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.