Teachers in Action: College Transition Program

Teachers in Action: College Transition:

Teachers in Action: College Transition Michelle Schwartz michelle.schwartz@knights.ucf.edu 4/10/11 EEX 4070

College Transition Program:

College Transition Program For my TIA project I worked with students from the College transition program at UCP’s Bailes campus. The college transition program is a new program designed to provide students ages 18-21 with disabilities an opportunity to attend classes at a post-secondary level. Students are also provided with internships and other opportunities to gain independent living skills and work skills necessary to enter the work force. The program is one of the few around the nation and currently enrolls 10-12 students. I worked closely with two students in particular, Josh and Lara.

What services did I provide?:

What services did I provide? While fulfilling my 15 hours, I worked closely with two students who are enrolled in the program, Josh and Lara. Both students received a special diploma upon graduation from high school and are looking to obtain their high school equivalency by obtaining their GED. I worked with Josh on Tuesdays from 12-2pm, and with Lara on Thursdays from 12-2pm. I tutored the students for the social studies section of the GED test. We went over GED practice tests and completed worksheets to help with the concepts. We went over testing strategies such as process of elimination, finding the main idea of the passages, and ways to determine what the questions were asking of them.

Participant demographics:

Participant demographics The college transition program has students ranging from ages 18-21 from all different ethnic backgrounds. Josh has an emotional disability, and Lara is a student with Autism. IDEA describes Emotional Disturbance as: A condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a degree that adversely affects a child’s educational performance: An inability to learn that cannot be explained by the intellectual, sensory, or health factors; an inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers; inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances; a general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; a tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems. IDEA defines autism as a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, usually evident before age 3, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotypes movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences. The term does not apply if a child’s educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional disturbance.

Slide 5:

Lara Josh

Perceptions of differences:

Perceptions of differences At first, I was a little nervous about working with people with special needs. I didn’t know how I was supposed to act or what to say. After working with Josh and Lara, I realized that there is no way to act or special things to say, it is just important that you treat them like you would anyone else because their disability is just a difference, and everyone has differences. The best part of my assignment was how eager the students were to learn. They wanted to know why they were missing the problems, in order to do better on the next test. It made me want to come back every week to help them succeed at their goals.

Connections:

Connections This assignment was completed for EEX 4070: Teaching Exceptional Students I learned more about the Universal Design for Learning and how to help all types of learners with material. I did this through providing multiple means of representation by providing the students with more than one form of the material. I learned more about modification and accommodations, as well. I was able to modify some of the lessons that the GED book provided us with so that some of the concepts were easier to understand. I also learned that because of their disabilities, they are able to have time accommodations on the day of the actual test. I also learned more about the student’s specific disabilities. With Josh, I was able to see first hand, how an emotional disability affects a student’s learning. With Lara, I was able to see how being on the autism spectrum can affect how she understands materials. She had a lot of trouble with the alternative meanings behind passages such as author’s purpose. These experiences will help me when I am working as a teacher because I will have all types of learners with all different exceptionalities and I need to be aware of how to most effectively reach these students.

Civic Engagement:

Civic Engagement Doing this service learning project made me realize how important service learning is to both the person volunteering their time and to the organization that they are working with. Service learning is important because it encourages students to go into their field of study and find out what their needs are and help them achieve goals, while learning at the same time. I think that service learning is a very effective method of learning because students learn by doing and experiencing different situations that they might be a part of in their future. This project made me desire to be more involved in organizations in the community that may have needs that no one is serving. It was a great experience for both me and those I worked with.

Final Thoughts:

Final Thoughts This project exposed me to working with individuals with disabilities and changed the way I now feel about differences in everyone. It helped me realize some effective ways to teach alternatively to students who learn differently. I hope to continue working with the college transition program through service learning.