Samantha Seeger

I chose to interview the K-3 Special Education Teacher at Flanders Elementary

School. This teacher was very accommodating and willing to help in any way that

she could. We met after school where there would be less distractions. The

connection I made, the observations that I conducted, and the experience

afterwards have challenged and developed my own beliefs.

We met in the resource room. The room was very colorful, organized, and

clean. It was sectioned off so that there can be three or four different activities or

lessons going on at once with less distractions for students. Phonics posters

lined the wall with a list of letters found in the alphabet. The lower leveled books

were in bins where they could easily be accessed. There were three computers

set up in the resource room. There were four different tables within the room that

provided multiple opportunities for different groups of students to work. Each

table could hold up to four students, if needed. The teacher was warm and

genuinely excited to discuss her job and the love she has for it.

I emailed the teacher prior to meeting so she can have a sense of the

questions that I was going to ask. She typed her answer to each question prior to

our meeting so we could each have a copy in order to discuss. I was able to take

notes as we went through each question. It was enlightening because we ended

up having more of a conversation than an interview. I thought the interview went

well and I gained a lot of insight into the career of a Special Education teacher.

She was also able to ease my fears that I had in regard to goal writing. The

interview started off talking about what her job entailed and why she decided to

go into Special Education. This teacher began as a paraprofessional in a school

Samantha Seeger

then became a regular education teacher. She disliked the job and the school

district she worked for, so she decided to move from New York to Connecticut

thinking this would help. She held a degree in Special Education so by default of

a job in CT she ended up at a school in Waterbury. She fell in love with teaching

and would not change anything about her job. She learned so much that she

wished she learned sooner rather than later. I found it interesting that out of

everything she loves building trust with her students. This is such an important

part of any educator; without trust then there is nothing. One of my beliefs as an

educator is building trust which will allow the students to feel safe and have a

willingness to learn. Something we shared in common was enjoying the students

eyes light up when they understood a concept or when learning a new strategy. I

asked if there was a piece of advice that she would give to her younger self

knowing what she knows today. Her response was this:

I would tell myself to not drop out of college in your third year of school. It was

twice as hard to go back at age 32 with children than completing it at 22 and

working in a career that I thoroughly would enjoy.

Once we got introduced and spoke about her history, our interview dove

into content and teaching strategies. Her philosophy of teaching is that every

child has the right to feel successful and safe when they are in school. I agree

with this that no matter how the child learns it is our responsibility as educators to

find the strategies that work for them in order for those kids to be successful. I

also found it interesting that this teacher chooses to interact with all learners by

approaching them as she would her own children and treating/teaching them as if
Samantha Seeger

she would want her own children to be taught. I understand that she wants to

teach children the way she would want her own children taught, but that may not

meet the needs of all learners, which led to my next question of how do you

meet the needs of all learners? Her response was as follows, each school year I

take the time to go through their records. I try to ask questions from their

classroom teachers, or other support staff. This way I can get background

knowledge of their likes/dislikes, struggles/accomplishments, as well as their

family history. Once I get to know who they are as a person, I find ways of

targeting their learning styles such as visual, kinesthetic, and/or auditory. This

semester we have learned the importance of collaboration and getting to know

the student through family history. This teacher holds collaboration and family

history to the highest regard. It was nice to see that the content we have learned

throughout this course is actually put to work in the field. In order to continue to

enhance her knowledge of the students she dives into family history and

communicates with the parents on a regular basis. She keeps open

communication which is what parents really want. Collaboration is important to

keep everyone on the same page when working with a child. The teacher

struggled in the beginning with this, but then she realized that without

collaboration the child wouldnt be successful. When a new school year starts

she sits down with the childs classroom teacher to review the progress of the

child and areas of weakness and strengths. She tells them what she will work on

and if anything is modified to let her know. Prior to this interview I thought that the

Special Education teacher had to do more work when it came to the student and
Samantha Seeger

not go off of what the classroom teacher said. I was under the impression that

the Special Education teacher told the general education teacher what she was

working on with the child and gave the classroom teacher resources to support it

in the classroom. In this case, the teacher chooses to meet with her special

education team on a weekly basis to review any programs they may be using to

help her students. They trade ideas on implementing lessons. I liked how they

work together and are on a level playing field keeping the childs best interest at

heart. I had asked about the scheduling and she said it was very overwhelming;

to the point where she was emotional. Scheduling paraprofessionals to make

sure the students get their hours of support is just like scheduling a meeting time

with colleagues. It is imperative that you meet but its finding the common time to

meet that is important.

The next question I asked was what specific instructional and behavioral

practices she implements in your setting. Her response was, I try to incorporate

all three learning styles, when I am teaching. For example, I use white

boards/sand bags/ manipulatives for hands on activities, smart board lessons for

the visual and auditory learners. She also said that she tries to implement a

behavior reward system so that she can encourage the students to become

refocused. If the student is extremely disruptive she would take them out of the

room to speak to them and then offer them a break from the class activity until

they could quietly get back on track. I like the way she focused on the behavior

reward system instead of coming up with consequences. Most of the students I

would work with, if I worked at this school would be behavior, so this was
Samantha Seeger

beneficial. The fact that she incorporates all three learning styles was important,

especially when teaching all different children who have different learning styles.

She continues to grow as an educator by reading books recommended by fellow

Special Education teachers and by attending Professional Developments.

Individualized Education Program (IEP) was a huge part of our studies this

semester. It was imperative that I ask her about the IEP process, since this was

an area of confusion for me. I wasnt understanding how the goals were created,

but she clarified it for me to the point where I felt at ease. In this district, they use

an IEP database that contains goals for each grade level. We discussed how the

two pieces of the puzzle were collecting a lot of data and communicating with

teachers. Both are keys to success.

What do you think are challenges facing Special Education today? There

arent enough intervention programs to address the needs of todays struggling

readers or math learners that correlate to the common core standards. This was

very interesting and sparked a lot of discussion. It related back to what we

studied this semester as well. I was able to discuss it with someone who is

actually living it in her career.

Overall, I thought this was a very beneficial interview/conversation. Not

only did I truly learn a lot about being a Special Education teacher, but about

Special Education in general.

Samantha Seeger
Samantha Seeger
Samantha Seeger
Samantha Seeger

FEEDBACK:

There were multiple reasons for the interview assignment. Yes, the obvious were to
connect with a teacher who serves as a mentor, is an exemplar or who was someone
that hold what you aspire to do in the near future. Asking them about their position,
about how they serve those with disabilities, about how they perceive special
education, and the list goes on was the foundational purpose for the assignment. I do
hope you found this aspect helpful and allowed for some of three things that we
discussed across the semester to connect. With that said, the questions you asked and
the information that was provided appeared to also get at other elements of the
assignment that I had hoped would be outcomes. First, a chance to sit down with
another educator and really ask them a series of questions pertinent to your interests
(and clearly some of the questions you asked appear to be aligned to your need and not
mine) was what I hoped would occur. Using my assignment as an excuse to ask
somewhere that is seen as a mentor or someone accomplished at the craft was what I
was hoping. There is so much we can learn from others, especially those that are seen
as experts or mentors in the field. I remember early in my career how Mr. B, an
accomplished teacher, urged me to observe others in the building and in the district
that could serve as examples of what was possible. I spent a number of my planning
periods sitting in the backs of classrooms marveling at the veterans the way they
structured their classes, engaged their students, created opportunities for learning, and
especially for the early career person, how they managed the behavior in their class.
This last part was so critical for me and something that I continued to go back to classes
to watch and understand how they were doing it. Like many early career teachers, I was
challenged with the structure of a class and how to address behavior. My peers saw this
as a need for improvement and while one could say this was a limitation of mine, and
some probably did, they opened their classrooms allowing me to learn. Rather than
being concerned about how this would be perceived, I welcomed the chance to get in a
class and watch what was possible. For this assignment, I hope that the connection you
made, the observation that you conducted, and the follow up experience helped you as
you consider next steps in the field. The other reason for this interview assignment was
to really think about what we have discussed over the semester, apply this to current
practice, process what you were hearing and what we have been discussing, and then
reflect on what you learned from the interview. From what you shared, it appears to be
a mix of things from what was shared, what we have discussed, what the literature talks
about, what is taking place in the classroom, and what is not taking place in our schools.
This will be an ongoing consideration regardless of what you do at the end of this
degree. That is, students with disabilities are in need of certain supports and clearly the
efforts to support these needs vary, the ideas vary, the ways we perceive and
understand these students varies, and the list goes on. I do hope, as you interview
Samantha Seeger

paper indicates, that you continue to reflect on who these students are, what their
needs require, what can be of benefit, where we will have challenges, and how best to
work with others to support the outcomes we seek for all learners, especially those with
disabilities. The paper you submitted reinforces that the assignment connected some
dots and appreciate the manner in which you shared the information, the overall focus,
and meeting the demands of the assignment.
Sean Smith , Mar 13, 2016 at 1:26pm