I can connect this to my own placement. When I have taught in self-contained autism classes, students can respond to the music by singing and dancing to the movements (oral and kinesthetic), as well as choose what songs they want by pointing to a choice board I hand them. The choice board encourages them to use their words (Ex. "I want..") or use their communication device.

In the special education classes I've observed and taught, silent gestures and signals have been ineffective. Perhaps this could work in an inclusive classroom rather than a self-contained one? In my placement, when a student is displaying inappropriate behavior, it's accepted schoolwide for teachers to say "No thank you" and give the student a simple and quick redirection. This saying and redirection is used by all teachers consistently, so it has been effective.

I appreciate this reminder. Vague rules help nobody, and lengthy rules are difficult to remember. For teachers with a list of rules, I've observed that they often have a designated rule poster in their classroom, so students always know where to refer to make good choices.

I've found that my time as a student teacher, children need structure more than we think they do. Even as adults, we crave structure and stability. I've noticed in texts that structure is especially encouraged for special education classes, but I feel this should be applied to all classes of every age and level.

I witnessed how effective student-to-teacher proximity is today during my placement. In a self-contained autism classroom, all of the paraprofessionals, as well as their teacher, were absent. One substitute para and one substitute teacher were placed there instead for the day. This caused the students to display more class-disruptive behaviors than normal. With a lack of their familiar paras and a lack of adults, the classroom management was lower than usual.

Personal connection; this is similar to my current placement! We visit the children's self containedclasses, and tailor the lessons to their needs and strengths and areas for growth.

This is an excellent statement to highlught. For a while, I assumed that an inclusion classroom would be the best environment for many students since they are interacting with other peers different from them. How I was mistaken! I have observed many classrooms, self contained and inclusion, and have seen how they work differently and aid in the students needs.

I can agree with this to a certain extent, since bouncing ideas off friends is always a good idea. However, I also think its important for a educator to be independant when making their own lessons. Perhaps working together closely to create a unit could work better?

Communication with your fellow teachers and special education teachers is crucial to how you formulate the content you teach. For example, I am currently student teaching a autism class in which some students are verbal and some are nonverbal. By being told which are verbal/nonverbal, I am able to communivate with them for efficiently and have more clear expectations for participation, like who I should encourage to use their words, and who I should encourage to use their speech device.

Authentic experience and on-the-job work is the most important experience for a teacher. You can spend hours upon hours becoming an expert in the knowledge pertaining to education students and special needs students, but until you get in the classroom and apply it, youll never know or understand where you need to grow. Applying what you learn is crucial for a teacher.