Intern Year: Fall 2013: Week 15

I had to give my first demerit to a student today.  It was SO difficult!  The student lied about a situation that occurred earlier in the day, and both his general education teacher and the aide explained what actually happen.  This has been the third or fourth time the student has lied about a situation to not get in trouble.  When I gave him the demerit, he started crying and begging me not to give him a demerit and apologizing over and over again.  It was the most difficult situation for me not to give in with him and stand my ground.  I did not want to make a student so upset, but I did not want the student to think he could get away with lying just by crying.  The principal explained that the students will try to cry to get out of the demerit.  I wanted to make sure the student knew that lying was not acceptable and that he could not lie about situations to make sure he does not get in trouble.  I am glad I got my first demerit out of the way and can move on from that experience!
The morning after I sent home the demerit with the student, the general education teacher came to talk to me.  She took it on herself to not send home the demerit with the student.  She thought that the student would be really upset, and she thought that he just misunderstood.  The teacher explained that he really didn’t get in trouble, she just had to talk to him and other boys about acting in the bathroom.  However, I gave the demerit because the student had continually lied to me and my mentor teacher.  I felt like she under minded me and that my authority did not matter.  Now, all of the work I have been doing with the student to diminish the lying has been for nothing.  Because, now the student does not think what I say matters or will be accounted for.  I was upset, but I did not want to say anything.  I am only a student teacher, but I just felt like she did not take me seriously or respect me.

This was my last full week of being at my PDS.  At the beginning of the semester, I was very nervous being placed at a new PDS with new students and new teachers.  I thought it would be difficult to form a bond or feel like part of the community.  However, that was not the case.  This semester has been one of the greatest experiences of my PDS experience.  East Dale has accepted me as one of their own, and everyone has been there to mentor me and help me in any situation.  I have learned so much from the students, my mentor teacher, and all of the other professionals at East Dale.  It was such a great experience feeling like I was a part of the school.  It is a positive environment that I would love to work in one day.  No one ever made me feel like I was just a student teacher.  They all made me feel like I was one of the teachers of the school.  I hope that one day I will be able to work in a school community like East Dale.

Intern Year: Fall 2013: Week 14

       It has been a big change to go from teaching full time to giving some of my responsibilities back to now hardly teaching at all.  I almost feel lost, because I got myself in a routine of writing lesson plans and teaching.  However, I see the importance of the mentor teacher taking teaching back a little at a time.  It works for both of us to get us used to the change.
With the semester coming to a close, I actually feel like I am on track with completing all of my assignments.  However, the only class that has been extremely stressful in the past few weeks is one of my special education courses.  I feel that it was a very unorganized course and we were not provided with the guidance that we should have been.  This worries me, because it is my life and education along with the other interns that are being affected.  There are three professors of the course, but it seemed that they were not on the same page as what needed to be completed and what was expected of the class.  I feel like this was a great disservice to us, because we are now dealing with the backlash of the class.  I am hoping in the future and next semester the special education internship is more organized and that our professor plays more of a role in mentoring us and providing us with the guidance for the assignments for the class at the beginning of the semester.
This was the last week that I implemented my inquiry study, and I was so happy with the end results!  My student improved his reading ability greatly!  I believe the individual attention and individual intervention strategies were beneficial to the student, because they were based on his needs and ability.  This demonstrated to me that in my future teaching, it will be so important that I create strategies, methods, and interventions that focus solely on my student and their individual needs.  Even though he was receiving special education services for reading, they were not tailored to his individual needs enough.  I now also see the importance of making sure students do not just get pushed through the grades and to make sure teachers take responsibility to provide students with the interventions they need.  I hope that as a special educator in the future, I will be able to work with general educators on individualizing content, assignments, and interventions in the classroom so that the students receive content that meets their needs and so they are not getting pushed through to the next grade.

Intern Year: Fall 2013: Week 13

I was able to attend a pathway for a student who has autism from the Autism Training Center.  The student was a student I have worked with over the semester.  She is a kindergarten student, who mostly presents behavior aspects of autism.  It was such an interesting experience.  A representative from the Autism Training Center has been working with the student and the family previously to provide services and assist with the student.  They have been working and developing a plan for work and school.  The first part of the pathway was focused on the student’s dreams.  They talked about future jobs, marriage, children, cars, and pets.  I felt like this was not appropriate for a kindergarten student.  I felt like student should have created her dreams, and it should have been focused more on high school or college goals.  That would have been more beneficial.  They then focused on the goals for the student.  Goals focused on attitudes and behaviors at home and at school.  It was really great and everyone contributed.  I was even able to contribute my ideas and thoughts about the student.  They mostly discussed the behaviors and attitudes the student needed to work on and set attainable goals and positive goals.  It was great to work with the family and the educators so that they were able to relate behaviors and experiences to each other.  It is really great to have home and school working to better the development of the student.

Intern Year: Fall 2013: Week 12

While co-teaching in the cluster, I noticed how difficult it can be.  Even though one class is quiet, if the others are loud, it is a distraction.  On the other hand if one class is loud and the others are quiet, it is still a distraction.  I feel there is a difference between being disruptive loud and learning cooperatively loud.  In some cases in the cluster I am co-teaching in, it seems as if two of the classes are constantly disruptive loud.  In these cases, I feel that it comes down to the teacher having control over her classroom and respecting the other classes around her.  It seems that these teachers do not have the control they need to over the students in their classrooms, and they are not respecting the other teachers around them.  One teacher actually said something to the entire cluster yesterday about how loud it was and that she could not hear her students.  The two classrooms that are constantly loud continued to be loud.  I am wondering how the other teachers handle this situation if it continues?  Do they address the problem with the teacher and her behavior management of the classroom?

            Today is my last day of full time teaching!  These six weeks flew by!  As I look back now, I see how much I have developed to being comfortable as the leader and educator of the classroom.  It became like second nature to create lessons for my students and to teach.  I learned that it is so important to listen and learn from your students.  I was able to develop lessons that better fit my students’ needs and interests based on what I learned from talking and listening to them.  I spoke to my mentor teacher this morning, and I asked her honestly what she thought about my full time teaching.  She explained that I did really well, and she was very impressed with how well I rolled with the changes and any situations that occurred.  Sometimes in our resource room it was chaotic with different groups of student, but my mentor teacher and I worked well together.  We really clicked as a co-teaching team and were able to step in for each other to help or take over.  I really understand the importance of creating a solid professional and personal relationship with your colleagues and your co-teaching partner.  My mentor teacher has already taught me so much about the land of special education, because truly it is one of a kind.  She really demonstrated that it is most important to do what is best for the students.  They need to be the first priority, and everything else should be second.  She is a strong advocate for her students, and I really admire that about her.  Also, she is very knowledgeable about the logistical paperwork side of special education, and there is a lot.  I really look forward to working with her during my contract hours on developing an IEP and the medicade billing process. 

            Before I started this semester in special education, I was not sure if it was for me.  I thought I would always enjoy the general education setting better.  Most of the other girls in special education had a story or driving reason that they were special ed.  Honestly, I did not have a reason.  When I went to my first education advising appointment, my advisor asked what I wanted my specialization area to be.  I had never even thought about it.  When my advisor read me the list of specializations, special education stuck out to me.  There was no reason or inspiration for me to choose it, I just had a feeling.  I now know what that feeling was.  I feel it every day when I am with my students; I know that special education is where I am supposed to be.  I am able to reach the students, and I feel that they teach me more than I could ever possibly teach them.  I want to be the one that is there for the students that are struggling academically or with difficult situations.  I would like to be the one that is there helping them reach their own individual goals.  After this semester, I now see why I chose special education.  I feel it is now my goal to advocate and be the voice for the students that sometimes get pushed through the system or to the back of the classroom.  I have learned so much about myself as an educator this semester, and this was one of the best experiences I have ever been a part of.

            

Intern Year: Fall 2013: Week 11

        Yesterday my third grade students took a math test on subtracting with regrouping.  Last week, the students were at the mastery level and were able to independently determine when to regroup or not.  However, when they took the test on Tuesday, it was like they forgot everything.  It was so frustrating, because as a teacher, you saw that they were able to complete these problems last week.  Also, I felt so frustrated because there was nothing I could do to help them since it was a test.  I feel like waiting to give the test to the students after the weekend was a bad choice on the general educator’s part.  It was like they completely forgot everything they learned over the weekend, and I do not think they practiced and studied over the weekend.  On Monday, they did a review game in the general education classroom, but I do not think it was beneficial because only one student was answering at a time.  Looking on to my future classroom, I feel that when I see that my students have mastered a topic, I will assess them on it.  I will not drag it out and wait until after the weekend.  I believe that caused the students to not practice and not be automatic with the subtracting with regrouping. 

            Yesterday was Halloween.  Our school does not dress up for Halloween, however, it was still a very chaotic day.  It was a “pink out” to support breast cancer awareness.  The kindergarten and pre-k came to the school to parade in their costumes, and there was also a fire drill.  Even though the students did not dress up for Halloween, some still passed out treat bags.  It seemed chaotic from the start.  I am wondering how you get students to focus and complete work on crazy days like yesterday?  It was hard for even me to focus, but instruction had to occur.  It was so difficult to keep the students focused, and I understand the excitement.

            Also, my action research is going well.  I see the student making significant gains.  He is not saying “I can’t read” anymore.  Because he can read.  Yesterday, he read a book and then read it to his peers in our support group.  He was so proud of himself and his peers were so supportive of him.  That made my entire research worth it.  If I do not accomplish anything else this semester, I am okay with that, because to see my student be able to read a book to his peers and to see his confidence makes everything worth.  It really puts things into perspective for me that I really want to work with the students who have been “pushed along” or “passed over” or the “struggling student”.  I want to help them overcome obstacles and to achieve goals they have set.

Intern Year: Fall 2013: Week 10

In my third grade math support group, the students are learning how to subtract 3-digit from 3-digit numbers with regrouping.  I have been using a hundreds chart with them, but they still struggle sometimes with when to regroup.  In general education classroom, they learned a squaring off strategy to use.  It is where when you have to regroup, you put a square around the top numbers in the hundreds and tens place and take one away from it.  Then you regroup the ones and add ten to it.  It basically skips a step for the regrouping process.  On one hand, I feel like it is a good strategy for the students to use to decrease the chance of them making an error while regrouping.  On the other hand, I feel as if it is just strategy and the students are not learning the actual meaning of regrouping.  I am torn on this strategy.
I am also seeing that the reading support time with my third graders is sometimes used as a time to catch students up on all the work they did not finish in the general education classroom.  I am wondering if that is what the reading support time is supposed to be used for?  Or should I be working with them on the content they are learning in general education, not just catching them up and making sure they finish all of their work.

This was a little bit of a crazy week for both the students and the teachers.  This week was spirit week.  Each day was a different theme (mismatch day, camo day, ugly tie day, school wear day).  So this made for an interesting week.  On Tuesday, it was an early release day.  So the students started to eat lunch at 10:30 and left by 11:40.  So there was an hour and a half of instruction.  On Thursday, there was a 30 minute program for the United Way.  There were many disruptions during instruction this week.  Don’t get me wrong, I feel that there should be some fun things throughout the school year to reward the student and give them a small break from discussion.  However, this week the instruction was minimal, and I feel as if I did not accomplish what I wanted to with the students this week.  Even so, they still have to take their spelling and reading tests today.  I feel like there needs to be better planning to make sure the students are receiving the amount of instruction time they need and eliminating the distractions of instruction.

Intern Year: Fall 2013: Week 9

          This Thursday and Friday, I was given the privilege of attending the West Virginia State CEC Conference.  It was such a great experience to be a part of a community of special education educators and to learn from them.  In the future, I hope to become an active member of the CEC state chapter to help myself develop professionally and learn from my peers.  The sessions that I attended were very useful and informative to me as a student teacher.  The first session that I attended was on different apps to use with students on ipads and macs.  The special education room that I am in now has three ipads available for the students to use.  Most of the apps dealt with giving students the opportunity to express themselves without using paper and pencil.  The majority of the apps focused on text to speech, which I had never seen used before on the ipad.  The text to speech allows the student to highlight text or passage and have it read to them.  There were also programs used where you can download free books for students to use with the text to speech.  I feel this will be very beneficial for me to use with my students who are struggling readers.  Also, I plan to use this in my action research with my student who is below level in reading.  I feel it would benefit him to allow him to experience spoken and written language together independently and for it to model how to read aloud properly. 

            The next session focused again on different apps and programs to use as a researcher.  In most cases, we focus on the different programs to assist our students.  However, I have never thought about what programs could assist me while I am researching.  The speaker demonstrated different programs to use on the computer and internet to help us organize our research articles.  The programs would have been so beneficial to me throughout the Benedum Program with all of the research and articles I have worked with.  I now plan to use these great tools in the future to help myself develop as an educator and researcher and to help my students develop their abilities!

          The next session I attended was focused on Policy 4373 in regards to restraining.  It was a very informational session that provided me with information that will be valuable to me as a special educator.  There are many times when teachers in general have to restrain a student, and restraining can be something as simple as stopping them from running away.   This session helped me to make sense of the logistical aspects of restraining and how important it is to be aware of the policies that are in effect to help protect myself and my students.

            

Intern Year: Fall 2013: Week 8

Yesterday, my mentor teacher was at a training and there was a sub.  It was very interesting, because the sub depended on me for what to do and where to go.  Since it is my full time teaching weeks, she basically helped me with behavior and with creating resources.  It was very different to have someone looking to me for guidance.
I have started to experience a difficult situation with an intern that I co-teach with.  We have not formed the type of professional or collaborative relationship that I feel is appropriate for co-teaching.  There have been several situations that have occurred with the intern not providing the necessary effort and consideration for co-teaching.  As a special education teacher, I have to base my lessons off of the general education teacher and curriculum.  However, this is difficult because the intern is not sure what she will be doing next week when we talk at the end of the week before.  I am becoming frustrated, because I feel that it is the best for me if I am able to finish my plans at the end of the week before.  The intern did not send me her lesson plans for this week until 11pm on Sunday, and I was already sleeping.  I did not get the lesson plans until Monday night after class.  I was very frustrated being that I have to develop my lessons based on hers.  Today, the students had a math test.  She brought me the test at 8:30am and the test would be at 9:30am.  She said I would need to modify and cut the test for the special education students.  I only had a half hour to do this, because I co-teach in a different classroom from 9:00-9:30.  I have just felt that she is not being considerate to me as a special education teacher or the students who receive services.  I feel that there is a disconnect, but I do not know how to form a connection when we have experienced these issues.  I have offered to make materials or design lessons, and I have also asked if she could give me her lesson plans the week before.  However, she has not wanted my help or given be her lesson plans in advanced.  I feel more as a glorified aide in her classroom.  I am working with my mentor teacher to hopefully come to a finding on as how to handle this difficult situation.  My mentor teacher explained that this does happen more often than not when co-teaching with general education.
I got to sit in on a special education eligibility meeting today.  It was very interesting to see the process of an eligibility meeting compared to an IEP meeting.  The eligibility meeting focused on the reasons for the student being referred and receiving special education services.  I now understand the importance of talking to parents as an equal and not using terminology they may not understand.  It is important to make parents feel as if they are a part of the meeting and not just telling them what will happen.  The parents need to feel as if they are able to be a part of the decision making process and the student’s IEP process.
I implemented a reading lesson with curricular ties with science today with my third graders.  We had been studying penguins the past two weeks, and today, we were discussing the protective layers a penguin has.  The students had to make prediction and observations on the experiment.  The students put petroleum jelly on one hand and left the other plain.  The students were engaged and eager to learn.  The students made really great predictions and observations and really understood the concept of the oil on the penguins’ skin.
 

Intern Year: Fall 2013: Week 7

            I experienced a situation where a student cried.  The student has become obsessed with earning stickers, and if he does not earn a sticker for the day, he thinks he did something bad.  However, the way the students earn a sticker is through being focused during the lesson, completing their work, and actively participating.  The stickers are not based on the academic grade.  But, his mom promises him that if he earns all his stickers, he will be rewarded with a new Infinity game or action figure.  If does not earn all of his stickers, his mom only focuses on that.  The student has become obsessed and is worried constantly about earning his stickers.  If he does not earn all of his stickers, he has a meltdown.  We had a discussion yesterday with him that he can no longer talk about or ask about stickers.  The student repeated what we discussed about if he asks about or talks about earning stickers, he will lose his stickers for the day.  Today, at the end of the math support session, he asked if he could have a sticker, and I had to enforce the consequences we discussed the day before.  I asked the student what we discussed about stickers the day before.  He explained that if he asked for a sticker, he would lose his stickers for the day.  He then had a meltdown and started to cry.  It was very hard not to give in, but I had to keep the consequences even though he was upset.  He understood what would happen.  Now, the special education teacher and general education were discussing completely doing away with stickers for him, because he has become obsessed and completely focused on the stickers.

            I was observed by Sarah Steel yesterday, and at first, I was very nervous.  However, once I started teaching it was like nothing was different.  My students and I have been working on Tacky the Penguin this week, and yesterday we completed a writing activity.  We also focused on diversity, and the students were able to recall and summarize what we did the day before with diversity.  It was so good to hear them talk about being different is a good thing, and how they are unique.  They all really accept each other and cheer each other on.  That is the most heartwarming.  They are all pulling for one another, and I hope that they keep that compassion. 

            Throughout the semester so far, I have seen the lack of writing skills the students possesses.  Every week I try to incorporate some type of writing to get the students more comfortable with the writing process.  The students all have great ideas and great discussions, but they have a difficult time putting their ideas onto paper through writing.  I am hoping with the increased exposure to writing, they will feel more comfortable and able to write.  This week, they wrote about how they are unique.  They all thought of very great creative ways that they are unique, and all of the ideas were different.  The students even “performed” by presenting their passage to their peers.  It was a great experience for them and to see them develop over such a short period of time.  I can see their writing developing with being more creative, using correct sentence structure and punctuation, and putting more ideas onto paper.  I hope to see more development over the semester.

Intern Year: Fall 2013: Week 6

         One of my students who is autistic has been very unfocused and off task lately.  He is obsessed with a game, Infinity, that he plays at home.  Instead of focusing on the lesson or answering questions, he replies with a comment about Infinity.  The student is promised that if he is good at school and earns all of his stickers, he will get to play Infinity or get a new Infinity action figure.  So when he is at school, he is completely focused on earning all of his stickers and Infinity.  The general education teacher, aide, and I have decided that he has become obsessive with it, and it is interfering with his learning.  The general education teacher wrote a note home to his mother about Infinity interfering with his learning.  We are hoping that the mom will stop promising him these rewards if he earns all of his stickers, because then he cannot focus on his school work.

            Another one of my students has been absent for six consecutive school days.  She has been away from instruction for 10 days.  However, when I was doing morning bus duty today, she came in and was so excited to see me!  She is on a kindergarten ability level, but is a fourth grader.  She gave me a big hug, and I was able to help her through the breakfast line.  I was very surprised that she remembered me and took to me so easily again.  However, it is going to be difficult to get her back on track with a schedule and completing work.  Also, I am wondering if we are going to have to reteach everything from before.  Today will be very interesting to observe her behavior, what she retained, and her willingness to complete work. 

            There was a tense situation on Tuesday.  The student who had missed 6 days of school returned.  However, it was like starting from the beginning with her.  She was very resistant and did not want to complete her work.  She cried, screamed, fell on the floor, and ripped her paper.  In the end, she bit herself enough to leave teeth marks.  It was a very intense situation.  My mentor teacher was handling the situation, but I was working with another 4^th grade group as this was all going on.  My group of students was taking a test and the situation was very distracting to both the students and myself.  I did not know how to alleviate the distraction and keep the students focused on the test.  My mentor teacher explained that since the student was away from the structure of school for 10 days, she had to start at the beginning with her.  She explained that she needed to break the wall down with her, and demonstrate that she was not giving in.  It was a very difficult to watch the situation occur, but I understand why my mentor teacher could not give in.  She needs to establish the environment that will occur in her classroom.  The student was trying to get out of doing her work, but my teacher stood her ground to try and break the wall down that the student put up since she was off from school.  My mentor teacher had to document everything and stressed the importance of keeping a record of everything that occurs with students that could be of concern if anyone would happen to address it.

            I got to sit in at my first IEP yesterday.  It went very smoothly compared to what I thought an IEP would go.  It was only about 20 minutes long, and the special education teacher went through and explained each part of the IEP with the new changes.  The parent was very understanding and gave her concerns about what she would like to see in the IEP.  The parent and special education teacher were able to agree on the new changes.  It seemed very simple, but from my understanding, not all IEP meetings go that smoothly.  I would be very interested to see an IEP meeting that is more difficult, because I will encounter those in my career.

Intern Year: Fall 2013: Week 5

           The week has been flying by!  I am not teaching full time except for one half-hour block, which is very exciting!  It feels very different teaching full time for the entire day, and it keeps me very busy.  As a special education teacher, I see the importance of being on time and being prepared.  I only have a limited amount of time with students, and I am on a very set schedule.  So it is important that I utilize the time I have with the students to complete the instruction and activities.  I feel that I am getting better with my time management with lessons.  My blocks are half hour blocks with the students, and they are not always in the special education room.  So I am very conscious of my time and the lessons that I plan out for each block.  In some cases, I wish I had more time with the students, especially if they are not understanding or able to apply the concept we are working on.  I feel like sometimes a half an hour is just not enough, but I am learning to use my time better and focus more on accomplishing the learning goals.

            Another wondering that I am having deals with co-teaching.  In my placement, I co-teaching in a fourth grade classroom for math and reading for a half an hour each.  However, I would not categorize it as co-teaching.  In my education courses at WVU, I have learned and read about co-teaching in many different contexts, but I feel like we are not “co-teaching”.  When co-teaching, the teachers collaborate and work together to create the lessons and assessments, and they focus on each other’s strengths and ideas.  I feel that I am just providing behavior support and making sure the students are on task.  The general education teacher provides the instruction, and she will ask for my input.  But mostly, I walk around the classroom, provide support if any student needs it, provide behavior support with all students, and make sure all students are on task.  It is hard to just stand there at some points and watch the instruction.  I feel like I should be doing more, but I do not want to overstep my boundaries.  The general education teacher and I get along, but I feel like we have not developed a relationship as co-teaching partners yet; I do not know my role in the co-teaching situation.

This week there has been a lot of firsts for me.  I had to give my first demerit to a student.  The student took a quiz in my classroom, and when she was finished, I sent her back to class.  However, when I walked back to the classroom about five minutes later, she was still out in the hallway wondering around.  I explained that when we got back to the classroom, she would have to move her star, and she began to cry.  I felt really bad, but I knew that I had to stand firm in the consequences.  When we got back to the classroom, her star was already on red and the next step is a demerit.  Therefore, I had to write her up for a demerit.  Her general education teacher was very upset, and the student began to make up stories to get out of it.  But, the classroom teacher did not accept them, because the student has been lying about everything.  It was a hard thing to do, but I had to give her the demerit.

Another first for me was taking an object off of a student that they should not have had in school.  When I realized what it was, I was very scared.  I went straight to the general education teacher that I was co-teaching with, and she took the issue straight to the principal.  It made me realize that students have access to many objects at home that are harmful to themselves or others.  Even if the student does not know what it is, they still are held accountable for bringing that object to school. 

I have also realized that I implement very different classroom management in the resource room compared to a whole group general education classroom.  I have a rewards system in place with stickers and tickets.  If the students work hard and are focused on the lesson, they receive a sticker when they leave.  When they fill up their sticker chart, they get to go to the prize box.  If they are not focused or working hard during the lesson, they lose a sticker for the day.  I also pass out tickets to students that they can use in their general education classroom for great thinking, kindness, and good deeds that I notice.  When I was in a general education classroom, I had to address behaviors more than I do in the resource room.  Sometimes, it is difficult to alter my behavior/classroom management for the resource room to the general education room when I co-teach.  

Intern Year: Fall 2013: Week 4

I now really understand when teachers say, “Most of your days are really good, but then there are those really, really bad days”.  Yesterday was definitely one of those days; it felt like nothing was going as planned and everything was so unsuccessful.  First, the 3^rd grade reading group that I co-teach with was a disaster.  The intern in the third grade class did not provide me with any assignments to provide support for the students with like we discussed the week before.  Therefore, I had to think on my feet and find an activity to use for the students.  On top of that, the topic was elapsed time and none of the students were grasping the concept.  It felt as if I was speaking in a different language and none of the students understood me.  I tried to teach it in different ways to try and reach the students ability needs, but I felt like I was missing what they were needing to understand the concept.  However, the general education teacher said this is more of exposure for them, and it is a very difficult concept for any student to grasp and one of the hardest concepts to teach.  Today, I hope to try a different strategy to teach elapsed time, and I am prepared with my own lesson and assignment today. 

            The next bad part of the day occurred with the student who is MI and has a seizure disorder.  Sometimes, she gets in moods where she does not want to work and will be defiant, mean, and disrespectful.  Even though she is on a kindergarten/first grade level academically, she has an attitude of a 4^th grader.  I was reviewing her spelling words with her for the week; she was supposed to read the word that was on each flashcard.  However, that was not what she wanted to do.  She was making up words, complaining/whining, double talking, mocking,  and refusing to do work by laying on the floor.  It was a disaster; even her sticker/reward system was not successful.  My mentor teacher stepped in and took over and I took the other group that was in the room at the time.  I felt like us switching places was really great, though.  We work well as a team; she saw that I was struggling greatly, just like she was earlier in the morning with the student, and she stepped in to help the situation and see if she could get the student to comply with completing work.  However, she was not successful either.  The student ripped the paper, scribbled on the paper, and laid on the floor.  Everyone was feeling so frustrated and defeated after that situation that we had the student sit for the five remaining minutes.  My mentor teacher and I have been brainstorming to find a solution to the problem, and I feel like we are a great co-teaching team.  We have a great personal and professional relationship, and she treats me like an equal, not a student teacher.  I feel like I am having a great student teaching experience so far!

            In the afternoon, the third grade group came in for reading support.  It was a complete disaster.  The story this week deals with money, budgeting, allowances, and savings.  We read the strategic level of the leveled reader, but the students were not able to relate to the story and therefore, did not understand the story.  I decided not to go further with the story, because the students did not understand and were not relating to the story.  We then previewed the story, and I explained and asked the students to make predictions.  However, it seemed like I was talking a different language again.  The students did not understand the concept of making predictions, and by this time, time was up for the lesson. 

            Today has already been a better day, and it seems that the students and I are on the same page and I am reaching the students and their understanding.

            Yesterday was definitely a better day.  The students were more focused and engaged in the lesson.  My mentor teacher said that sometimes you just have bad days, and Monday must have been one of them.  Being in the special ed. room, I feel that the day flies by!  I am with different students every half hour and it keeps the day moving quickly and on my toes.  I have become very flexible, and I feel as if I am able to teach and co-teach with my mentor teacher very comfortably. 

            I am struggling with organizing my action research.  I have my ideas of what I want to do in my head and my research questions, but I am struggling to create a clear concept of the interventions and strategies I will use with the student.  I feel that I have a lot of great ideas and strategies I want to use, but I do not know how to make them all fit together.  Today, I am going to focus on organizing and setting up plan of action for my research.

          Now that we are ending the week, this week has been a great learning experience for me.  There have been a lot of situations that occurred this week that I have encouraged and discouraged me.  Elapsed time was a very hard concept for my third graders.  I felt like no matter which way I taught it or which strategy I used, the students were not able to apply the strategies.  I felt completely defeated even though the general ed. teacher explained that elapsed time is one of the most difficult concepts to teach, and the students might not understand the concept.  However, when the students took the test, I was pleasantly surprised with their grades!  It appeared that they did understand the concept of elapsed time somewhat.  This taught me that even though the lessons I teach may not always seem successful, some parts of the concept sunk in with the students.  I need to not look so much as the lessons as unsuccessful, but as a learning experience to improve my teaching strategies.

Intern Year: Fall 2013: Week 3

It was a difficult start to the week with a three day weekend.  Most of the students had a hard time getting adjusted back to the routine.  As I began planning my lessons for next week, I noticed the difficulty special education teachers face when planning.  They have multiple grade levels, multiple ability levels, and multiple modifications/accommodations they need to take into consideration.  Most of their plans are dependent on the general education teachers and their plans.  It seems that special education teachers have to wait to make their plans around the other general education teachers’ plans.

            I faced a situation today where I was not sure how to handle it.  While working with the 3^rd grade reading group, the students were following along, but the one student is not able to read at all.  I read most of the story to them so they would be able to understand, but the students asked why CJ didn’t have to follow along and could just listen.  I wasn’t sure if what I said what acceptable.  I said, “We are all different and learn differently, and the student learns best by listening”.  I did not want to make the student feel uncomfortable, but it seemed like my answered helped the other students to understand. 

            I feel that I am really starting to develop my research question and action research project now.  At first, I felt like I wanted to only focus on site words, but I see now that I am going to need to use many different strategies with the student.  I am going to use letter recognition, phonemic awareness, site words, and reading on ability level.  I am focused on assisting this student to read on some level.  At this point, he is not even able to identify most words or even letters.  Through my action research project, I hope to give the student the ability and tools to read more fluently and without having to decode each individual letter.  I hope that it will give him a better quality of life and make school more enjoyable.  He does not lack motivation and is not at a frustration level, yet.  However, I hope through my action research, he will be able to read at a level that is comfortable for him where he can participate with his grade level peers.  I know that I am not going to make miracles happen and have him reading on level, but I hope that he will be able to read more fluently to help him in every aspect of his life.

            I really see how flexible I need to be as a teacher.  Yesterday during my first lesson,  I observed that my students really did not understand the concept I taught them, and they were not able to apply what I taught them.  Therefore, in the afternoon I switched up my lesson and extended what I was teaching in the morning.  It took some quick thinking and some Pinterest ideas to get myself ready for the second lesson.  I am even going to take it further this morning and have the students apply what they learned about sequencing by relating it to their own life.  I have learned that even if you make plans, you don’t always follow your plans.  The plans are mostly an outline of what you will do throughout the week, and they are not set in stone.  Things change, and it is important that I am able to be flexible and have other ideas ready to make sure the students are able to understand and apply what they learned during my lesson.

            I was co-teaching in the 4^th grade math class today assisting with the students with special needs.  They were working with money and making change.  I was working and focusing on the students with special needs.  General ed. Students were also asking for some assistance, and one boy asked for my help and was in tears.  He was so upset that he did not understand how to count up from a price to make change from $10.  I acknowledged that he was really upset that he did not understand.  So, even though he was not a student I normally work with, I took the time to reteach the lesson and work through a few problems with him.  By the end, he was calmed down and seemed to understand the concept.  I then told him that if he needed more help or needed it explained more, he could come to my classroom and I would help him.  This really showed me that even though I am in a special ed. Resource room, I am actually there to help all the students, because not all general ed. Students are going to understand the concepts and material right away.  All students, general ed. And special ed. Included, will need my assistance while I am co-teaching in the classroom.

            I am having trouble with having a student of mine focus and complete work independently without sitting there and prompting him to complete the work consistently.  I do not know how I can keep him focused, engaged, and completing his work.  I feel as if I keep using different teaching strategies and methods and I teach in different ways, but nothing keeps him completing his work and on task.  His general ed. Teacher is having the same problem and cannot get him to complete his work.  She sends the work home that is not finished, but it is never returned.  The only way that he will finish his work is if someone sits with him one-on-one and prompts him continually.  I am lost as to what I can do with him to get him to focus.  He has ADD, and I need to find strategies that I could use with him.

Intern Year: Fall 2013: Week 2

       Through working in a small group in the resource room, I have noticed how it is more demanding than a general ed. Classroom in my opinion.  By working with a smaller group, I feel that the students expect you to work with them one on one and give them your undivided attention.  However, with a group of four, I need to work with all students and give them the assistance they individually need.  I also feel as if I need to get to know the students better with what they are able to do independently and what they need assistance with.  I do not want to provide them with too much assistance, but I also want to see what they can do independently.  Teaching in a special education classroom, has been a new experience for me and it is so much different than teaching general ed.  I feel as if I have to implement a new strategy for teaching a small group of students with disabilities.  They require different teaching methods and different assistance compared to a large class setting.

         My mentor teacher and I discussed my action research today, and we decided that I would work with a 3rd student who is categorized as LD in reading.  However, both my mentor teacher and his general education teacher would classify him as a non-reader.  I plan to work with him on identifying letters, identifying letter sounds, and identifying site words.  I want to look at how it increases his reading scores and increases his word identification and ability to read fluently and understand.  The student is very motivated to read, he never gives up, and always tries his hardest to complete the activities independently.  I feel that he could benefit greatly from the extra activities and strategies to help him to become a reader!
        It only took me 8 days with the students to catch a cold!  However, I am feeling more comfortable now just jumping in with my mentor teacher as she is teaching.  It is almost like we are co-teaching together and that is a great feeling.  We are developing a professional relationship and understand each other’s boundaries.  It takes time to understand each other as educators, and I feel as if we are on the right track to be able to co-teach well together to benefit the students.
During my small group with Sharon Hayes, we were talking about professional relationships and how we should be able to discuss our strategies and ideas with each other without taking it personal, and throughout my time in the school over the past few years, I have seen how some teachers take everything very personal.  They think other teachers are attacking  their character and strategies and are not focused on the students.  The student should be the most important aspect of every decision; I feel that the only person suffering is the student because they are not benefiting from the educators feeling as if they are being attacked.  It seems that we as educators need to be more open minded and realize that we each have our own way of teaching and strategies and that is okay.  It doesn't mean our way is right and theirs is wrong, but that some strategies work better in different classrooms and with different students.

I am still developing my action research question, but as I develop my thoughts and try to get them in order, my mentor teacher, teacher ed coordinator, and the student’s general ed teacher have given me many great ideas.  They all seem to think that phonetics is not working for him to learn to read and suggested sight vocabulary with the dolche word list and dell word list.  I would like to do baseline data with letter recognition, letter phonetics, site words, and a reading passage.  I will also use any testing that the general ed teacher or special ed teacher has on file for him to better understand him as a student.   I will do an interest inventory with the student to get to know him better to find passages that will interest him.  The student is always very willing to share and elaborate.  I may even try reading activities/tests to him and see if he scores better on them if he is read to and gives his answers orally then when asked to be written.

Intern Year: Fall 2013: Week 1

This beginning of the intern semester has been a very overwhelming but exciting time for me.  The Friday before school started, I had to switch placements to fulfill my special education placement.  I moved from Rivesville Elementary to East Dale Elementary in Marion County.  East Dale is very different from Rivesville; the first difference is that it is a much bigger school than Rivesville.  Also, East Dale is a much newer school and is set up as open concept classrooms.  The open concept classroom is a concept that I have only heard about but have never seen.  There are also many more faculty members and an assistant principal.  Getting to be placed in another school and experience how it is run is very eye opening.  I am learning a lot about how all schools do not operate the same, and rather on their own individual needs.  Being able to experience two different schools and how they operate allows me to take in the different school environments.  At first, I was very nervous about transferring to a different PDS, but now after my first week at East Dale, I am starting to very comfortable and a part of the East Dale family!  Everyone is very helpful and willing to allow me to learn in any way possible.

This week has also been a very eye opening experience being my first time in a special education resource room.  The first thing that I have noticed about being a special education teacher is the amount of paperwork that they are required to complete at the beginning of the school year.  The first few days was focused on getting the accommodations/modification sheets to the general education and specialists teachers, making the daily schedule, and additional paperwork.  After we started to see students on Wednesday, we noticed a few glitches in our system and had to readjust to be able to service all of the students on the caseload.  Before I was in my placement, I thought that we would only be working in our classroom with students being pulled into our classroom.  However, we will be co-teaching in a 3^rd and 4^th grade classroom with the general education teacher for math and reading.  Co-teaching will give me the opportunity to experience actual co-teaching for the first time.  It will allow me to cooperatively work with the general education teacher and develop a professional relationship with the other general education teachers.  Working with two different general education teachers will give me the opportunity to observe and learn from two different teaching strategies and classroom environments that will be very beneficial to me.  My mentor teacher has already given me many resources and experiences to learn from in the first week, and I look forward to learning more from her throughout the semester in an area that she is an expert in.  She gives me every opportunity to learn from herself and the students to make my placement successful.  I am greatly looking forward to this semester at East Dale!

            Now that I am starting to meet the students and get into a routine, I am starting to think about my students, what they need to work on, what areas could be improved, and how they could relate to my action research.  It seems that the area where the students struggle the most is with staying on task, reading fluently, place value, motivation to work, independently working, and learned helplessness.  I hope to focus on the learned helplessness during my action research because this is a reoccurring theme that I have noticed across the boards with students.  The students I will be working with range from kindergarten students to fifth grade students with disabilities ranging from Autism, LD, MI, BD, and ADD/ADHA.  At some points, I have felt overwhelmed with being the special education room with students and working with them one on one.  I do not want to give them too much help, but I also do not want to not provide them with the amount of assistance they need.  In the next weeks, I hope to get to know the students and their individual learning and ability needs better along with solidifying my action research question. 

Inquiry Celebration Reflection

The inquiry celebration is a great experience that introduces me to different strategies and situations that other pre-service teachers are researching and studying.  It gave me a chance to learn about strategies that I am encounter in my future teaching experience.
This year during inquiry, my first session was regarding math.  The past two semesters, I have been placed in Reading rooms at my PDS.  I have not had the opportunity to teach as much math as I have reading or Language Arts.  The sessions that I attended addressed different issues with math with students in special education.  They discussed different strategies to use to help students with special needs such as touch math, multiplication to teach division, hands-on activities, and teaching through the ipad.  The sessions gave me great ideas and strategies that I would like to learn more about and use in my classroom one day.
The second session I attended was on Problem-based Learning through the garden at North Elementary.  I have heard many good things about the garden at North and even discussed it in my science methods course.  However, I was not familiar with the details or how it was used throughout the school.  I was very enlightened to learn that 30 teachers at North use the garden to teach cross curricular connections.  I was amazed that the teachers at North use the garden daily to teach the different content areas, not only science.  It was so amazing to me that these teachers are using problem-based activities to focus their instruction around instead of using the usual textbook and worksheets.  I think this is such a great strategy to allows the students to learn through inquiry and hands-on activity.  It seems that the garden allows the students to actually apply their learning through the garden.  Also, I see how difficult it is to sustain the garden and find educators that are willing to be dedicated to the garden.

Artifacts and Characteristics of the Novice Teacher #4 and #5

The first characteristic I will be addressing is Characteristic 4.  Characteristic 4 state that the novice teacher should be a facilitator of learning for all students.  In this characteristic, it is important as a teacher that we acknowledge that all students are unique and different in their own way.  They all learn differently, apply their knowledge differently, and demonstrate their understanding differently.  Also, students have their own personalities, interests, and learning abilities.  It is important that teachers understand the importance of meeting each students’ individual needs, because students learn in very different ways and are at different ability levels.  Teachers can be a facilitator of learning for all students through differentiating instruction, different types of assessment, and instruction based on different interests.  One artifact that I would use for this characteristic is the differentiated lesson plan that I created for Special Education 403.  In my differentiated lesson plan, I took my students’ ability levels into consideration.  I broke the students up into low, medium, and high levels based on ability level and readiness.  Then, I created guided notes for each group based on their ability level and readiness.  The students were able to complete the lesson and guided notes independently because the guided notes met their ability.  By doing this, I met the students’ individual needs and was a facilitator for all learners.

The second characteristic I will be addressing is Characteristic 5.  Characteristic 5 states that the novice teacher should have in-depth knowledge of pedagogy.  Pedagogy is related to the how you teach and the strategies you use to teach.  Based on pedagogical beliefs, teachers create their instruction and teaching strategies.  These pedagogical beliefs will influence how you teach content, what strategies you use during instruction, what activities you implement, and what classroom and behavior management strategies you implement.  Each teacher has their own pedagogical knowledge and has a different understanding of pedagogy based on their learning of teaching, their experiences, and their beliefs.  One artifact that I could use for this specific characteristic is video tapes of myself teaching different lessons.  By videotaping myself teaching, I will be able to observe the different strategies that I use and implement in my classroom.  The videotapes will display my pedagogical beliefs during my instruction and activities I implement.  Videotapes provide a great way for myself and others to observe my pedagogy even if they cannot not be there first hand.  A strategy that I have developed in my pedagogical belief is my implementation of group discussions during lessons.  I believe group discussions are beneficial for students’ application of knowledge and engagement through cooperative learning.  Through my videotapes, you are able to get a deep understanding of my in-depth knowledge of my pedagogical beliefs.

Artifacts and Characteristics of the Novice Teacher #1 and #2

The first Characteristic of the Novice Teacher that I looked at is characteristic 1.  Characteristic 1 states that the novice teacher should have a commitment to and skills for lifelong learning.  In this characteristic, it is important to never stop learning or developing your skills as a teacher.  Even after graduating and while working in the field, I believe that teachers should want to continue their education on the newest instruction strategies and developments of education.  Education, instructional strategies, and our students are changing and developing every day.  It is important as educators to continue to learn and develop our education strategies and philosophies to meet the needs of our ever changing students.  An artifact that I plan to use for Characteristic 1 is my itinerary from the West Virginia State Council for Exceptional Children Conference held in Morgantown.  The conference was a great experience for me to participate in with a professional community of individuals involved with special education across the state.  Attending the conference gave me the opportunity to learn from professionals in the special education field that are knowledgeable and have many experiences within the field.  From the different presentations, I was able to learn and develop my knowledge of the special education field to help me develop my own strategies and skills.  I believe that by attending different conferences that pertain to my field of study will help me to continue to develop my own strategies and skills in the special education field along with learning from experts in the field.

The second Characteristic if the Novice Teacher that I looked at is characteristic 2.  Characteristic 2 states that the novice teacher should be an effective communicator.  I believe that being an effective communicator has many different aspects that play a part in the characteristic.  To me, being an effective communicator means being able to communicate with colleagues, students, parents, faculty, and administration.  I have learned from many professors that communication is the most important part of education and developing as an educator.  Communicating is very important in regards to students, their learning and development, and teacher’s own instructional and management strategies.  Working and communicating cooperatively with colleagues and parents will be very important when meeting students individual needs and creating goals and strategies to meet students’ individual needs.  One artifact that I believe addresses characteristic 2 is parent letters and notes that I have created.  During last semester, I saw how important it was for teachers and parents to communicate effectively to benefit the student and their learning.  Opening a line of communication between parents will allow for them to feel a part of the classroom and the instruction that is happening.  Through the Parent Letters and Notes, I hope to communicate with parents about their students and the development that I am seeing along with questions or concerns the parent may have about the student, their development, or my instruction.  I have sent home a Parent Welcome Letter in my PDS classrooms to introduce myself and help open a line of communication between the parents and myself, and throughout the semester, I will write Parent Notes to update the parents on the instruction I have been teaching and the students learning and development throughout my instruction.  I believe communicating effectively will allow for a close community environment in the classroom where the parents are actively participating and communicating with the teacher about their child and their learning and development.