Laura's Blog

I finally feel like I have mostly completed the case study!  I have implemented a behavior intervention (that my CT is going to continue to use!) and feel that I have enough notes and information to successfully create the powerpoint and reflect on my situation.

While it took me awhile to get started, it was mostly because I was having a hard time deciding which students to use because I have a well behaved class for the most part.  However my CT and I decided to look at this as a positive.  Once I got closer and closer to my full time, one of my students began to stand out because he was pushing the boundaries of a new adult in charge.  Therefore, after many discussion with my CT I decided to go with that and turn him into my case study.

I have definitely had good days and bad with him.  However, as I mentioned in my previous blog, I believe a lot of what my student wants is attention.  I have had to balance the praise and ignore methods, and I feel I have gotten a good experience out of it.  I continued the RESPECT intervention (mentioned in my last project update) and piggybacked off that of that to create another one.  Each day I put a different notecard on my case study’s desk.  Throughout the day he writes down his good choices; this eventually turned into tally marks because it was a quicker way.  If he reaches a certain amount by the end of the day he gets to use a really cool pen to write with during work stations, which is the last 30 minutes of the day.  Overall though, the notecards help him because he can see that he is doing a good job during the day.  I have been making copies of the notecards and then sending them home in his Friday folder so that his mom can see, which I can tell makes him happy, to have a good report going home to mom!

I picked this article because I found it relative both to my teaching and case study.  While I find discipline important, with the school I am placed at positibe reinforcement has become common to me.  I also have had many talks with my supervisor, after observations, discussing appropriate times to respond and ignore.  Therefore the title of this article jumped out at me.

As I read, i felt the classroom rules sections was mostly stuff I was familiar with.  However I did find it interesting to think about how it has changed over the years. 

When reading about praise, again I felt most of it was stuff I was familiar with, but I always find it interesting to learn more about praise in the classroom.  Just as the many statistics show, I do agree that praise effects students differently and boosts their confidence.  Praise has been one of the greatest tactics I have found that works with my case study.  Just as the article continues, praise must be used effectively.  I have definitely seen my fair share of praise being used effectively in my placement; my CT sets a great example!

The method of ignoring is one that I am still learning when to use and when not to use.  I struggle a lot with it, especially with my case study, becuase I believe a lot of what he wants is attention.  However, while reading it made me feel better to know that this is one of the harder methods.  I think the recognition of when to use this method will come with time and experience.

I have made some progress on my case study.  I have finally been able to collect some data and I have been working with my CT to start some interventions.  One that we started last week, was we put a sentence strip with the letters RESPECT velcroed to the strip.  If the student misbehaves I take away one of the letters.  I tell him why I am taking the letters and what he can do to earn them back.  At the end of the day if the student had more than two letters missing I email his mom.  I had to email his mom on Thursday.  He was absent from school on Friday so I was not able to see the outcome.  It will be interesting to continue the intervention to see how it helps.

I really liked how this article was divided into different types of behavior and then described interventions and supporting replacement behavior.  When thinking about my case study student I was able to relate to several of the categories.  The two I found most helpful were the section about disruptive behavior and the section about impulsivity.

Regarding the disruptive behavior, my student deals with off-task  talking and playing with objects.  For the most part he is a great participator, but tends to get off task.  He is very smart and sometimes I feel he thinks he does not need to be learning what the rest of the class is because he already knows.  It was interesting to read the reasoning for these types of actions.

While I was reading about the disruptive behaviors, I thought I was able to picture my case study student perfectly.  However it was the section about impulsivity that struck home.  Many of times, I have talked with my CT about how his actions are very impulsive.  As I read about how teachers create an image of a student who “rarely stops before they act, who attempt tasks before they full understand directions, who often demonstrate remorse when their actions have led to mishaps or errors”, I in turn was drawing the image of my case study student.  I belive it is his impulsive actions that lead to his disruptive behavior.  As mentioned in the article, students with impulsive behavior tend to get in trouble during group activities or games.  This is when I find my student’s behaivior most visible.

Again, I enjoyed reading about the interventions and supporting replacement behavior.  I found the waiting technique interesting.  The ideas give me a lot to think about for my own classroom.

This past Tuesday I attended a meeting with the rest of my second grade team, looking at student data.  This was an interesting meeting for me, because I got to see how teachers evaluate and test different students.  I got to hear about specific situations and listen to the teachers bounce off ideas with one another.  While I felt a little lost at times because I have not executed any of these tests or evaluations, I did find the information and discussions overall helpful.  We discussed both all kinds of data, from test scores to PEPs and BIPs.

As for my case study, I have gotten as far as picking the student and brief observations.  None of my students really have behavior problems so it was almost difficult to decide on a student; this my CT and I decided was a good problem to have.  I feel that with the amount of work I have had to complete for student teaching I have not really had time to focus on my case study.  Hopefully this will change as I continue getting used to my schedule.

When I first began reading this article I was really able to relate to the section discussing promotion of positive behavior.  As mentioned in my last post, this is something I see both in my placement classroom and schoolwide.  From what I have seen so far I really like the outcome of the system.

The next part of the article I also found very familiar and relative.  To me it sounded like a description of what we had to do last semester and are preparing to do this semester through our case studies.  I liked how the text gave a real example, and I feel this article will be a good reference.

One of my favorite parts of the article was when it addressed using humor in the classroom; I thought this was great!  Yes, there needs to be an established difference between teacher and student, but I believe that humor can make an environment much more enjoyable.  I know I watch my students everyday, and when they are laughing and smiling is when they are not only learning, but enjoying learning.  As the article said I believe it is very important to use humor in the right way, and not in a way that is discriminatory to a child; but who doesn’t love a good laugh?

Overall, I found this article very relevant to my growing process as a student teacher.  I was albe to compare many of the points in the article to my placement and think about when I have seen them implemented.  This to me was very reassuring that I am getting a good experience through my placement.

My CT uses a great deal of positive reinforcement.  She very rarely calls down students, unless it is necessary.  Instead she compliments students that are behaving well.  It really seems to work with my students because they all want to be the ones recieving a compliment and when they see a fellow students complimented they understand that is what they should be doing.  My teacher also does a great job at the beginning of the lessons setting behavior expectations of the students.  I have learned a lot from ther postive reinforcement and I have started to try it during my own lessons.

The students, as a class, also recieve starts on the board for good behavior.  THey get stars for good behavior at lunch and specials, but also for random actions during the day.  If they reach a certain amount by Friday they get some sort of prize on Monday.  However, if they are misbehaving stars are taken a way.  It is a great way to hold the whole class accountable.

My teacher also uses the ‘Falcon’ policy of Forest View as a whole school.   THe falcons change colors, blue being the highest.  This being a schoolwide policy it helps behavior management outside of the regular classroom.

I feel I am being exposed to a great environment of classroom management.  I am learning a lot and definitely think I will try to use it in my own classroom one day!

As a future teacher, it is very important to me that my classroom sets up a welcoming and fair community to all of my students.  With inclusive classrooms being as common as they are these days, one of my biggest fears is I will not do that successfully if I have an inclusive classroom.  I enjoyed this article because not only did it stress the importance of inclusion, but it included strategies and examples of how to manage an inclusive classroom.

In my placement, my CT has set up a great behavior management system, stronly using positive reinforcement. While I try to model her actions, I still find that after I teach my own lessons, it is usually behavior management I feel I need to work on.  I liked how in this article it offered ideas for how to cope with all kinds of behavior and diversity.  I was able to relate to many of the behavior strategies because they also dealt with the positive support.  I agree that the positive behavioral support systems really do work, and I appreciate any advice or suggestions of how to implement that type of system.  I am fortunate to be in a placement where I see this in my classroom but also through a schoolwide policy.

Along with the behavioral management I like how the article addressed inclusion as not only in a single classroom, but through the school, faculty, and parents.  As the article states, parental involvement is not only good practice but is also mandated.  I agree with this being good practice because the I believe the more parents are involved or included, the more they will be willing to accept help for their children.  In general, I think it is important to encourage family involment.

Overall, I thought this article was both relative and informative.  In my opinion, reading about way to implement classroom management, especially for inclusion, is always helpful.

From the overview of this chapter I knew I was going to be able to relate.  My case study/kidwatching student struggles with both reading and writing.  One idea that I found very important was when the reading talked about how just giving the students skills to read and learn is not enough, students must be motivated to seek reading and writing and to use those skills.  As teachers, it is important that we offer enthusiasm and encouragement, modeling for the students.  Espeically for younger students, modeling is one of the best ways for them to learn.

I liked how the reading called attention to how to identify struggling readers and writers because as a future teacher one of my biggest worries is that I will not notice, and leave a child behind.  The ideas and examples of how to help these students were helpful, and I was able to relate to many of them as I have seen in my placement.

I was also interested in the section that introduced several literacy reforms.  While I had previously heard of ‘Reading Recovery’, I had not heard of the others, at least not by name.

I felt that this chapter was a good closing for the book because it brought many of the previous ideas together.  In the last section it talked about how students today lead ‘literate lives’.  This is important to remember, but embrace.  As mentioned in the reading, students enter the literacy curriculum at all different levels and we as teachers must learn how to reach all of them.

Returning to Cameron Park, I was a little nervous about working with fourth graders.  I have usually been placed in lower grades, and even when I was placed in a fourth grade classroom last year, it was mostly observation.  However, I ended up really enjoying fourth grade and thought the experience was very eye opening.

I felt that the parachute science lesson went much smoother than the last.  Now I’m not sure if we were just more prepared, or if it was easier because the students were older and did not make the mess made by the second graders with the bubble activity.  The students seemed really engaged in making the parachutes.  Also the discussion we had about why and how the parachutes would work better included some great comments by the student!

Another part of the lesson I found interesting was dropping the different balls to see which hit the ground first.  The students were convinced one ball would hit before another, and it was hard to find a way to show them they hit at the same time. This led to an interesting discussion.

Overall, I was really excited with the outcome of the lesson.  I am glad that we got to experience lower and higher grades, because it made be see that no matter what grade I get a job in, I will be able to become comfortable with the age.