Week 9

This was my last week of student teaching. I feel better that I have all of my video recording done as well as the video that I needed for my spotlight video. It was a bittersweet week for me because I am going to really miss all of the staff and the students, but at the same time I am ready for a change and excited about being in a general education classroom for the first time. I am excited to meet my new students and get a new perspective in student teaching. My cooperating teacher has done an amazing job at helping me along the way and teaching me so much. She gave me the opportunity to attend two IEP meetings as well as give part of the report for a meeting to give me some experience and allow me to learn how to talk to the parents as well as in the meeting. I am also so grateful for all of the staff in the classroom that I worked with. My biggest fear going into student teaching was not having staff that I would get along with as well as have TA's that would not be welcoming, but I could have never asked for a better classroom to be a part of. The biggest challenge this week was behaviors that we had to deal with in the classroom. I think this week I was most frustrated with the lack of behavior support that was in the classroom. According to the administration there was enough staff in the classroom looking at the number of children, but not based on need. This past week we have also had a new staff begin in the classroom which was also a challenge to try and deal with all of the behaviors as well as take time to teach this new TA all of the routines and interventions to follow in the classroom. Her first language is not English which also made it difficult to be able to communicate back and forth with each other.

      I have learned a lot from my cooperating teacher throughout my experience. My cooperating teacher has a lot of responsibility on her plate and this was the first time that I was able to see all of the work that takes being a special education teacher. I think I learned a lot about classroom management as well as how to work with TAs in the classroom. The teacher I worked with had a great relationship with all of the TAs and it was something that I admired about her most. This week I learned a lot about time management with all of the IEP writing and new goals that we had to make into data sheets to begin working on in the classroom. 

      I hope to learn more about how to write IEPs since I will have the opportunity to attend and IEP meeting as well as be able to run some of the second IEP meeting this past week. This coming week I will be in my new classroom and have to meet new students again and be able to begin forming that relationship with them. The standard this aligns with is: 

SL.K.1.b Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges. 

Week 7

     This week I feel really great about student teaching. I am getting ready to film with my focus student so I have spent this week making sure I have all my materials that I need. My cooperating teacher does a great job of helping me when I need it. She has also had a busy number of weeks since she was asked to take over all IEPs for the classroom next to ours. I changed my focus learner for my EDtpa so I am making sure that all of the activities that I have planned are going to be good for my focus learner. I have also been full in charge of the classroom for the last two weeks. I feel like the past couple of weeks has been going by so fast and it is hard to believe that I only have 9 more days left in the classroom.The teacher assistants are still doing such a great job with helping the kids as well as helping me out when I need it. It really makes a huge difference having a staff that helps and supports you. The biggest challenge this week was simply being short staffed in our classroom and having a lot of substitute staff in the classroom. We had some TA's out during the week and it was difficult having substitute TA's that had never worked with students in the intensive program. It was good to have some extra eyes and hands, but difficult to have to make sure the students were all where they were supposed to be as well as a substitute staff member. This past week it was brought to my attention that the intensive teacher in the classroom next door will no longer be coming back for the rest of the year and that it could be a possible job opportunity for me. It was nice to have administration and other staff members approach me about this opportunity. A situation that I encountered was dealing with behaviors again this week. We have had the same behavior issues with the same student for the past few weeks and we are still trying to find a way to help him. We are still working closely with the BCBA for some tips that may help in the classroom as well  as some techniques we can implement. She comes used to come in our classroom one day a week but is now covering a maternity leave for another BCBA and we not only see her for half a day once a week which is hard for us when we could use some additional support. 

      I am continuing to learn a lot from my cooperating teacher especially right now since we are preparing a lot of IEPs for some meetings we have coming up this week and next week. My cooperating teacher has been given the responsibility of handling two additional IEPs in the other special education classroom next door so she now has to test their students and come up with data for their classroom. I am doing my best at keeping our class in line and helping the TAs and much as possible to allow her to have time to test them. This week I learned how to create scheduling times for parents online for parent teacher conferences. The school has a new way for parents to sign up for conferences and so we spend some time after work setting up time slots and emailing this to all parents. 

      I hope to learn more about how to write IEPs since I will have the opportunity to attend and IEP meeting as well as be able to run some of the second IEP meeting before I leave. I am looking forward to seeing how IEP meetings run and seeing the role of the special education teacher in the meeting.  This coming week I will try and promote requesting for students. There are a lot of students  who have a hard time knowing how to request and instead it turns into a behavior. We are working on students showing us what they may need or want instead of getting upset. The standard this aligns with is: 

SL.K.1.b Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges. 

week 5

This week I am overwhelmed about my planning for the EDtpa. My cooperating teacher does a great job of answering questions and guiding me but its been a week of change. I changed my focus learner for my EDtpa so I am planning for that. I am also fully in charge of the classroom as of Monday so I am getting accustomed to taking over and making sure all staff are where they need to be. The teacher assistants are still doing such a great job with helping the kids as well as helping me out. It really makes a huge difference having a staff that helps and supports you. The biggest challenge this week was simply being short staffed in our classroom. We had some TA's out during the week and it was difficult having substitute TA's that had never worked with students in the intensive program. It was good to have some extra eyes and hands, but difficult to have to make sure the students were all where they were supposed to be as well as a substitute staff member. We have brought up our concerns with the administration about not being provided with a substitute staff since we are technically still understaffed with everyone there. This past week we had our first intensive meeting with administration as well as the BCBA to check in and see if we had any concerns or issues that we needed to address. We just went through and talked about each student and the behavior issues we are experiencing with them as well as the concern of short staff. Administration is trying to help us find new staff and are in the process of interviewing a new hire. They are also concerned that higher administration is going to give them a hard time because technically on paper it does not say we need more staff but based on needs we do.  A situation that I encountered was dealing with behaviors this week. One student in particular has been having an extremely hard time with transitions as well as giving up preferred items and we are trying to trial and error different ways to help him be successful. We are working closely with the BCBA for some tips that may help in the classroom as well  as some techniques we can implement. She comes in our classroom once a week to observe and help us as well as give us some feedback on what we are already implementing. 

      I am continuing to learn a lot from my cooperating teacher especially right now since we are doing a lot of testing as well as preparing for IEP meetings and re-evals. My cooperating teacher has been given the responsibility of handling two additional IEPs in the other special education classroom next door so she now has to test their students and come up with data for their classroom. I am doing my best at keeping our class in line and helping the TAs and much as possible to allow her to have time to test them. This week I learned how to fill out a FBA assessment as well as give my opinion in the FBA.

      I hope to learn more about how to write IEPs since I will have the opportunity to attend to IEP meetings. I am looking forward to seeing how IEP meetings run and seeing the role of the special education teacher in the meeting.  This coming week I will try and encourage more conversations between staff and peers and well as peer to peer interactions: 

SL.K.1.b Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges. 

Week 4

This week I am feeling more comfortable with the routines in the classroom. I am able to take over more and am helping the teacher with planning reading material and she is letting me pick which books would be good for the kids for the next few weeks. The staff in the classroom are amazing and know the routine so well as well as the students. I am very lucky to have such and amazing staff to work with. They make sure the students are always on task and follow through will all of the necessary plans for the students.The BIPs are being used a lot daily for the students. I am still taking over the Calendar group of the classroom as well as the morning and afternoon group with the students. This Monday coming up I will be fully taking over the classroom and I feel prepared and overwhelmed still as well. There were a few challenges this week that I went through. The biggest challenge this week was not having enough staff in the classroom that we need. It made it extremely hard to give the necessary attention to small details when we were down so many stand in the room. This is where I am learning how to deal with that as well as collaborate and speak with administration about how to handle the situation. It also gave me insight on how to ask other staff for assistance. We were having a hard time finding staff to relieve our paras and allowing the students to go outside for recess. In order to solve this we spoke to administration as well as the specials teachers to ask for help with our students outside. A situation that I encountered was working through the smart board calendar group with the students. A particular student has been having a hard time at the smart board and has been acting too silly while up there. I came up with the idea of making him a superhero book (since it is his motivator) that he can work for after her appropriately gets through his work on the smart board. 

      I am continuing to learn a lot from my cooperating teacher especially right now since we are doing a lot of testing as well as preparing for IEP meetings and re-evals. The most important thing that I have learned is that consistency is key with the students in the classroom. I have been working one on one with them on their IEP goals and felt like there was not much progress happening, but when we tallied the percentages up it was amazing to see how much progress has been made since the baseline week. 

      I hope to learn more about running the classroom and thinking quick on my feet when something is not working for the students. I am helping with a lot of the testing for the students IEP that I am attending in October. This is helping me learn a lot about assessment and how to administer them. We also began cooking with the students and this week we are making pancakes so it was a lot of fun to learn how to cook with them. This coming week I will try and introduce some new food so that the students will: 

1B.1a. Identify one’s likes and dislikes, needs and wants, strengths and challenges. 

Week 2

      This was my first full week of student teaching and it went by pretty quickly. I am getting accustomed to the routine in the classroom and all of the staff as well as the children. All eight boys in the classroom have BIPs so I am getting used to helping keep track of the data that we need to take daily. My cooperating teacher has let me take over the Calendar group of the classroom. This group consists of 2 groups of four students at a time. Half of the students are in the sensory area while the other half are at a table in the front of the room participating in calendar. We go over days of the the week, the month, the weather, following on step direction as well as greeting their peers and writing their names. There were a few challenges this week. The biggest challenge here for me is being accustomed to working with younger children again who need constant physical prompts and support. I am doing my best keeping my energy up with them since they have so much energy. A situation that I encountered was working through the smart board calendar group with the students. Up until Wednesday our smart board was not working and now that it is, the students are intrigued by it and want to touch all the buttons and explore when they are going up for calendar rotations. 

      I am continuing to learn a lot from my cooperating teacher and trying to take in as much as I can in the short amount of time that I am there. I still observe when I have a minute too and am currently in the process of picking a focus students from my edTPA. The most important thing that I have learned about is time management. We have a plan period for about and hour and a half and we never sit and take a lunch, instead we eat while we are working on anything that needs to get done. It is a never-ending list of things that need to be done, but the teacher that I work with has great time management and is extremely organized.   

      I hope to learn more about IEPs and how to go about writing them since I have only practiced a few times. I will get to sit in on my first IEP meeting in October and have attended my first special education meeting this morning. All of the staff is extremely welcoming and I am starting to learn the routine in the classroom and at the school. This coming Thursday we have a curriculum night where we present what we teach the students to all the parents. It will be another learning process for me since I have never been a part of one. This coming week I will try and add some new parts to the Calendar rotations for the student that will: 

1. Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher- led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly. 
   

week 1

Jackie Velasquez 

August  25, 2018 

AEDU 450 

Trinity Christian College 

        This week I started on Tuesday and was introduced to the teachers and teacher assistants in the classroom. There are eight student in the class all with different needs, and four teacher assistants in the classroom to assist with the students. We were able to help students become familiar with the routine of the classroom and with the teachers as well. There were some challenges this week as far as student behavior in the classroom. All students in the classroom have a data sheet in order to track their behavior throughout the day. A situation that I encountered was practicing my patience and following through with students when working on tasks. I did see a few thing that I just was not used to seeing. I have worked at a therapy school where restraints and holds were necessary. My first week there was a restraint but I guess I saw the was it was handled a little differently than the way I would have handled it. 

         I learned a lot about the students this week. I sort of jumped in and began helping the first day of school since they are technically still short one staff. This week I spent a lot of my time taking notes and observing the staff and the way they handle situations as well and what the students like and dislike. I learned about the importance of organization and structure for the students to help them throughout the day. 

        I hope to learn a lot more about the students as well as their triggers. I would also like to spend some time learning about their living situations and family at home that may be a influence to their behavior as school. I will take more charge this week with the students and help them work on their social emotional stills such as working in small groups We work a lot on one to one work in the classroom with put in tasks and many functional tasks to help them 'Develop self awareness and self management skills to achieve school and life success.