincoln Academy, for learning disabled students, arrived with an "attitude" and a massive cumulative file documenting her previous "educational wars." After trying numerous strategies, Kim Statler, a third year teacher, is at a loss as to how to reach this student.
Supplemental Cases
(These cases can be used to address the competency but must be supported with additional questions and structure from the instructor)
Beth Langly, a first year intern struggles with her "constructivist" philosophy and the demands of teaching high school science. Her supervising teacher, a twenty-year veteran of the classroom, is not inclined to try new methods of instruction.
Is It Fair?New technology is currently available to partially restore hearing to children once profoundly deaf. Optimally the implants are done by age two - Rosa Hernandez is now five and the only school to help her adjust is three hours away. A language barrier seems the largest obstacle to hurdle but the sacrifice may be too large.
In an effort to provide her preschool students with disabilities the opportunity for inclusion, Sally worked to integrate her class with a Headstart program. She engineered the project, relinquished her space and resources to merge with three other teachers in a cooperative venture of inclusion. Initial success turned to despair the second year after students with more severe handicaps were enrolled in the program and the general education teachers balked at working with them.
Abstract: Linda, as a new member of the special education team at Maple Park Middle School finds herself at odds with special education staff as she works with the general education staff toward finding a reasonable space to call a classroom.
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