December 6th

Looking back on the semester, I don't think I could explain all the ways I learned and grew over the semester in a simple blog. I feel a big difference in myself from just a few short months ago and I learned a lot about myself in the process. I learned that the classroom is so much more fun when I make sure that I am animated and engaged. I learned that planning was probably not one of my strongest points in the beginning of the semester, but I feel that I improved over time. I learned that I actually know more about the children than I thought I did. Being in class with them every day, I began to see what they liked and what they didn't like, and how to adapt plans to different children based on their abilities and personalities. I learned that progress hard fought for is really worth it in the end. And I also learned that I think I may want to be in the special education field one day. But for now, I have to see where early childhood takes me. I will be in the K-3 blocks next semester leading a whole classroom, which is what I enjoy a lot about teaching. I also will learn how I fit in a general ed classroom since I have been in special ed settings for the last 2 semesters.

December 1st

As the semester and my lead teaching come to a close, I am looking back on what I have learned and what I know about the children's abilities. I see that the knowledge of children's specific abilities comes especially during specific parts of the day. For instance, I may occasionally have to change the difficulty for each child at smart board based on their abilities. When we do the counting boards, I ask the children who can count how many of each object there is, and then to choose the correct answer. For mainly the ASD children who cannot count, I would count the objects on the screen for the entire class and then give the child a one step command to choose the correct number we counted to. One of the students observing out in the hall today asked me how we are able to plan lessons that incorporate both the ASD and typical children. I had to stop and think for a moment because I realized it was really a difficult task. I told him that you really just had to know the children well and think of activities that they both generally liked, or take an activity and adapt it for both groups. I know that knowledge of the children in the future will be a valuable thing acquired over time and one of the biggest influences of my daily planning.

November 29th

Going into week 3 of lead teaching, I feel like I have learned a lot. I feel like I have a good grasp on who each of the children are, their likes, and their dislikes. This knowledge has accumulated over the semester, but it is very helpful during these weeks. Surprisingly, the children actually adjusted coming back to school better than I did after the long Thanksgiving break. I feel good about the way the classroom has been running for the most part, and the feedback on it is definitely helpful. After reflecting back, and reading the feedback, I think one thing I need to work on more is my communication with the rest of the team. If I am going to leave a child at art, or set up story or song and wait for the children to come in, I need to let the other teachers present know so that miscommunications do not happen. However, I do feel that I am doing a better job of knowing what I want to see out of my lessons and communicate that during the huddle. Planning the activities and communicating them to the rest of the team helps me think more critically about why I made the lesson and the results I would like to see. I also feel better about setting up the room because I know exactly what I want, and although I do forget details sometimes, it helps to have control of the set up of the activities. I hope my last couple days of lead teaching continue to go smoothly, and then I can experience the planning and implementation of Drew and Joey's teacher tables.

Feedback

Don't forget to continue to reflect in your blog.
I think Smartboard was very succesful. I felt liked you know the children's abilities. The pace was good. The few suggestions is to include a video modeling board in addition to song, counting, and book. We always want to work on physical imitation. Giving a few extra seconds of wait time to see if Gavin can touch the screen instead of doing HOH once when he is up there. Also when calling on Gavin, get closer when you call his name the first time and then hold out your hand when you call on him the second time. This also goes with story and song group. This calling structure can apply to Joey, too.
Today's art was successful. All the children stayed for a good amount of time. I was wondering why you didn't take Michael? The art leader should always take the child that will be there the longest. Also last Tuesday art, you and Erin need to give more attention for the children with ASD. Amy ended up with handling all the children with ASD. One teacher can be with both Bodhi and Kennedy. This will probably help Bodhi in the long run. I think sometimes we give too much attention to his refusal of art than we need to.
For story, work on your intonation when reading. Books should not feel like they are being read in monotone voice. Using your intonation will help the children understand the book and be more interested in the book. Also why did you go to story group so early? It was good that you gave the 5 minute warning and then set up, but as soon as you are done, come back to the classroom if there is extra time. We did enter the classroom late because there was miscommunication. Everyone was waiting for you to come back to initiate the clean up. Either come back to the classroom or tell another teacher that group is ready.
Overall, the classroom has been running smoothly. Keep up the hard work.

November 15th

My first couple days of lead teaching have definitely flown by! I kind of feel like a chicken running around with my head cut off trying to get everything ready before each transition. It is very busy, but fun to finally take the lead of everything. I am still forgetting a few small things here and there, but everything seems to be running smoothly enough, so I must be doing OK. I am really happy about how the firefighter theme is working out. The kids are so into it and it seems to have promoted a lot of interaction and imagination. Being so busy leading the classroom is bittersweet though. Since I always have to watch the clock or set activities up, I don't always catch what is going on. Having to leave to set up art, or Smartboard, or group unfortunately causes me to miss some time in the classroom. However, being group leader, I have the opportunity to see things from the head of the classroom and simply being able to see all the children's facial expressions from group or Smartboard definitely clues me in to how the individual children are feeling about the activity. Coming to the Monday meetings helps too because it allows me to see what is going on at the home visits, be aware of the interventions for the children, and see some of the data collected. I am also able to contribute what I am seeing to the group as a team member.

November 8th

I think that leading smartboard with the extra time available because of the new schedule is going to take some getting used to. Yesterday when I was with the group of 3, it took longer for them to take their turns so the extra time was helpful. However, 20 minutes was a still a long time to fill. The group of 2 took their turns really fast so it felt like we went through a lot of boards. Today, the first group of 5 did well, except we had the fire drill, so I did not really get to see how everything went with the extra time. Unfortunately, the group with the shorter time slot ended up having the longer time slot because we switched groups after the drill. This is where I started to have problems because after so much time, the children in the second group began to get very restless. For the last few minutes, several of the children were laying on the ground with their feet on their chairs and Michael was becoming very hard to control. Also, we did "If you're scary and you know it" and when it came time to do the howls, the children began howling so loud that Wyatt started to get upset because of the noise. I think I will try and do a story on smartboard when I have a chance because the stories last a while and keep the children engaged, especially with the extra time we now have.

November 3rd

This was the first time I supplemented my own story with additional props. I felt like I got a really good reaction out of everything. Once again, a couple of the children counted and named the sides and corners of the square in the very beginning, but I felt like I got really good reactions from bringing out the real live squares. When I cut up the first one I heard a couple of the children (especially Kennedy) say things to the effect of "Oh No!" or "You're cutting/messing it up!" which is good because it tells me that I grabbed the children's attention enough for them to comment on what was happening. I seemed to get a second wave of reactions when I started punching holes in the square. I also acquired a single hole puncher by the end of the day today, so I hope that will get better reactions when I punch one hole at a time. Every time I did something new to the square, I always got a reaction. I think the children felt bad for the square, so I made sure to emphasize what the square made itself into next. I also decided to use construction paper today because the colors matched for the most part, and it was more sturdy than tissue paper so I could hold it up. I am curious to see the atypical children's reactions tomorrow when I only have to focus on them.