Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
BLOG ENTRY ABOUT CHAPTER 12, Week 14
INCLUDING STUDENTS WITH PHYSICAL DISABILITIES: BEST PRACTICES
Viewing questions
1. Teacher Lisa Kelleher describes her role as a teacher in an inclusive classroom as being quite multifaceted. Are there any aspects of her role that surprised you or made you envision your future role as a teacher differently? Explain.
The only aspect that was surprised to me was the fact that I felt as if she had somewhat of a smaller role interacting with the student than I had envisioned. I always knew that there was aids in classrooms with children who have health impairments but I also had the assumption that the classroom teacher did more hands on work with the students. I now understand that the classroom teacher's job lies more in planning ahead with the aid to modify activities so that the student can be apart of what their classmates are doing.
I can see myself planning as many activities as possible so that all students can take part in the activities. Lisa talked about including students in activities such as music arts and crafts. This is something that all students can participate in in the same way. This is part of expressing students creativity so it is important to do in any classroom and is a great way to incorporate all students.
2. What skills does elementary classroom aid Danielle Doucette bring to her work with MaryAnne, the child who has spina bifida? How does Danielle take MaryAnne's academic and social/emotional development into account when planning activities?
When classroom aid Danielle Doucette comes to school each day she brings her knowledge of all of the assistive technology that can be used to help MaryAnne succeed and be welcomed into the classroom. Within this movie she used tools such as standers to work in art class, her wheel chair and the bolster that she sat on in the classroom to work. She brings all of her knowledge that is targeted torwards children with a health impairment such as this. The most important aspect of her assistance is the ability to use the tools, assistive technology, that bring MaryAnne as close to the same level as possible with her peers.
When planning activities Danielle takes MaryAnne's academic development into account while planning activities that are possible for her to do while remaining at the same level as the rest of the peers. She may be able to do the same activitiy just in a modified manner. She takes her social/emotional development into account when she trys to modify activities in a way that will make the student not feel left out but included. In art class a special table, a stander, is used so that the student is at the same level as the other students.
3. What questions has this video raised in your mind about your own familiarity with adaptive technologies for children? How can you take action on Lisa's suggestion that teachers familiarize themselves with how the equipment works (e.g., an electric wheelchair) even before you have your own classroom?
This movie has made me aware that I am very unformiliar with the assitive technology that is out thier for students. I never imagined that there would be so many different ways to include a student into the general education classroom, to mainstream them. One way that I could familiarize myself with the technology that is out there would be to even do a simple google search and see what I find and see how all of this works. The more information I have the better off I will be when I have my own classroom. I will never know what students would walk into my door each year.
4. In the bonus video, "Encouraging Social Interactions in an Inclusive Classroom," Lisa explains how she makes sure that all students have opportunities to play together, typically through music or art. Can you think of any activities you've used successfully to engage a full range of learners? If not, what types of activities do you plan to add to your repertoire?
I have not had the opportunity to incorperate any of these activities thus far in my learning experience. As I expressed before though I believe that the best way to have students play together is through music. MaryAnne in the movie seemed to love singing with her friends and when it came to this activity she was just like her peers. The differences that my be evident to her classmates in other activities where not present in this one.
5. The classroom artifact entitled "MaryAnne’s Schedule" blocks out MaryAnne's schedule for the day in words and illustrations. How could a chart like this be used more generally to help students with other types of learning challenges (such as ADHD)? Explain.
This could be used more generally to help students with other types of learning challenges, such as ADHD, beasue it creates structure. For students who have trouble focusing and need that extra structure in thier day can have the pictures right in front of them. If a student is off task they can be asked to look at there chart and calm down and they can know what they should be doing or what they should be working on at that times.
ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY IN THE INCLUSIVE CLASSROOM: BEST PRACTICES
Viewing questions
1. Kindergarten teacher Tony Byers describes his responsibility to teach Jamie, a girl in his classroom who has cerebral palsy, so that she can feel like an equal participant. Have you had any experience in working with children who are physically challenged? If not, how can you gain experience before you have your own classroom?
I have not had the opportunity to work in a classroom with a student who has a physical challenge such as cerebral palsy. In order to gain experience before I have my own classroom I would maybe volunteer to work at a school with a student such as this. I would also maybe talk to a teacher who has worked what a student with a physical challenge to gian some insight on what would be best and what I need to experience in order to be able to deal with a situation such as this one.
2. Inclusion facilitator Sara Woodruff is an advocate for assistive technologies. She explains that there are many ways to help children access their voices and their minds as best they can. What assistive technologies--either high-tech or low-tech--have you seen or read about? How and when would you be likely to incorporate them into your teaching?
The amounts of assistive technology that is out there is endless. There are tools to help students be included in just about every activity out there in some way. Some technology that I have read about deals with speech boards and electronic devices and writing aids and systems. Some writing aids include hand splints and aid in grasping a crayon or pencil, special pencil holders, slant board to support forarms, clipboard, heavy weight, or masking tape to secuse paper while writing, and wide-lined paper. I would see myself using many of these tools within my classroom. This is because alot of these tools assist in a student being able to communicate with other students and the teacher. Communication is such an important tool and every student needs to be able to do this at some level even if it is at a very low one.
3. As you watch Jamie complete an activity using a speech output device, what do you notice about the way Sara interacts with her? What can you learn from Sara's approach in general, and the way she describes her goals for Jamie?
What I noticed most about Sara's work with Jamie was her patience. She took her time and let the student doing everything she new she was capable of. She at no time got frustrated and just took over or stopped the activity she pushed through the whole time. She even had the student with her help glue and put the colored papers on the large one. I was amazed at her confidence and ability to just go with the flow and allow what was going to happen happen. Sara had high but realist goals for the student, she knew what she was capable of and was going to do everything she could to get her to the highest level she knew the student could achieve.
4. According to Tony, having Jamie use assistive technology "helps show the other children that there's a wide range of communication capabilities in our population as a whole. Children are shown an alternative way of communicating that is different rather than better or worse." What questions about your own understanding of the potential of assistive technologies has this video raised?
In my mind the largest question that is in my mind when it comes to assistive technology is does using these activities cause more disruption in a classroom rather than good. Although they are helping the student with a disability do they distract other students so much that it is doing more bad than good. I still do see the good in assitive technology, this is just the only question I had when it come to these tools.
5. In the bonus video entitled "Adapting the Curriculum: Mr. Byers' View," Tony describes the tension he feels between teaching spontaneously and the need to slow down and adapt every lesson for all students. Can you think of any experiences you've had that have created a similar tension? Explain your ideas.
In my current placement often times I think that the students are just not really getting it, or that maybe half the class does and the other half isn't and if the teacher would just slow down everyone would be included. I often see students just stop paying attention because they are frustrated and the teacher has already moved on to the next aspect. It frustrates me that my teacher just moves on beccause she is trying to fit everything in the day. In my mind it is more important for everyone to understand something than only half or a third of he class to understand a bunch of little things. I could be wrong in this thinking but these are my observations.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
HIKE BLOG , Week 5
Alright well I do have to admit that at first I really did not understand why we would go on an almost three hour hike during an education class that we are supposed to be learning about children with disabilities. I thought that it was silly and really had no connection what so ever. It seemed like you stretching a little.THEN... I started to really think about it. I thought about as you stated we're walking against the stream. This really made my brain work a little. Students who suffer with IDD or any learning disability for that matter are walking against the stream. Everything is just that much more difficult for them. They need to go through life with that extra challenge, the current is coming at them and they have to push through it, they have to work extra hard. Some I feel choose to give in and let the current take them down the stream. This could be for a factor of different reasons whether it be that the work just become too difficult, they start to fall so far behind that they can no longer keep their head above water, and others may just not want to give that extra work. As a future educator I think that it is a teachers job to at the very least make sure that every student has a very bottom level all of the tools that they need to achieve in school. This may mean different things for different students. Some need more help than others, but should have contact with the tools to help them.
One other thought I had about this hiking activity is that just as the point of this activity may not seem clear but it still had a definite purpose, every activity that we do with our student in a classroom may not seem clear, the point and purpose is still there. It may not be clear to the student right from the get go but with some thought by the end the student should be able to get down to the root of what you are really saying and what they should be learning. Sometimes this may even happen without the student knowing that it is occurring.
I am going to be honest I am not really sure what the metaphor involving the cocktail umbrellas was but after thinking about it, I have come up with an idea of my own. Every student has abilities in them, they have a level of learning that they are able to achieve the umbrella is meanly the cover or the disability that is over shadowing them. It at times gets in their way and sometimes covers them so much that they are hidden completely over it. But they can get to a point in their life that although the umbrella is still there you would never even know it. They have achieved their abilities and the umbrella didn't stand in their way.
A positive tool for some students with IDD is a positive peer that helps navigate them through the school day. This can help a student feel more welcomes and at ease with their other classmates.
Learn and Serve November 30th ( 2 hours)
Today during my placement a lot of the normal activities when conducted when it comes to schoolwork. They also again worked with the prisms that they worked with last week. During this class I did more observing, listening, and seeing what was going on rather than working a lot one on one with the students. So much was going on and I had so many ideas and thoughts going through my head that I wondered and noticed.
First when I walked into the room the students sitting at their tables had blocks in the middle of the table. There were blocks staked to make different pictures. The students were to draw the images as they saw them and draw them as 3D if possible. They were not expected to be perfect and they were told that. They were told to do the best they could and that that was all was expected of them. To be honest I do feel like this task is something that is very advanced for first graders. With this being said I found that the students where becoming very frustrated it was as if they where even scared to just try because they did not want to make a mistake. There was even someone crying because they said it was too hard. This was very frustrating to me because they were told numerous times to try their best nothing had to be perfect they just need to do the best they could. While I was watching the students become frustrated really because they were afraid of making a mistake, and it made me think of all of the pressure in today's society to be perfect. Everyone is trying to be what they see in the media and if they can't achieve this then they aren't "good enough". What is this doing to our kids? They are afraid of making mistakes so this is holding them back from advancing any further.
One other observation that I had was one student was misbehaving and becoming frustrated and just not listening. When it was time to come to the rug he did not listen and stayed at his desk. He was asked once to come to the rug and once he didn't he was just left at the table. He was not paying attention and was actually falling asleep sitting in the chair while a lesson was going on. I just really don't understand why a teacher would do this. I understand that one student should not take away from other students learning but it almost seemed as if an effort was only poorly made to get him to try to join into the lesson. He wasn't even prompted more than maybe once or twice to come back to the rug, he wasn't given other chances to come back to the group. I know that I may not know some of the actions that have either happened previously in the day or in the school year. It is just very confusing to me why a teacher would not want their student to join back in and engage with the lesson. It seemed to me as if the student was getting exactly what he wanted.
Also a student was misbehaving so he was sent into the back of the room and told to put his head down and that he was in time out. This was while a reading lesson was going on. This is also a student with a learning disability. I am confused how taking a student out of the learning atmosphere is beneficial to that student. I am not sure what a better technique may be but I know there has to be a better why to deal with this behavior rather than taking him away from learning.
Chapter six discusses children with emotional and behavior disorders (Kirk, Gallagher, Coleman, & Anastasiow, 2009). I always wonder where we draw the line. How do we know when it is just kids being kids and where does it become harmful to the child and their peers. Chapter six talks about school shootings and how to we know when a child is prone to violence. Is it the children who are quiet and never say a word that take drastic measures such as this or is it the kids that are interrupting and lashing out for attention during class? What can we do at the younger ages to stop tragic events such as school shootings? Also is calling out students all the time causing these events to happen in the first place? What is the best way to handle disruptive students and how can we stop this cycle of violence in our schools. Within the chapter it is stated that we can identify students who are prone to violence and it can be detected at an early age. It is stated that it is important to intervene as early as possible because small discipline problems early on call for larger ones down the road.
Kirk S. , Gallagher J.J. , Coleman M.R. , & Anastasiow N. (2009). Educating Exceptional Children (12th ed. , pp.183-217). Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Learn and Serve October 26th (2 hours)
This week in learn and serve...By this time I am pretty much starting to adjust to the routine of the day and time that I am at my placement. This makes it much easier, the students are aware of my role in the classroom now, they know what the teacher allows me to do and that they need to listen to me just as they listen to their classroom teacher.
This week we did some of the normal routine activities. The picture demonstrates the activity that I did with one of the young men who has an IEP. The activity that I did with him involved cutting out pictures and words, matching them up and then pasting them into the correct word family. I helped him and the first thing we did was write all of the words under the correct family. He needs more help with just doing things step by step rather than help with the actual activity. He then cut out everything and I helped him match everything together. He then used the picture in the corner in order to glue everything in the correct spots. He worked much better after I led him though each step. When he was given the task as a whole he struggled with doing things one at a time, but with some one on one direction he did much better.
I did get a chance to work with some other students and the most trouble they had was listening to the last letter in the words and placing them in the correct group. Once I sounded the words out for them and put more enforcement on the end they got it right away.
I was looking over chapter ten the other day. This chapter is about children who are deaf and hard of hearing (Kirk, Gallagher, Coleman, & Anastasiow, 2009). I found this chapter very interesting because I am currently taking ASL. In this class we learn signs but we also learn a lot about deaf culture. I have found it so interesting, the deep compassion that the deaf have for their culture and the fact that they do not look at themselves as broken or fixable but that they only live differently than the rest of the world. There are many controversies over deaf education and the ways children who are deaf should be educated. The teacher I have for this class has been a deaf educator herself and she is always challenging us to remember that we can never judge families based on what we see because we will never be in that house and never know what the family is going through. When in my observation classroom I always try to remember this in the back of my head, no matter what something may look like from the outside I will never be that student and cannot make judgments because I am not in their place.
Within chapter ten there is also a section that discusses the family and lifespan issues. From what I have taken in from ASL class and from what I have read, it is amazing how at times parents think more for themselves rather than for their children. This is at times done without recognition of what is going on but it is still scary that it is happening as much as it is. When it comes to a child who is deaf if parents cannot decide on a mode of education, often times the children have no identity. They are not connected to either the hearing or the deaf world. Although this is stated in the context of the child who is deaf I feel it can be looked at for all children. If parents cannot take a stance on the way their child needs to be taught and what is best for their child, whether this be a child with or without a disability, the child can become confused and lack direction. Children need direction from somewhere and when they lack it school and tasks that need to be done become difficult.
I have noticed within my placement that it times when the going becomes really difficult and nothing is working. My observation teacher has a phone right in her classroom and she has called parents in the past. One little boy in particular as soon as his parent was called he became focus and knew if his mother was called again he would be in large trouble. I feel like this gives the teacher a clue that there is that necessary direction at home that is needed for this student to remain focused and know what is expected of him.
How is reading math (numbers and number lines) similar to reading letters and text...?
A lot of math teachers today have students memorize formulas and rules and this leads to little understanding. Currently in my math for elementary school teacher's class my teacher often starts by asking the way in which we learned things when we were in the younger grades and all too often we all shout out a rule or a formula of some sort. She then goes on to say well that is good but what does that tell us, what does that mean. Often we all just look at her like we are crazy because we don't know, our learning and knowing was out of pure memorization rather than understanding and thinking. She always then teaches the technique in a way with picture and drawings and manipulatives so that students can have that understanding that is so important. The reason that reading numbers and reading text should be so interconnected is because rater then just reading words or reading numbers and rules kids need to read and do math for understand and think critically about what they are doing and reading.
Kirk S. , Gallagher J.J. , Coleman M.R. , & Anastasiow N. (2009). Educating Exceptional Children (12th ed. , pp. 322-361). Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Learn and Serve November 23rd ( 2 hours)
Today in Learn and Serve....Today I was given the responsibility of leading the large group while the observation teacher and the aids led small reading groups. My job was to go through a book that the students had a paper copy of and I had a copy of right on the smart board. My copy looked exactly like theirs except that it was on the smart board. I was to read the book to them and then, them with a highlighter and me on the smart board went through the book and highlighted all of the Wh- words. This seems to be a very good tool because they were able to see right in front of them exactly what they were to do. I got different groups at different times. They were in reading groups so they were coming to me in different levels of students. It was interesting because you were really able to tell which students were in the higher reading group and which were in the lower ones. This came even from their abilities to pay attention, follow directions and do what was asked from them. For the lowest group I got right down on the ground with them and pointed to the words and was very descriptive even after they could see the exact same thing right in front of them.
One of the other activities that the students were working at was making 3D images. They were given examples and they were to take what they were given and practice. They were not expected to do a perfect job. They were just told to take what they had just learned and practice and that the more they practiced the easier it would become. There were some students that did fantastic they were able to take the shapes and put them together and make bigger images, there were others that could only make the exact shape that they were given an example of and there were others that had trouble drawing and needed the shapes to be drawn for them with dotted lines in order to make the shape at all. This is an example of differentiated instruction. All of the students were working on the same assignment but in different manners.
It is my observation from the class that I have been working with that all of these students even the lower level learners have all of the potential in the world. Their problem it is that they cannot focus, do not know how to take direction, and could really care less, that puts them behind the point at which they are supposed to be learning.
The picture at the top of the page is an example of the art work that is all over the halls of the school. There are pictures of outdoor scenery all over the halls. Why I took a picture of this scene is because it is of students on a playground and I took special interest to it because there is actually no playground at Hyde Park Elementary and actually there is even very little grass outside of the school, the roads are located very close to the building.
Chapter three talks about early intervention supports and services (Kirk, Gallagher, Coleman, & Anastasiow, 2009). Some of the children that are in my classroom placement who have IEP's I only wish had received early intervention services. A lot of them seem to be just going through the system and are not really at the levels that they could be if they would have received the help they needed early on they would not be repeating first grade for maybe the second time. I wish that their learning disabilities would have been detected even earlier than they were. I know that first grade seems early, but some of the children in my class have such severe learning disabilities that they would have had to be recognized earlier, maybe even in preschool.
Some of the largest problem with these students might even come from the fact that their parents don't really have anything to do with their learning. Family centered early intervention would not have been a tool that would have succeed in these students learning experience.
Kirk S. , Gallagher J.J. , Coleman M.R. , & Anastasiow N. (2009). Educating Exceptional Children (12th ed. , pp. 322-361). Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Learn and Serve November 16th (2 hours)
This week in learn and serve....Today was a very interesting day in class. One of the students who is always crying when I get there or when he gets back from lunch was crying again this week. From observing and listening in on conversations I have picked up that he has trouble calming himself down once he gets worked up. His mother and school administration have been talking about calming techniques for him to use on his own when he gets worked up like this. He now has a bracelet that he wears on his wrist that he tugs on and this helps him to calm down. Also he has trouble when it gets noisy or he feels like everyone is distracting him. For this he has head phones that are easily accessible in the room for when he feels this way.
On one hand when it comes to this student I do see why the observation teacher can get so frustrated with this kind of behavior; it is an interruption and a distraction to all of the other students. On the other hand I have a lot of sympathy for this child. I was the student that cried every single day of kindergarten. Actually for that matter I cried everywhere my mom tried to leave me: the babysitters, dance class, school, everywhere. I just didn't want to leave her, it scared me. I always thought something bad was going to happen. The strategy that my teacher used was that when I came to school I had a desk that I knew I needed to sit in and get myself calmed down. Very little attention was drawn to me and I knew that until I stopped crying and got myself settled down I wasn't allowed to join in with the class for the day. I think that this would be a fantastic tool for my teacher to try and I think that this is what I would try as well if I was this child's teacher. The whole time he was in the classroom she was drawing so much attention to him that it just made the situation worse. Once he was taken out of the class he settled himself down and he was fine for the rest of the day. If he had a spot that he knew he had to go to and until he stopped crying and no one was going to pay him any attention I believe this would help a lot.
Something else that may help this student is having a positive peer, something like a buddy someone that they can trust and feel comfortable with. This way when they are starting to feel sad and like they miss their parents they have this student to stick around with and feel more comfortable.
After everything was cleared up with this student we began to work on reading and writing. The students got a paper copy of one of the books that they had read and had to go through and find all of the th- words. They normally receive highlighters to do this but they were being loud and disrespectful and not on task so in order to get the highlighter my observation teacher told them that they had to calm own and start in pencil and once they could show her that they could do that than they would be allowed to receive highlighters. I couldn't believe how fast this made the students calm down and do their work; they really wanted the highlighters.
I was also able to lead a small reading group. This was the higher level reading group so they don't meet as often as most. We reread the story that they were reading and then in their composition books we wrote about every ones favorite parts and why. My observation teacher showed me some of the terminology that I needed to use in order to document what I had done with the student so whoever worked with them next knew what I had done.
I think that higher level reading groups meeting less than lower lever groups is a very meticulous theory. It is almost as if they are being punished because they are smart. Just because they are above average now doesn't mean that this knowledge cannot still be built on. They should be able to continue building on the information that they have. It is almost as if they are being put at a standstill because they are higher level learners. This should be an opportunity to challenge these children and build on what they do know. I realize that the lower level groups are often a temptation because they need more assistance but this is no reason for the higher learners to be put on a stand still.
Lastly, while most of the students were reading independently, I worked with two of the students who were behind on their reading lesson. The reason they were behind was not because they didn't know the material, they actually understood it very well. It was only because when they were supposed to be working in groups on their assignment they were off task and not paying attention.
Chapter nine discusses children who have gifts and talents (Kirk, Gallagher, Coleman, & Anastasiow, 2009). As I have previously stated there are reading groups that are at the higher level who don't meet as regularly as others. This goes right against what this chapter is trying to convey, teachers need to teach to the top and the bottom. They cannot single groups of students out. The level learner are going to begin to shut down and stop learning at the level that they could be because they are not being challenged and they are becoming bored.
Kirk S. , Gallagher J.J. , Coleman M.R. , & Anastasiow N. (2009). Educating Exceptional Children (12th ed. , pp. 285-320). Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.
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