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.