This week went fairly well because I accomplished for maybe the first time everything I put on my list for me to do on my web page, and my video and video editing are finally behind me.  It is amazing how one kink in the chain can cause the whole machine to not run as smoothly, and I felt for me having the video over my head was making my progress slow and almost impossible. 
    I did a great deal of exploring to find my international expert, but how I found him was looking at universities, and going to their English/Literature department.  I felt I was extremely lucky when I found the man's web page and he had written on all things Homer and the Odyssey.  Sometimes in life you just get lucky.
   Thinking about the question of special needs, I feel like as a beginning teacher there is a great deal of feeling inadequate on my part to deal with students of special needs.  I am saying when you have eighty children in your care, the one child with special needs that needs a translator can sometimes get lost in the shuffle.  It seems when you ask for help for this person, either the school does not have the money to buy adequate preparations for them, or that the solutions presented are just patches on the overall process.  In some senses, I believe there is an underlying attitude of he should be happy with what he gets, or he doesn't understand you so just accept anything from them.  I am not sure I am satisfied with these type of answers when it comes to dealing with children.  I want more than what is being offered to our children now.
  I know that if they have an IEP that is supposed to guarantee them care, but what about all those students that obvious learning problems that are not being helped by IEP's or any other means.  They fall just a little bit short.  Is the good of the whole class really more important than the needs of the one student, or is the needs of one student really more important than the needs of the larger body the one?  I feel this is a question that I am facing as I am making my way into teaching.
   How can I be a children's advocate, if pressure to conform is more important than the needs of my class?  This is a real issue in school environments.
   
Page Author: Danielle Earley
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