April Logs

April 1, 2008

            I attended a meeting early this morning. In this meeting, the principal discussed SATP Remediation. All students in the general education curriculum would participate in this remediation every other day. All students in exceptional education would participate in a different form of testing at these times. I feel that these remedial courses and several forms of assessments administered to the students are very much beneficial to them. It is only through testing students that educators can identify their problems and make the proper diagnosis.

            The morning was very dark, rainy, and gloomy, which had negative effects on the students. Only about half of the students were present in each of my classes. I assumed it was partly because many of them walk to school and did not want to walk in the rain. Also, the weather affected the attitudes of the students. Many of them were tired and constantly laid their heads on their desks. They were easily agitated and frustrated. However, I explained to them that there will be many rainy days and that they can’t just “shut down” when it rained. So eventually the students became motivated and completed their assignments. They defined new terms, read in groups, and completed a 4-square model. This model provided preparation for their essay writing activity.

April 2, 2008

Today my students took a test on the current chapter. Based on their work samples and my observations, the students appeared to have a thorough understanding of the lesson. During my planning period, I learned how to do an IEP re-evaluation. After filling out several papers, I had to fax them all to the school’s case manager. Then, I contacted the school’s psychometrist to schedule a meeting with the parent of the student.

Additionally, I noticed that a student of mine appeared to be acting very differently today. Usually, it would be extremely difficult to keep her focused and on-task. However, today she was focused and I only had to redirect her a few times. I noticed that her social behavior had changed as well. She was communicating with her classmates and laughing, something I had never seen her do. After talking to her, I found out that her medication had been reduced. She had been taking three different types of medicine. As a result, she appeared to be a zombie. To me, it is so sad that students are getting so “doped up” on medicine that it alters the way they behave. The medicine, to me, is doing more harm than good. The students are less focused and attentive and are learning less as a result. This girl was able to learn much more when off of medication.

April 3, 2008

One of my student’s parents visited the class today. He was concerned about his son’s behavior. I explained to him that the boy was extremely lazy and always complained about having to do work in class. I also explained to him that he seemed very immature and that I constantly had to tell him to stop playing with another classmate. The parent took the boy outside of the classroom and disciplined him verbally.

Later on in the day, a boy came to our class for the first time this year. I had no idea what level this boy was on cognitively. I knew I had to administer an assessment to him to find out what he was capable of doing. I was assisted in doing so from the information in his IEP.

In my last period class, a boy walked out of the classroom without permission. I had warned him in the past not to ever do that again. This time, he did not come back. So I wrote a referral for him. I wrote down exactly what he had done. This student was over the age of 18 and he had recently expressed that he didn’t have to obey the school rules. After turning the referral in to the assistant principal, I waited to see what would be done on this issue.

April 4, 2008

            Today, our students were testing in another classroom. During this time, my supervising teacher and I worked on a teacher summary form for a new student from out of state. Before filling out the information, we had to gather as much information on this student as possible, since we had never met the student. We collected his schedule, his IEP and work samples and tracking forms from all of his teachers.

            After gathering and analyzing all this information, we began to complete the teacher summary. It was still quite difficult, because we did not have all the required information to complete the summary. We had to look at benchmarks and compare them with the student’s skills. We also had to look at the Mississippi Curriculum Framework to see where this student should be academically. Lastly, we had to start on a behavior plan for this student because of his current behavior.

            I learned a great deal of information pertaining to completing teacher summary sheets. I learned to collect as much information on the student as possible. I also learned how to analyze the data and make the proper diagnosis.

April 7, 2008

            There was no school due to the severe weather.

April 8, 2008

            Today we began a new chapter on how to be a good citizen. Students learned about the purpose of their social security cards. They also learned that good citizen voted, participated in community service, served on juries, and paid their taxes. Students were allowed to complete practice voter registration applications and applications for social security cards. They also had practice in completing W-2 tax forms.

            Another student showed up for the first time this year today. Fortunately, he was respectful to his teachers and peers. Also, he appeared to be a very hard worker. He completed all his work and participated verbally in the lesson. Even though he is diagnosed as having a bipolar disorder, he did not show any alternating mood changes or episodes today. Hopefully, he will continue to behave as he did today in the future.

April 9, 2008

            I completed a least restricted environment (LRE) form for a new student from out of state. I learned how to make sure students were in the least restricted environment as possible. This student would be placed in special education classes for about 60% of the day and in general education classes for about 40% of the day.

            We discussed how to make the decision to vote for someone before voting. One way was to listen to debates from the candidates. To better explain what a debate was, the students were allowed to engage in a debate. One student discussed reasons for voting for Hillary Clinton as president while another student discussed reasons for wanting to vote for Barak Obama. The students really were interested in the activity. They expressed to me that they would definitely listen to the debates of the candidates before voting.

April 10, 2008

            I attended an IEP workshop today. In this workshop, I obtained a plethora of information. Some of the information was very familiar to me, while some was novel. For example, I already knew that an individualized education program, or IEP, was a written statement for a child with a disability. I also knew that IEPs describe the student’s performance, they must be realistic, they must be specific, they must be measurable, and they must be reviewed and revised annually.

            On the contrary, I wasn’t really familiar with creating individual transition plans. In the workshop, I participated in a group activity in which I helped to create a transition plan for two students. In doing so, I learned that all transition plans must include five essential elements including the following: higher education, employment, residence, transportation, and leisure.

April 11, 2008

            My supervising teacher was out today because of illness. Unfortunately, a substitute teacher was never contacted so I had the challenge of teaching and supervising the class unaccompanied. Although is was much similar to having the teacher in the classroom, some students tried to misbehave when they noticed their teacher was gone. I quickly explained to them that they will respect me and continue to obey the classroom rules. Afterwards, I went on with my lesson and had very few problems.

            After completing the lesson review, the students took a test. It was a little difficult to create different assessments for each of the student’s unique abilities. For example, the students who had specific learning disabilities had to write their test in essay/short answer format (since they were capable of doing so). Students who were considered edgicably mentally retarded (EMR) were allowed to take their test in multiple choice format. Those couple of students who were trainable mentally retarded (TMR) had a much simpler test altogether. In fact, one girl was allowed to complete her test verbally.