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.