"The World Is Your Oyster" a quote my mother has always said to me, and I now say to my students. As a special educator, I need my students to know that they can do anything and be anyone; that the world is theirs to conquer and nothing can hold them back. I not only have the privilege to teach my students reading, writing and arithmetic but I get to watch them grow, achieve their goals and feel that pride when they accomplish something.
I teach early childhood special education.
The students I work with have a variety of strengths, needs, and learning styles. They all have a developmental delay of some sort, so we are helping them grow in all areas; social emotional, gross motor, fine motor, academic, cognitive, and functional. This makes for a busy day, but it is just one reason, I love my job!
My Project
My classroom is full of wonderful kiddos with diverse needs and learning styles. In one day, we work on so many different skills that are vital to early development. One area I would like to improve upon is our fine motor and table toys center. Obviously, in preschool, we play. But if we can make the play more purposeful, all the better! Many of my students have fine motor delays and the toys I have selected will allow me to target specific goals for each student. I chose two sets of manipulatives, each of which includes four huge boxes. In each box there are nuts and bolts, which are great for twisting. There are star builders and waffle builders which are good for hand strengthening. There are gears and tubes, which the kids love to build with. The list goes on and on. All of these materials serve multiple purposes as well and the kids will have a lot of fun building and manipulating these.
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