Teaching students with moderate to intensive need for educational intervention is the most challenging job in the teaching profession. ISMI teacher candidates must support the most complex of learners – students with multiple and severe disabilities and extreme diversity in learning characteristics.
Overview
Teaching students with moderate to intensive need for educational intervention is the most challenging job in the teaching profession. ISMI teacher candidates must support the most complex of learners – students with multiple and severe disabilities and extreme diversity in learning characteristics.
Coursework centers around typically and atypically developing language and communication skills, sensory skills and motor skills. Problems with walking, talking and behaving appropriately are often areas that must be addressed by the intervention specialist. Working with other educators, various therapists, psychologists, doctors, nurses and social workers are common activities in the job of an ISMI.
Field experiences are blocked with coursework. The teacher candidate links many interesting class projects with the processes of working in large, complex teams to develop individualized education plans, behavior intervention plans, transition plans, access to assistive technology, assessment and instruction using augmentative and alternative communication and instruction and functional use of mobility solutions. ISMI candidates must master the skills of working successfully with multiple instructional assistants to deliver intense support to each student on the caseload.
Teacher candidates who choose this major are good collaborators and consultants understand how to minimize stress and build teams who work together without strife to support their complex students. They learn about the complicated family dynamics that often accompany children with intensive needs for educational support.
As candidates complete their programs with a student teaching experience, they must also address the social, functional and academic needs of their students, many of whom are still incredibly stigmatized by their differences from typically developing students.
Our programs meet strict State and National Standards
Successful entry into an intervention specialist (K-12) program is followed by courses and field experiences, which are blocked together and distributed over the next three years. Our licensure programs are nationally recognized by the International Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). They are also approved by the Office of Special Education in the Ohio Department of Education.
Full-Time Faculty Advise You!
Full-time faculty, all of whom are trained, licensed and experienced intervention specialists themselves, serve as advisors to students in the undergraduate licensure programs. You are assigned a faculty advisor in the program which you choose and that person will meet with you regularly to advise your coursework and progress.
We Train Inclusive Educators!
The faculty in our department value inclusive practices and philosophies. We feel strongly that including children with every kind of diversity and all of the appropriate supports in every classroom is the best practice and the right thing to do. While some children’s learning characteristics may initially require smaller groups for instruction and specialized environments that teach them how to regulate themselves as they interact with others, our faculty feels strongly that all children can learn if we can only get the conditions right. Separating children from other children only perpetuates myths and prolongs the stigma our society has learned to apply to those who are different. We must All learn to get along with each other and find the enormous value that each person holds within.
