Well hello there! I am a special education teacher at a Title 1 school in Aurora, CO. We have over 740 student K-5. This year we are almost over 67% free and reduced lunch. I have anywhere between 28-35 students with special education IEPs on my caseload at a time. Of those students I have 32% that come second language learners; our school has 47 different languages spoken. This is not due to over identification either we have an abundance of English Language Acquisition support staff in order to meet their unique needs.
I have taught in several different schools but I must say my current school/position has the most unique needs culturally, socioeconomically, and linguistically that I have ever seen before.
All of these have an impact on academics, especially for students with learning disabilities. However, I am proud to say that my diverse learners work hard. They have such high spirits and great pride for what they do at school and I wish I could do more for them. If I can get more resources to partner with their wonderful work ethic there is not telling what they can do.
My Project
As technology becomes more involved in everyday lives of students it becomes a MAJOR part in the lives of my students with special needs. It becomes their voice, their advocate, their access to school, and friend. I would like to have Chromebooks that I may keep in my classroom ALWAYS. No longer having to beg and borrow for computers will allow me more time to teach my students how to best use technology to access the general education classroom. I have several students who use assistive technology, like predictive word software or voice-to-text on computers but with the general education teachers sharing computers they may not always be available. This assistive technology is their access to not only their classroom but the world!
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