Week 8 learn and serve

Today in learn and serve one of the girls was acting different than normal. She is usually very cooperative and helpful around the classroom. She is normally well behaved and listens to the teachers, however today when I got there during free time, she had to just sit at her desk because she did not do her homework on time. For the ten minutes that she had to sit quietly and she had a very hard time with it. But even before the free time started she was getting yelled at for having extra food in her desk and she kept trying to get up and do things around the room. She would ask the aid instead of the teacher because I think she knew that the aid would let her do it but Mrs. Drennan would not. This is where I saw her in rare form. I noticed it again later on as well. I was able to do a lesson with 3 of the students today. I read them a story and made a worksheet for us to do together afterwards. Since I didn't have enough copies of the book for all 3 of the students they just had to listen and pay attention to the story. Which they actually did really well. After I finished the story they had to come up with 2 sentences to describe the events of the beginning, middle, and end of the story. They all did very well with coming up with the events. Some students needed more help than others with things such as the spelling of the words. My lesson was slightly intereupted by library time but afterwards they came back to the table to finish the last part of the worksheet. The girl at this point really acted out for her normal behavior. She just got up and left the table and went back to her seat. I reacted very calm and I asked her to please come back to the table because she was not finished. When she sat back down she said that she didn't have to do what I told her. But I just sat there with her until she did it all correctly.
After my lesson the other 2 students in the class had their reading lesson and they had a spelling test. I watched them take it and the words were "bat", "hat", and "go". These were just half of the words and I thought it was very interesting because one of the students could not spell "bat" but she could spell "hat". These are simple rhyming words which i found interesting why she couldn't spell them correctly. I felt really good because I helped one boy with his math worksheet because the teacher had handed it back twice and he was not understanding what he was doing wrong and starting to become frustrated so I talked it through with him. I was able to get him to see what he was supposed to do and he could do it on his own.

week 8 post

Before watching the video three things that I thought of that are good to know for a parent- teacher meeting are to be prepared prior to the meeting. Come ready to talk to the parents about the student and make sure that you really know the student well. As a teacher you should have thought about and prepared the positives of the students, what they have done well, as well as some things that need work in the classroom. The final thing that a teacher should know before meeting with the parents is to make sure that you are ready to talk to the parent. You do not want to offend anyone or make the parent become defensive of their child. You want the parents to take in the feedback and be able to respond to that, just like every teacher wants a student to do.

After watching the video I learned that it is very important to know exactly where the child stands according to the benchmark. For the conference be prepared with work that the student has done and be ready to show the good parts of the work ( how the student accels in the class) and where the student may need some more work. You must act professional with the parent, make sure that the meeting is from informal for the parent, so that the parent knows exactly what is going on in the classroom. Another tip for parent teacher conferences is to have a list of suggestions ready on how to help their student improve in the classroom for the parents before the meeting begins.

Kirk, S., Gallagher, J, Coleman, M., & Anastasiow, N. (2009). Educating Exceptional Children (12th ed.). Kentucky: Cengage Learning. Retrieved October 22, 2009, from http://college.cengage.com/education /kirk/educating/12e/resources/video_cases.html

This video reflected the chapters that we had to read for class that day, which were chapters 7 and 8, children with communication, language, and speech disorders and children with autism spectrum disorder because it talked about communication with parents. The chapters talked about the effects these disorders have on children in classrooms. The video was more just focused on communication with parents, which of course is very important, but does not reflect the chapter that well. Communication with parents that have children with any sort of disorder is very important. It is neccessary in order to give the students the best learning possible.

The most challenging aspect about communicating with parents is getting the parents cooperation. Some parents may not be as involved in their child's learning and education at a young age as other parents are so you have to hope that parents will be willing to listen to the places for improvement and hope they will actually try and work with their child at home. Other parents may see their child as being a bright student and nothing less, this causes for some problems as well.

Students with communication, language, and speech disorders will have trouble communicating and that is key for school and learning, therefore students will need help and patience from the teacher and students. Children with any of these disorders may be difficult to understand or may not understand other people or readings that they do.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder lack the theory of mind. It is more difficult for them to understand certain concepts. Autism hinders the ability to understand other people around them. Children with autism will also have difficulty using their motor skills, their ability may range.

Week 7

Today at learn and serve I talked with the teacher about plans for next week because I am going to be doing a lesson with the kids. I had brought my own book that I picked out. It is a Clifford book of the puppy days called "Halloween Howl". The teacher wants me to do a lesson so that the students can discuss the events of the beginning, middle, and end of the story. I'm going to make up my own worksheet to hand out to the students with lines and questions that will prompt the students to write about the events.

Before library I worked with one student while he did a simple math worksheet. This student is the farthest behind in the class. The math problems were simple addition facts. When he came over to me he had 3 questions done, and each answer was wrong. One question was 2+2 and he answered 8. What I did was I showed him how to use his fingers or a visual. I was not sure how the students were taught to do addition but I figured this was the best way to start out for now. I got him to realize how to count up. Once he was able to answer a couple of the questions on his own, I had him count up and try it without his fingers. He struggled a little more with this, I think because he was trying to guess rather than actually try but every time he was much closer to the answer.

While the students had library and read about a principle that wore different ties for every feeling and event, I talked with the teacher to get some more details about each of the students IEPs. I learned of some new methods that the teachers use with these students as a better aid to learning. One is TouchMath. This method in math is that each number has dots that can be used to count. As the student has to add the number they can add the "dots" on the number instead. Another method that was mentioned is called Handwriting without Tears but the teacher was not able to tell me too much about that program. What we did talk about was the FastForWord that the students go to. I have heard of this program before but she told me a little more about it. The program is especially essential for these students because it focuses on phonetics and it allows the students to hear how words and letters are correctly pronounced. This helps the students who especially have problems in speech.

Chapter 7 talks about language and speech. Which fits in with a few of the students in my classroom. Some of them are pulled for speech therapy because pronunciation is difficult for them. I have seen a lesson done with the teacher and two students with words broken down to few letters so they can sound out the word. But FastForward is the best program to help students that may struggle with language or speech because they are able to hear how words sound phonetically. They can learn to pronounce words correctly, spell the words and read them. The program is really effective overall in the language department. None of the students have such a hard time communicating or speaking that they cannot communicate but for some students they do and the books spells out the language development for kids so one can see where a child may have fallen off track and needed extra help.

Week 7 quiz

What kind of activity is this? This activity is interactive and stimulates creative story ideas.

How does it challenge you? This activity is challenging because it takes a student out of their comfort zone. It makes you think outside the box and put all of your ideas verbally into words rather than on paper.

What background knowledge are you using to complete this activity? You need background knowledge on ideas of stories and how to speak well into a voice recorder/camera.

What kind of activity is this? This activity is a brainstorming activity.

How does it challenge you? This activity forces you to first come up with and draw an object that you find important and then come up with the 4 ideas we have discussed in class and from there list descriptors of each.

What background knowledge are you using to complete this activity? The background knowledge needed for this activity is first the 4 disabilities that we have discussed in class and then descriptions of each.

How much do you love this Blackboard compared to the other Blackboard? This blackboard is more reliable and does not involve technology going wrong, that is why this blackboard is better.

She Stoops to Conquer

What kind of activity is this? This activity makes you think about what words make cause problems for other students and which ones should be payed close attention to. It also makes you think outside the box by having you come up with songs for the characters. It opens learning up to students that may learn better with audio.

How does it challenge you? It makes you think outside the box and not just about you as a student but everyone else as a student and what may be difficult for someone else to know or understand.

Who is our “audience” and what do they like? What kind of music, images, sounds? Our audience are high school students. They will be interested in seeing pictures and hearing sounds that will go along with what they are learning. High school students all learn in a different way and especially for high school students lectures and reading packets instantly bore the students, they need something different.

Vocabulary by Act
Act I
Discretion- pg 2 line 30
Consumptive- pg 2 line 53
Paltry- pg 3 line71
Pewter- pg 3 line74
Superfluous- pg 4 line 91
Squire- pg 9 line 6
Act II
Militia- pg 15 line 20
Quarrelling- pg 16 line 52
Extravagant- pg 17 line 70
Attentive- pg 16 line 39
Impudent- pg 18 line 94
Act III
Propriety- pg 37 line 16
Importunate- pg 39 line 64
Procured- pg 40 line 96
Bureau- pg 43 line 168
Vex- pg 44 line 211
Obstropalous- pg 48 line 300

Act IV
Laurels- pg 52 line 34
Insolent-pg 52 line 38
Rogue- pg 52 line 43
Prudently -pg 53 line 64
Entreaty -pg 54 line 89
Act V
Peremptory- pg 66 line 15
Rebuke- pg 72 line 46
Thicket- pg 74 line 80
Levity- pg 81 line 111
Contrivances- pg 82 line 141

Songs for Characters
Hardcastle- Daddy’s little girl- Frankie J
Mrs Hardcastle- Rich Girl- Hall and Oats
Kate Hardcastle- Deceiving- Drake
Tony Lumpkin- Party Like a Rockstar- Shop Boyz
Constance Neville- Love story- Taylor Swift
Marlow- Everybody’s Fool- Evanescence
Hastings- Travel the World- Superbus
Sir Charles Marlow/Sting the landlord- Bartender song (sitting at a bar)- Rehab
Pimple the maid- Servant Song- Richard Gillard
Diggory- Tell a Country Boy- Rodney Atkins
Roger- The Plough boy
Thomas- Take a Stand- Boyzone

Week 6

This week in Learn and Serve three of the students were not there so the class was very small. Today there was very little to do with just the three students. The students had their reading group and for a little while they started their group I went on one of the classroom computers to test out some of the games that the kids like to play during their free time. Some of the games were building and matching games involving shapes and identifying objects. Another game was a math game that was a little difficult for their level because it was either making a math problem worksheet or solving math problems. The game was good though because it demonstrated adding with larger numbers and carrying over the numbers. The game had addition and subtraction. Then I was able to help Ronald with his work. He gets very frustrated if he does not get the right answers right away. I try my best to keep him calm and focused on the worksheet and help him to see that he is actually doing it correctly,even tho he does not realize it. I also talked with the teacher about putting together a short lesson plan. It is going to include a short book and then follow with a discussion about the beginning, middle, and end parts of the story. I am going to give it a Halloween theme because it will be close to Halloween when I do the lesson.
This week we read Chapter 6 which was "Children with Emotional and Behavior Disorders" this chapter really connected to my learn and serve class because all of these students have emotional and behavioral disorders. The chapter talks about how to identify students that may have this disorder, which made me wonder how the students in my class came to be diagnosed. What was the deciding factor as they were so little that made them stand out. Luckily none of the students in my class have been violent with each other or any teachers or staff. My teacher has also informed me that none of them are quite severe enough so there is no worry. A student or two has the chance that if the case becomes severe enough little violence may occur but she says that she has already seen improvement in their control. The chapter talks about the ways to help the student control their behaviors, which I found very interesting because I thought that controlling their behavior themselves would be a problem for the students with emotional and behavior disorder. But the books gives different ideas on how the student can notice their behavior and start to control it. I wonder how this would work in my classroom

Week 5

Today in class we hiked down and across the gorge by the falls. While we were walking we discussed some topics that were in the Chapter about students that were classified as IDD. Some things that we started talking about that had to do with children with IDD were the "qualificaitons" such has having difficulty with conceptual skills as well as social skills and practical skills. As we walked we also talked about the support that is neccessary for students with IDD. We also discussed different ways to help these students in the classroom and our walk was supposed to be an example of a way to help out a student that may struggle. It is a different way of learning and it allows them to be able to stand out for once. Our walk started out exciting as we walked across the street some guy driving down the street flicked us off. Once we got to the bottom of the gorge we paused in certain areas to discuss the chapter. While we walked we had to take pictures that would create a story that we made up. We were also told to pick up a rock and throw it in the water to relieve all stress with it. Everyone also had a chance to walk away from everyone else and take 5 minutes to sit in peace and quiet. We walked against the steam because having any type of disability forces a child to overcome so many obstacles that are put on them by being born with that disability and being "different" from the other students.

I enjoyed the walk. I thought it was a good idea. It was a different way of learning and it allowed everyone to get fresh air and talk and learn about IDD is a setting other than a classroom.

This week in learn and serve there was not much to do in the classroom for a little while until the students had independent work. I went to their desks and helped them finish thier work. Then I took 3 of the students aside to do a reading worksheet. The students had to read a short paragraph and answer questions that followed. I had each student read a sentence and then they each read a question. As the students found the answer to the question I had each student point out where they found the answer in the reading. All of the students did very well with this. Then the students were at their seats again. They had two more assignments to do and they all struggled with them. One was a simple writing assignment but the second was a counting money worksheet and this one caused the most problems. I had trouble trying to help all of the students at the same time. None of them knew the values of each coin or how to count them. I felt terrible because as I was helping the students I had to leave because my time was up and I had stayed an extra 15 minutes to help. The students were very excited though because the Zoomobile was coming to the school later on that day and based on the students beahavior they would be allowed to see the animals and everyone in my class was allowed to.

Extra Credit

She Stoops to Conquer:
1. a) Setting: Year 1773 (18th century) Hardcastle’s home in a city near London.

b) Characters: Mr. & Mrs. Hardcastle
Tony- Mrs. Hardcastle’s son from a previous relation
Kate- Mr. & Mrs. Hardcastle’s daughter
Constance Neville- Mrs. Hardcastle’s niece
Sir Charles Marlow- A friend of Mr. Hardcastle
Mr. Charles Marlow- Sir Marlow’s son
Mr. George Hastings- Mr. Marlow’s friend/ seeking relations with Miss. Neville

c) Plot: The play starts out with Kate and Mr. Marlow being set up on a blind date. Tony misleads Mr. Marlow to believe they are inn keepers and he is staying at an inn. With Mr. Marlow is Mr. George Hastings. George finds out that they are not at an inn they are really at the Hardcastle’s home, but decides not to tell Mr. Marlow. Kate enjoys Mr. Marlow’s company and does not tell him where they are. Miss. Neville and Mr. Hastings are planning to run away together. Sir Marlow shows up and Mr. Hardcastle figures out what is going on and Kate finally tells Mr. Marlow the truth. Mr. Hastings and Miss. Neville are finally together in the end.

2. To create a student guide for a high school student with a learning disability you would give them the background of the story, along with each of the characters and their role in the play. Another resource that may be helpful to students would be a short description of historical background about the 18th century in London. You would do this so that a student could easily follow the plot and gain the knowledge they need to see the general idea of the play. If the student will only have limited time to read the play before their classmates move onto the next play, you could add the general idea or questions to help the student reach the idea in the end in a more idealistic time frame.