Speakers:
S- Myself
D- Head Teacher
**- Pause
Questions for
interview
How
does technology better the education of Students with Special Needs?
(S) How long have you been a teacher?
(D) Ah, I have been
teaching for ten years. I spent five years as a basic skills teacher and five
years in the classroom.
(S) What grade do you teach now?
(D) 3rd grade
(S) What grades have you taught in the past?
(D) Uh ** In the classroom,
as a classroom teacher, 3rd grade only and in basic skills 1st
through five ** 1st through 5th.
(S) Do you have a special education background?
(D) I do not.
(S) How do you feel about that?
(D) Um ** it (stumbles) I,
it doesn’t bother me, I mean I deal with special ed ** kids all the time, ya
know? Um it’s kinda like learning on the job. um ** I confer with my colleagues
um for anything that I feel like I’m not qualified just to make a decision on
or to if I have questions, so.
(S) Well that’s good!
(D) It’s ok
(S) Where did you go to school?
(D) I went to undergraduate,
um, Douglas College – Rutgers University. Um I went to Jersey City ** University,
Jersey City State University or whatever it’s called for my teaching
certification and I went to Mary Grove College for my bach…um my masters.
(S) And what did you get your BA in?
(D) My (laughs) bachelors
is in ** um economics actually and I went back to school alternate route for my
** teaching certification.
(S) And you’re going for your masters?
(D) My, right [masters]
(S) And teaching ** now?
(D) Yes
(S) What made you decided to become a teacher?
(D) I’ve always wanted to
** I’ve always wanted to teach, I just um didn’t know it when I was younger um
and then I just, I started to substitute when my children were ** school age
and I liked it. I like kids, I like helping kids, and um ** I think I have a
lot of natural, innate teaching qualities.
(S) How do you feel about your students being mainstreamed
inside of your classroom?
(D) Um ** I think that
there, depending on the subject area, um it’s appropriate. I think that’s there’s
also ** a need for them to be pulled out and work in small groups. My students
have focus issues and sometimes the classroom can be a very distracting place
so for, for certain areas, especially reading and writing, it works for them to
be pulled out because and they are pulled out. I have them for Science, Social
Studies, and Health.
(S) What is your teaching philosophy?
(D) Do you want my three
page answer, or…? (laughing)
(S) Nope! (laughing) If you could, what, what do you, what do
you want your children to gain from you each year?
(D) My ** I hope that
they become, um, independent thinkers and well-rounded, nice individuals by the
end of third grade.
(S) Are you familiar with technology are you?
(D) Yes I am.
(S) Does technology intimidate you?
(D) Not in the least.
(S) Have you always felt comfortable modeling the use of
technology to your students?
(D) ** Yes.
(S) What kind of technology do you have in your classroom and
how is it incorporated?
(D) Well I have, um ** I use,
a mimeo board. I use, I have, I often have iPad’s um I use quizdom and ** I have
a projector attached to my tower computer, my desktop computer, and I like to
use interactive games with the mimeo, I don’t know if know what that is but it
basically white board into a smart board. We don’t have smart boards we have
those instead.
(S) I never heard of a mimeo.
(D) It’s that little grey
thing that’s on the side of the board which basically projects things onto the
board from the side so that you can use the stylus to turn it into a mouse so I
use a lot of that for games and hands on ** activities.
(S) Does the school or the district have certain requirements on
technology?
(D) Um not really at this
time, we don’t have, it’s not like we have to infuse technology into X percent
of it into our lessons but we do have technology and of course were expected to
try and use it. I LIKE to use it just because for differentiation and for
engaging um visuals learners and I like to use it cause it makes it more fun
and kids are used to that so.
(S) Does the district supply money for all technology inside of
this classroom?
(D) (laughs) What we have
yes, I mean, not a lot.
(S) Not for everything.
(S) How do you help SPED students achieve their goals within the
lessons?
(D) **We have, I have a
paraprofessional who works in the classroom. We also, I mean I also modify
their lessons, modify their note taking, and their assessments. I make sure
that I incorporate close seating, attention to, ya know any attention problems
or focus problems I make sure that they’re, I pay attention to those. Um if we
need assistive technology we’ll use it. ** What else…whatever needs the
students have are addressed in the IEP, I make sure they are addressed in the
lessons.
(S) Does the district provide any professional development on
how to use technology?
(D) Yes, they do. We have
workshops or PLC, Professional Learning Communities. We all get together with
other teachers to learn how to use the ** technology.
(S) Do you see a change in the level of engagement between
the students when they use technology?
(D) Definitely, they are more
engaged in technology. They are used to it.
(S) It is part of their everyday…
(D) Everyday life,
exactly.
(S) Is there a specific contrast in the level of engagement
between regular education students then classified students?
(D) I really haven’t noticed
a differentiation between them. I think all students are much more engaged with technology than without it.
(S) How do you assess
students when using technology? (Classified/Regular Ed)
(D) Either I use, a lot of times I can use, white boards where they each have individual white ‘dry erase’ boards to hold up an answer or the program Quizdom were the students each get a buzzer and it’s like a program where you can make a PowerPoint presentation present questions and they can buzz in the answer and it records each students answer.
(S) That’s cool!
(D) It is cool.
(S) When I was downstairs, watching certain students doing the IXL ** program on the iPad, that the paraprofessional just randomly found on there. It was pretty cool how the program proved how hands on a lesson can be for students who need extra time with certain lessons like Language Arts and Math. It was pretty cool. It’s good to know that there is so much variety out there for students who have trouble learning in a regular education classroom.(D) The other program we like to use a lot is RazKids for reading and they can listen to a book and then answer questions from the program and we [the teachers] get the results from those as well.
(S) Oh! That’s good.
(D) Yeah! Also our math program, our new math program has heavy online features where they can work online, do some activities, and we, as a teacher, can see where their strengths and weaknesses are and help the students and go from there.
(D) Either I use, a lot of times I can use, white boards where they each have individual white ‘dry erase’ boards to hold up an answer or the program Quizdom were the students each get a buzzer and it’s like a program where you can make a PowerPoint presentation present questions and they can buzz in the answer and it records each students answer.
(S) That’s cool!
(D) It is cool.
(S) When I was downstairs, watching certain students doing the IXL ** program on the iPad, that the paraprofessional just randomly found on there. It was pretty cool how the program proved how hands on a lesson can be for students who need extra time with certain lessons like Language Arts and Math. It was pretty cool. It’s good to know that there is so much variety out there for students who have trouble learning in a regular education classroom.(D) The other program we like to use a lot is RazKids for reading and they can listen to a book and then answer questions from the program and we [the teachers] get the results from those as well.
(S) Oh! That’s good.
(D) Yeah! Also our math program, our new math program has heavy online features where they can work online, do some activities, and we, as a teacher, can see where their strengths and weaknesses are and help the students and go from there.
