Education intervention specialist practices for mild to moderate needs

¶ … memory as a child, when I was just four years old, continues to haunt me until this day nearly 50 years later. The eldest of five children in an impoverished dysfunctional family, my mother often made me look after my younger siblings. My mother was upstairs on the neighbor's phone while I watched my ten-month-old sister, (name). Suddenly, (name) started choking and turning blue. Petrified, I did not know what to do. I screamed for my mother, who came rushing down the stairs and immediately called for an ambulance. Although (name) had a freak heart attack, and I was not to blame, guilt plagued me for years as she became blind, deaf and mute. As I matured, I realized that I was not culpable for (name's) illness and death at a young age. I also realized that this experience so early on in life, along with my impaired home life, presented me with the ultimate challenge. I could spend the rest of my life driven by anger and blaming others, ironically becoming dysfunctional as well. Or, I could accept this as a challenge and realize that I was master of my own life. I accepted the latter position and have faced many challenges since then, each making me a better and stronger individual.

(Name)'s severe disability also made me very concerned about the special needs of other children. For the past seven years, I have been employed as a learning disabled paraprofessional. I was also a literacy aide four several years. Four years ago, I decided to pursue my teaching degree as an Intervention Specialist Mild/Moderate (K-12) to be able to provide additional support to these children. Over this time, I learned how the four components of knowledge, technology, diversity and ethics, as identified in the College of Education's mission statement, work together to develop the proficiencies I need to offer the high-quality and specialized education these disabled children require. My personal philosophy is that every child, regardless of the degree of his or her capabilities deserves an equal education and to be treated fairly. It is my responsibility as a teacher to ensure that this philosophy is carried out.

Caring for these children, alone, is naturally not enough. I need to apply educational knowledge and meet their needs. In my university studies and field observation hours, I acquired the understanding to write and implement lesson plans (K1), which all received "A" marks and comments such as "great ideas," and "You will make a wonderful teacher!" Such remarks made me very proud as well as confirmed the value of the effort I put into these plans. Courses I took included: Collaboration, Individuals with Mild/Moderate Needs, Instructional Assessments & Classroom Management, Educational Implementation, Educational Technology, and Special Education Programming Mild/Moderate. My field work was at homeless shelters, religious counseling and shelter organizations, local schools, nonprofit organizations and tutoring.

Educational theory (K2) is also a necessity for teaching, since it helps teachers better understand the stages in which children progress and what support needed at each one. Although the theories scholars as Piaget and Maslow resonate with me, it is Gardner's multiple intelligences theory that comes the closest to my philosophy that each child's needs must be considered separately. Teachers, at the minimum, need to know instructional and theoretical basics; then they need to modify these to the specific requirements of their students (K3). Educational foundations must be adapted to the greatest extent for special needs children who range from high to low functioning and require very different cognitive, physical, linguistic, academic and psychological interventions based on disability. Teaching coursework and theory go hand in hand with the Ohio DOE's standards, objectives and benchmarking parameters. In addition, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Free Appropriate Public Education must provide the Individualized Education Programs for disabled children (K4).

Knowledge must be applied, and technology is one of the means for this application. During my college educational studies, I acquired a working knowledge of a broad range of technical vehicles, from simple audio visuals to multimedia Web sites and mobile applications, which can be logically and effectively integrated into the lesson plans. I have found numerous Internet sites, software programs and apps to help my special needs children. In some cases, something as simple as speaking into a tape recorder and playing back a person's voice can be very helpful for the disabled (T1). Likewise, technology provides a means to research, assess and analyze student learning and individual development for continuous improvement (T2).