PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT 1

Personal Philosophy Statement

Ruochen Shen
PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT 2

Inclusive education means that students with severe disabilities are full-time members of

general education. In other words, the general education classroom is the classroom for the

students with severe disabilities. Dr. Kurth and Ms. Gross indicated that the students have the

right to access all school settings with the necessary supports and services, such as the

playground, cafeteria, and extracurricular activities. Moreover, through inclusive education,

students with severe disabilities can make progress based on their individualized goals, make

gains in personal development, feel welcomed by teachers, staff and peers, and feel comfortable,

happy and part of the group setting (2015).

In the general education settings, students with disabilities will succeed with assistance

from general education teachers, special education teachers, special therapists, paraprofessionals,

and other support staff. These personnel are in the important roles that determine the quality of a

students inclusive education. In other words, also the they are the key players who are involved Formatted: Strikethrough
Formatted: Strikethrough
in collaboration in special education. On page 5 of the book written by Friend & Cook (2017),

the authors indicated that collaboration is an interpersonal style where school professionals

voluntarily interact with colleagues, parents, and others directly in order to work toward a mutual

goal. In my opinion, collaboration in special education is important because it combines various

supports from individual professionals in order to provide meaningful instructions and

appropriate modifications or adaptations for the students with disabilities. Also, collaboration

between professionals and parents helps the students educational team make decisions about

Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals.

I think that there are two factors that must be in place to make sure successful

collaboration in special education happens. First, I would like to build healthy relationships with

each students family members and other professionals. I believe that the relationship between a
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student and family members is important. However, I need to partner with multiple family

members who are interested in supporting the students. I will make sure that they are in the

decision-making process and each IEP meeting because their words can affect the students

educational goals and decisions. They have a legal right to be part of the meeting. I will schedule

a time with each students family members to do a home visit each semester because it can be a

positive experience, and it also can improve the relationship between school professionals and

family members (Brown, McDonnell, & Snell, 2016). Moreover, my relationship with the

general education teacher is also important because it improves the quality of co-teaching. Co-

teaching benefits all students, especially the students with severe disabilities. However, co-

teaching and collaboration increase access to large range of instructional options, the students

with disabilities participation, and their performance in the general education classroom

(Mastropieri, Scruggs, Graetz, Norland, Gardizi, and McDuffie, 2005). Second, educational team

members need to have clear roles and responsibilities in inclusive education. for students Formatted: Strikethrough

instruction in each goal area. In my opinion, the special education teacher helps the general

education teacher make adaptations based on the lesson, and the general education teacher and

paraprofessionals implement those adaptations for the student. Educational professional should

have different jobs to make sure students have a well-rounded education (Brown et al., 2016).

Therefore, it is important to collaborate about upcoming activities, assignments, and

assessments between the general education teachers and special education teacher. In

addition, paraprofessionals are extremely important because the special education teacher

is not with the student all day. In other words, the student spends the majority of the day

with a paraprofessional. Paraprofessionals also have a variety of roles on educating the

students with severe disabilities in the inclusive settings. They implement teacher-planned
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instruction, supervise students, generalize duties, provide behavioral and social support,

and support individual students needs (Kurth & Gross, 2015).

In my opinion, there are two potential barriers to successful collaboration in special

education. First, the school schedule does not provide much common planning time for general

education teachers and special education teachers to collaborate together. Thus, the lack of

communication may create problems that could decease the learning opportunities for the student

because the learning outcomes, adaptations, and modifications may not be clear when giving

instructions. Therefore, as a special education teacher, I have to develop my own strategies to

communicate and collaborate with other school personnel, such as sharing lesson plans on

Google Docs, discuss problems on communication logs, sharing thoughts on communication

binder, developing co-teaching plans on a Teacher Talk Sheet, and so on. Second, school

professionals do not have the opportunity to determine main decisions. However, these main

decisions should be addressed and discussed in the collaborative meetings in order to provide a

successful learning environment (Friend & Cook, 2017).

There are two three ways that I would use to collaborate in special education. First, I will Formatted: Strikethrough

develop a community resource file that helps families address special challenges. Social workers,

nurses, therapists, and psychologists may be needed for providing responses to each familys

support needs. Moreover, the resources will be organized by topical area so it is easier for family

members to decide whether the resource will be useful. In order to build a system of supports Formatted: Strikethrough

that meets the individualized needs, teamwork becomes important. However, more resources do

not mean better support because that confuses quantity with value (Brown et al., 2016).

Therefore, I will help the team find a happy medium by communicating regularly. Second, I will

set up a communication log with other professionals, so we are able to exchange thoughts about
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scheduling, lesson plans, behavior management skills, and classroom management skills. In this

way, we can save some time. Also, other teachers will have the chance to get to know my

students more. I will go back to read all the comments weekly and highlight the most important

information, and then I will try to use this information in daily teaching. Third, communication

and collaboration with paraprofessionals are important in special education. In order to

facilitate a successful inclusive program, regular collaborative staff meetings are much

needed. I would like to have a regular collaborative staff meeting weekly during the school

district assigned planning time so the meetings will be at a consistent time and place

(Kurth & Gross, 2015). At the beginning of the meeting, I will provide the agenda of the

meeting so everyone knows the topic. Also, it enhances the pertinence and efficiency of the

meeting. I will cover the important information about the student, curriculum, or

schedules. Moreover, I will demonstrate instructional techniques, implement and problem-

solve lesson plans, review data that have been and will be collected, and discuss the

information from the communication log (Kurth & Gross, 2015).

In my opinion, collaboration should occur before a students IEP is coming up, in the

middle of the semester, and at the end of the semester. Individualized Education Program (IEP)

goals are important for the students with disabilities, so the general education teacher is not only

responsible for the regular education goals but also responsible for creating IEP goals (Marston,

2017). When collaboration happens before the annual IEP evaluation, the educational team and

parents are able to get to know the students current performance in the classroom and also their

functional skills. The information will help educational team make better decisions in the IEP

evaluation. In addition, the student with disabilities can take an active and meaningful role

in their IEP meetings. The student can create invitations, design thank-you cards to all
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attendees, create a PowerPoint to introduce their family members at the beginning of the

meeting, and photocopy materials of their favorite food, movies, cartoons, sports and so on.

Moreover, they can play a video of their day at school or home as the starting point of the

meeting. When collaboration occurs in the middle of the semester, it helps educational team

adjust the short-term goals that they made at the beginning of the semester. Last, the educational

team is able to summarize the performance of the student throughout the whole semester in order

to make a better plan for the next semester.

School culture and power affect collaboration in special education. I believe that the

general education teachers, special therapists, special education teachers, and paraprofessionals

need to participate and contribute when making decisions about curricula adoption, schedules,

educational goals, and professional development priorities. Their complete participation will

positively affect students education (Friend & Cook, 2017). Collaboration is based on parity that

is contributed by each participant. Moreover, a balance of power from each educator is important

because it increases the possibility of true collaboration (Friend & Cook, 2017). In addition, the

true collaboration provides positive communication between school professionals, and the

students will be benefit from it.

In conclusion, a collaborative educational environment increases students positive

outcomes. Also, it builds toward to the common goals. In order to have successful collaborations

(e.g., co-teaching), school professionals need to build healthy relationships between each other

and parents, and make clear roles and responsibilities. Providing more common planning time

and collaboration opportunities are the two barriers that some schools need to work on.

Moreover, a community resource file, and a communication log, and regular meetings are the Formatted: Strikethrough

two three ways that I would like to utilize often when collaborating in special education. Formatted: Strikethrough
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Collaborating before IEP evaluation, during the semester, and at the end of the semester are three

points that I would like to use collaboration. Lastly, the participation of school professionals and

a balance of power from each educator will affect students education.

References

Brown, F., McDonnell, J., & Snell, M. E. (2016). Instruction of Students with Severe

Disabilities. Boston, MA: Pearson.

Friend, M., & Cook, L. (2017). Interactions: Collaboration Skills For School Professionals.

Boston, MA: Pearson.

Kurth, J. A., & Gross, M. (2015). The Inclusion Toolbox. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Marston, N. (2017). 6 Steps to Successful Co-Teaching: Helping Special and Regular Education

Teachers Work Together. National Education Association. Retrieved from: Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.5"

http://www.nea.org/tools/6-steps-to-successful-co-teaching.html

Mastropieri, M. A., Scruggs, T. E., Graetz, J., Norland, J., Gardizi, W., & McDuffie, K.

(2005). Case Studies in Co-teaching in the Content Areas: Successes, Failures, and

Challenges. Intervention in School and Clinic, 40(5), 260-270.