About the Finegans
Sara and Richard Finegan
Sara Finegan lives and works in San Diego, California, where she teaches a Special Day Class for grades 4, 5 and 6 in elementary school. She has taught in the public and private school sectors for more than 25 years in both general and special education settings. She’s taught students with a variety of learning abilities including GATE, students diagnosed with emotional disturbances, high-functioning autism, non-verbal learning disorder, and expressive and receptive language deficits. Her classroom is known for its rigor and humor.
Ms. Finegan obtained her Masters Degree in Special Education from California State University at San Marcos. In addition to teaching children, she has served as Adjunct Professor at National University where she has taught and mentored graduate-level students working on action research in Special Education.
Sara and her husband Richard Finegan, a paraprofessional with years of experience working with children with autism and related challenges, serve as consultants to parents, advocates and education groups interested in supporting the needs of students with disabilities. Both Sara and Richard, (a former attorney, journalist and teacher in special education) have worked in elementary, middle, and high school settings.
Sara has led workshops on learning and teaching methods as well as content-area instruction, and writes about her experiences teaching students with autism reading comprehension skills on her blog at http://www.readerswithautism.com/. A long career in the field of Jewish education has also inspired her to work with congregations interested in providing a rich experience for Hebrew School students with special needs.
Laura Maloney · March 4, 2010 at 6:10 am
Good for you! You sound like a dedicated teacher. Since you are not too far away I wanted to share with you some information about an event that is taking place in San Francisco. Parents Education Network is a group of parents who collaborate with educators, parents, students and the community to bring academic success to students with learning and attention difficulties. We are getting ready for our second annual gathering of students who learn differently Education Revolution. Ed Rev2010 Your Journey from Self-Awareness to Successful Independence will take place on Saturday April 17th at AT&T Park. This is a day of celebration of the strenghts of students with learning and attention difficulties, their families and the educators that support them. We will have speakers, activities, and on stop shopping for support. Please visit our website for more information http://www.ParentsEducationNetwork.org or http://www.EdRev2010.org It really is a great day for all. Hope you check it out and spread the word. Thank you,
Laura Maloney
"The Demanding Classroom" Writes about Paraprofessionals | National Resource Center for Paraprofessionals · December 1, 2010 at 6:05 pm
[...] Demanding Classroom is a blog run by husband and wife team Sara and Richard Finegan and they have put together a great series of posts on [...]