What I have learned from previous observations was to stop things before they happened. I decided to go early that day to setup up the classroom where the kids do their homework. The daily routine was for the kids to come to the class and help setup with tables and chairs. I asked the graduate assistant if I could try something different. I wanted to have the room setup so the kids could find there seat right away. I wanted to do this because I felt like the kids would get all riled up from setting everything up. I felt like it would add a little more structure to their routine. Much to my surprise it worked. The kids got right to work and settled in with their mentors.
I was now only mentoring one of the two kids. The child’s basketball season had started and was no longer coming to the program. I still had the child with Asperger’s. This was my first time being exposed to a child with Asperger’s. What’s interesting about him is his newly found obsession of the day. Everyday he has a new obsession. A lot of the times he obsesses on different ways of making other kids miserable. I don’t think that is his intention but he likes to tell me that he is devious. This is one of the reasons I had decided to come to class early to setup. I wanted to hide these blue two specific blue books. There are these blue books this one student likes to read if he has no homework. My kid likes to take those books away from him. The first day I saw this behavior, I made them play rock, paper, and scissors to see who gets the books. My kid ended up winning the game. He never once opened up the books. The same thing happened the next day but this time I let the other kid have the books. My kid would not stand for that and he tried to sneak over and steal the books the whole time he was there. Ever since I have hid the books he has not even brought them up.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
November 3, 2009
As soon as I showed up to the program this day the graduate assistant sat me down to explain the program for the child that I was mentoring. The graduate assistant and my student had an agreement. The agreement was that if he was able to stay on task with any type of school work, he would then have some free play time. If he did not fill his end of the bargain, he would not be given any privileges of play time. The other child that I mentored was with us as a reward for the child with behavior issues. They were good friends and they could be together if he followed the guidelines of the deal with the graduate assistant. This was used as an incentive for the child with the behavior issues.
The two kids I mentored first started out with studying spelling. The child with behavioral issues was the leader of the two. Half the time he would not allow the other to spell the words. I made the mistake of not addressing the situation right away. When I did address the situation I demanded the one child to stop. To my knowledge, I thought I was doing the appropriate correction to the situation. I later found out that instead of making a demand, I should try to give him a choice but let him know the consequences along with the choice. The graduate assistant told me he responds better to that. If you make a demand to him like “Can you please stop interrupting and give him a chance to spell” it’s like it doesn’t have an effect on him what’s so ever. If you say something like “Do you think it’s polite to interrupt someone while their trying to spell and would you like someone to interrupt you?” and it actually worked. It was a very effective tool that I now have and can use in those types of situations.
The two kids I mentored first started out with studying spelling. The child with behavioral issues was the leader of the two. Half the time he would not allow the other to spell the words. I made the mistake of not addressing the situation right away. When I did address the situation I demanded the one child to stop. To my knowledge, I thought I was doing the appropriate correction to the situation. I later found out that instead of making a demand, I should try to give him a choice but let him know the consequences along with the choice. The graduate assistant told me he responds better to that. If you make a demand to him like “Can you please stop interrupting and give him a chance to spell” it’s like it doesn’t have an effect on him what’s so ever. If you say something like “Do you think it’s polite to interrupt someone while their trying to spell and would you like someone to interrupt you?” and it actually worked. It was a very effective tool that I now have and can use in those types of situations.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Novermber 3, 2009
As soon as I showed up to the program this day the graduate assisstant sat me down to explain the program for the child that I was mentoring. The graduate assisstant and my student had an agreement. The agreement was that if he was able to stay on task with any type of school work, he would then have some free play time. If he did not fill his end of the bargain, he would not be given any privleges of play time. The other child that I mentored was with us as a reward for the child with behavior issues. They were good friends and they could be together if he followed the guidelines of the deal with the graduate assisstant. This was used as an incentive for the child with the behavior issues.
The two kids I mentored first started out with studying spelling. The child with behavioral issues was the leader of the two. Half the time he would not allow the other to spell the words. I made the mistake of not addressing the situation right away. When I did address the situation I demanded the one child to stop. To my knowledge, I thought I was doing the appropriate correction to the situation. I later found out that instead of making a demand, I should try to give hime a choice but let him no the cosequences along with the choice. The graduate assisstant told me he responds better to that. If you make a demand to him like “Can you please stop interrupting and give him a chance to spell” its like it doesn’t have an effect on him whats so ever. If you say something like “Do you think it’s polite to interrupt someone while their trying to spell and would you like someone to interrupt you?” and it actually worked. It was a very affective tool that I now have and can use in those types of situations.
The two kids I mentored first started out with studying spelling. The child with behavioral issues was the leader of the two. Half the time he would not allow the other to spell the words. I made the mistake of not addressing the situation right away. When I did address the situation I demanded the one child to stop. To my knowledge, I thought I was doing the appropriate correction to the situation. I later found out that instead of making a demand, I should try to give hime a choice but let him no the cosequences along with the choice. The graduate assisstant told me he responds better to that. If you make a demand to him like “Can you please stop interrupting and give him a chance to spell” its like it doesn’t have an effect on him whats so ever. If you say something like “Do you think it’s polite to interrupt someone while their trying to spell and would you like someone to interrupt you?” and it actually worked. It was a very affective tool that I now have and can use in those types of situations.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Oct 29th, 2009
Today I started out the day with the same fourth grade boy as the first day. When I sat down with him he did not remember who I was. I discussed with him all the things we did the first time I was with him. I usually go Tuesdays and Thursdays, so on the days I’m not with him he is with someone else. That someone else happens to have the same name as me. I also had my hair done differently then the last time I saw him. We played a game the first time we met and after I reminded him of that, he remembered me.
Right before snack time, the graduate assistant came up to me and reassigned me to two other kids. One of my peer teachers and I switched children. The graduate assistant thought that I would be better equipped to handle this one fifth grade boy than my peer teacher because of his lack of experience. I would have struggled if I was working with a child with this level of behavioral issues so early on in my education.
There was a set plan for this child in order for him to be successful and to stay on task that the graduate assistant would explain to me. She did not have time to explain the plan to me that day. All she wanted me to do is to get to know him and the other child that I would be mentoring. They were both fifth graders and they were very good friends. One of them had Asperger’s and the other did not have a disability. It was hard not to notice the child that I was now mentoring because he was always acting up in some way. I noticed that the teacher who was working with him before me used somewhat of a passive way of tending to his behavioral issues. I knew that I had to be more assertive with him. I let him know that there will be consequences for his actions and that he needed to behave when he was with me.
Right before snack time, the graduate assistant came up to me and reassigned me to two other kids. One of my peer teachers and I switched children. The graduate assistant thought that I would be better equipped to handle this one fifth grade boy than my peer teacher because of his lack of experience. I would have struggled if I was working with a child with this level of behavioral issues so early on in my education.
There was a set plan for this child in order for him to be successful and to stay on task that the graduate assistant would explain to me. She did not have time to explain the plan to me that day. All she wanted me to do is to get to know him and the other child that I would be mentoring. They were both fifth graders and they were very good friends. One of them had Asperger’s and the other did not have a disability. It was hard not to notice the child that I was now mentoring because he was always acting up in some way. I noticed that the teacher who was working with him before me used somewhat of a passive way of tending to his behavioral issues. I knew that I had to be more assertive with him. I let him know that there will be consequences for his actions and that he needed to behave when he was with me.
Oct 27th, 2009
Today was the first day of my observations. The program was organized so that as soon as the children would arrive they would help setup the room, by setting up the table and chairs. It was a good routine to teach the kids some structure and responsibility. This is something they would do everyday. After the tables were all setup the kids would sit with their mentors and do any homework they had to do. Seeing though it was my first time, I filled in for one of my peers who couldn’t be there that day.
The child I mentored that day was a fourth grade boy. As soon as we sat down he got right to work on his spelling. After he went over his spelling for a few minutes he then asked me to quiz him. He seemed to be very intelligent. I could not tell what or if he had a disability. The one thing I did notice was he struggled to focus on one task at a time. I thought of ADHD but at the same time his energy levels weren’t incredibly high like you would typically see in a child with ADHD. Later I caught up to the woman who ran the program and she told me he had Autism. I would have never known. He had a very high functioning form of Autism called Asperger’s.
The child I mentored that day was a fourth grade boy. As soon as we sat down he got right to work on his spelling. After he went over his spelling for a few minutes he then asked me to quiz him. He seemed to be very intelligent. I could not tell what or if he had a disability. The one thing I did notice was he struggled to focus on one task at a time. I thought of ADHD but at the same time his energy levels weren’t incredibly high like you would typically see in a child with ADHD. Later I caught up to the woman who ran the program and she told me he had Autism. I would have never known. He had a very high functioning form of Autism called Asperger’s.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Second Nature
The reason this post was called second nature is because teaching a class is starting to become exactly that. It's not something that I wake up and think "Oh no I have to teach today," it is something that I am excited about. I have grown so much since the beginning of the year and I hope to keep growing. It was a pleasure to be in Dr. Yang's class, with the enthusiasm and excitement he brought with him everyday. I have learned from him that teaching is not about us, it is about the kids that we will be teaching. There are no more knots in my stomach from worrying that I will not be good enough. With the tools that I have learned this year I am confident that I can go and teach any activity or sport in front of any class and make them as pumped about it as I am. It's been a great semester.
Field Trip
As a class we decided to go on a field trip for my lesson to the bowling alley in which I would teach my lesson. It was a great experience for my growth as a teacher. I was given the responsibility of making the reservation and getting the best price possible for my class. This was something that I could very well be faced with in the future, so now I have a good understanding on what to do when planning for a lesson like this. My goal for this lesson was to really let loose and try to give as much feedback as possible to my peers. Dr. Yang threw a few curve balls at me during my lesson which put me on defense at first but then I think I bounced back quite well. A student came up to me and started speaking to me in Espanol. The student was showing me signs of not understanding what I was teaching to the class. I walked her through all of the steps of the cues and she understood what I was trying to do. It was important that students were involved with the activity for a good portion of the class so I put 4 people to a lane and it worked out well. This lesson gave us the oppurtunity to try out some sort of technology. I used the Xavix, which was an interactive video game for bowling. I brought with me a projector to project the picture of the game. This was a station that the students could try out the cues that I was teaching them. Also click here to see my entire packet on history, terminology, and other ideas on bowling.
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