Journal #5

Overall I believe that everyone came to the same conclusion (as well as myself) that the IEP mock trial was most beneficial to our understanding and especially my own. I learned early on in my college career that I learn best when I read the material and then I do a hands-on activity and for some reason those combinations really help me out.  When I really have to go through this myself one thing that I have to make sure to work on is truly understanding all the people that will be there at the meeting and trying to make them feel welcome and open. I need to make sure that we are all there for one thing and that is to help out that student. I enjoy the idea of having so many people there because of all the different perspectives. You are able to see your students’ behaviors in more than one environment, which will give a great deal of more insight into what will best help them. When we are at these meetings we need to make sure to be humble enough to ask for help and look to others for how we can improve. Like the demonstration that was given in class: we need to be open to those that come in and be able to understand where they’re coming from instead of closing ourselves off to their insight and their needs when they are coming to us for help.