Jen Dougherty EDA 416 ST Spring 2014 Reflective Journal When it comes to my beliefs regarding teaching, I think of my favorite

quote from Albert Einstein; Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. I think of this quote every time I am in the classroom or planning a lesson. Whether it is a special education class or general education class, I believe that all students learn differently and it is my job, as an educator, to find the best strategy that allows my students to learn to the best of their capability. This is how I have felt in previous placements and it will continue through both student teaching placements, as well as a future teaching position. Week 1, January 27, 2014 February 2, 2014 My first day of student teaching began on Monday, January 27, 2014. I am placed at East Goshen Elementary School in West Chester. I am working alongside the special education teacher in an Autistic Support Classroom in which students range from 1st to 3rd grade. The students are pulled out of their general education classrooms and brought to the special education classroom for their individual needs. The first day was somewhat hectic. Due to the cold weather, pipes busted in my cooperating teachers room during the previous week. She was given a temporary classroom while her classroom was being fixed. Due to the fact that my students all are all on the Autism spectrum, it is very difficult for them to be out of routine. However, I was surprised to see that they were able to be flexible (eventually) and adjust to the changes. It will be interesting to see how they react when we are able to go back to their normal classroom. I chose to write a letter home to my students parents introducing myself since I will be working closely with their children for the next few months. My cooperating teacher, Kathleen, agreed that it was a good idea. Dr. Hicks and Kathleen had their first initial visit as well. It gave me a sense of direction because we were able to map out my lesson observations. We also went over the assignments that will be due and such. Kathleen and I also discussed my fist lesson that will be taught, we will also conduct a running record. I will teach next week. My first week flew by. Every single person in the building has been super friendly and helpful. Everyone from the students PCAs/TSSs, the principal, office staff, students, and my cooperating teacher have been great. I feel like I have been apart of East Goshen for much longer than a week.

Week 2, February 3, 2014 February 9, 2014 I was supposed to teach my first two lessons today, however the weather had another plan on Monday. East Goshen Elementary had yet another snow day today and the plan is to teach them tomorrow. On Tuesday East Goshen had a two-hour delay. Mrs. Dixon was also out today, so there was a sub in the classroom. Unfortunately, the beginning of the day was very hectic and the sub was difficult to work with so I was not able to teach my first lesson. However, I was flexible and figured that I could just do it another day. I was able to do my second reading group lesson, which went well. I worked with Evan and Eddie. They read aloud good and answered the comprehension questions correct. They also drew a picture about their favorite part of the story, which turned out good as well. Both boys had their aids with them, so it was very helpful. Wednesday, school was canceled due to the snow and ice. Thursday, East Goshen was closed and Friday there was a two-hour delay. After a crazy week, I was able to teach two lessons on Friday. I taught the same lesson from Tuesday again to the same students. I also taught a math lesson that included sorting and determining more or less using lucky charms marshmallows. The student, Eddie, really liked it and using lucky charms was definitely a motivator for him. Due to all of the snow days and delays, I am so glad that Kathleen, Dr. Hicks, and I mapped out all of my lessons and formal observations. I feel like March will be here before I know it. So, I have been working hard on my lessons and assignments. From next week on, I will be teaching reading groups, writing, social skills, and directions in the morning with Evan. Eventually, I will also be adding Math with Eddie and Reading with Connor. Week 3, February 10, 2014 February 16, 2014 This week was originally supposed to be a week with a few half-days and no school on Friday. However, due to the snow the half-days turned into full days of instruction. I had already scheduled two doctors appointments for the 12th. Luckily, it is OK that I leave a little early for the appointments. This is the first week that I planned and taught lessons for the majority of the subjects during the day. I began in the mornings teaching Evan directions and using prompts for him to ask for specific items since he needs to communicate more.

For reading comprehension, I planned a week-long lesson. It was on African Americans in History for Evan and Eddie. I was also finally able to teach The Mystery of the Missing Berries for Jay that is also a week long lesson. I also began teaching social skills. We focused on the topic of good tone of voice and body language. To introduce it in the beginning of the week, I showed a video and the kids loved it. Finally, for writing I chose to use the whole week for Connor, Evan, and Jay to write a friendly letter. I now know how frustrating it is for teachers when we get snow days. East Goshen is closed on Thursday, February 13th. It is nice to have a day off but I worked hard on planning lessons, I want to be able to finish them! After this past weekend, I planned for so many lessons. The only thing that West Chester does not teach us is how to plan for a whole week. We usually planned for a period of 45 minutes. However, I think I did well and hope that my lessons go as planned, as much as they can. Thursday and Friday were snow days. I was unable to finish this weeks lessons so therefore they will be carried over to Tuesday. My originally planned observation lesson for my first reading group will now be a continuation of this weeks lesson. I also was not able to give the kids my Valentines Day treats; I will have to give it to them in social skills on Tuesday! Week 4, February 17, 2014 February 23, 2014 Monday February 17, 2014 is Presidents Day so East Goshen is closed. Tuesday was my first formal observation by Dr. Hicks. Due to the snow, there was a 2-hour delay and some lessons had to be switched around. I was supposed to begin with Whats Missing? with Evan. However, there was confusion due to the delay and he did not come to class. Dr. Hicks was able to see reading group with Eddie and Evan. It went really well. I was skeptical because we just had so many days off because of snow, I didnt think the students would be behaved as well as they did. Dr. Hicks provided me with great feed back that I plan to incorporate into my future lessons. Overall, I think it was a great first observation and I hope the snow does not interfere with the rest. I was also able to finally give my Valentines Day candy to the kids, they were very excited. For the rest of the week (Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday) I will be adding on math with Eddie as well. Wednesday was our first full school day in a while. Surprisingly, the students did really well during my lessons. I also began math with Eddie, which went good as well.

Thursday, I was about 15 minutes late. There was an accident that occurred right by my house which made me late, and just in time for prime time morning traffic. It was no big deal, the kids do not come in until 8:30-9. I will be leaving today at 2:30 to make it to WCU in time for seminar at 3:15. As for my instruction throughout the day, I was able to get Evan to ask for help in the morning. For writing, we had an authors chair day in which the kids actually sat in an authors chair and read their friendly letter to the rest of the group. The students also enjoyed my activity for social skills. They would have gotten their last piece to the puzzle in which they would have been able to watch a movie and eat lunch. However, one student ruined it for the rest of them by his behavior. Ever since I taught graphing and sorting to Eddie, a few weeks ago, he has been asking me if I have any lucky charms. I picked up lucky charm treat bars from Walmart tonight. I am going to try and use one as motivation for math tomorrow since today in math was such a struggle to get anything done. On Friday, I was able to get some progress monitoring done that went well. I also found out that Jay, who has been in my reading group for the last three weeks has been playing me. While he would read aloud, I noticed that he had an accent. I just assumed it was how he talked. For example, he would say gah-den rather than gar-den. Today, I found out that he does not have an accent and that he has been purposely reading that way with me. He told me he was from England and that is why he has an accent. I could not help but laugh. However, I had do be strict with him during progress monitoring and not let him see me laugh because that would only cause him to notice that I am paying attention to him. It was a good way to end the week. Week 5, February 24, 2014 March 2, 2014 Monday is my second formal observation by Dr. Hicks. I began a lesson on informational writing with Connor. Evan and Jay are usually in my writing group as well. However, on Mondays they are at PT. The lesson and observation went really well. Dr. Hicks like how I incorporated the dictionary when Connor came across words he did not know, as well as using the white board to break the unknown words up. I was pleased with this lesson, Connor read an informational text model and choose a topic as well. On Monday, I also did progress monitoring on accuracy with Jay. Before the reading, I specifically asked him what he will not be doing while reading and he said using an accent. During his reading, he would test me and use an accent. However, he quickly realized that I was not going to tolerate it and so he stopped, which I praised him for after. On Tuesday, we had a celebration for social skills since the group worked so well on Monday the received the last puzzle piece to their ticket. I brought in the

DVD Monsters University. The group ate lunch in the class and watched the movie. They loved it! During my reading groups, I have the students take turns reading a loud to enhance fluency and accuracy. As well as reading for understanding. David is new to my group with Jay. Today (Tuesday) Jay began to read page 2 and David was not able to understand the concept that he had to follow along and read silently to himself. After telling him several times that it was not his turn to read he began to cry and have a minor meltdown about how he will never be able to read page 2. I couldnt take the fact that he was crying but patiently reminded him that he is going to read the next page a loud. After several times of going over this with David, I told him if he couldnt get over the fact that we are taking turns reading, that he didnt have read with us. Eventually he calmed down and turned his reading period around. After class I praised David for calming down and following directions. I also praised Jay for reading without an accent. On Wednesday, for reading group with Jay and David, we began a new book. I have been laying down the guidelines for Jay regarding reading with NO accent. The first word out of his mouth was pronounced with an accent. I told him to leave my group and sit in the sensory corner and that I will see him at recess to read. He met me during his recess and I told him that I was sad because he was missing his recess. I also told him why he was here and he knew it was because he read with an accent. We completed our work and Jay read every single R correctly. Before he left, I praised him to reading so well. On Thursday, I will be absent and attending WCU Student Teacher Day all day. Kathleen challenged me to leave sub notes to see how I would do. Therefore, I prepared notes for her to continue my lessons so we do not fall behind when I am gone. Week 6, March 3, 2014 March 9, 2014 Monday, March 3, East Goshen had a snow day. This week is supposed to be my full week of teaching. However, I have been teaching full days since my first week. This week is also spirit week which is Hawaiian themed. Each day, we get to wear a different piece of clothing. For example, Wednesday is flip-flop day. Tuesday I was able to sit in on an IEP meeting in the morning. Although the students IEP was not too in depth, it definitely was an eye opener and I think it has helped me in writing my own IEP for this class. Being put into a real IEP meeting is much more realistic rather than getting an IEP format and beginning to write. It would have been nice for students in WCUs special education program to get to experience at least one IEP meeting before student teaching. However, I know that is unrealistic.

During reading, Jay and I took turns reading out loud. When I told Jay it was my turn, he responded with uh, uh, and, and you are going to read correctly. Just like I have been telling him to read correctly, without an accent. I could not believe he said that to me, I had to hide my laugh. Today during social skills, Jay came in and answered questions so great. He was being a rock star for the first 7 or so minutes. It then went all downhill from there, he began beat boxing and interrupting my group. Even two of his classmates moved their seats away from him. After 3 warnings, Jay did not stop and I knew he was purposely doing it. So, I had to kick him out of my group and send him to the sensory corner. I hate having to be tough with Jay because he is such a great kid when he is not being defiant. I guess I have somewhat of a bias towards him because he is one of my favorites and I want to see him chose good choices. For social skills on Wednesday, we sat on the carpet and did an activity. The kids loved it and they did so well that they earned a token only four more until the Spring party. For the lesson, we created a kind talk spider web. Basically, one student started with the end of a yarn ball and rolled the ball to another student and gave them a kind comment. It continued until we made what looked like an actual spider web. This is totally an activity I would use in the future! Thursday is my third and final formal observation. Dr. Hicks was originally supposed to see math with Eddie. However, I thought social skills would be more entertaining and more of a challenge to myself since there are 7 students all with different personalities. Dr. Hicks observed my social skills group lesson. Our topic is continuing kind talk. We have been working on kind talk for about a week now. Today, the lesson was based off of a YouTube clip in which the kids had to respond using their green/red cards that I made. The lesson went well and Dr. Hicks provided me with constructive criticism. Although I used name tags to assign the kids a spot on the rug, I did not specifically tell them they would be assigned to a square. She also told me to take a breath before I respond to situations in which the students are not on task. Rather than responding negatively to respond positively. However, it is must easier said than done. Another suggestion was to include non-examples of kind talk since my video basically focused on examples of kind talk. However, I have been teaching examples and non-examples the last week, this video just happened not to have any. Overall, the lesson and the students behaved much better than I had expected. They earned a token and were really engaged in the lesson.

Week 7, March 10, 2014 March 14, 2014 It has been an amazing experience at East Goshen Elementary in the Autistic Support classroom. I dont want to leave! From the first day, everyone in the building was so welcoming. I have learned so much from my coop as well as my kids.

One of the most important things that I will take to my future classroom is use of a timer for transitions. For example, after a lesson, I will set the timer for 2:00 minutes to give the students a brain break. When the timer goes off, they go back to their classrooms. It is a great strategy. Some other things I have learned from making small mistakes is that after I found out that Jay was using an accent with me purposely, I laughed while he did it. However, I quickly put my smile away, as hard as it was, to show Jay that it is important he not use an accent in my reading groupwhich he found out one day by coming in for recess to read with me. Another thing I learned from, that I will not allow to happen again is that when the kids came in for social skills, one student asked for a brain break. Sure, that was no problem. Then the rest asked for one. So, I said sure everyone can have one minute before we start, since they are coming from recess I thought it would be better for them to calm down a bit. It quickly escalated and before I knew it all of my kids were in the sensory corner and two of them were pushing each other. Never again. From now on, one student gets a break at a time. This morning Kathleen, Dr. Hicks and I met to review the TIPR Evaluation. It gave me a great amount of confidence because I received such good feedback from both of them. They also told me what a great job I have done. However, a few points of constructive feedback is to remember to praise the students just as mush as redirecting them. I was also told to remember to always progress monitor when I have my own classroom. I think when I first began student teaching, I was very nervous to progress monitoring because I didnt want to do it wrong. Of course by the end of student teaching, I was getting the hand of it As far as teaching goes, this week has been good. Today (Wednesday) was my last day of teaching, which is so sad! I am going to miss teaching I really loved East Goshen. The social skills group students need to earn one more token to get our Spring Party. I am hoping they earn their last token tomorrow so we can have it on Friday. Also, as of today, I am feeling good I have my assignments mostly completed and small candy bags for the kids and thank you letters ready to give to my coop, aid, office, and principal! Wednesday was definitely a boost of confidence for me! After (what I would say) a pretty great evaluation between Kathleen and Dr. Hicks, I also finally passed both PECT Modules. It is such a relief. I have three more tests to go, for middle school. There is an end in sight. Thursday, Kathleen transitioned back to teaching. I was able to work on my ER assignment and look at Jays (aka Peyton Manning) real one to get a full understanding of what I was doing. Also, today social skills group won their reward for a spring party for tomorrow.

My last day of student teaching at East Goshen, I am sad. However, I am sure that Mary C. will be a great regular education placement but I have a special place in my heart for the kids in my AS room. During social skills, we had a Spring Party as a reward for the kids, which also turned into a celebration/goodbye to me. It was great, the kids made a bird craft and gave me a basket full of teaching tools. I am very thankful for this placement!