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.