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.