Special Education Reflection

In our class interview, we talked with Dr. Maurer. He had a lot of stories and personal

experiences that he shared with us. One of the most important things he shared is that Special Ed

is more and bigger than just legal terms. Along with that, we must remove the us and them

philosophy. See them as kids first. They should not be labeled as special ed. We need to

recognize what they can do, rather than what they cannot do. Another thing Dr. Maurer talked a

lot about how as a special education teacher you must be really tough about what you expect.

You must be relentless no matter how long it takes and do not give up. You cannot let them push

your buttons, even though it may be hard. Lastly, he mentioned about all the support that is

available. There are people, technology, and books out there all to support you. Overall, I really

enjoyed hearing all the stories he had to share about the special education field.

In my small group zoom, we met with Margiy Outen. She was very knowledgeable, and

we had a wonderful conversation with her. Margiy loves to travel and teach, which is why she

became an outreach teacher. She shared a lot of great tips with us. One thing she said was to be

prepared to be flexible because no day is a regular day. Along those lines, she also mentioned to

have a planner that is color coded so you are organized and it is easy to glance at. We asked her

favorite part of her job. She said the little things like simple thank you’s or letters from past

students. It makes her work feel worthwhile. Similarly, she loves to see the look in a child’s eyes

when they know you care about them. Our meeting with Margiy was very nice and informative.

In both of the meetings, the core values were very much present. The first core value that

was seen was the excitement of teaching, learning, and mentoring. In the whole class meeting,

you could see Dr. Maurer’s love for teaching especially in the special ed field. He truly does love

sharing all of his stories with the class. In the small group meeting, Margiy was very happy to
talk with and mentor us about the special education field. The second core value shown was the

appreciation of diversity and similarity. Dr. Maurer talked a lot about special education students

being different, but they must be treated the same. Margiy talked briefly about this too. Overall,

both meetings were highlights of the core values of the COE.