Master's in Special Education

I've known for a long time that I was going to acquire a Master's in a field related to Elementary Education. I think I have finally decided on what particular field. As an Education major I am required to take a class about Inclusive teaching to involve Intensive Resource (IR) children in the general Education population and separately in their own classroom. Part of the class requirement for 482 is to spend time in local IR classroom's. Thursday was my first opportunity to spend time in my assigned classroom. Upon arriving in said classroom, I was given an overwhelming amount of information regarding the daily schedule, routine, and each child's disabilities and goals set to accomplish for the school year. I was also given a brief but very informational run down on basic rules regarding working with students because of the severity of some of their disabilities. The teacher informed me that some of the children had tendencies to take advantage of adults and that while their behavior may appear cute at the time, it really shouldn't be viewed that lightly. Often times these children are a lot more intelligent than well-intentioned adults give them credit. Needless to say, I was intimidated and overwhelmed by the thought of doing something wrong and "jumping right in." My first "jump right in" opportunity appeared when I was asked to work with an Autistic child. He was instructed to read his homework words to me and then color the corresponding pictures. I tried to test my knowledge by not looking up each child's disabilities and try to figure them out myself. I had about 60% success rate because I kept questioning my judgment. After working with a few other students, I slowly gained confidence in myself and my abilities to help rather then detract from their learning environment. After an hour and a half in that classroom I have an overwhelming appreciation and admiration for what those teachers and aids do to better their students' lives. I think I have found my master's program.