The Spirit of Elim

Tuesday

My second full day of teaching!

A few highlights included:

-- Seeing the kids for the first time in five days -- it's crazy how fast you start connecting with students!

-- Leading an adapted story to two students (others were at therapies) who seemed to be pretty into it; I felt like I did a pretty good job with it!

-- Observing a student have a REALLY good day with no minutes of refusal

Charlie's Angels -- a T.V. show that came
out in the 1970's (it's pretty fantastic!)

-- Leading a Family Feud game about the 1970's

-- Doing better on transitions today than lately

-- Overall, feeling more comfortable in front of the whole class (paras included)

In our 1970's Family Feud game, I particularly noticed the need to understand the learning environment in which all of my students were a part. It helped me to better understand how individuals influence groups (IPTS 5: Learning Environment).

Before adaptive P.E. I was supposed to tell a para that we would be starting a student on the bike by the classroom and then taking her down to the gym from there (just as we've been doing for the past few weeks). Transitioning her into the activity this way seems to work better than waiting until we get to the gym to put her on the bike. Anyway, I guess I waited too long to tell the para and before long, the student ended up sitting in the middle of the hallway, halfway to P.E. 

Example of an adaptive bike; one
of various kinds at Elim

It took two paras and myself to get her to stand up and sit on the bike while we strapped her in (oh, yes, these bikes are a little different than others you might have seen). Once she got to the gym and began pedaling/was pulled on the bike, she did much better. There weren't really any problems after that. But, I definitely learned from that experience. Particularly, I was reminded about the importance of clear and constant communication between teachers and paraprofessionals. 

Other teacher tasks in which I participated today:

-- Answering the phone

-- Eating lunch in the classroom to finish a last minute plan for the afternoon's lesson

-- Talking to a parent!

-- Planning an art lesson for tomorrow

-- Talking to a student about misbehavior in P.E.

Today, one of my students had a dentist appointment, so she came to school a couple of hours late. When she arrived, I was called and asked to come get her from the front office. When I got there, I met her mother and had a short conversation with her. I later recalled the ideas discussed to my cooperating teacher. Essentially, this student's mother wanted us to start working on brushing her daughter's teeth. Apparently she has been working on this skill at home, but it has not been going very well. The mother mentioned that she would like us to start working on it with the student at school, starting tomorrow. 

She also talked about continuing the student's work on tasting foods (she's usually g-tube fed) with the speech therapist. When talking with this parent, something felt strange, particularly because I knew we were having a lot of trouble working on food tasting with this child. I essentially just told the parent I would talk to my teacher about it and agreed with her own idea to bring up the requests at the IEP meetings. As a student teacher, I know a little bit about this child's goals and what she has been working toward in meetings, but I don't know nearly as much about the care for this child as my teacher does.

My suspicions were later confirmed that the parent was indeed 'manipulating' me by asking me to work on these things with her child. Apparently, the ideas have been brought up in meetings and conferences before. My teacher was not exactly happy about the whole thing. She reassured me that it would have happened to anyone else that would have walked down to get the student (except herself, of course). I wasn't really worried about any of it; I really just thought the whole thing was interesting. This is basically my first encounter with parents. 

Pazzo!

Other: Pajama day at Elim today! This is spirit week :)
Tuesday Tweet: If you had any superpower, what would it be?

Wednesday

Well, I forgot to do the attendance today until after 9:15. Strike one.

Sports theme at Elim today

Luckily, that was no indication of how the rest of the day would be. We had a split goal work/sensory activity today before and after snack. Since the student who I work with on goals was in therapy, I was essentially just doing other busy work (filling out notebooks, cleaning, updating the white board with announcements, starting planning for my supervised lesson tomorrow, etc.). As a student was leaving for speech, he began with his refusal behavior -- rolling his eyes, shaking his head, looking at the floor, refusing to stand up from his chair -- so I watched as his para made it a few steps out the door with him before he stopped again. Since I had nothing else really going on, I went to help. Fortunately, after the next two minute wait period, he listened as I urged him to stand up, walk to the bathroom, and be cooperative there.

He had a rough day throughout the remaining four hours of school with a resulting seventeen and a half minutes of refusal by the end of the day. 

In PT, I guess one of my students was soaked through his diaper so instead of helping to transition to recess, I helped the para lift and change him. The poor student was coughing the whole time. He looked miserable.
I guess even his arm braces were wet -- we just weren't sure what they were wet from, but we anticipated the worst.

Also today, one of my students was having another rough day; she was extremely loud especially when we were reading after snack time. My coop says sometimes, instead of letting students do whatever they want for social time, she tells everyone to read a(n adapted) book to read with a partner. I was reading to two students and this child got so excited that she started shouting, screaming, and hitting the book as I read. We didn't think she was frustrated or upset because she seemed to like the book (she even signed 'more') but she was just completely out of control. She had to be separated and sit down to cool off for a bit. I guess they've been having that problem for a little while now.

My teacher is guessing that maybe the student needs more time to exercise throughout the day. She generally likes walking (on the treadmill) so I suggested that the para take her there during sensory today. Apparently she did four minutes of it, loud as ever, and the para had to hold her hands down the whole time. I guess we'll have to keep thinking about that one.

Finally, I taught an in-class art lesson today. I brainstormed (with the help of my coop and my roommate -- who just happens to be a graphic design major) several different objects I could collect around the classroom to use for painting to explore different textures and designs including: a tooth brush, a whisk, a spatula, two badminton-like rackets, spiked balls, etc. The paras were surprisingly on-board and seemed to think it was a great idea. What's even better is that the kids really appeared to like it. A few tolerated the activity by trying it for a few minutes which is a huge success in my book. The completed projects look pretty cool. They might even look a little abstract, if I knew exactly what that meant...That was a fun lesson.

What a day.

Other: Sports theme at Elim today! (Go White Sox)
Journal Entry: If you were in a movie, what would the movie be about?

Thursday
Today was crazy.

One of my paras wasn't in today so just about the minute I walked in the door, I was confronted by a pretty huge decision: should we ask for another para (from a different class) to come help us, or should we stick with what we have and make do?

After a few minutes of thought, I decided that it wouldn't do much good to ask another para to help us -- essentially what this means is that he/she will just be asking me what to do ALL day anyway. Since I don't know the particulars of this child (bathroom routine, goals, behavior recording procedures, bus information, etc.) I figured it would be silly to attempt to answer his/her questions. So, I made a decision in the first few minutes of my day that would impact the whole structure of the class today.

I taught a lesson today involving LEGOs. It was a News To You article from a website that Elim often uses. I thought this particular article could be kind of fun to read so I chose it and planned my lesson around the idea. It was actually fun! I had students tell their staff one thing they already knew about LEGOs before we began reading. While we worked through the article, I had students searching for the words 'you' and 'stop'. After reading, we answered a journal prompt about LEGOs before watching a video about the toys that directly related to the article we read. The kids seemed pretty into it.

Right afterward, one of my students refused to transition to recess so we followed his behavior plan, waiting two minutes before asking again if he is ready to walk to the assigned activity. He only collected about nine minutes all morning -- not too bad -- but he gained more in the afternoon, bringing him to a grand total of 23 minutes of refusal. This was not his day.

One of my other students became aggressive during one of SMARTBoard activities. Instead of nicely selecting the song she wanted to play, she began hitting the board with the pointer tool we use in class. Not entirely sure what to do about the situation, I grabbed her hand, told her that the behavior was unacceptable and walked her back to her seat. Luckily, she only behaved this way three times today; with her para out, it could have been a whole lot worse.

Besides that, other occurances today included:

G-tube feeding; done by 3 of our students daily

• Filling out two incident reports (two students came off their buses with scratches -- one on her neck, the other on his left forearm)
• Learning how to give one student her water during snack time; not so easy when it's done by g-tube
• Seeing the crazy hats that students wore
• Taking a student to the bathroom -- she's known for behaviors there; luckily, one I figured out which diaper to put on afterward, it was completely fine
• Getting evaluated 
• Playing a 1970's music review jukebox game

Well, I definitely practiced both patience and flexibility today. 

Other: Crazy hat/hair day at Elim

Journal of the day: Describe an adventure that you've been on or one that you'd like to go on.

Friday
Today was surprisingly pretty average.

The students swam in the morning and seemed to enjoy it. I helped a student get ready for the pool and despite being told how to help him, it was difficult to determine whether or not he was trying to get ready by himself or if he really didn't know how to dress himself. I talked to my teacher about it later and she confirmed that he probably doesn't know how to dress himself because his parents do it for him everyday.

After swimming, I came back down to the pool to help the paras and students transition back into the classroom. Everything seemed to be going alright until one of the paras couldn't find a student's swim suit. It turns out that another student's grandma (who was swimming with him that day) accidentally took his suit home along with her grandson's. I asked my teacher what to do and she seemed a little flustered by it. She explained to me that even though the problem wasn't really our fault, the child's parents would still probably be frustrated, even angry, at us teachers. This kind of struck me. It was another instance of parent/teacher relationships that I have very little experience with yet. I ended up writing a note home to the child's parents explaining the situation and reassuring them that we will get the suit back as soon as possible. We'll have to wait and see how that one goes.

Otherwise, the day was pretty uneventful. I taught a Bible lesson about Palm Sunday in the afternoon. It went fine. My coop teacher recorded me because I have to write a reflection on my teaching. That was a little unnerving. I just don't like the idea of videotaping and watching myself. I guess it's to better understand how I can improve my teaching, though, so I'm not against it

Other: Elim school spirit week (blue and gold)
Journal of the day: Name one place that you would like to visit over the weekend.

It's been quite the week.

Classroom Confidential -- Chapters 8 and 9

Even if you don't teach Social Studies or the Arts, what are some ideas you could glean from Schmidt chapters 8 and 9 for your own teaching?

I really liked what Schmidt had to say about history tools of the trade. She listed five that can be useful in any classroom and any setting:

• Primary source documents
• Visual images
• Artifacts
• Literature
• Architecture

While it might initially seem difficult to implement these into a special education setting, I've seen my teacher do it in our classroom almost daily. During our current event lessons, she pulls interesting news stories from a site called News to You. We read the articles together and then follow them up with an activity. The kids usually seem pretty interested in them. I like these stories because it's an easy way to incorporate news from other parts of the world, or country, into the classroom and into the lives of these students.

I also really liked Schmidt's idea of historic simulations. Throughout my schooling, I've had the opportunity to participate in a few simulations and I loved every single one. I appreciate simulations because I view them as a way to involve students in history in a way that really relates to them. I think they're fascinating and I hope to include them in my teaching to help students see how learning can be fun and relevant.

According to Schmidt, involving kids in the arts, regardless of their predetermined artist talents, is extremely important. Through the arts, students learn valuable skills that will benefit them throughout their lives. Schmidt lists ten reasons why teachers should embed music, drama, the visual arts and drama into their classrooms. Here are my favorites:

The arts: 

1. Activate multiple intelligences to help students learn in different ways

2. Create opportunities for self-expression using mind and body

3. Develop higher-order thinking skills of analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and problem-solving

4. Build our awareness and appreciation of other cultures

I think the arts are a very important part of school. While I can't honestly say I'm particularly skilled in any one area of the arts, looking back, I can clearly see how taking classes such as art, music, exploratory, and foreign languages have benefited me and impacted my life. I hope to give my students ways to implement their vast gifts and talents into my classroom and their daily lives. This will make learning more fun for them.

What types of authentic assessment have you seen? How could you use it?

I have definitely seen and have been involved in many different kinds of authentic assessment. While I might not have realized it at the time, as I reflect on those instances, I can say with confidence that those experiences meant more to me than any test or paper has.

As I progressed through elementary school, it became a requirement to compete in a Science Fair every year. The projects could really entail any scientific experiment and they always required a lot of time and energy. However, with some help from my dad, I usually ended up finding a pretty interesting project and by the end, although I never would have admitted it, there were times when I actually enjoyed myself. Well, at the end of these projects, all students presented them to their class and then to the school in large. It was intimidating in my first few years, as I was asked questions by teachers and then moved on to the larger pool of students and drove to another school on a Saturday for a larger scale event. So, while the whole process was a lot of work, I could still name the topics of my projects even though that was about 12 years ago. I learned a lot from those science fairs because they seemed relevant and applicable to my life as I researched and completed the experiment out of class with family and friends. 

In middle school, my teachers began assigning debates, especially in history classes. Now, I've never been a fan of public speaking, so these were not my favorite projects. However, I did learn a lot from these presentations and they were actually kind of fun, too. Debates were a way to illustrate our knowledge through means often used in historical contexts. Although sometimes intimidating to me, they were fun too.

I can use these same methods as a form of assessment in my own classes. Because I'm (sometimes) shy myself, I can also tailor these activities in ways that allow quiet students to participate comfortably too. I can use debates, formal presentations, simulations, and interviews to help students show me what they know. After all, the purpose of assessments is to illustrate knowledge.

Schmidt mentions other means of authentic assessments. Some of these are:

• Learning fairs
• Dinner parties
• Reading and dramatic performances
• Murals and quilts
• Short stories
• Picture books for younger kids

I especially like the short story and the mural ideas primarily because these are ways that allow students to experiment in the arts. When students combine subject areas in a single project, that assessment takes on a whole new meaning. It becomes more relevant and more interesting. It gives kids the chance to see how topics can matter in the outside world as well as how it can matter to them personally.

Every Move Counts

Monday
Today, after the morning meeting, I was responsible for setting up the literacy center groups. I'm finding that it's much more challenging than I thought: one student was out today, two were at therapies, one student came in late, a para was out, and another student was supposed to be observed by a behavior therapist. So, even though I spent some very serious time determining those groups Sunday night, I ended up changing the entire thing this morning anyway. It just reminds me about the importance of being flexible.

I also got to work on two IEP goals with one particular student. My cooperating teacher wanted me to introduce a new goal to him today. I showed him a visual task script depicting three tasks that he needed to complete. This student has been practicing packing his goldfish snacks everyday, but today was the first time that we introduced the visual task script along with the process. The student did pretty well, actually. He got distracted in the cabinet, as usual (those ziplock boxes must look pretty enticing), but he was able to do the rest of the task with a little bit of help. I'm excited to continue working with this student on this goal.

This week's schedule (or part of it). This would be a pretty
typical week -- except for the two days off, of course!

Finally, one student was having a really off-day today. She was unusually noisy -- we could hear her from our classroom all the way down the hallway -- and didn't seem to calm down for a long time. She also started crying during several of the transitions between activities today. My cooperating teacher tried to give her some pressure on her shoulders (a lot of the students enjoy that and actually ask for it), but we couldn't really tell from her reaction if she liked it or not. My teacher said she's never seen this student act this upset before in her three years of knowing her. I'm hoping she was just having a bad day and that the behavior will be different tomorrow. It's difficult to try to help a child who cannot easily communicate her feelings to you.

Tuesday
Today was quite the day. I began by teaching the morning meeting, which I'm actually getting pretty solid at, if I do say so myself. We've had one student out for a few days now due to illness, so it's just been the six of them there. I started a little bit late on the meeting today because one student asked to get out of his wheelchair to sit on a beanbag (not uncommon in the room), so we gave him some time to do that and then we need to transfer him back into his chair -- quite the process. So, I only had about a half an hour for the meeting today, which I think is plenty of time. Although, I did forget to go over the schedule, I realized later. Oh well.

We watched a bit of Scooby Doo -- it brought
back memories :) The kids enjoyed it too!

Immediately after that, I led a lesson on popular t.v. shows from the 1960's. It was nice because I was able to work on transitions a bit and it gave me even more experience in front of the class. The lesson went okay -- there were only three students there for that one and they all seemed to enjoy the shows. I still need to work on expanding what I say to fill more time. I didn't really end early today, but it still just seemed like I was missing some stuff. Also, one of my students does not have a one-on-one so I usually end up helping him when the paras are helping the other kids. Today, though, this child had decided to be difficult. He wasn't thinking about his responses but would rather just pick the last answer that I showed him on the worksheet without connecting that to the meaning of it at all. It was really frustrating. I tried to work through it with the student, but I also didn't want to change his answer if he was answering it truthfully. I'm finding that it's very hard sometimes to interpret students' thoughts and opinions when they can't clearly communicate them with you.

We also had an early dismissal for students today. They left at 1:50 instead of 2:40 so the day was a little different than normal. After the students left, all staff met in the Cross Cat. gym for a little meeting. It was to honor those who had been working at Elim for five, ten, fifteen, and twenty years, etc. It was really cool to see those who had been working at Elim for so long and to be able to appreciate their commitment and time.

Wednesday
My first day of full teaching! I'll admit, I wasn't nervous until I got to school and my teacher told me that she would be out of the classroom for the duration of the morning -- so, essentially, three quarters of the day. That's when the nerves hit. Luckily, there wasn't much time to be anxious at that point. Once the students came in, it was game time.

My classroom at Elim!

Everything was pretty much the same as it was when I wasn't teaching. I knew exactly what I had to do all day, it was just a matter of remembering everything, in the right order, and dealing with the other, random, stuff that came up. Like when the phone rang. And for a second, it didn't register that I was supposed to answer it. It was the weirdest thing. That phone rang three times all day and each time I felt clueless. The speech pathologist was asking about art materials I was supposed to have, the secretary was telling me Mary was at the front office for me (who's Mary?!), and the behavior intern was running late with another student and couldn't take my student until a later, undetermined, time. I asked a few questions each time and figured my paras would have a better idea than I would. Only panned out once. The other times, we just worked through it.

It was basically a whirlwind of answering questions, running errands, filing out forms and notebooks, making pink play-doh, and a little bit of teaching thrown in there. The kids all had a pretty good day -- one had a twelve minute refusal period, but other than that they were great.

I've noticed that my transitions are still a little shaky. It's tough when our activities are really only twenty minutes a piece. Transitions become excessive. That's something that I definitely need to keep working on.

The form students fill out after a sensory activity

In other news, the play-doh went surprisingly well. There were only two students in the room for this activity and neither are really keen on the idea of touching unidentifiable materials. But, nonetheless, we stirred up a bowl of edible play-doh. Ingredients for this sensory spectacular include:

1. One cup of flour
2. One cup of water (I'd suggest a little bit less than a cup, unless you want the consistency to be somewhere around soup...)
3. Two tbsp. of oil
4. One packet of (pink lemonade) koolaid

Heading into this experiment, the paras and I were a little hesitant due to the fact that one student gags when touching certain textures and the other attempts to put everything into her mouth. Sure enough, as we're mixing the concoction with a large plastic spoon, the child quickly brings it up to her mouth for a taste. Luckily my paras were there to help and we stopped her before any damage was done. After that, though, she played with it, with us watching her like hawks. The other student did pretty well too; she tried it for a minute or two and then began signing that she was finished with the activity. We quickly took it away before she threw it.

Overall, it was a pretty good day. I learned a ton and was pretty much exhausted by the end.

What a day.

Thursday
We had an in-service today -- my first one!

It was weird sitting among the Elim staff as we listened to Jane Edgar Korsten, co-author of Every Move Counts: Clicks and Chats. This is essentially a sensory-based approach regarding communication and assistive technology.


Jane was extremely entertaining -- not quite the right word -- to listen to because she was a phenomenal speaker! In her talk, she included video clips, hands-on activities, and plenty of stories. It was fairly obvious that she's had tons of experience in the special education field. Jane confessed that we were attempting to hear three days worth of information in two. At a few points, it definitely felt like information overload. I was really just trying to keep up by applying everything I've learned at Trinity and Elim to what she was saying -- not an easy task! Some of it went right over my head, but I think I took a lot away from the lecture today. And, hey, I still have all day tomorrow too!

In case you're wondering, as was I, what the title of the book means, here's a quick synopsis. Every move counts implies that every single movement that a child makes can inform teachers (paras, etc.) something about that child: whether or not they like that particular activity, a need or desire, or any other message of any kind. People with different (special) needs communicate differently than other people. Jane helps show teachers how to help their students learn to communicate through a sensory based approach in a way that can better be interpreted by other people. This can be done through movement, through clicks (switches), or through chats (voice output devices or communication devices).

Here are some of the many topics that were covered today:

Seven weaknesses of standardized assessments:
1. Language based
2. Scores don't reflect abilities
3. Identify disabilities rather than abilities
4. Focus on 'typical' development
5. Result in teaching to the test
6. Don't detect small increments of growth
7. Are static (occur about once per year)

Symbol hierarchy:
a.  object -- exact duplicate
b.  object -- tangible activity remnant
c.  object miniature
d.  photograph
e.  line drawing
f.  gestures
g.  signs
h.  printed words
i. spoken words

Here's some of the other fascinating stuff I got to listen to:

-- Our students are limited by our imaginations and how we see them
-- Communication is the message; language is the symbol system used to communicate the message
-- It takes about 100,000 co-occurances (cause/effect situations) for people to understand that they have control over their environment and world
-- The only prerequisite for communication is life itself
-- If we have to teach a student a new device, we've chosen the wrong one for them
-- Challenge: Can you imagine a day without having a single choice?
-- In regards to symbols, one is not better than another. The one that works is the best.
-- The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place
-- A word about prompting: DON'T
-- A lot of the things we don't see from our kids, they don't do because they don't have reason or opportunity
--Anything is a right answer
-- The more control a student gets, the more cooperative they become

I can't wait to hear more about these topics tomorrow!

Friday
The in-service today centered more on assessment; we spent quite a bit of the morning discussing how to administer a sensory assessment to students in order to better find out a means of communication for them.
Since there were no paras there today, the group was much smaller. And, since our backs were aching from six hours of folding chairs yesterday, my cooperating teacher and I (along with ten other teachers) rolled the comfortable chairs from our rooms down to the gym. It definitely made for a more enjoyable lecture.

Jane walked through each of the senses and explained them in depth as she described how to assess a student's response to each one.

The following are ways to implement sensory activities into a classroom based specifically on which sensory each child prefers:

--Vestibular: walk, ride, swing, glider, rocking chair, dance, bounce, rolling, movement videos (vestibular through the ocular channel)
--Proprioceptive: hands or feet in rice or beans, bear hug, joint compression, playdoh, massage, wrapped snuggly in a blanket or sleeping bag
--Tactile: vibration, water, massage, finger paint, petting the dog, hands in spaghetti, pudding, rice, temperature
--Visual: creative lights, videos, slides, home movies, books, magazines, photo albums, toys, computer generated graphics (avoid strobe lights to prevent seizures)
--Auditory: (present the sound at midline, behind and slightly above the head): music box, noise maker, peer read books and magazines, family tapes, talking books, musical instruments, 'sound effects', music tapes
--Olfactory (smell): scratch n' sniff stickers, scented markers, perfume, aftershaves, extracts, herbs, flowers, incense
--Gustatory (taste): 
a. sweet: milk, banana, honey, candy, marshmallow, raisin, watermelon, maple syrup
b. sour: yogurt, cheese, green grapes
c. pungent: onion, radish, chili, garlic, ginger
d. astringent: unripe banana, pomegranate, walnuts, alum

Throughout her lecture, Jane urged that once teachers find the correct form of motivation for a child  based on their preferred senses (the sensory assessment is used for this) as well as the extent to which a child can move, teachers will have the perfect combination of prerequisites for a child to learn to communicate. The whole concept was incredibly intriguing.

Jane says probes should:

Chinese puzzle box; I would love to try one!

• Be used to gather more information
• Answer questions
• Settle disagreements
• Be on-going; they're never intended to be finished

On the topic of data, I learned that it should include the least amount of information necessary to answer the question in discussion. She mentioned that collecting data is, in a sense, similar to solving a puzzle. She compared understanding our students to the process of opening a Chinese puzzle box. I liked this analogy a lot. I can see what she means by it because it's imperative that teachers learn about students in order to figure out why the act the way they do and how they communicate. In the special education world, asking a question won't usually, or ever, get you an answer. You have to find other means of determining the reason for a behavior.

Various kinds of switches

Other important questions to ask concerning data: 

1. What is the goal?

2. What will it take to convince you that the individual has the skill?

3. How much is enough?

4. What are the minimum performance criteria?

Jane also talked a lot about symbols and printed words. I found this section of her lecture so powerful and convicting: 

"When we do not include [printed words on symbols], what are we saying about our students? Are we assuming they'll never read?" 

She urged that we include printed words on every symbol we use for our students. When we don't, we are subconsciously implying to ourselves and others that those students will not learn to read. I sat in my seat feeling embarrassed. I've done it. My cooperating teacher's done it. It's an easy trap to fall into. But our students deserve the chance because, as Jane reminded us through her countless stories of inspiration, you never know what's going to happen.

Finally, Jane showed us some of the switches and devices that she's used in the past. I couldn't believe how many there are available. More interestingly, to me, though was when she showed us the voice output devices that she had made. She urged us about how expensive the devices can get when finding the right one for a student. Instead of buying a new one and it not fitting our child's needs, she suggested that we find other methods of obtaining the devices in order to test them with our kids. And example of this would be a voice record-able gift card from target. 

Sensory Assessment

Here are some of my last thoughts on Jane's lecture the past two days:

--  Escalating behavior or sleeping/tuning out may signal sensory overload

--  You measure cognition through language

--  Everyone communicates in some way

--  If the cognitive demand is high, the motor demand should be low; vice versa

-- Think about why you're putting a voice output system in place

--  Everyone needs to be involved in teaching a student a new skill/symbol (paras, therapists, parents, teachers, etc.)

I learned so much from Jane these past two days. Not only did I learn new information, but I was able to apply what I knew and what I learned to my new-found knowledge though my experiences at Elim. It's been quite the opportunity to listen to Jane speak and I've appreciated it a lot. I'm so grateful to have been given the chance to learn about how to best help students communicate in ways that meet their needs individually.

These concepts really helped me better understand Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 7: Communication which states that competent teachers understand communication theory, language development, and the role of language in learning.

Classroom Confidential -- Chapter 11

How did Schmidt's chapter 11 inform your thinking about communication?

This chapter was a great reminder about how much of an influence a child's home life has on his/her experience at school. This concept is something that I need to remember as I'm student teaching but also as I find my own job.

My cooperating teacher at Elim has illustrated this concept to me so far too. She works very well with her students' parents and has a system set up in which she can easily communicate with them. Each student in her class has a folder and/or a notebook which they bring both to school and home with them everyday. My teacher writes in the notebook everyday informing the parents about behaviors, eating patterns, bowel movements, achievements, etc. In the morning, as the students bring their folders back to class, my teacher looks in each one for any comments from the parents.

I love this method! It seems really effective and extremely important to the success in her classroom. My cooperating teacher also communicates with parents through email, if they prefer that method. For some, it's easier and they can receive the message much more quickly. Still other times, my teacher calls the parents on the phone in the back of the room. I have walked into the room countless times while my teacher is having a conversation with a parent on the phone.

I also found interesting Schmidt's ten essentials of effective communication found on page 236. Schmidt urges teachers' messages to be:
1. proactive
2. positive
3. frequent
4. clear
5. basic
6. attention grabbing
7. appealing
8. inclusive
9. timely
10. error-free

In this list, I particularly liked the one about writing frequent messages. Routines and schedules are not only important for students, but parents like them too. People generally like to know when to expect things. Establishing a routine for communicating with parents can be extremely helpful. It's then crucial to stick to that routine in order to convey to parents that their feedback and participation is required and valued.

Finally, I thought Schmidt's reminder about cross-cultural communication was really helpful as I start thinking more concretely about communication with parents. I also enjoy learning about cultures, so I found this part of the chapter interesting, too. And, while reading this, I thought about how relevant it is to my career. Whether or not I end up teaching in a different part of the country or the world, I am going to have students of various races. I need to know how to best communicate with those students and parents in order to serve the student as best as I can.

From reading chapter 11, how will you be better prepared for parent teacher conferences?

When I started reading this part of the chapter, I was struck by how overwhelming parent teacher conferences can be for both the teacher but also the parents involved. Similarly to IEP meetings (although I've yet to experience one -- I only have knowledge from various classes), in conferences with teachers, parents are often thrown acronyms along with tons of other information about which they have little understanding. I never really sat down to consider how a parent might feel upon entering a conference with a teacher. This chapter on parent-teacher communication was helpful in figuring out how to frame my future meetings to ensure that the students' needs are best met.

I liked Schmidt's suggestion of creating a conference information sheet to give to parents before their meeting. This sheet might include:

• greeting/looking forward to meeting with you
• goal of conferences
• your conference appointment (date/time/location/length of meeting)
• confirmation response tear-off
• Can my child come?
• How do I share results with my child afterward?

Along with various other pieces of information, these sheets would give parents a better idea of what to expect before ever entering the classroom.

Finally, I really appreciated Schmidt's list of things to consider and provide on the day of the conference. Some of my favorites are:

1. Signs to direct parents

2. Being prepared

3. Looking professional

4. Setting an agenda

5. Providing student strengths

I especially want to highlight that final item on the list because I strongly agree with it. Parent teacher conferences, along with providing parents with a realistic idea of where their students are at, should include many areas describing the strengths of the students. Parents want to hear good things about their kids. It's always important to inform parents about how their students are doing well.

The Joys of Jello

Monday
Today was actually pretty awesome. After a long, restful, and much needed weekend, it was difficult to transition back into a school week. However, my lesson went really well today -- I'm starting to really get the hang of those little morning meetings now -- and I even got to do a few more little activities today too.

Instead of going to recess now (which was usually pretty entertaining, don't get me wrong) my teacher said I could start staying in the classroom and using the time for planning. And since I actually need to start planning, I decided that would be a good idea. So, I used the time to prepare for tomorrow's morning meeting, look over the AT SMARTBoard activity that I'll be teaching tomorrow, and the News-to-You Current event list for my Thursday lesson. Can you say: productive?

Some of the actual pictures I used with a
student when working on his goal

I also worked one-on-one with a student today on his IEP goals. My teacher had a prep meeting for an IEP so she thoroughly explained how I would be working with the student on two of his goals while she was gone. I'd seen it done before, recorded data for the process, and read enough out of books to understand the idea, but actually doing it myself was a different story. The student tends to slack off when my cooperating teacher isn't the one working with him, so needless to say, I had my work cut out for me. I had some strategies under my belt though, such as reminding him of his choice for free time, and redoing the task should he not put his best effort in. I had to ask a couple of paras a few questions and then followed up with a few more questions to my coop. teacher when she got back, but overall it went really well. It was amazing to actually be doing the work that I've learned so much about for the past four years. I was so proud of how well the student did and how hard he tried.

Tuesday
I taught the morning meeting again -- to a full class this time. It went fine, I guess. I'm getting accustomed to what is expected of me and I'm trying to tailor my responses, tones, and words to each student with whom I'm speaking. I'm realizing that this is pretty important in this classroom. It's not that you work more or less with a particular student or treat them differently per say, you just need to differentiate based on their abilities and especially based on how they communicate.

I also got hit hard with a ton of homework from my seminar class yesterday, so I spent some solid time looking through goals, objectives, and benchmarks today. Our current 'project' requires us to spend massive amounts of time learning about the classroom environment, students, and resources, etc. Because I'm in a special education setting, my situation (similarly to other students in my class) is a little different from theirs. For instance, while they are focusing on one area of material -- science, math, literacy, etc. -- I'm focusing on two students and their IEP goals.

I also got to teach a lesson in the AT center today, though. The material is already made and set up, so all I had to do was teach it! What a difference from a gen ed setting. That's one thing that I'm finding about Elim: the curriculum is pretty much set and prepared which leaves me with extra time for fine tuning, writing lesson plans (min favorit), and looking ahead. Since I'm not yet teaching all day, I have quite a bit of free time to work on future plans for lessons in the week.

So, I'd say it was a pretty successful day. I learned a lot -- as always -- and got to spend another six hours with seven amazing kids. No complaints.

Other highlights: observing an adapted P.E. class, getting a different student from the bus in the morning, getting sneezed on at lunch, successfully programming a child's Augmentative and Alternative Communication device, and noticing kids' reactions as they watched popular 1950's television shows.

Wednesday
Leading morning meeting today went pretty well again. I'm starting to get a better idea about how to respond to random events in the classroom. For instance, today, one of my students was sleeping during our 9:30 meeting; he literally got to school and fell asleep -- not something uncommon at Elim, but a little bit for this student maybe. Anyway, instead of just passing him up and letting him skip the lesson, we tried to wake him up a little bit to get some responses from him. His para shook him a little bit, turned his fan on, and put his hands in water. It helped for a minute or two but then he just reverted to his nap. So, after a few tries, we just passed over him and let him finish the work later on during the day.

I worked on my substantial amounts of homework from my seminar class today too. I need to look at and refer to two students' IEP documents in order to fill out this form I need for the TPA project we're working on. Anyway, it's pretty obnoxious, although I'm sure I'm learning a lot from it.

The new behavior incident report that Elim uses -- this was discussed in our
staff meeting on Wednesday

I also helped a student with his sensory activity today. The students were supposed to explore a container of jello -- feel it, smell it, taste it, look at it, you name it. Unfortunately, little did I know, the kids were not into the activity. Apparently they just don't enjoy that type of thing. So, it was a bit of a struggle. I had another para helping me and we tried to just ease him into the idea of jello and he eventually touched it -- a huge success!

I also had an all-staff meeting today after school. It was weird being there, among the Elim staff. It was pretty interesting stuff and I tried to apply it to my time at Elim as best I could. It was interesting to hear the concepts being discussed at an all-staff meeting.

Thursday
There were two kids out today due to sickness -- which means we only had five in class. Of those five, four have colds; needless to say, the paras and I are hanging on by a thread. Despite the cold I've developed, Thursday was a pretty interesting day.

I got to observe one student have a mini behavior on the way to the bathroom. And then I got to help that same student walk down to lunch a few hours later. Besides the fact that we could have crawled there faster than the speed at which he was walking, he managed to get there okay. But, he refused to sit properly in order for the para to hook up his g-tube feeding, and proceeded to refuse to comply for the next 15 minutes of lunch.

During that same time, as we stood up to leave for recess, as another one of my students was walking past a particularly food-ridden table from the first lunch of the day, she grabbed for some of the leftover noodles and attempted to shove them in her mouth. My paras were not happy. This has been a constant problem for this child lately: the other day, someone had left a half eaten fruit cup on the water fountain right outside the cafeteria. She scoped out her target and after recess ran over to the food in an attempt to eat it. Luckily, the staff are pretty quick and can usually stop her, but it's still a behavior that needs to change.

I also got to sit next to two students as my teacher led a whole group (so a four-student) discussion/lesson about popular songs from the 1950's -- that's the unit we're on. The kids really seemed to like it. They would ask for a turn to pick a song from the SMARTBoard, listen to the song, and tell their staff if they liked it or not. Since a lot of the kids really like music, it was fun to see their reactions to songs from that decade.

The story I used for my News To You lesson

I also taught a lesson today on a current event story. It was about two books that have won awards recently (The One and Only Ivan and This is Not My Hat). My initial idea in choosing that story was to find those books at a local library and then to read them to the students and ask them, as a journal prompt, what they thought and which was their favorite and why. However, none of the libraries around here had the books, so I just showed a youtube clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtPdqV2crQ0) about one of the books. The students actually really liked the clip; they watched it intently and were then asked to write a journal entry about their chosen topic about a book they had written.

Overall the lesson went pretty well; it ended a little early, as did one of my lessons the other day. So, clearly, I need to be working on expanding my lessons to talk more in depth about things and to get more feedback and comments from students. My teacher and I talked about ways in which I could extend the lessons with other little activities.

Friday
Those two same kids were out again today, so we had another small class. However, we also had swimming today -- something that the kids absolutely love, but quite the opposite for the paras. The process is tedious as all the kids need to be taken to the bathroom (to avoid accidents in the pool; it has happened before, apparently), changed into suits, and placed into the pool -- not such an easy task for some. And, since most of the kids in my class require a one-on-one, most of the paras have to end up swimming too; they aren't too fond of that role either.

Confession: Not Elim's pool, but you get the idea

However, the kids have a great time. For some students, the pool is a therapy; it loosens their tightened muscles and helps them to relax. For others, swimming is really just playing. But, they're actually working on important skills such as kicking, sorting (they usually have rings that they grab from the floor of the pool and sort based on color), and other movement and stretching exercises.

The swimming today went really well. One particular student who has difficulty swimming across the pool. Despite his three flotation devices strapped to his body, he strongly prefers to walk around the length of the pool, gripping the edge. But, today he was trying to swim across in order to match his ring to the correct colored cone. Everyone was pretty amazed. It's always fantastic to observe and experience those little moments of growth in a child.

On a different note, today that same student refused to pick up the pictures that he threw on the ground before putting them away and walking to recess. He does this often: he'll sit at his desk and refuse to do anything, shaking his head and saying that he 'can't'. The length of time of these behaviors varies drastically -- one day it might only be for three minutes, the next for twenty three. He does not have a behavior plan yet, but the process we've been using in the classroom is to isolate him from his peers by putting up dividers. This prevents the student from getting any attention from his peers and it gives him a chance to cool down and think more clearly. After three minutes, we show him his schedule for the following three or four activities, the last of which is always his earned reward -- watching around five minutes of a d.v.d of some sort. He ultimately, eventually, makes the choice to finish whatever tasks he needs to before earning his preferred activity.

Today the timer was already reaching six minutes and the rest of the students were at recess and a few of the paras who weren't there were on their break. So, after my teacher asked the student if he was ready to comply and he refused, she asked me to give it a shot after the next three minutes were up. I sat there, waiting for the timer to ring, thinking back to all the times I had heard and observed this process happening and trying to determine what I would say.

I walked over, showed him his schedule and after a few minutes of silence, he slid to the floor and we sat there together as he picked up his pictures and put them in a bag. What an encouraging moment: it was really cool to be a part of that process. It reminds me of the Learning Environment Illinois Professional Teaching Standard which states that competent teachers "understand factors of that influence motivation and engagement and how to help students become self-motivated." While I'm not quite at that stage yet, I hope to keep working at it.

My cooperating teacher says she doesn't know if there's a particular reason or not for his particular behavior. We've been taking data and trying to determine if it happens at a certain time or activity, but there's really no pattern. He also responds very differently to different people. One day, he'll do whatever his para says; the next, he refuses to listen to her. He goes through phases and we really can't determine a reason for why he does what he does. This makes it difficult to predict when he'll refuse to participate. For now, we're just doing the best we can.

Classroom Confidential -- Chapter 3

From reading chapter three in Schmidt, what have you learned about behavior? Use specific examples from the book and from your student teaching experiences.

I particularly enjoyed reading about the self-accommodations section in this chapter. It begins by describing a typical faculty meeting and the behaviors and actions that teachers exhibit in order to stay focused (and now I've officially been to one of those meetings!). I was taken aback by the realization that the same accommodations that children get called out for occur at our very own teacher meetings.

Schmidt names a few of these self-accommodations and breaks them down into categories:
--Physical: rolling bits of paper, grinding erasers, chewing on clothing or pencils, whistling, fidgeting, putting heads down, drumming fingers on the desk, etc.
--Social: asking for help before beginning a task, passing notes, asking to work with another student, talking over the directions with a partner, looking around the room before beginning, etc.
--Cognitive: looking at pictures in books, making lists, doodling or drawing, reading aloud, highlighting, rereading portions of text, scribbling notes, etc.

Schmidt continues on to explain that "rather than congratulating kids for persisting in their attempts to learn, we're frequently irritated by their originality and imagination" (p. 47). I would have to agree with this statement. Unfortunately, too often, teachers expect students to perform tasks one specific way instead of fostering creativity and innovation which later results in problem solving.

Finally, I really appreciate Schmidt's eight strategies for ringmasters; I think these are useful ways to reign in students who might otherwise be considered 'free range'.
The strategies are as follows:
1. Provide choices
2. Change formats
3. Defer to the experts
4. Teach self-encouragement
5. Use body language
6. Provide supportive redirection
7. Devise alternative assessments
8. Re-energize students

Of these eight, I particularly like the first and fourth ones because they seem to relate very closely to my current placement at Elim. Providing students with choices in this setting is extremely important. One student in particular, refuses to comply quite often; however, when given some alone time to think and then re-approached and given the choice to participate and earn his preferred object, he often rethinks his behavior.
And, self-encouragement is also crucial in my classroom. These students need constant encouragement and praise in order to remind and probe them to continue their work.

These two strategies, among the other six, are used in my current classroom, so I've had the opportunity to observe these concepts in action. Now I just need to work on improving my own ability to use these strategies as I continue learning to be an educator.

Chickens, Slinkys, and Yogurt

Monday
Today was mostly uneventful. In the morning, I observed a regular morning meeting -- something that I'll be teaching in a couple of days. It was nice to see my cooperating teacher in action. I also watched a couple more whole-group lessons. The kids were split into small groups of two or three and rotated between stations, learning about the importance of eating healthy and exercising. In one station, they played a SMARTBoard game; in the next one they played Bingo; and in the last they read a story. The kids really seemed to enjoy the lesson and there were no significant behavior problems.

I was also shown how to take a student to the bathroom and was explained the process: how much to help and what the student could do on his own. This was all completely new to me. I guess I never really put it together that I would be toileting this semester.

I also got the chance to take a look at a student's communication device. It was crazy! I had no idea how much is on those things. I'm constantly reminded at Elim about how blessed those kids are to have those devices because that allows them to communicate with their world when they would otherwise be unable to. It was interesting to flip through the screens to see what kinds of words were available to that student. I was amazed.

Tuesday

The rubber chickens :)

Today was a rough day for a couple of the students in my class. One student really dislikes exercise or any kind of movement. My teacher wanted her on a bike for adaptive PE and we all held our breath when that part of the day rolled around. While other kids were walking on treadmills, stretching out on mats, or scooting around on the floor picking up balls and chickens (yes -- chickens) and putting them in crates or baskets, that student was being strapped onto a bike. After just a few minutes she was relaxed and pedaling with few to no complaints. I was amazed! When she got off the bike, she was permitted a few minutes with her preferred ring toys and then her para and the behavior specialist began transitioning her into the next activity. She was not happy about that. She sat down and pushed away any balls put near her. After a few minutes of coaxing, her para grabbed one of the balls and shot it into a small basket not far away. The student's face lit up and she clapped and smiled. She was quickly given a ball and prompted to imitate her paraprofessional. She picked up one of the chickens, tossed it into the net and the two staff went crazy. It was really cool to watch this process of handling the child's refusal to comply and then rewarding her behavior when she listened and enjoyed the activity. The remainder of the activity was by no means easy as the staff needed to continue to coax her to participate by lining up the balls farther and farther away from her. She never stood up to retrieve another ball but rather scooted up and reached for the next one. What a process.

And, just when things started going 'smoothly' again, another student with known difficulty with transitions decided that he wanted nothing to do with one of the games played in class today. The lesson was on healthy living, eating, and exercise. When prompted to touch his toes, jump, or use the SMARTBoard, this student slowly shook his head indicating that he didn't want to have any part of the activity. This behavior isn't necessarily unusual for this student so I wasn't surprised by an means. However, he seemed to be in a particularly stubborn mood today. As the majority of the class were packing up their backpacks and leaving the classroom for the day, this child stood by his cubby and refused to move or do much of anything. The staff followed a routine plan for this student's behavior but it just seemed less effective today. After being 'lifted' into his stroller, he student finally made it onto the bus.

Wednesday
Today I was entrusted with the task of walking one of my students from the bus to the classroom. I have never seen so much yellow in front of a school before. Because kids come from all over to go to Elim, there are tons of buses, some of which only transport one or two kids. Regardless, though, finding a child's bus can be a bit of a struggle at Elim. But, with a little help from my cooperating teacher, I successfully found the correct student and walked her into class (of course, it helped that this particular bus was parked directly in front of Elim's door...).

I also got to lead the morning meeting today! After writing up my four page lesson plan the previous night, I cued the music and started with the feelings activity. Each of the students told their friends how they were feeling that morning and came up to the board to match the feeling picture to their name. After, each student informed their staff what they would be working for that day (the slinky being one of them -- no surprise). And I led the journal entry activity which prompted students to write a short letter to a friend from class. The students did a great job and the letters were pretty funny too. One student did not feel like sharing his letter to the class, but after some prompting, he finally obliged and then came up to the board to help me with the daily schedule. This allows students to know what they will be doing that day and provides them with a visual so they can connect it with the words and the activity. Overall, the lesson went pretty well. Of course, it was my first day in front of the class so some of the kids were a little wary about listening to me, but I think it was a solid first attempt.

Other highlights from today: taking a different student to the bathroom, recording data on a student's goals while my teacher worked with him, getting my goldfish grabbed at lunch and shoved into a student's mouth, observing a speech therapy session, taking a walk with a student, and helping a student one-on-one in an art lesson.

Today I really started feeling comfortable helping certain students. I feel like the students are getting used to me being in the classroom, and for the first time, I feel like I have a basic understanding of the classroom routine. I'm learning new ideas and quirks about each student, and I'm really starting to enjoy being in the classroom.

Thursday
Today I led the morning meeting again -- the students seemed to respond pretty well, as they did yesterday, which is really encouraging to me. The lesson went fine and I think I did a nice job of adding in activities when I had some extra time in the end. After the meeting, I co-taught a lesson on a current event story. The class read a story about basketball with us and then found the word 'play' in the text. Afterward, they were responsible for finding an action word and a thing in order to create a new name for the Chicago Hornets. They seemed to enjoy this and they even came up with some humorous responses.

My teacher's been doing a great job of scaffolding me into the teaching. She seems to add a little bit more responsibility and activity for me each day. For example, I now know how to take three students to the bathroom, I can successfully drop off two students after school, and I've taken walks with two different kids. I'm starting to feel much more comfortable interacting with and helping a few of the students in the room which is such a relief to me. However, there are still other students whom I seem to know little about still.

In the afternoon, we went to the literacy center and my teacher had me pair up the students with a staff member and assign each an activity. Unknowingly, I ended up reading a few adapted books with the student who does not have a para instead of rotating through the groups to see how I could help. Not a big deal, but something to keep in mind for the future. I guess I'm struggling with figuring out my specific place with so many paras in the room. I think I just need to keep watching how my teacher does it and I'll start picking up on it.

You live and learn, right?

Friday

I led the morning meeting again today. I'm still adjusting to the idea that kids are constantly leaving and entering the classroom. Despite the fact that my classroom consists of seven students, only three were present for my meeting because the other four were out for various therapies. Regardless, it went well enough. I'm starting to feel comfortable leading these little lessons; I even noticed today that I still had about ten minutes left of my allotted time so I added a few more mini activities into the lesson at the last second. I'm starting to figure out how to adjust my lesson depending on the time remaining at the end. This aligns nicely with the Planning for Instruction Illinois Professional Teaching Standard. Particularly, it states that competent teachers understand "when and how to adjust plans based on student response and other contingencies." It has been encouraging to notice this growth in myself through my teaching so far.

I also had the opportunity to observe one of my students in the midst of one of her behaviors. She can get pretty aggressive when she doesn't get her way. Today at lunch, one of the paras was instructed (as she is every day) to feed one particular student by mouth even though the child refuses to swallow. Her parents just want her to continue tasting foods and to remember what it feels like to eat. Anyway, today this student was not having the process. She pushed her blueberry yogurt container on the floor and tried to scratch her para's face. So, my teacher held her as she helped her retrieve the little snack and then as she continued to attempt to be aggressive with the staff in the room. It's amazing how strong that little girl is (or so I've heard). After a few minutes, she cooled down and the whole episode was over as soon as it started.

Other than that, the day was pretty ordinary -- or as ordinary as you can get in a special education classroom.

A few other highlights: playing wii bowling (the kids LOVED it), encouraging a student to throw fuzzy balls into the air at recess, and eating potbelly's for lunch -- it was one of the para's birthdays!