Student Teaching Reflection 5

This week, I am finally in a classroom! I met my mentor teacher on Tuesday and observed her classes on Thursday. I was very happy to see the classes and interact with the students. I was able to help with a few of the lessons and began to get a feel for my mentor teacher's teaching style. One class that I am equally excited and anxious about is Conceptual Biology. This is a class for students who passed their biology class but did not pass the Biology Keystone (PA standardized test). These students had a test review on Thursday, and it was obvious that they were not excited about the content of the class. Many of these students find biology extremely challenging or are completely uninterested in the concepts. This provides a challenge for the teacher to make sure that these students remain motivated enough to learn and are able to easily understand the information. I am a bit uncertain about this class because I don't know if I will be able to provide that motivation and come up with fun activities to get the student involved. On the other hand, I am also looking forward to trying to find or create activities that will be a lot of fun and really help these students learn. Another class that I will be helping to teach is Anatomy and Physiology. I am very excited to teach this class because just in the one day that I have seen these students, they were very curious and brought up a lot of good questions. This class, I think, will lend itself very well to purposeful questioning. Overall, I am really looking forward to this experience, and I am excited to see what I will learn from it.

Student Teaching Reflection 4

This week, I am STILL not in a classroom, but I am finally in contact with the teacher who will be my mentor teacher, so hopefully my internship will begin within a week or 2. However, there have been some new programs introduced to the company I work for that have gotten me thinking about STEM, what it means, and how I will effectively integrate STEM concepts and practices into my teaching. The company that I work for offers before and after school care for students in grades K-6. Currently, they are pushing new activities and marketing the program as a STEAM program rather than just daycare. I, being a STEM-teacher-in-training, was immensely excited about this change and was really looking forward to hearing about some of the new activities that our curriculum directors were coming up with. I was then very disappointed to learn that the company would be using the same activities and just labeling them differently. Now, there is nothing wrong with the activities that we are given now, except that many of them do not promote some core STEM/STEAM practices like creativity or cooperation. The art projects given are simply colorless toys that the children color with sharpies, and many of the "science" or "engineering" activities don't give the kids any freedom to try their own ideas or test how things might work. I began to think about how this relates to our class discussion of purposeful questioning. The leaders in the company that I work for have the best intentions in finding or creating these activities, but in practice, the activities aren't meeting the standards that are expected in a STEM/STEAM activity. The same goes for purposeful questioning. A teacher can have the best intentions and expect great discussions and higher order thinking to come out of a question, but if it is not happening in practice, that teacher needs to re-evaluate the questioning. This entire situation at work made me even more aware that as a teacher, I will need to constantly evaluate whether my activities, questions, and assessments are doing what I want and expect them to do.

Student Teaching Reflection 3

This week, we discussed standards in ED 640 and I began to think about how standards will be implemented in my classroom during student teaching and when I become a teacher. Since I live in Pennsylvania, I am expecting my experience to be different than that of my classmates. Pennsylvania does not use the Common Core standards that Maryland does. Because of this, the standards that I use in my classroom may be different than what my classmates are using. I have also noticed that even though my classmates are all teaching in Maryland, even their experiences differ in terms of lesson and unit planning. I am looking forward to finding out what my school's expectations for standards and lesson planning will be.

Student Teaching Reflection 2

Since I am still not in a classroom yet, this week I have been thinking about how the concepts my class discussed last week may be applied in the future. Specifically, I have been trying to think of how I would apply extension activities in my future general education classroom, and how I can differentiate for students that are ahead as well as students that are not. Having extra extension activities already planned can be really valuable to help enrich the learning of students who finish their work early or get bored with general class material. If I have extension activities that bring in different real-world concepts or revolve around different topics, it can pique the interest of students and continue to engage them once they've finished the main activity. Having multiple extensions like this will cater to students with varying interests. However, it would be important to make sure that extensions push students further rather than just provide "busy-work." This level of planning will help to differentiate in class lessons for students who are working faster than the class average. For other students, these extension activities can still be valuable. If they don't have a chance to finish in class, I can give them the option of taking them home and completing the ones they find interesting. Since they will involve different topics, students will engage more and connect with material that they can relate to. Once I get to know my class, I can even create activities that relate concepts specifically to their interests. Extension activities can be a very valuable part of lesson planning, both for engagement and differentiation.

Student Teaching Reflection 1

This past week, as school has been starting, there are many aspects of my student teaching that I am looking forward to, and others that I am apprehensive of. Since I am not yet in a school, my biggest apprehension is that I do not know what to expect. I don’t yet know what grade I’ll be in, who my mentor teacher will be, or even what school I’ll be at. I am also worried that I will not be immediately successful. When approaching my internship I need to remember that my first few lessons will almost definitely not be completely successful, but I can learn from anything that doesn’t go smoothly or according to plan. I am most looking forward to meeting the students that I’ll be helping to teach this year. Having worked with children before, I think I will enjoy learning about my students’ interests and strengths and using these in my lesson plans. I am also looking forward to getting real-world experience applying the knowledge that I have accumulated throughout my education courses. Overall, I am excited to be viewing a classroom experience from the perspective of an instructor instead of a student.

Somebody Else's Kids

While reading Somebody Else’s Kids by Torey Hayden (1981), what really struck me was the way these children looked through her eyes. She acknowledged their quirks, struggles, and disabilities, and celebrated their personalities and successes. I think that in our world, it is easy for people to ignore or even ridicule a child’s disability, but in Torey’s classroom, these kids were able to be themselves and be accepted.

While I was reading this book, I was really drawn to Lori. She was a very intelligent girl who was in the general education classroom most of the day. She came to Torey’s classroom for a short period each day because she had a brain injury that affected her ability to understand written symbols as well as other aspects of her learning. Lori is a perfect example of a student that I may very well have some day. Her disability did not impact her understanding of concepts or ability to learn a general educations curriculum, only her ability to read and write. Since her disability was most likely caused by a physical injury to her brain, it is entirely possible that she would never learn to read or write. By the time she gets to high school, Lori will have had a plethora of classroom experiences involving her disability, some good and some bad. In my classroom, I would hope to create only a positive experience.

Lori’s disability would be qualified as a traumatic brain injury (Who Are Exceptional Learners).  She would most likely have an IEP outlining how her other teachers and I can best meet her needs. Her IEP and Lori’s own comfort level would determine the different accommodations that would be made for her in my classroom, but the following are some ideas of how I could adapt my classroom to Lori’s learning needs.

One challenge that will need to be overcome is how Lori will receive information in the classroom. Many teachers use presentations and handouts with words and symbols that Lori is not able to comprehend. Lori’s instruction will need to be entirely through images and spoken language rather than written down. By high school, teachers rely on students’ ability to read and comprehend some things for themselves, so it would be a challenge to convert presentations and lectures into a form that will benefit Lori. Since Lori would also be unable to take notes, I could allow her to record the lessons or provide her with a copy of any visual presentation. If presentations and lectures are already created, it could be very time consuming to rework every lesson like this.

Another challenge that Lori would have in the classroom would be with written responses. Lori would be unable to write responses to any questions posed in class or for homework. In class, there are several options for helping Lori overcome this obstacle. In group or partner work, another classmate could help transcribe Lori’s responses if she feels comfortable with it. For any in-class work, if Lori has an aide or if I have a co-teacher, either the other teacher or I could transcribe Lori’s responses. I could also accept responses to classwork verbally. In certain situations in the classroom or at home, Lori could use technology to help her answer questions as well. A computer program could be used to speak the questions aloud to Lori and a speech to text program could help her record her answers. A big difficulty that we would encounter with all of these solutions, however, is that if responses require confidentiality and cannot be said out loud, Lori would not be able to speak her answers with the rest of the class present.

This brings up another challenge: testing. When taking a test or a quiz, Lori would be unable to answer questions verbally in the same room as other students. To solve this, Lori could complete her test in a separate room or at a different time than her classmates. The test or quiz could be taken on a computer, using the technology described above or with the help of a teacher or other professional. Another option that would depend on availability of technology and Lori’s comfort would be if there was a computer program that could use images to represent ideas to convert into a written response. Lori would wear headphones to have the questions read to her and then use images to express her answer. A complication with this is that there may be some complex ideas in a high school science class that would be difficult to convey with images.

An additional challenge to Lori would be any time there is a reading for class. In these cases, I would either have to find readings that were previously recorded verbally, record the reading myself, or someone would read it to Lori. The best option would be if the reading was previously recorded, but this would really limit the number of articles and readings I could choose from. I think that having a recording of a reading would be ideal for Lori because she can put on headphones and listen to the reading while her classmates are reading it rather than be secluded from her classmates while someone reads it to her. It would also give her more independence. However, this method would be much more time consuming for me while preparing my lesson, which would create a personal challenge for me.

A challenge facing Lori that would be unique to science classes is completing lab work and lab reports. The lab information and instructions would need to be recorded on a computer or read to Lori. If Lori is working with another student, they could help her understand the lab instructions, but a recording would allow her more independence. If the technology was available, the lab instructions could be formatted in a way that allows Lori to go back and replay individual steps rather than simply playing the instructions straight from beginning to end. If lab work required labeling, preprinted labels could be provided for Lori, or her lab partner could label lab work. If any pre lab or lab work required responses, these could be recorded or transcribed using a speech to text feature or recorded by Lori’s lab partner. Since a post-lab assignment or lab report would need to be individual, Lori’s responses would need to be verbal, recorded, transcribed using speech to text, or transcribed by a teacher or other adult.

Overall, there are many adaptations that can be applied to my class to fit Lori’s learning needs. With help from other professionals, teachers who have successfully taught Lori, and Lori herself, I would be able to help Lori learn in my classroom to the best of my ability.  With the availability of technology and resources today, many adaptations are relatively easy to apply compared to what a similar situation would be like years ago. A bigger challenge would be how to apply these adaptations in a way that makes Lori feel comfortable and not secluded or singled out from her classmates. In the book, Lori is in 1^st grade and has already encountered very negative situations where she is singled out because of her disability. In addition to any accommodations outlined in this essay, I think that it would be beneficial for Lori if I checked in with her on a regular basis to ensure that she feels that she is getting the most out of my class. This could happen as often as it needs to and I would use these meetings to adjust accommodations for future lessons.

References

Hayden, T.L. (1981). Somebody Else's Kids. New York: Putnam.

Who Are Exceptional Learners. (n.d.). Retrieved August 10, 2016, from http://www.cec.sped.org/Special-Ed-Topics/Who-Are-Exceptional-Learners?sclang=en.

504 vs. IEP

Both the 504 plan and the IEP serve a similar purpose. They are both created to help a student with a disability succeed in a general education classroom. The biggest difference that I found between these two plans were how students qualify for them. The 504 plan seems to have a much broader definition of "disability" than an IEP. Other than that, both plans are created with a team of people including the child's parents, general education teacher, administrator, and other professionals and experts. In addition, they are both detailed plans for accommodations and modifications to assist the child in their classes.