That’s a Wrap!

This feels extremely weird to say… but I am done student teaching! Now I get to hang out for a week until graduation! This semester has flown by. I’ve learned so much from my cooperating teacher and from my students. I will miss them all so much!

An important idea that I learned this semester is that I need to meet students where they are. I would not have had so much success over the past few months if I did not take the first few weeks of the semester to analyze the levels that my students were performing at and get to know them. The positive and personal relationships that I formed with the students helped them to trust me. I think the time I took to do this really helped me to jump in to full takeover knowing where they were at and how to help them grow.

One of the biggest takeaways from this semester is my increased confidence. I formed a great relationship with my cooperating teacher and she was able to give me constructive feedback. This helped me to grow as a teacher. Her praise and compliments really boosted my confidence and have me excited to start a new job next fall!

My Thoughts on Our Field Trip to Chicago

5:15AM – NOOOOOOOOOO

6:30AM – How are these children so awake?!

7:00AM – And we’re off! Let’s put in a movie so I can take a nap.

10:00AM – We’ve made it to the Shed Aquarium. I sure hope I don’t lose any of these children.

11:00AM – The students really like the dolphins. I really like the dolphins. This is good.

11:15AM – One kid is begging me to go to the gift shop… this could be dangerous.

11:25AM – I let him buy little tentacle things to put on his hand… big mistake.

11:30AM – Now he’s running around attacking everyone with the tentacles. I’ll pretend not to associate with him.

11:45AM – Off to the Field Museum! This should be fun!

12:30PM – The kids don’t seem too interested in mummies and dinosaurs. They are not entertained very easily.

1:00PM – My legs hurt. I’ll let them look around the gift shop so I can sit down for a little bit.

1:30PM –LUNCH! Best part of the day!

2:00PM – Let’s get out of here!

2:15PM – Loading the busses… I didn’t lose any children! I’d call that a success.

3:00PM – Today was exhausting. ZzzzZzZZzz….

Awkward Interaction

This past week, I observed an interaction between a special education teacher and an administrator unlike one I had ever seen before. Typically, I observe interactions in which the administrator tells the teacher something, and the teacher accepts it, regardless of if he or she agrees or not. I figure this usually happens because the administrators have authority over teachers.

The interaction I observed this week occurred when the administrator told the teacher that her class would be moved to a different room for upcoming PARCC testing. Immediately, the teacher refused. She told the administrator that it was unacceptable and she would not do it. The administrator was surprised by the teacher’s response and began to ask more questions to understand why. The teacher explained that the alternate setting would not be appropriate for her students because they require a lot of space, a familiar room, and familiar staff in order to be the most successful with standardized tests. As the teacher explained this, I began to agree with her. She was simply speaking out in the best interest of her students.

I felt very awkward in this situation because I would never think of refusing directions from an administrator like that. Especially as a first year teacher, I know that I will not be comfortable with arguing with an administrator. However, I know that the teacher had her students in mind and was engaging in best practice during this argument. Eventually, the teacher got her way, and I know that her students will be more successful because of the firm stance the teacher took against the administrator.

Autobiography Unit

This week we are starting to read Dairy of a Wimpy Kid in reading class in place of the scripted curriculum. I’m excited to do something different! I am so excited, in fact, that I have decided to change it up for writing class as well. Now that I am in full takeover, I have the opportunity to use my own curriculum rather than the scripted curriculums.

I’ve decided that my students are going to write three paragraph autobiographies. Each paragraph will tell about their past, present, and future. I created a brainstorm web that should help the students to understand what goes in each paragraph. I know that three paragraphs is going to be a lot for them, so we will break it up over a few days. I think I might spend some time reading other biographies and autobiographies so that the students can get some ideas!

After they write their rough drafts, we are going to try peer editing. All of the students need to work on spelling, capitalization, and periods! This should be a big challenge for them. Ultimately, I want them to type their final drafts. This will also take a long time… so we will see if we get to that before my last two weeks of takeover are done!

I am excited to kick start this unit on Tuesday! Hopefully my students are as excited as I am to move away from the scripted curriculum for a while. 🙂

Novel Unit

Today my cooperating teacher and I spent our prep period at the public library. We browsed the children’s section for some books that I could use for reading class. I had some difficulty deciding on a book because my students are in sixth grade but are performing at a second or third grade reading level. It’s tough to find age appropriate books that are at the right reading level for my students!

We narrowed it down between the Captain Underpants series and the Dairy of a Wimpy Kid series. I think my students will enjoy Dairy of a Wimpy kid a little more and will be able to relate to it. The first book in the series (the one we will be reading) is nice because it has a ton of pictures/drawings that will keep the students engaged.

I have been using a scripted curriculum with word work and short stories every day during reading so far this semester… let’s just say that the students (and I) are getting sick of it. It is really time for a change! I hope they enjoy changing it up and reading a novel during our class time instead of following the scripted curriculum. I’m excited!

 

Diary_of_a_wimpy_kid

Accommodating Student Needs

Last week I taught a lesson to prepare the sixth graders to go out in the community. I led a discussion about community safety rules regarding crossing the street and staying with the group as well as general rules for when we are at the library. Three of the four students were able to verbalize their thoughts and share with the group. I accommodated one student by allowing him to write down his answer rather than verbalize it. I chose to give the student this adaptation because he gets nervous and uncomfortable when he is asked to speak in a group. In past lessons, he has shown signs of anxiety, such as fidgeting, getting up and walking away, facial expressions, and repetitive movements, when asked to speak to the group. I gave him a choice between writing on a piece of paper and coming up to the Smart Board to record his answer. I did not modify the activity for him because he was still required to share ideas, but I did accommodate his needs by allowing him a different way to communicate.

I chose to give the student this adaptation because I wanted him to give me the best answer possible. I would rather the student present the information in a different format, than present the same way as his peers but feel uncomfortable. I also decided to give the student a choice because it gave him a say in how to respond and allowed him to take ownership of the activity. I think the intended outcome was achieved because the student was able to communicate and contribute to the group discussion. The adaptation was successful because the student felt comfortable enough to participate and engaged in the lesson. I will use this strategy again in the future when I know that the student will not feel comfortable speaking in front of the class.

Week 1 of Full Takeover!

I’ve done three days of full takeover and I am so exhausted! Thank goodness this is only a four-day week! All of the preparation that I did the week prior to spring break has allowed for a smooth transition this week. I am nervous about the next few weeks (and next fall!) because I won’t have the luxury of spring break before every jam-packed week!

This week has also been interesting because I had the opportunity to attend three IEP meetings. I especially liked seeing meetings led by two different teachers so that I could compare the ways that information was presented to the team. I think this gave me a better understanding of the ways I want to run meetings in the future. Looking over IEPs and discussing the goals as a team has given me some insight different types of goals that I can write in the future.

Overall, this week has been both crazy and educational. I can’t believe how much I have learned in the past three days. This makes me excited for what the next few weeks will hold!

Full Take Over

Spring break was exactly what I needed. I’m feeling refreshed and ready to get back to Champaign so I can begin full take over! I have essentially already been teaching every period for a few weeks, but now it’s official.. so there’s some added pressure. From now on, it’s just me. I won’t be able to ask my coop for some help managing the group or to deal with a student who was disrupting the lesson.

In terms of content, I feel prepared. I think I have a good grasp on the topics that we are going to cover in the next few weeks. I also feel really prepared to continue building relationships with my students. I feel as though I’ve gained a lot of respect from my students in the past few weeks and I’m excited to continue to get to know them.

I am nervous about handling student finances. Because some of our students receive funding to do community based instruction, we go to stores and restaurants once a week. Now that I’m in full take over, I will be responsible for managing the checks and cash as well as saving receipts and sending them in to the district office. I think I am nervous for this because it involves dealing with other people’s money rather than my own… that is kind of stressful! Hopefully my cooperating teacher will oversee this and help me through the process… at least for the first week!

Frustration

One of my students has some anger management issues. Some days, he is engaged, polite, and a pleasure to have in class. Other days, he is disruptive and defiant. Last week during reading class, the student shut down and stared at the wall the entire period. I gave him multiple opportunities to engage in the lesson and provided positive reinforcement to the students who were engaged. Nothing that I was doing seemed to work! The next day, I created a list of options for the student to use when he is angry. I shared the list with the student after class and described the purpose of it. The list is a small slip of paper with pictures of cars on it (the student loves cars!) and a list of five options. The options include taking a break, going for a walk, getting a drink of water, taking a deep breath, and counting down from 10. The student now has this list taped inside his binder. Next time he gets frustrated or angry, I will remind him of the list. Hopefully, he will be able to choose an option and follow through with it. I plan to use a lot of prompting the first time and then gradually fading out my prompts. By the end of the year, I want the student to be able to pick an option on his own. This will help him self-monitor and make active decisions to solve his problems.

Academic Language

This semester my instructional program involves teaching a sixth grade student to access various websites on the computer. I chose to write a program on this skill because the student uses the computer multiple times a week in school and at home – It’s relevant! During math class, the student logs on to a website called Reflex Math. During reading, the student uses a program called Lexia. When the student has free time on the computer, she likes to use Cool Math Games. All three of these sites are important to the student’s education and are age appropriate. Due to the student’s significant health impairment, it takes her at least two times as long to log on to each website as her same aged peers. Through this program, I am teaching her how to access the sites and hoping that as she becomes more familiar with them, she can increase her speed.

The student needs to know basic computer vocabulary in order to participate in this program. Phrases such as click, log-on, exit, and type, are things that the student must be familiar with. Luckily, the student had some exposure to computers prior to this year and was familiar with most of these terms. Part of the program involves verbal prompting, so it is necessary that the student know the specific names of various steps in the task analysis. For example, entering her password, locating Google Chrome, pressing the arrow, typing in the URL, etc. There are a lot of language demands in this program that require the student to master computer vocabulary.

The student needs to utilize language processes including comparing and analyzing during this program. She needs to analyze the prompt that she is given and then act on it. She also needs to compare my computer to her computer in the program because one prompting strategy is modeling. The student is currently making a lot of progress with this program, which wouldn’t be possible without her advanced language skills.