I was so impressed by this first practicum. I loved hearing from the diverse group of teachers and appreciated the time they took out of their day to encourage us.
The first class my group and I observed was an inclusion class. I had the opportunity to observe one of the girls from the after school care that I worked at. :) It was definitely interesting to see. In this setting two children were taken aside during the math lesson and another teacher worked with them while the general education students did their math lesson. I was very surprised at how well all the students were able to focus because to me there was a little too much going on. Special education in this classroom looked similar to that of what I was expecting. I am always so concerned as to how I will get students to focus because I try so hard to help the students that come to where I work with the academic side of things, but so many of them are unable to focus for more than two minutes so I was really looking forward to seeing how teachers handle this and was a little disappointed to see that they struggled the same way that I did, in this setting. I was not disappointed in the teachers, but that I thought I would be able to pick up things to help them focus. I cannot say that I felt this classroom dynamic was the best for the students who needed that extra help because they were so easily distracted, however I obviously could be wrong. In this case the special educators worked in the classroom with the general education teacher. I was very impressed with the general education teacher and do see where she included ALL the students.
The second class my group and I observed was an inclusion class, but at the time students were pulled out for their math lesson into the center of the pod. I immediately fell in love with this set up. The students were crazy, but the teacher handled everything so well! As I said earlier, I am pretty worried about the academic side of special education because my only experience thus far is in the after school care and summer camp settings where we have zero curriculum and following a schedule is not implemented. However, after I saw this teacher I realized that almost everything that she did or that she was saying are things that I have encountered with trying to do arts & crafts or explaining a new game to the students at my work. I was so relieved to see her using manipulatives and engaging the students in all kinds of ways! This is why I am in special education and it was so refreshing compared to the first classroom (which wasn't all bad, I just liked the excitement of the second). This observation matched my expectations because this is what I love about my job and that is why I wanted to pursue a career within the special education "umbrella". I was so surprised by this teacher's ability to have students on all different levels still engaging in the same activities even if she had to modify some on the spot. I was also glad to see this because in the math course I am taking we just discussed differentiated instruction and higher level thinking questions that challenge students in a "productive struggle". The teacher seemed a bit stressed, but I think she was able to smile her way through it and you can tell she has a passion for these children.
Based on this observation my questions are:
1. Do the students in the first class I observed, which I believed to be full time inclusion, get to see the teacher that worked with the students in the second group? Because I see an opportunity for those students to benefit much more from her style of teaching math then the "point to the picture of a triangle"/flash card/"you need to focus on me" that I saw in the first class.
I could find answers to this question by asking my professors or even inquiring with the school because she deserves some praise, anyway!
2. I know that we were told that the teacher was the previous ESE specialist and I do believe that what we observed in the second group was the "support facilitation" maybe? I guess my question is what are all of her roles and what would be her title. Because as of right now...I WANT THAT STYLE OF JOB.
I could find the answer to this question by also asking my professors.
This experience helped me tremendously. My greatest fear is not being able to get the students settled down and focused, but I realize that this is something that IS a struggle and it is something that will have to be figured out with each student's different needs. I walked away today with an "I can't wait to teach!" attitude despite the stress you could see on almost every single teacher's face! I am impressed by these teacher's ability to focus on the task at hand when there is so much they have to worry about.
"Perseverance is not a long race.It is many short races one after another."
--W. Elliot
I'll take a shot at answering your questions. 1. I am not sure if the kids in the first class get to to see that particular ESE teacher. The school has 4 ESE teachers and she may or may not be the teacher assigned to that classroom. Second, the ESE teacher you observed teaching in the pod was the ESE specialist but know she is teaching all day. Her role changes depending on the students and their needs. In some classrooms she is co-teaching or support facilitating but she realizes that that particular group of students would benefit more from a small group with her so she arranged it with the classroom teacher.
ReplyDeleteYou did a nice job making some connections to your courses.