Professional development can be theoretical and/ or practical. For me, my professional development story is a practical one. While teaching I was faced with the task of working with a student, while un-diagnosed, showed signs of Aspergers Syndrome.  His family was very co-operative and working with them was not very stressful at all, however being of limited training and knowledge and greatly lacking physical materials made it quite difficult. Furthermore, not having a network / support team to work along with made me feel quite isolated in my situation.

My practice became one of trial and error. Trying strategies and hoping for the best, working blindly meant that I had no idea whether or not my class decisions were best for my student or not. After reading this week's topics I've come to realize that my situation though stressful was not uncommon, and my approach, though I didn't know it at the time, was probably the best thing I could have done. Many times working with student with disabilities is a case by case trial and error process. No clear instructions exist, however through the process of trial and error a teacher can build a blueprint of what works best for a specific student with a specific special need.