Educating Peter Essay

409 Words2 Pages
Through our teaching careers we will encounter at one point or another a child with special needs. It is our responsibility to accommodate them and feel as welcomed as any other child would. The fact that we have never encountered a different need should not stop us from wanting to learn more about it. To some children we will be the first experience and they might be ours and hand in hand we should learn from each other. Educating Peter shows a young boy named Peter who has down syndrome who just joined Ms.Stallings classroom. Up to now Peter has only been in special education classrooms. When he was first integrated both children and teacher were a little taken back or startled. Peter had behavior outburst and this was a challenge for the teacher. Students would stare because he was different and question if he would learn or not. Activities as a whole class were a little struggling because Peter’s behavior was unpredictable and not constant. Children begin to grasp that when they help Peter it is easier on everyone they begin with redirection and praise him when a good job is done and ignore the bad behavior. As the school year progresssee Peter and the children begin to adjust to one another little by little. Children stepped up and would care for Peter and help him. Ms. Stallings would talk and try to relate to what Peter was going through when a situation became out of hand. As Peter becomes more part of the classroom he begins to learn things like the other children although schedule is accommodated to him. This is when expectations begin because Ms. Stallings now sees what he is capable of although different he is still able to work on his own things at his own pace. Children begin to notice that Peter’s behavior has become a lot better and he is now able to work with them a little more. Although the outburst did not completely stop and would often occur
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