Daliza Cabrera SPEDE 777 Fall 2013 Assignment: Journal #6 Topic: Final Entry As this student teaching experience

comes to an end, there is so much that I can reflect on and say that Ive learned so much from. In these past couple of months I have been able to learn more than I have in any of the years that Ive been teaching in a general education early childhood setting. As this experience comes to an end, I hope to take everything Ive learned from this experience to my future teaching practices. From day one of my student teaching experience, I was placed in an exemplary ASD NEST Kindergarten setting, where the teachers projected such a great amount of energy and love for what they did and their collaborative teaching practices alone were enough to leave an impact on me. I learned so much as a teacher and a special educator, from classroom management and behavior tools, to tips and tricks to organizing my classroom and the importance of collaboration in the classroom along with the school staff, including the special education team. I even purchased my very own laminator after my student teaching experience at my first placement in preparation of projects and lessons to come in my future, as my cooperating teacher would say, Special Ed. teachers laminate everything!

What Im most accomplished about is the fact that I was able to work with students with autism spectrum disorders, which was something I really had no experience in, so I leave this student teaching experience with a lot of knowledge on interventions I can use with children with ASDs and many effective teaching strategies I can use in an inclusive setting, such as social stories, visual task analysis, etc. This was one of my goals in entering this semester and Im very happy and feel very confident with the experience that Ive gained. I actually would have hoped that the amount of time we spent at our placements was longer only because I would have loved to gain even more experience in this area. Along with learning from my cooperating teachers, I learned so much from the students in the classroom. In regards to the students with ASDs, it was only reinforced to me the fact that if you know one child with autism, you know one child with autism. This is a phrase I heard often in my ASD course here at Hunter College, but I was able to experience this phrase first hand in working with eight different students with ASDs, all of whom were so different. This emphasized to me the importance of differentiation and modifications, even with the general education students, because in a classroom of sixteen students, everyone has such individual needs. I am so happy to say that my student teaching experience has surpassed my expectations and Ive truly met all of the goals and more that I had set for myself in the beginning of the semester. As this experience comes to an end, I kind of wish it wouldnt because my experience has been such a pleasant one. But, I am looking

forward to applying everything that Ive learned to my future classroom and hope to one day provide someone with the same amazing experience I have been able to experience through this seminar.