Erin Percacciolo

EDUG Seminar

November 26, 2014

Final Growth Statement

At the beginning of the semester I hadnt anticipated fulfilling my student

teaching requirement for my masters in special education in an inner city school district.
However, now that my placement is coming to an end, I am thankful that I was given the
opportunity to work with my cooperating teacher, Ms. Taveras, and the students in my
2nd grade ICT setting. Due to the fact that one of my teachers was on maternity leaver for
nearly the entirety of my placement, I was considered the second teacher in the
classroom. My students never perceived me as a student teacher nor did the parents.
From the beginning Ms. Taveras introduced me as the other teacher, who was taking Mrs.
Reynosos placement until she came back from maternity leave. By doing so, I feel I took
on an even greater role than student teaching requires.
The teacher I was with, wasnt even the special education teacher, she was the
general education teacher. She had served as a Para Professional before she became a full
time teacher about six years prior. She shared so much information about her past with
me. Every incident that occurred within our classroom environment she insisted on
making a learning experience for me. There were many teaching moments, not only for
the kids, but for me as well. Being there at the beginning of the year was also beneficial;
we were able to learn about the kids and their needs together.
She went over every IEP with me. We talked about the goals for each student,
how we would work towards meeting them, and how we could ensure success for that
child this school year. She even taught me how to enter the data into the NYCDOE IEP
system. There were a total of 14 IEPs in the class, with a few students who were
undergoing RTI for potential future IEPs.

I had the job of recording anecdotal notes for one student who we suspected might
be emotionally disturbed. It was interesting to go through this process with the guidance
of my cooperating teacher so I would know how to handle it in the future, possibly in my
own classroom. This student had continuous outbursts where he would kick his desk,
bang his fists upon it, and disrupt the class when he was told to correct his work. He
never liked being corrected or directed so it was always little things that would set him
off. I would record his outburst, what set him off, and how he reacted in a little marble
notebook labeled with his name on it. Ms. Taveras felt very strongly that the ICT setting
was not the best setting for him and needed proof to back it up. We implemented reward
systems, gave him special opportunities, and even made certain accommodations with the
hope that it would improve his behavior and limit outbursts. We recorded everything we
did, but unfortunately nothing worked.
This student was moved to a self-contained classroom halfway through October
after he had an outburst that threatened the safety of the students, Ms. Taveras, and
myself. Ms. Taveras stressed the importance of recording the anecdotal notes in this
situation. She told me that when you have evidence of a childs behavior and your
implementation procedures, administration is more likely to support you in making a
decision for that child.
I also had a lot of experience with differentiation and tiered lessons. All of the
lessons in Ms. Taveras and Mrs. Reynosos classroom are differentiated. There are five
different math groups as well as five different reading groups. I most often worked with
the three higher groups, while Ms. Taveras took the two lower groups. Although I
worked with the higher groups, it was still required that my lessons were tiered for the

two to three groups I was teaching. The expectations for my three groups could not be the
same for the lower groups. In many cases Ms. Taveras would choose to challenge the
higher students by encouraging them to go the extra step in answering questions of higher
order thinking. Sometimes students were given tasks that both corresponded with the
same standard but the level at which they were completed were different. When I taught a
lesson on informational text and how to utilize text features, the groups were
differentiated based on ability level. The lowest group was required to complete a
checklist whereas the high groups had a checklist that required them to answer questions,
and locate key features.
The amount of knowledge I gained from working with Ms. Taveras and the
students at P.S 86 was unbelievable. Ms. Taveras taught me so much about how to
manage a classroom with behavioral problems. As we all know, it takes a lot of patience
to work with children. It takes twice that amount, to work with special education
students. I wasnt sure I had the patience to work with such students or the ability to teach
them, but Ms. Taveras reassured me I did. She was amazed at how much I grew from the
beginning of the semester. She was so impressed with my ability that she even
recommended me for hire. I was offered to take her maternity leave and remain in my 2nd
grade ICT classroom to teach with Mrs. Reynoso.
Unfortunately, the commute too and from the city is too much of a burden for me,
so I thanked them for the offer but turned it down. Working at P.S 86 in an ICT
classroom was a wonderful experience. My cooperating teacher taught me all I needed to
know about IEPs. Most importantly I saw growth in myself as a teacher. I doubted my
ability to work with special education children. I wasnt even sure I wanted to work with

special education children prior to this experience. I am thankful to say that I am now
confident in my abilities to not only work with special education students, but to teach
them.