USE

In thinking about my placement, I feel like I have a very idealistic environment where my teacher doesn’t label her students bad apples and doesn’t necessarily have the pressure of placing her students on specific tracks according to large classroom. Because she only has 8 students in her classroom, she is able to work with them on a more individual basis. Even with this, she sometimes has a hard time getting all of her students to be productive when she needs them to be.  Since it is special education, she also has the privilege of being able to evaluate each student individually, since concepts like the IEP require it.

If she were forced to label her students in some way,  I believe that she would not be able to. She genuinely believes that each of her students is capable of achieving what is put in front of them though their progress is not as accelerated as students in a regular classroom, when progress is made, students are often proud of themselves.  For example, one student, who’s verbal skills are not up to par is always constantly perfecting the way he announces his words. If he does not get it in the first few tries, he will keep trying until he gets it and my teacher will wait, listen and assist until he gets it down.

• An Excerpt from Today's Field Notes: 
• This week I visited Hannah D.’s school, which is for children with autism. We have talked about the unique aspects of her school before, but I was struck by the reality of what she has said. There is an aide for nearly every student that I saw there, and the aides are near them at all times, physically modifying their behavior (pulling their hands away from something they should not be doing), encouraging them to participate in activities, and being there if the student needs help.
  • All of the children there are what people would say “low on the spectrum,” meaning they are low functioning and would be less successful in a typical classroom. I could observe this from their behavior, and could compare it to students I’ve worked with in the past who are “higher on the spectrum”.
• The first place we went to was the reading specialist, Karen (the teachers call one another by first names, the students are mostly nonverbal so do not frequently address the teachers). She was working with one student, John. John was singing to himself as they worked together. The two of them were sitting very close to one another in front of a computer, their legs touching. At times, John would play with Karen’s hands or touch her to get her attention, and Karen allowed this without comment. She was asking him to spell words, starting with “go”. She gave him plenty of time, and often he would sit there for a few seconds and not respond.

• I arrived at 9:00am (earlier than usual) because my lead teacher was running the open house leaving only the aide in the classroom.  I came early to help the aide manage the classroom.
• In the past I have discussed the certain children who regularly display behavioral issues, and who have been labeled “bad apples.”  For them the classroom environment has become somewhat of a biased environment in response to all of their actions. 
  • For example, this morning when I arrived the children were just arriving and the teacher was not in the room because she was meeting with parents during an open house at the school.  The only adults in the room were myself, and the class aide.  Two students who have had behavioral issues in the past repeatedly kept getting reprimanded by the aide, even though they were not being disruptive to any measureable amount.  One student was sent to time out in another room, while another was sent to the counselor for help on the assignment. 
    • I found this to be very interesting.  I felt that I could have handled the two student’s behavior in the class. I felt that their behavior was manageable.

Praxis visit, day 2, 2.12.13; only my second day of observation at the school. A Tuesday morning, at 8 AM. On a normal day, they do a combination of math and reading packets and Ms. Morrow works with students individually when they most need it, some students need more one on one help than others. This day, they had to prepare for their special education standardized tests.

            Today I have decided to focus on behavior within my praxis.  There are a few students that I have mentioned in my past notes that I would like to focus on today.

Attached are my fieldnotes from the week of 2/27!

• During lunch, Teacher L asked me to introduce myself and say a bit about why I would be joining them. I told them I was training at Haverford to be a teacher and wanted to learn about how to teach from their class. Then they asked me a couple of questions (will you teach here? Etc.) Then, Teacher L had each of them introduce themselves to me and say something about their selves. Students said thinks like ‘I really really really really like sports’ or ‘I am crazy about horses’. One student introduced herself to me in sign language spelling.
  • This is the best introduction to a field placement class that I’ve had so far. I really got to get a sense of each student from the beginning, and was introduced as a teacher and member of the community.

• After the class had time for two students to share their fairy-tale projects, which were fairy tales they had written, illustrated, and bound. They first explained what the story was about, showed the cover and back with fake prizes and review quotes. (‘This story was excellent, it left me on the edge of my seat. When is the author writing a sequel?’ –Publisher’s Weekly) Then they read the story to the whole class, which was done in a friendly way with a bit of talking in the middle, and laughing with the group. (One boy said in the middle, ‘Teacher L said I couldn’t use violence, so I used cupcake blasters instead’). Afterwards, each of the two students received comments and maybe a question or two from the class, and lastly Teacher L.

Attached are field notes from my second visit. 

Guided Individual Reflection

What happened? During her individual reading time, E was reading nicely with her teacher. When Mrs. K stood up to pick something up off of her desk- not 2 feet away- E stood up and tried to flip her table in record time. The books and papers went flying. Mrs. K ignored the disruption and continued teaching, while I picked up the papers. E did not appear angry or to show any emotion.

Why did it happen? E took advantage of the time that her teacher wasn't looking to act out. It was not that she was angry or upset, but might have been feeling angsty or pent up. I have seen E, a child with moderate autism, act out before because she likes the stimulation. 

What might it mean? It could mean that E needed some time to take a break from working on her reading, or needs to learn better coping skills for behavior (which she is working on at school).