Manley 1

Amy Manley

Professor Recendez

EDUC-X 426

23 May 2021

Reflection 2

As a substitute teacher, I do not generally know which students in a classroom are marginalized,

so it is hard to know how well I am serving them. In our kids’ program at church, though, I have

worked with four students that are autistic and one student that has ADHD. Throughout the years of

helping these students, I feel that my ability to serve them has greatly improved. When I first started

volunteering, I felt that I needed to treat all the children the same because it seemed wrong to allow

certain behaviors from some students that would not be allowed from the general population. I have

grown to realize that accommodations can and should be made to better support these students and that

this does not mean that we are allowing them to break the rules. As a result, I now look for ways to help

them, whether that means taking them outside for a short time to decompress or providing them with an

adult volunteer as a one-on-one. Although accommodations are made at times, all children are still

expected to listen and participate in the lesson. One student with autism used to have a very hard time

sitting during the lesson and would often run away to play with toys. We worked with him over a few

years and one of the accommodations made was to allow him to bring one toy with him to his seat. He

still struggles to sit with the other children, but I have seen definite improvements, thanks in large part

to the accommodation.

I believe we can do better for these kids, though, by communicating with their parents. I am not

sure why, but we rarely discuss student behavior with the parents when they pick their kids up from

church. I think it is because we want the families to have a good experience and not worry about their

children, but it is a disservice because we are not utilizing the parents as a resource. As Victoria
 Manley 2

Purcell-Gates explained in the video “How Teachers Can Learn from Communities and Parents,”

parents know the most about their children and we should ask them what they want us to know about

their child to help them succeed. For instance, one of the parents brought gum for her son with autism

because she knows he gets nervous during church and chewing gum helps to calm him. I was so

pleased to know this tip for helping her son and grateful that she shared it with us.

We also can better serve our special needs students by focusing on how we can improve their

church experience overall. Although we are very welcoming of all children, I feel like we are not

proactive in helping those with special needs, but just react when problems arise. Generally our

approach has been to help the students adapt to the current environment, but we do not keep their needs

in mind when we plan lessons or activities. This is another area where better communication with the

families would be helpful. The parents can share with us their child’s interests and the kinds of

activities that they enjoy. We can use this information to create lessons and activities that will be fun

and meaningful to them. Ultimately, I want these children to thrive and love coming to church.

Although an academic environment provides different challenges, opportunities, and dynamics,

I believe that I will be able to apply to the classroom what I have learned from reflecting on how well

our church serves children with special needs. I hope to take what I have learned about making

accommodations, using parents as a resource, and creating an environment with the students’ interests

and needs in mind, and use it to improve how I teach marginalized students in the future. It is important

that I reflect on my teaching practices going forward so that I continue to make the necessary changes

to best serve all students, both in church and the classroom.