Jeffrey Clements

Teaching with students primarily diagnosed with Emotional Disturbance, my main priority is to provide a safe environment that encourages social and emotional growth. While working in collaboration with the school psychologists and other therapists, an emphasis is placed on the building of positive relationships as many of our students come from families affiliated with both gangs and drugs.

Meeting with the parents or guardians, my role is to assist in the understanding of educational objectives while supporting learning expectations, and behavioral standards. Through the IEP process, the implementation of the educational objectives and performance standards enables me to foster the accomplishments and successes that my students achieve while in my classroom.

During this time, I was primarily teaching students with a diagnosis of Autism. My primary focus was to build relationships with students that struggle with social interactions. My secondary focus was to align standards and my teaching strategies to the needs of students that struggle with both receptive and expressive language.

As a group home worker, I supervised and built relations with children that were removed from their families due to sexual abuse. Along with providing close supervision to all of the children in the house, other responsibilities included supervising parent visitations, administering medication, and emotionally supporting children that were recently removed from their home environment.