EDE 4942- Reflect & Connect #1

Throughout my time spent in my kindergarten internship classroom, there are a lot of things that I have picked up on. The easiest thing to see, at first, was which students are struggling and what students are on or above level. As I began spending more time with my students, I began see little things that made certain students different. I was able to pick up on the exceptionalities that these students have. These exceptionalities are, but not limited to, ADD, ADHD, EBD, high-functioning autism, and forms of diseases that cause brain damage. Watching how these students are trying to conform to the classroom, even though they are not getting the help they need, really intrigued me. During the next few weeks, I closely kept an eye on these students. They continue to struggle and get left behind during lessons because they are not being taught in a way that they can understand and relate too. These students are being demanded to move at a pace that is not idealistic to the way that their brains work or where they are academically. Watching these students become frustrated with their inability to understand or communicate made me just as frustrated. How could the county think that these students are thriving in this setting? I understand when students are around their peers they learn things quicker, but after months of no improvement, I am still trying to see the benefit. Both sets of students have strengths and weakness in things that are not beneficial to the other group. What are the best ways that we can teach each type of student in a mainstream classroom? Is it possible to differentiate for these types of students in one given lesson? Can you teach these ADD, ADHD, EBD, high-functioning autistic and impaired students in a certain way based off of their exceptionality or does it vary from person to person?

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