For this assignment, I chose to reflect on the all-inclusive Game Days we hosted here at UNE. I believe those game days helped me as I was working with young adults with disabilities and also seeing how my peers interacted with the young adults as well. I found that I connected with some of the people that were there and they seemed like they really wanted to be there, which was a nice feeling. I believe Standard #3 Learning Environments aligned with the artifact that I chose as it was an all-inclusive environment and day. The standard states, “The teacher works with learners to create an environment that supports individual and collaborative learning, encouraging positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.” With this description, I can agree that everyone who participated in the game day truly supported one another along with encouraging positive social interaction.
I believe that the inclusive game day really helped me think about students with disabilities and how interactions with students with disabilities truly impact both people in the interaction. I was able to test out different strategies on how to interact with these young adults and see what made them excited which I was then able to use and encourage them to participate in different activities. I believe this game day helped contribute to expanding my pedagogical knowledge and also helped bring me closer to reaching my goal of becoming a metacognitive teacher one day as it has helped me learn more of how to interact with students and even young adults with disabilities.
