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.

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.

Learn and Serve November 9th (2 hours)

Today in Learn and Serve...


Well today we just did the normal activities that we do each week. They read a story, had independent reading time, and worked with their structured reading groups.

While they were sitting on the rug doing their reading lesson I was just sitting in back observing and I began to wonder. There was one of the students with a learning disability and you can tell that he stops paying attention at times because he just cannot focus. What is challenging for him is attending to the lesson. He has trouble following what is happening, sometimes because the lesson is going too fast or at other times because he gets confused at one point and then stops paying attention all together. When you ask him where he got lost or what he doesn't understand he then has trouble communicating to you where he got lost. It is like he cannot find the words to describe what he wants to tell you. This causes him to day dream and at times distract other student. This often gets the teacher very frustrated and he gets yelled at and gets sent to his table to sit by himself. I just wonder where does the line get drawn, how far can you go just blaming it on the disability and when does it become a behavioral issue. Also how does sending this student to the table because they are frustrated to sit by themselves help them? If it truly is because they just do not understand what is going on, is yelling and sending them off by themselves really helping anything at all? I don't think so. I have no idea what the answer is; these are just my thoughts. I do not know what the answer is but I can see that what is going on at the present time is not the answer at all and it is scary that this is going on. How is this student ever going to learn, and how are his needs going to be meet if this is what is happening over and over again.

One other thing I observed dealt with classroom management. The reason that this hyperlink takes you to a teacher blog is because as future teachers I believe it is important to understand that we are going to have to work as a community of teachers. We can work as a team rather than against each other. If we come together for a common goal, to make sure our students succeed, than we will be better off. If we can see that some things worked for one teacher then we can try them. Everything that worked for one person may not work for someone else but a collaboration of ideas is the best way to work as a community. When it comes to classroom management this site shows strategies that worked and didn't work for different teachers.

My placement teacher is big on yelling and reprimanding. I do not feel that this is really the answer. I think that there are better more effective ways of dealing with misbehavior and being unfocused. I know that at times yelling may be the last resort but how do students gain respect for you if all you do is yell. There was a sub in for a little while I was there this week because my placement teacher was at a meeting. The sub used very different techniques, she used praise reinforcement and ignoring the students who w

ere not focus and misbehaving and I was able to see what a drastic difference these techniques had. They seemed to be so much more effective and didn't cause any of the students to become angry or embarrassed. I can't say that everyone should do this and that the techniques that she used where perfect, it was just my observation that in this classroom these seemed to work so much better.

The picture at the top of the page is a display that is on the walls outside of the main office at Hyde Park Elementary School. I found the display interesting. It contains a list of the standards within NY State and then had examples of student's work that fulfills these standards. I thought it was interesting because each week I go to my placement I have noticed that more work is added. This is something that I took interest in every week.

Chapter seven talks about children with communication, Language, and speech disorders (Kirk, Gallagher, Coleman, & Anastasiow, 2009). When discussing the student with the learning disability I described that he often has trouble communicating to you where he got lost and what he wants to say it is as if he is at a loss of words. I have often as observed that this student often stays pretty reserved and to himself. He is never reading with the other students during independent reading time and he often doesn't speak unless he is prompted to, he is always off task and not paying attention. I am starting to feel as if this comes from a lack of being able to communicate properly. As described in chapter six communication is essential to our participation in society. It is what links us to others and helps us form a shared sense of belonging. It is the exchange of thoughts, information, feelings, and ideas, and it requires three things a sender, a message, and a receiver.

Kirk S. , Gallagher J.J. , Coleman M.R. , & Anastasiow N. (2009). Educating Exceptional Children (12th ed. , pp. 218-249). Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.

OPPORTUNITIES UNLIMITED, Week 10

Today in class we:
Story-We wrote a story. It was a writer's workshop. There were different levels of writers and learners and this made the story even more interesting. We had to make sure it had a beginning, middle, and end, that it made sense, and that it had illustrations to accompany it.
Play dough- We were given play dough and we had to make something out of that play dough that demonstrated us. It was really fun to watch everyone get really excited about being able to use the play dough and then being able to see how everyone demonstrated themselves with it.
Fort- My group unfortunately did not make it to the fort but from what I saw everyone was having a really fun time with it. Everyone was working together for a common goal and having a good time putting the pieces together and creating the fort.
Intelligences-I believe that by this you mean taking the adults outside and teaching them skills that they need in the work place. We chose to do not using your phone at work and making eye contact when shaking hands with someone. At the top of the page there are demonstrations of both. JJ was very good with both of these things and he knew exactly what he was and was not supposed to do. It was even hard for him to not make eye contact when we asked him not to in order to take the picture.
Describe Your Experience...
Our experience was great. At first everyone was a little reserved and quiet but once we began talking and working it became a very good learning experience. JJ told me that he has a girlfriend whose name is Christina and that it was her birthday. We helped him make her a birthday card and he was very excited. Also I feel like he worked really well with all of us. He wasn't shy and he was very smart. He helped us as much as we helped him. He told us what he does at opportunities unlimited and hearing everything from him helped put into perspective what it is like to live with a disability. How these individuals live each and every day.

What did you notice?
I noticed that the adult we were working with ,JJ, was very on top of things much more than I had expected. When we were writing the story he was writing with us, writing everything that we were saying and he contributed a lot to the story. He was very personable and wanted to tell us all about his life. I guess what I am saying is he far exceeded my expectations.
I also noticed that every adult had their own characteristics they were all very different from one another. Some were very loud and wanted to tell everyone everything about themselves, others were very quiet and reserved and it was hard to get them to say anything.
Some of the activities that we did in class did not really seem to fit with one another as well as I thought they were intended to. It was my understanding that we were taking the pictures about good work habits in order to make a movie with the adults and then that never happen. With this being said it kind of seemed as if taking the pictures was pointless, but I could be wrong. I would have enjoyed it more if we could have just worked on the activities that where set up in the classroom the whole time rather than rush around. My group did not even have time to get to all of the activities.

How did you feel?
At first I do have to admit that I was intimidated and scared. I have worked with disabled adults before but every time I have to do it again I still have that same anxious feeling as the first time. After we began talking with JJ and working with him I began to become more comfortable and I felt more relaxed. At the end I was very pleased and happy. All of the adults seemed very happy with the experience that they had and this felt good to know that we helped to make this happen.
I also like I mentioned previously fell as if some of the activities did not go as expected. I felt at the time as if everything was rushed and as if time could have been used more effectively.
Connect to TEXT...
At the end of chapter 4 in the text it talks about the transition for students with learning disabilities (Kirk, Gallagher, Coleman, & Anastasiow, 2009). But this does not have to be just learning disabilities, transitions are hard for anyone let alone when you add a disability to it. For the adults that we worked with I cannot imagine the struggle they had when adjusting from the structure of school to moving to working with opportunities and having a job. This must have been very difficult.
This also made me think of the families of these individuals. How difficult must things be for them as well. For me and many other individuals this is the time in our life when we are gaining our independence and starting to make our own decisions and living on our own. For these adults with disabilities they will never reach this point in their lives they will forever need some sort of constant supervision and be taken care of.

Chapter eleven talks about students with vision impairments. "When adapting instruction to the educational needs of children who are visually impaired, teachers should emphasize concreteness and tactile experiences"(Kirk, Gallagher, Coleman, & Anastasiow, 2009). Within the class we worked with play dough, this is a tactile tool that could be used for children who have visual impairments. Using the play dough they can express themselves and mold the clay into whatever they want. This would be very good for them because they can use their sense of touch to express themselves.

Kirk S. , Gallagher J.J. , Coleman M.R. , & Anastasiow N. (2009). Educating Exceptional Children (12th ed. , pp. 107-143). Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Learn and Serve Monday November 2nd (2 hours)

This week in Learn and Serve...
Every week when I am in my placement it feels like a whirl wind. This is one of the first placements that I really enjoy and due to this it goes by so fast. The reason I enjoy this placement so much is partly because this is my third one so I am more comfortable just jumping in and working with students, but this is not the only reason; there are many more. I feel as if my teacher respects me a lot more than in the past. She wants me to get everything out of this placement that I possibly can. She does not just expect me to sit in the back of the classroom and watch everything she does; she wants feedback and allows me to work with the students and do as much as I can in the short amount of time that I am in the room. One of the other reasons I feel as if I enjoy this placement is because I am with the younger students, in the past I have been in middle school. I feel like the younger kids respect you more; they look up to you and really take in everything that you say.
Today I was able to witness some of a reading assessment. My observation teacher was assessing the reading level of a student, she was trying to explain to me the reasoning she goes through when trying to decide whether or not she should move students into the next level of reading groups or keep them where they are. She explained to me after that the she was having trouble deciding what she should do with the student because she could read the words but she would tell that to the student the words had no meaning behind them. She was not reading for understanding just trying to get the words out of her mouth.
The picture at the top of the page is an example of the reading logs that the students fill out with the books that they read independently. They have a level that they read at independently and then another that they read at with instruction. At the beginning of the day they pick out books that are in their level and set them aside for later in the day. Monday was the start of a new month so I helped them begin to start their new logs for the month.
One activity that I was able to do with the students was I was put in charge of having them vote on the computer. UB set up a program for kids to vote on the computer. I helped each student to go through the steps and have them vote for who they wanted to be the councilman in their district. I found this really fun to do because I was able to work with each student individually.
The kids where so hyper all day I felt as if they still had sugar in their systems from Halloween. One little boy particularly took my interest this week. He is so smart he has all of the ability in the world. If you ask him questions he knows every answer. The reason he is always catching my eye is because he has to be constantly prompted to pay attention. When he and his class are sitting on the rug he is doing everything but listening. He takes his arms and puts them inside his shirt and takes his shirt and puts his legs inside of it and then starts rocking back and forth. He knows we are all watching him and when he sees someone give him the eye he stops but then starts to do it again shortly after. To me I feel as if he is bored. He is not being challenged nearly enough and this is causing him to be a distraction to the rest of the class.

In today's society technology is a large part of everyday life. Kids are becoming more and more comfortable with computers due to the more frequent use of video games and other devices. Using computers and other devices in classrooms is a very powerful way of getting kids engaged and keeping the learning environment interesting. Due to this partnerships are being formed between public school and Universities. Universities often have the skills and resources to integrate technology into the classroom. These partnerships have both pro's and con's which need to be weighed. Some work and others don't. Both the university and the teachers need to have patience and openness to the idea for them to work. It is my opinion that in today's world technology is one the best ways to keep kids engaged and teach all levels of learners.

Chapter eight of the text deals with children who have autism (Kirk, Gallagher, Coleman, & Anastasiow, 2009). There is a section of the chapter that deals with assistive technology. This goes hand in hand with the university partnerships that where talked about above. There are many tools that can be used to help children with autism communicate that involve the computer and other forms of technology. These include communication boards, learning hand-eye coordination through a computer mouse or touch screen, and computers combined with synthetic speech. These are all very powerful tools in helping these children succeed but not all teachers are aware of how to use them or are even afraid of using them to some extent. They don't want to take the effort to learn or take themselves out of their comfort zone.

Kirk S. , Gallagher J.J. , Coleman M.R. , & Anastasiow N. (2009). Educating Exceptional Children (12th ed. , pp. 250-284). Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.