Shelby Johnson 3-6-14

RTI, GT, and PBIS Interview Reflection

As an educator, I must critically evaluate and reflect on the differences in educational policy. I will need to address the student diversity in my classroom and strive to impact their achievement. I want to help all students succeed and give them the tools they need in order to do so. I will support my students and show them my dedication to their learning. In response, I hope to have a positive impact on their lives. After experiencing a lot with PBIS in my fall placement, I could see the positive effects it had on the students, classroom, and school. Overall, I think it can bring a positive school atmosphere where students feel cared about. After discussing with our cohorts about other experiences with PBIS, I realized there are many different ways to implement it within your school. One thing that I think is a benefit of PBIS is to have a mix of student, classroom, and school rewards. This way, students have to take responsibility for their own actions, but also learn how to contribute to a teams expectations. For example, at Thomas Paine Elementary School, a classroom was given a certificate once they met their goal. There was a big celebration if the entire school met the school-wide goal. The students would engage in fun classroom activities, go to U of I sporting events, or something similar. At my fall placement in Kindergarten, the expectations were to be respectful, responsible, and safe. These were similar to Barkstall Elementary School where I am student teaching now. Barkstalls expectations are to be safe, respectful, and be ready to learn. I like that the expectations are separated into three categories and I think that most

behavior is able to fit in one of them. In order to have success with implementation of these, we must be consistent. All staff members need to be referencing these terms to the students. I like how at both of my placements the students recite a school pledge in the morning, stating these expectations for the day. In Barkstalls tier 2 interventions, students have a check-in/check-out system, which correlates back to the three school expectations. One thing I really like about PBIS is the change in approach to a childs behavior. I think it is often easy to just send a student to the principals office when they are misbehaving. However, it is important to try and be proactive and handle the behavior yourself first. The part of this that I might question is the fact that some teachers might refuse to give an office referral if they are being evaluated based on it. I think there are definitely certain situations where that action needs to be taken, so that the teacher is not disrupting the learning due to behavioral intervention in the classroom. At a recent staff meeting I took part in, a lady talked to us about PBF. In this, teachers specifically try and focus on why the bad behavior occurred and if there was something they could have done before it got to that point. I think that when teachers begin to think more about the outside factors that may have caused this behavior, they can handle it in a more meaningful way. Everyone loves to be given positive feedback. PBIS often has rewards given or praise to those who are following classroom and school expectations. I think that this motivation is great, as long as it sticks to the overall goal. Are students just behaving as desired in order to get the material reward? Hopefully, teachers are allowing students to engage and think about their own conduct and why the things they are doing are considered good. Overall, when interviewing my cooperating teachers on how PBIS has

affected their schools climate, they both had encouraging things to say. One of my cooperating teachers said that she believes the system does a great job in looking at what we can do as a school to make both kids and teachers more successful. I believe that an important part of implementing PBIS is to frequently monitor its effectiveness in order to make modifications as needed. In order to assist students in meeting goals, there needs to be some sort of intervention academically as well. After interviewing cooperating teachers and an RTI specialist in my school, I was able to learn a lot of information about the process and work put into it. In order to get data from students, there must be progress monitoring implemented. I believe this is necessary in order to see where students are at, what they are learning, and what they need to work on. Without proof of data, students can easily fall off track. In my placement, I noticed one girl who was taken out of the classroom for some help on her reading. All she needed was this extra little support and in a short period she was already showing much growth. I think sometimes, for students who might not be given the same support at home as others, this extra push is very helpful. After interviewing my cooperating teacher in my third grade placement, she discussed the ways that she is involved in creating the plan and providing help for each child. We have a lot of responsibilities as teachers, and the RTI team is not solely responsible for the success of these students who need the extra assistance. I think that it is important and necessary to have all members contribute when creating the plan for an individual child. This way, you are able to get a good perspective of the child from different areas. Without the ongoing teacher collaboration, I do not know if the learning activities would be as successful. Because this may seem overwhelming and require

flexibility, my cooperating teacher advised to talk with your grade level team and ask staff members for organizational strategies to help handle all of the different responsibilities. In our cohort class, my group discussed our thoughts on RTI as a future teacher of our own classrooms. Are we given the right training to have a thorough understanding of the whole process? I think that developing understanding with other staff through talking will help with support and give more ideas. We stressed on the importance of using actual student performance to guide intervention. We should be presenting material and content in a way that those students can learn best. This may include reading materials at multiple reading levels. Differentiation for students should be based on student readiness and their learning profiles. Once I become a full-time teacher, I will have a diverse group of students with a variety of learning needs. Expanding the intervention for greater needs of students does not only mean response to those who need extra help to get on grade level. It also includes students who are beyond grade level, or gifted students. I think that having gifted education is something that might be more debated in the education field as some people see it as unfair or unnecessary. I, however, think that gifted education is very beneficial and allows students to be challenged at their level and exceed the set standards. I feel like often time, gifted students are left to the side because teachers focus all their attention on bringing the lower students up to grade level. One thing that I think needs to be assured is that if students are in a pullout gifted program, the enrichment activities must be meaningful. Are many programs modeling this and not just adding on random activities? At my placement now, the gifted students are pulled out during enrichment to

work on different projects. I think that if these projects were based off some sort of sequence and well thought-out structure, they would be more effective. I have not had experience working in a full-time gifted class of students, but I think that this is also beneficial because they are constantly getting core educational content at their appropriate level. When I was in elementary school, I was in a Talented and Gifted (TAG) program. During the school day, a small group of us were pulled out to complete higher level thinking activities with a separate teacher. It was probably my favorite part of the day. I dont think we thought of ourselves as better than the other students, we just enjoyed going and liked learning new things. The student from enrichment that I interviewed had a similar view as me, and she enjoyed being part of it. At Barkstall Elementary, it is not a self-contained gifted classroom, but they do offer enrichment for students who qualify. I interviewed our enrichment teacher on gifted education and she holds it in very high regards. She mentioned how the students are receiving more education at their level that is aimed at their needs, abilities, and interests. I think that this can also offer time to expand with projects and units instead of them being bored with the on-grade level work only. I think that the importance of all these programs and the implementation is to help serve all students and to determine how we will intervene in the most beneficial way. To help all students increase academic performance, we must improve safety and establish a positive school climate. This is where PBIS comes into play. With a decrease in problem behavior, support staff can focus more on how to differentiate to meet the needs of the students and hope to intervene before a student has fallen too far behind. I believe that

reflection on the effectiveness of different strategies and building on existing strengths is necessary when striving to achieve higher levels of academic and behavior success for all students.