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.