With the final days of school coming up, Mrs. Hart is struggling to keep everything together. Her students are bouncing with excitement for the upcoming summer months, but she must deal with revising the IEPs and other plans for next year. Fortunately, that's not too difficult because she already has the bones of the IEPs, but simply needs to change the goals of the students to satisfy what they have yet to accomplish. For example, for one student, Jordan, she simply has to add in effectively dealing with anger in stressful situations, but the information about him as a student has already been described in the computer students. Since there have been several new students added to her behavior unit, she has to write the IEPs for them based on the information she has observed within the past few weeks, which can be challenging since these students are still getting comfortable with the school. One of the new students, Tavari, has been pulled out of school for the rest of the year to visit his ill grandfather. Although family is important, it now forces Tavari to deal with lots of change, as he just moved from a Dublin school to a Hilliard school, and now to Florida. For a kindergartener on a behavior plan, change is not something that benefits him, so Mrs. Hart knows that starting next year will be quite difficult, especially since she can't write and IEP because she hasn't spent enough time with him. Watching Mrs. Hart create the IEPs is very interesting because they can be stressful due to time constraints, but it is such an educational experience for me because I can observe how they are made and what features are included in the documents. Aside from the IEPs, these students are buzzing with energy, especially because they all have field days this week. Although it would seem to be a nice break from the classroom, these students struggle to handle these activities because they deal with losing games, and thus throwing temper tantrums. One of the students, Braden, was so overwhelmed with excitement that he couldn't keep his hands off others, tapping on others shoulders, screaming at teachers, and dancing around. He couldn't control his excitement and he spit it out in inappropriate manners, causing his field day to be cut short. Another student this week, Jordan, threw a temper tantrum throwing and slamming desks and other items. It breaks my heart to see a child in such utter distress and anger, but there's nothing we can do, only wait it out like a storm. And once he's calmed down he's returned to his happy and sweet self. I hope that the more Mrs. Hart works with him, the more he can channel his rage into a more appropriate manner. One last child who I've never met before named Charles deals with quite a bit inside and outside the classroom. He's only a kindergartener, but he's been through more than most people deal with their entire lives. His father was murdered and his step father is in jail. When he came into kindergarten, he didn't know how to spell his name, and now can read at the kindergarten level. Unfortunately, his mom doesn't work with him at home and never sent him to preschool or other programs. His life is not structured, so although he struggles with behavior, he is not one of Mrs. Bart's students simply because he's never had someone teach him how to effectively behave. I can't believe this is already our last week of observations! I absolutely love working with these children and helping them success in ways that they wouldn't have been able to without the help of Mrs. Hart and her teacher aides. I can't wait to see all that these students accomplish, and hope I can work with them again in the future!
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The Map of the Learning WorldAlong with me as your tour guide, you'll also find I've added my daily journal entries, or blogs, to help guide you through the learning world. Feel free to check them out! Archives
May 2016
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