Reflection of student/project thus far

I have found myself getting frustrated. The intervention seems to work only sometimes, which may mean it is time to change it or become even more consistent. OR it may mean that spring is here. I have found myself, not only with this student but with the whole class, doing more behavior and classroom management since the weather has become nicer. I think that for certain students, mine may be the case, you need to think about revising the intervention or maybe even starting anew. While it may be more work for you, I’m sure it would less frustrating in the long run. Or at least that’s what I’m hoping.

April: Holding a social conference (Appendix B)

I really liked how this article/appendix was separated based on the behavior and then what the teacher noticed AND what the student noticed. I think it was very helpful since it gave us different alternatives that we could do that would not change our classroom and lessons too much. Also some of the alternatives may be helpful for the other students to do also so that they would stay engaged in the lesson and activity. While looking at the behaviors I found myself noticing some of my own students in them, and also some of my students having characteristics of multiple behaviors. I think that it is important for us as teachers to be able to see these behaviors for what they are and not as nuisances, which sometimes we may. It is important to keep in mind the alternatives and modifications we may need to do in our classroom and lessons when we get a student with some of these behaviors, especially the more extreme ones. I think that it was helpful to read through this to see the behavior characteristics and what the students may be thinking.

Specific Behavior Challenges

I thought that this chapter was very helpful in being able to give specific examples and strategies to use for certain behaviors that we see in the classroom. It allows us to recognize them and figure out ways that would be best to change or make them more appropriate for the classroom. While it tells us why the child is doing this behavior, I wish that it would tell us more about what to do, especially in certain instances (I know that it does do that, I just wish there were more examples). It brought more awareness to other behaviors that I may not see in my classroom until I had read this chapter, such as when a student rushes through an assignment. I do like that it does bring a lot of different behaviors for us to look at, and I found myself thinking about my children and how they fit into some of these categories.

Reflection on student thus far

I know I haven’t blogged in awhile, oops! Everything’s been so crazy as of late; lesson plans, units, this project, etc. But with this project I have been able to learn a lot about my student. There are certain students that he should not be around, there are certain things that should happen to help him succeed more in the classroom and that will help him focus more. I have been able to talk to him more one on one to get an idea of what he thinks and also implement some of the tactics especially when it is time for an assessment. One thing that I think helps, since his trouble is mainly on focusing, is just being able to talk to him throughout the day so that he has time to talk to someone. Also being able to just move around definitely helps, as it does with all the students. I’ve also found that just giving him a look will help set him on the right path most of the time, and it just takes a second! So all in all, so far so good

Reflection on project thus far

It is interesting after reading the notes I’ve taken on my student to see a pattern that seems to reoccur when focusing on one aspect of behavior. I find that sometimes it is hard to take notes on my student and remember each thing that happens and when, when I am teaching a lesson. I have also found that I forget to take notes on him sometimes during the day. I have been using the ABC note taking style because it gives me a better sense of what is happening with him and the surrounding students. One thing that I wonder about is how much note taking should I be doing, should I see if this behavior is portrayed in the specials classrooms? What about at lunchtime or on the playground? Also should I just let the behavior continue until I see when he corrects it himself? I think that may be more detrimental than trying to keep him on task, but then I don’t get the full time it would take because I am trying to correct his behavior. If you guys have any advice for me, that would be great!

Salend Ch 7

Many of the things that I read about in this chapter seemed to correspond greatly with what we have learned and talked about with managing the whole class through our time in the SOE. One thing that I greatly agreed with was the fact of having the classroom rules and expectations correspond with the schools. I think it is important to have a set for each, and have the students work together to make up the classroom rules so that they know that they have become part of that classroom community. I think it was interesting to read about the FBA but then thought about how difficult it would be to do that if you had many students who seemed to be misbehaving. Also it would be interesting to see what a conversation and meeting like that would be like with the parents of the student(s), especially if they do not see this behavior as much at home since it may be a less structured environment. I think it is important to see what misbehaviors the student is doing most frequently and be able to target those but it may be more difficult to keep track of them especially if the student seems to be doing different things that disrupts the classroom instead of one frequent thing. I thought it was interesting to read about the different interventions, especially the individual ones versus the group interventions.

CT Classroom management

Most of the classroom management that has gone on in my class as been from expectations that were set and kept in the very beginning. She constantly reminds them of these expectations throughout the day and reinforces it with positive comments to students to help other students find the right track to be on. At the beginning of the year, she got the students to come up with the class room rules, which helped them all know what was expected and know that they all decided on this. Also if needed she takes the student aside to talk to them about a situation. This usually happens if the misbehavior is extreme or continually happening. Then on little misbehaviors, she usually gives the students a look to make sure that they will stop or call out their name to gain their attention.

Classroom management in inclusive setting

While reading this article I felt as though you would be able to apply the strategies they provided to any classroom setting, not just inclusive settings. Being able to adapt your expectations and rules for the children in your classroom is the basis of any classroom and should be done anyways for the benefit of the students. I think that one way to do this is to have the students work together, as was mentioned in the article, to include everyone in the making of the rules and the classroom community. This way all the students will know what is expected from them in the classroom. Being able to do this with all the students in an inclusive setting allows for the students with disabilities to become another part of the classroom and allow for all the students to see each other as equals. I think supporting the positive behavior in the students is beneficial so that all the students will be able to see what is being done right. I think that the most important thing that should be taken from this article is to keep in mind the what the best interests of all the students are in order to create a classroom that would be beneficial for all of them.

Flint Ch 12

This chapter was interesting to read, especially while thinking about my case study student. I think it is important to keep all these different ideas in mind while thinking about how to help a “struggling” reader. I think the thing that was most helpful was Table 12.2 where it was talking about characteristics and possible evidence of struggling readers; this gave me something concrete to look for in students and what type of struggle they may have instead of just basing it on something that I observe. I also think that the different instructional practices were helpful to look at. I know that we think of these different practices as an every day part of the day, but until now I have not given much thought as to how they could significantly help students who are not as confident in their literacy skills. I know that one thing that I hope to get out of this reading, as well as what others would get out of it, is the part on the guiding principles at the end of the chapter. I think it is important to keep those in mind while planning and thinking about the students, with those principles the students may be able to gain more about literacy than with just the basic curriculum guides.

Flint Ch 10

This chapter seemed to have two different ideas it was talking about, what students bring to discussion and how discussion can be led. I think it is important to think about what students can bring to the discussions, through their background knowledge or through how they view the piece of literature. I think that how the readers make sense of text goes back to the “invisible backpack.” You start reading by making connections to what you know and then gradually you are able to read and understand things that you may have never experienced. I think it is interesting to read about how someone approaches reading a text, for enjoyment or for information. I think that it is important for teachers to acknowledge these facts to students but to also emphasize that all reading can be for enjoyment and maybe to go through all books from that stance to begin with.

While reading about the discussions I think it is important for us to know where the limitations and consequences for each types are. While many may what their students to lead the discussion, teachers have to make sure there is a balance between the students and the conversation they are having. I think it is important that everyone in the group has a role in the discussion, including the teacher so that the group has a more community feel to it.