Week Off Work

So in reading my text this week, I have seen what has been done and what is a constant reminder. One definite thing is documentation. That is all I have ever lived and breathed from here on out. This is the biggest thing I know. I know most teachers on in constant fear of being sued over things or being fired. One problem I have seen though, is once teachers get tenor they don't care about anything. They will try anything and come as close as they can without getting into serious trouble. I get it, but at the same time..... really?! I know the legal issues are a growing concern and I know we are a sue happy nation, but wow. I find myself very frustrated often times because teachers are either terrified and bite their tongue till they have earned their time or they just don't care. How do either of these help the children. What I did like about this text in particular was compelling state interests, which like mentioned, I previously knew nothing about....

One Hectic Week

Wow. Work was crazy. The kids have a week off this coming week for the Thanksgiving holidays. In turn, that's all they could think about. The more I get acquainted with these young adults it is easier to pick out those who are willing to work and those who won't and don't care too. One in particular had my blood pumping. School is not a positive for him. He really does not care at all. He would rather do nothing, literally nothing. The students have been working on a group project. This particular child was almost no help. He did not want to anything. Thursday they had to come up with questions for the class about their assignment. We had gone over everything numerous times, yet he had no clue what we were talking about. I grew very angry. So with the Love & Logic, I tried to come up with something that asked him how he would feel about this. He said that didn't know to everything I said. I was at a standstill and had no idea where to go with this. I told him we would discuss it when we got back from break and see how he acts then...........

oh boy....

So it came to my attention I completely missed a week. Very sad and very dumb mistake, but what do you do?????? In my new setting I am seeing that somethings do not work for the older kids as they did for the younger. However, going to the principals office here, works for these children more. They have completely understand the area of a principal and what it means. There is one teacher who I work with that decided there is a time for change and now is time. She is working on choices, not as specific in love and logic, but trying to get them more involved which is wonderful to see. They are doing well, and have seen some great improvement in some of the students behavior.

1st day of new placement

Going into this I was terrified..... middle school = lots of attitude. But as it turns out, all was well. The students were great! The teacher is phenomenal and the staff as well! I think it will be a great experience. I already sat in an IEP meeting for a transfer student. Althought I didn't know much about the child, I was able to learn a bit and discover it wasn't too different from the elementary setting. The actual schedule is however. They do a lot of co-teaching, even though the general education teacher pretty much takes the lead. The sped teacher just provides help. They don't really plan ahead, which is mostly due to the gen ed teacher. All in all it was wonderful! I am excited about my upcoming events!

End of first placement!

It's sad to say yesterday was the last day of my first placement. I am truly sad leaving. I learned so much and met so many wonderful people - kids included! It was an eye opener. Between policies and treatments. They are just so different than I expected. They don't take the initiative at times, that as a parent I believe I would want, and fight for. They do many incredible things, just some unexpected as well! I learned more about myself as a teacher than I thought I would and am happy with my progress! I couldn't have asked for a better starting out point!

Day: Frazzled!

Wow oh wow, a four day week makes for a crazy one!

Tuesday started off normal. The child who is normally in with us, came in well, did his work, received his rewards and even went to general education class without issues. During however, he got frustrated and shut down. After that he was unwilling to do anything and becuase of this he had homework.

Wednesday was awful! He refused to get on the sped bus. Mom had to drag him into the classroom, and he literally sat under the window all day. When it came time for going home he was furious because he had homework. He sat on his backpack and wouldn't get up from it. A staff member had to pull it out from under him. Once the books were in, the bag was left on the table and the child immediately went to take everything out and fling (books, papers, etc) on the floor and table. The bag again had to be taken away and then put outside so he couldn't get it. He then refused to go to the bus or even home, because he would have to work. In the end, he had to physically be put on the bus via the principal and bus staff. That same day a child came to our room in the morning and wanted to make animal noises all day. We rebuttled with louder noise that made him angry and almost to the point of tears. It turned out however that the next day would prove to be uneventful as he did not like being in that setting that way. He thought he would be able to get away with noises all day and telling adults to shut up and no one cares and they are stupid.

Today prevailed to be wonderful (until I got done with class that is). The student who is with us full time came in, did his work, went to PE, had lunch with his peers, and went home without homework! He did wonderful. Our other child (3rd grader) came in the classroom in the morning but decided he was going to do his work and wanted to be in the regular education classroom. He has difficulty in math and had to come back to us. But after learning how to do the work and cool off time, he was able to go back to class and was very excited to do so!

It seems things are working, but you just never know what a day will hold! School for me is absolutely frustrating and to a point I wouldn't have it any other way. It keeps me on my toes. It's exhausting but I know it will all be worth it in the end. There literally are not enough hours in the day for me to get all I need done, completed!

Day 27

The child came in well this morning. Seemed to be a little frazzled but very okay. He was able to complete all his work by 1:30. He did go over to one of the Aide's desk and work with her and two other students (one in his designated classroom) on Math. He has missed quite a bit of instruction but picked all the information up quickly. He did sit with them and when he started getting flustered (another teacher noticed) he quickly slowed down the situation and the child quickly got right back on task.
A child yesterday had told me of a situation with her family. I know she has a rough homelife, but yesterday was worse. She was worried about her parents arguing and their power being shut off. I asked her what she would like to do in her spare time, one thing was to color. I went home and printed off things I knew she liked and today I was able to give her a few. I tried to talk to her about how when they are arguing that this could be something she does to stay away and keep calm and keep her mind off it. I am hoping it helps....
I was able to do a lot with the teachers in the new implementation of recording... hopefully this will be kicking off tomorrow!!!

Day 26

At 9 o'clock in the morning I found myself in my first IEP meeting, where what I/special education supervisor had been doing actually meant something. This case dealt with the child who hit a teacher (yet nothing was done about it). The family is Hispanic and so the communication has been a minor issue. The family brought a family friend who was a teacher where she lived last, and knew quite a bit about the child and history. The meeting did not turned out as I thought it would (although I know it was wrong to have thoughts of how it would go). The family and the special projects leader kept trying to stress the need for a reduced test (in all subjects) that only covered the standards. They also kept stressing a functional behavior assessment. My anger came from the fact he doesn't need a reduced test. He can do all the work. He is given extra time to complete it (as per his IEP) with breaks in between (7-8 minutes). He completes the test and does quite well. He had poor grades on his progress report due to so many zeros, had it not been for the actual good test scores he turned in, he would have even worse grades, but his tests kept him afloat. For the FBA they wanted we knew the antecedent behavior - doing work. If he is given a lot of work at once or given stuff he really doesn't understand he becomes frustrated. This causes him to shut down and not work. We have the documentation saying that, but because a psychologist who met this child the day before decided so, that's what they think they need. It is so frustrating because we knew the issues at hand we just didn't know where to go from there. We knew what triggers the behavior and how to make hiim work. They didn't want to help, they would rather cut something that he can accomplish and does well. It is amazing to me that they "swept under the rug" the incident where he punched a teacher 3x and kicked him 2x. The family friend kept saying that yes it was an isolated incident, but if it should happen again the school should have a trained "team" that would cater to the child and be able to restrain him. But the issue lies in he is not dumb, he knew what he was doing and yet received no punishment. If it got him out of the classroom once, when we try to mainstreem him again, what's to say he won't do it again... he did it once and got away with it.?! Needless to say I know all IEP meetings won't be this crazy, but it was a definite eye opener as far as the school system is concerned. The rest of the day went okay. Very frustrating especially for my ST, but understandable. We were able to get most of the other children and read with them. I took over most, due to circumstances.

Day 20

A typical Monday. I was reading in Chapter 12 of the Marchesani book. It talked about how teachers need to collaborate with one another, especially with the increase of inclusion. In the school I am currently at this seems to be the case, with a few exceptions. It's great to see teachers working together to best suit the child, but what do you do when teachers don't want to work with you. Some won't even come by to discuss the child's IEP, yet complain they have an issue with the child. I realize this will happen everywhere I go, but it makes you wonder why they teach? If they are frustrated and don't want to learn more, I feel like they have chosen the wrong profession.

As much as I dislike labeling children, it works. But the issue comes again in a full inclusion classroom when a general educator hears a word like "autism" and uses that label more than needed per say. It is as though just because of this label he is the problem child and the one she gets on the most, when he is truly being triggered by other students. I realize that some of it is his Autism, but the ones causing the problem are rarely talked to about that issue. I know things will always be a little bit frustrating, but sometimes it just makes me a little crazy!

Day 15 & 16

Well yesterday was a pretty calm and easy day. We were able to start students on a new schedule due to newly release scores and new assessments collected Friday. I went to my first faculty meeting which was quick and easy. They did go over the new committees as well as where their goals stand and the general idea being they need to be met, only 2/5 were met last year!

Tuesday in general was an interesting day all around. The morning started pretty normal, including our behavior student coming in and waiting like he's supposed to for someone to get in the room and be there at all times. Today was the day his "personal teacher (one whom he was really dealing with in the resource room)" and he were going to go to his classroom full time and he was going to sit with the student all day and planned to do that tomorrow but was going to try and leave for segments to get him used to not always having him around. However it did not work that gracefully today. The student seemed to have done something he wasn't supposed to and the lead teacher asked the student about it. He ran out of the class. He sat in the hallway with the supervising teacher for quite sometime but was angry and he tried to run down the hall where he knew two double doors were. He was stopped by the teacher, but was angry. He was not touched, the teacher just stood in front of the student. I was not there but the student had already kicked the teacher and when he was blocked he punched the teacher three times in the chest. Not always great. The teacher called up to the office and at the time a Dare officer happened to be in the building. The office manager and the officer went down. The officer tried to get him to her car but he refused. At this point both my ST and I were down with them. He started crying when the officer said he was going to have to go to jail for hitting a teacher. At that point he became upset and was now terrified. It took my ST, the male teacher, and myself to carry the child down to the counselor's office. We knew he would be out of the hall and in a place he was familiar with and comfortable. We were able to shut the door and get him to calm down a bit.
I found myself very frustrated. As soon as the Dare officer found out he had an IEP regardless of what it was for he was immediately babied. I truly believe he needed to be scared. He didn't have to be taken to jail but even brought out to the car may have scared him to the point of never wanting to hit a teacher again. I feel quite a bit of frustration with this situation and at this point I'm quite sure it will all be swept under the rug. I know he knows that hitting is wrong and I know he was aware of what he was doing. Just because he has a disability does that make it okay?! I am so annoyed by this but I haven't had enough experience to even know if my frustration is justified. So regardless today was interesting. The other fear is that Thursday and Friday his supervising teacher won't be there and I'm not sure how his day will go..........

Like Mack-Kirschner said, begin with the end in mind. However, today we were unable to do this. There was no signs given that this child would react in this way. He is very calm and although sometimes aggitated, never agressive. This reminds me to always keep my head in the game and prepare for the worst but hope for the best.

Day 13 (Observation)

I spent most of my day freaking out, but all was well in the end. I had a good experience in our reading class this morning as far as dealing with a teacher. It seems as though she blames everything on a child because he has been diagnose with Autism. It is clear that he does have Autism, but the issue relates more to who is around him, especially in group, rather than the "autism." We did try to set up a meeting but she was unable to until next week to discuss behavior strategies or instructional strategies that could help them and may even help the class as a whole. She also failed to mention a meeting with this child's parents until 3:00 with the meeting at 3:05 and expected my ST to attend. It was definitely something that I would hope not to experience, but I'm sure it won't be the first time!

Mack-Kirschner talk about reinforcing students who are showing effective academic behaviors, and in this instant she wasn't. She would rather be angry at the other behavior and not reinforce him for the job well done. He intrinsically does well in school but would love her attention, so he gets it any way he knows how. They also talk about student-led conferences. Our school system has not yet jumped to this, and in this case I believe it would be helpful for all involved. In fact, most of the time the student isn't even present for the conference.

Day 11

Today was wonderful!!! I was able to bring a student in bright and early to work on an assessment for my purposes. I wanted to have personal documentation of where she was in her reading. Although I have worked with her I wanted concrete evidence.
A few minutes before the bell rang, our child from yesterday came in. He was happy coming in and although didn't get right to work, there was little aggression. I offered him a surprise for coming in so well which seemed to brighten his mood, even if only for a moment.
We went back into our main class this morning, after confirming the child with Autism was doing well. Back in the class we had a very rough day. Students were so far behind in their workbooks that the teacher had given them, because she never went over them and checked what they were doing. I found myself a bit annoyed at the situation when I asked if they were supposed to have done it and she said that they were supposed to and she didn't understand why it wasn't done. I wanted to yell and say they can't read those directions becuase they are in the first grade. The kids themselves were very scattered today and more wild than normal. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day in their class.
One of the students in that class also has Austim, but is very smart and seems as though he isn't challenged enough ever. The teacher was having problems with him and asked my ST for some help in dealing with him. She and I sat down and came up with some behavior plans such as sitting him closer to her, assigning him a peer tutor, and having a signal to tell him when his behavior is inappropriate. Hopefully this will help her with him, but also with some of his peers.

Day 10

Back to Monday! For all but one of our students it was a great day. In reading this morning, the child who has Autism did much better than she had at the beginning of last week. She transitioned better, but not as well as she did Friday. Transitions become especially hard for her when she has not finished what she was doing. She doesn't always understand the concept of come back to it. After an extra explanation from me, she went and acted like she understood. When I got back to the resource room, I discovered a child who was completely noncompliant and rather defiant. Last year they said they had the same problem, but were able to fix it within the first week with a behavior contract and slow transition into his new room. Because of how things have been handled up until now, he has not been able to make this transition. His IEP states behavioral problems which he made clear today. While he was in the room with myself, my ST, and the Title 1 teachre (office in our room), he tried to escape, threw pencils, ripped paper, refused to eat, almost knocked over a filing cabinet, but knocked stuff of it, and was defiant in all things. It wasn't until about 3:15 that we were able to get him clamed down enough to talk about a behavior contract. He refused and refused, and when his mother came in they were able to talk to her and 15 minutes later, he finally signed it, working out a deal with the teacher. By mid day he was more in a power struggle rather than just refusing to do work. Hopefully with this contract we will be able to get him back on track, otherise he may be staying in 6th grade for another year.

Day 9

Wow, it was a super quick week. Friday was very smooth with little disturbances. In the new classroom, I saw a vast improvement in the child with Autism. She transitioned well. Because it went so smoothly without any redirecting, I was able to work with an ESL learner. In talking with her we discovered she had no siblings, which makes it even harder to learn the English language, as she has no one to truly practice with at home. We have discovered she learns the material by memorization and is not actually reading the story. She was having trouble with the names of the story. We made her sound them out as she guessed wrong. She is having trouble with learning what she is reading and remembering it. In an effort to try and help her, I wrote six words down and we practiced them over and over, unfortunately she was unable to retain the information. I know this because when we read the story it was like she had never seen it before. It leaves me baffled, because she remembers some of the story verbatim, but can't remember the word "sat" as a sight word....

Day 7

I was fortunate enough to go into another teacher's classroom today. I was able to work with a student who has been diagnosed with Autism. She is six years old and with the new school and new teacher is having a very hard time with transitions. Once she focused on what she was doing she showed how incredibly smart she was. There was an issue with her all day today with participating in group, especially reading. Her teacher said she normally is very willing to work with group, but acknowledged she had a rough morning and believes it carried on throughout her day. I know Marchesani said that the reading instruction should be active, but the teacher was doing a lot of talking to rather than talking with and actively engaging them. I think this is something that would have helped the student if she was more active in what she was learning about rather than being talked to about it.

Day 6

Today was a great day. We went to the reading group and were able to sit and work with the students on their spelling and writing. They had words they had to write, but when there was extra time, the students came to me and we talked about their favorite toy. After they told me what it was, we sounded it out and they wrote it on their paper. They were excited to talk about their toy, but they were also learning. Our one child with an IEP in the classroom greatly surprised me today. We were talking about his favorite toy (baseball and baseball bat) and he was showing me what exactly to do. I had to refocus his attention, but once I did we talked about the other components (glove, bases, etc). I asked him how he thought we spelled baseball and he just wrote it perfectly. Coming from a 5 year old, I was pleasantly surprised. I asked if he wanted to sit down and write more and without question he walked over to his chair and wrote all the words he could think of and spelled them perfectly. He is obviously very smart and in order to keep him focused the teacher will really have to work on keeping his mind engaged. If not he finds plenty of other things to do to keep him preoccupied!

Like in Love and Logic, Chapter 5, in order to calm the group, I had to get the main interrupting child away or focusing on something else. This allowed him to work beside me, and in his mind do something very important. But with this, I was able to focus on the other children whose attention was taken by the loudest child.

Day 4

Day 4 was very calm. We worked hard and steadfast to get all teachers and paraprofessionals on the same page with students. We did have students coming in at 7:45 and I believe this will be permanent. Today we worked with a 1st grader who I thought was doing quite well and did not understand why he was in special education. He seemed to be learning the information like his peers around him. Much to my surprise, he was held back last year. This made everything very clear. It seems like he is just learning the new material like his peers, when in fact this should be a review. Even so young he has no drive to succeed. I said to him that I will feel bad when he has to watch his friends go to the next grade and he stays in 1st again. He looked at me like I was crazy and I said, "you have to pay attention and learn what we are trying to teach you so you can go with them." He immediately changed his attitude and started listening to what was being said. We worked today on reading accuracy and fluency. Although it's been only a few days I feel like I am starting to find my place in all of this caos.

Day 3

This morning was an early start. We began working with a child at 7:45. We worked on reading comprehension. My ST showed me the book they were using and we discussed the story as well as key vocabulary. Although the student made one small error, it were easily corrected and understood. We started with a story that we knew she could master. My ST needed to reestablish the relationship she had with the child, she was also sure to laugh with the child and include me to help with the bonding relationship as stated in Straight Talk for Today's Teacher (p. 32). We had a few more students come in before we headed to the reading class. There was sub in the class which made the students act a bit wildly. The child who is constantly acting out increased his desire to be given attention today. We helped the sub (who was left with no lesson plans) set up groups. I was able to come up with an idea that kept the children interested and focused, which made me feel like I was actually helping. After being asked to sit down and do his work, the child insisted on talking and distracting other students. In reading Straight Talk for Today's Teacher I knew I had to be the other student's advocate (p.19) and excuse that child from that table and have him sit alone at another. He was quiet until it was time to switch groups.
After lunch we had a child who had to be escorted into our resource room. He was refusing to do his work and calling other students ugly names. He seemed to be very angry and frustrated and needed time to cool down. After reminding him what he was missing over a 15 minute period, the student sat down at the desk. Five minutes later he picked up his pencil and began to work. When he had questions he would come and ask. He really just needed the time to cool down and be out of a stressful environment. He calmly went back to class and proceeded to have a great rest of the day. We talked as we walked down the hall about trying to focus on himself rather than letting the others get to him.

Day Two

A large portion of my day was spent doing data entry for student's IEPs. I knew there was a lot of paperwork involved, just not the extent and receptiveness that exists! However, I was fortunate enough to go back to the reading class in the morning. The class as a whole seemed better today, maybe just because it's Tuesday. There were still some issues with the same child from yesterday. I tried choices once again like in Love & Logic, which he liked. However it did not last long. He would get off task and talk with peers which was not a part of the teacher's rules. I asked if he would rather read his book quietly or put his head down on the desk. He said read so I allowed this to happen. When he got off task, I put my hand out and he knew to place the book in my hand. I pointed at the table and he put his head down. I told him he had one minute and after that we would discuss it further. When the minute was up I asked if he was ready to sit quietly and read or talk with his teacher. He sat quietly and read his book without anymore problems. In the midst of our conversations I knew I had to remain calm or it would just give him more drive to act out. I am hoping by the end of the week he and I will have established some rules in our relationship so I can work with the students who need it most. Always fun and always a learning experience for sure!

First day as a student teacher!

Well today marked the first day of my student teaching! How excited and nervewrecking was that! All went well. I am seeing the beginning of the mainstreaming work its magic in the classroom. Our first class was a first grade classroom during reading. There are two of our students in the classroom. All students were split into three groups (previously designated). My ST and I began with reading a short story and asking questions. There was another group at another table making quite a bit of noise. As my ST asked, I went over to work with them/quiet them down, espeically knowing two of our students were there. There was one child who seemed to be the ring leader of it all so I went to him first to get him back on task, but the moment I stepped away, he went right back to it. I began thinking about the love and logic text. I knew he was very intelligent, but I also knew he loved attention. So I sat to work with him for a few minutes and was able to make him share the letters they were using and write what needed to be written. He did not however, want to put away the 20 letters he had out. So in order to get him to do so I asked him to pick a word he wanted to put back. He did with some hesitation, but then I let him pick the work I would put back at the same time, which seemed to make the process go over more smoothly. Although he was not completely calm, it did suffice him for some time and he seemed to listen to me for the rest of the hour we were in the classroom. Although I wasn't able to directly work as much with our particular student as much as I would have liked to, I felt that I had to gain the trust of the ring leader to get him focused in hopes of keeping our student that way.