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.