Putting on My Teacher/Student Hat...

I am currently taking a class on children with disabilities. Every week we listen to a lecture for about 2 hours about some form of disability (ADHD, Autism, mental retardation, etc.). These lectures tend to be quite (OK, extremely) boring. I have learned little about these disabilities that I did not know before the class. What I have learned is a lot of information that will not help me identify students with undiagnosed disabilities and that will not help me teach these students in a more effective manner (i.e., the history of the disability).

Recently our professor asked us to answer a few questions about how we thought the course was going & if there was something else we wanted to learn. I mentioned I wanted to learn some practical aspects of teaching students with disabilities when they are included in my classroom. Apparently I was not the only one who made this suggestion because yesterday in class she told us that this class is only designed to teach us characteristics of disabilities, not methods of teaching. I am quite disappointed. I need to know how to teach students with disabilities! I am taking another special education class this summer, and I hope, hope, hope that we learn methods. The title of the summer class does not refer to methods, just "collaboration." Here's hoping collaboration includes methods. I have so many questions about teaching students with disabilities (well, to be honest, I have a million questions about teaching any type of student!). As a middle school science or math teacher, will have students with mental retardation in my classes? Or with autism? I know I will have students with learning disabilities, so don't I need to know how to reach these students? So frustrating!!!