Today I got to spend 4 hours with these amazing students in Mrs. Sutliff's class! Starting from the beginning of the day to lunch time! All of the students were so surprised and excited to know that I was staying for a little bit longer! It was nice to see a different time of day to see the students working on something other than math. It's interesting because the students came into the classroom ready to learn, but it didn't have the same atmosphere that most classrooms have because the students didn't have to sit in their assigned seats and work silently, but rather I noticed that the students don't even have assigned seats! They pulled out their work, a worksheet and began to collaborate on the questions. I loved the sense of collaboration the students adopted and even the lack of assigned seats, but it created a problem. Two students with behavior challenges are required to sit in their own assigned seats, which reduces collaboration for those children and also isolates them from the inclusion of the class. I think that for classes where there are no struggling students it is fine to allow them to sit where they would like, but if some students need to sit in their own seat all of the students should have to sit there too to restrict the student from looking down upon his or herself.
One of the students who struggles has yet to be identified as a behavior student even though she needs a little extra help. This is the student who has recently refused to accomplish any work or achieve anything other than the fun activities. To prove that she needs the extra help, Mrs. Sutliff has to collect data of all the times where she struggles. Today, she encouraged me to collect the data by putting a piece of tape on my leg and adding a tally to the tape for every time I caught this little girl off task in the course of an hour. After 60 minutes was up, it totaled 13 times that she needed redirection. That's so difficult for a teacher because we know she has the capability to achieve so much academic success, but she can't because she is unable to focus. During specials, Mrs. Sutliff and I wrote a letter home to her parents encouraging them to ho her get all the work completed that the other students have finished a few weeks ago. I felt bad having her do it over her break, but she chose not to do it in class, so it had to be sent home.
One of the assignments that I haven't seen the students working on until today is a super secret! So I can't tell you about it because it's so secret, but let me just say the students are so passionate about it and the idea of keeping a secret that it motivates them to work even harder!
This Tuesday, I will be teaching the lesson to the students, and it is an introduction to multiplication. Mrs. Sutliff gave me a book to read to them and it will be super cute because it combines reading with math, but now I am brainstorming about how I can make it even more fun for the children!
Finally, I got to sit and eat lunch with all of my children and they seemed to love it! I listened to all of their Thanksgiving break plans and learned all about family traditions. It was very obvious that I have built rapport.
One of the students who struggles has yet to be identified as a behavior student even though she needs a little extra help. This is the student who has recently refused to accomplish any work or achieve anything other than the fun activities. To prove that she needs the extra help, Mrs. Sutliff has to collect data of all the times where she struggles. Today, she encouraged me to collect the data by putting a piece of tape on my leg and adding a tally to the tape for every time I caught this little girl off task in the course of an hour. After 60 minutes was up, it totaled 13 times that she needed redirection. That's so difficult for a teacher because we know she has the capability to achieve so much academic success, but she can't because she is unable to focus. During specials, Mrs. Sutliff and I wrote a letter home to her parents encouraging them to ho her get all the work completed that the other students have finished a few weeks ago. I felt bad having her do it over her break, but she chose not to do it in class, so it had to be sent home.
One of the assignments that I haven't seen the students working on until today is a super secret! So I can't tell you about it because it's so secret, but let me just say the students are so passionate about it and the idea of keeping a secret that it motivates them to work even harder!
This Tuesday, I will be teaching the lesson to the students, and it is an introduction to multiplication. Mrs. Sutliff gave me a book to read to them and it will be super cute because it combines reading with math, but now I am brainstorming about how I can make it even more fun for the children!
Finally, I got to sit and eat lunch with all of my children and they seemed to love it! I listened to all of their Thanksgiving break plans and learned all about family traditions. It was very obvious that I have built rapport.