Teacher Interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C14wJWrvS-E&feature=youtu.be

Classroom Management Summary

After interviewing my coworker about classroom management, I was able to learn more about her take on the importance of how to successfully direct a classroom. Our textbook states "Classroom management stands out as a variable with the largest impact on student management" (Woolfolk pg 508). This explains that having a further understanding of your students and their skills can often prepare them for better success. Not only will students be more successful but it will also help with stress and exhaustion (pg 508). The goals of classroom management are access to learning, more time for learning, building relationships, and self-management. All of these parts working together will promote a complete classroom. 

Not only must you have a space that works on a schedule but it must also promote a positive environment for your student. These environments must be engaging and allow creativity. “We know students need clear goals, and examples, practice and review, active participation, and the chance to form connections.” (Woolfolk 513). As mentioned in my interview and in the textbook, establishing routines and rules is very important. This gives students guidelines and shows them what the expectations are. Teachers should set these from the beginning of the school year and enforce them year round. 

Classroom management creates a set of expectations used in an organized classroom environment. It includes routines, rules and consequences. Effective classroom management will set the way for the teacher to engage the students in learning.

Reflection and Interview

Becca has been teaching for 7 years. I work with her at Easter Seals, which is a Therapeutic behavioral school. She has worked in settings like this and understands the importance of classroom management and how students with special needs (and all students really) need routines and schedules. We started off by talking about her classroom philosophy. She explained how much she values and instills routines into her classroom. “If the child doesn't know routines you can't have expectations”. A few of her daily routines that she uses multiple times a day are quiet routines and line up routines. Becca has visuals placed all over the classroom. She says the importance of this is to limit verbal communication and to just show her students. She explained that she reviews the rules and expectations with her students frequently. She will review after breaks, long weekends, if a student misses a day, and as needed.

She begins the school year by planning activities to get the students to know routine, showing visuals, scavenger hunts to get to know the classroom, and simon says of daily and frequent routines. Another thing she and her staff will do in the beginning of the school year is reward often for positive behaviors to encourage those new routines they are establishing.

I learned about some of the routines she established daily and some she uses in the morning to get the day going. One of the routines is her hygiene and bathroom routine. She has students line up in the hallway with her students, use the bathroom, and doing their hygiene. Becca stated that this helps create a routine and get them ready for the day. 

One of the questions I was interested in knowing, as a future educator, was how she handles negative behaviors. As someone who works in the same school as her, we deal with things differently but it's great to get feedback and learn how different people do things. She handles things on a very individualized basis because her students are all on IEPs. It's important to address things in an individual way. She keeps open lines of communication with her students parents as she said most of them probably deal with similar behaviors at home. One of the things that stuck out to me is to pay attention to why the behaviors are occurring and focus on that. Why are our students doing this? It could be for attention, because they need something, or a way of communication. In her class many students act out for attention or a way or retaliation.

Becca handles disruptive students in her class room by using a lot of cues and signals between the staff. She emphasized how important it is that her staff are all on the same page and when the student needs to be removed from the situation. She utilizes breaks in the hallway as a way for the student to calm down. Some of her students experience sensory overload and sometimes a break in the hall can really help them. 

When it comes to rewards and token systems her classroom is going to start using a class Dojo. She agrees, like me, that reward systems are a great way to see a desired behavior. We both believe that they can be individualized and modified for each student. She has seen some great things come out of it. One of the things she mentioned was how they can always change, be taken away, faded, and brought back in. They aren’t long term and students NEED to learn to eventually live without them. That is our goal as educators!

My biggest take from my interview was that we need to establish routines and expectations with our students. It's very important that students have consistency but also know how to handle when things don’t always go the same. We need to make sure our students know we want and expect from them all the time so they can succeed. Another thing I learned is to always take care of yourself and leave your work at work!

Module 3

Concept 1: Goal Setting

Summary: Goal setting is a very important phase of self-management. “Some research suggests that setting specific goals and making them public may be the critical elements of self-management programs' ' (Woolfolk pg. 287). By setting goals, and announcing them,  students can potentially do better on tests than those who kept goals private. By having higher standards students can have better performance. Some of the goals mentioned in the reading are self-direction, problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, and social responsibility. 

Reflection: I believe setting goals and verbalizing them can make you achieve them more. I have seen this first hand and with my students. A lot of the students I work with need help expressing what their potential goals might be but we work with them. After students experience behaviors, we sit and talk with them. We talk with them and let them express how they are feeling. After we debrief and access, we often set goals with them. Some of these goals can be small but we try and have them set goals on how to avoid these types of serious behaviors again. We explain to them how they are unsafe and can lead to bigger issues. We like them to independently come up with some ideas on what they can do to better them self. Sometimes they like to tell us and sometimes they like to write them down and have staff read them out. Most of these goals are problem solving, communication, self-direction, and social goals. They are guided by teachers but ultimately if they want to achieve them they need to work on the goals themselves. I truly think they by saying your goals and ambitions out loud you are held more responsible for them. When it comes to my students they have now told not only themselves, but other staff, and maybe even a few peers about some positive changes they are going to make. I think by keeping it private it gives a sense of “oh well no one knows I wanted to make that change, no point in doing it now”. More people are able to keep you accountable, as well as yourself.

Concept 2: Functional Behavior Assessments

Summary: When trying to understand the “why” of maladaptive behavior, this is known as functional behavioral assessment. Teachers and behaviorists often use the A-B-C’s (antecedents-behaviors-consequences) to identify the reason behind the behaviors. By documenting these things teachers can track and find the patterns as to why these behaviors are occurring. “Many different procedures might help you find you determine the functions of a specific behavior in your classes” (Woolfolk pg. 284). A few of the ways this can be done is by interviewing your students or observing their behaviors. Teachers may also talk to the students parents to get a sense of the behaviors. Once teachers have ideas of the behaviors, they can find out why they are occurring, and then how to change or stop them.

Reflection: I have used A-B-C data many times in my current job. We usually use them when new students are entering the school or if IEPs are coming up. When a new student comes to my school many times they don’t display behaviors at first. We like to call this the “honeymoon” period. Now this doesn’t always occur, but for some it does. On the other hand students display maladaptive behaviors fairly quickly. My job as a para is to collect data for the BCBA. I am the one who observes the behaviors and fills out the A-B-C data sheet. When the behavior occurs, right down the time it first occurs, I then fill out the activity the student was participating in or what they were doing. For example, “calendar time”. I then will write down the antecedent, this means “what was happening before occurred or why the behavior started”. Then I write down the types of behaviors displayed such as hitting, kicking, throwing items, yelling etc. The last thing I write is the consequences. This is what happened after the behaviors. This could be “restraints, time away, redirection, planned ignoring. This is whatever intervention the staff used. The point of this part is to see what worked for the student. The BCBA will use all the data collected to write the students behavior plan or change the behavior plan if the current one isn’t working. The purpose of these are extremely important and vital that you collect as much data as possible. They also show why different behaviors occur and if they are escape behaviors or as Woolfolk said “The same behaviors may serve different functions for different students” (Pg. 284)

Concept 3: The Need For Communication

Summary: Communication is not just the verbal words used between students and teachers. “Communication between teacher and students is essential when problems arise” (Woolfolk Pg. 538). People communicate in a variety of ways. They do this by actions, movements, voice tone, facial expressions, and many other nonverbal behaviors. One way to communicate is by paraphrasing. This is a summary of what someone said and only uses some of what is communicated. Another thing mentioned in this section is empathetic listening. This is paying attention to another person with emotional identification, compassion, feeling and insight.

Reflection: Part of our jobs as educators and future educators is communicating. As someone who is going into Special Education, I will have students who will have a hard time communicating. My job is to show them how to communicate in a way that works for them. Some of the students I have now are nonverbal but that does not mean that they cannot understand or don’t have ways to display what they are thinking. As Woolfolk mentioned, we can often know what our students need from different displays of communication. A few of those ways are body language or actions. In my previous reflection and discussions I’ve written about maladaptive and negative behaviors. Sometimes our students display these behaviors simply because they can’t communicate their wants and needs so instead they act out and communicate with their actions. A part of our job is to teach them how to correctly show us what they need. Not only do students communicate with us, but we do with them. Everyday we communicate with them our expectations. It is so important that we tell them clearly what we expect from them and establish that from the beginning. We also must make sure we don’t over prompt them and give too much direction, especially to our non-verbal students. Some of our students are just learning how to express themselves. Communication is a lifelong skill, not only for our students but for us as well. 

Module 2

Concept 1: Learning Styles/Preferences 

Summary: Learning styles are defined as the way a student approaches learning and studying. Some concepts have little research behind them and others are based on solid studies. Learning preferences is a more accurate term because more research is done. This refers to preferred materials, lighting, food, or music you like when you study. By learning different learning styles you can determine if your students are visual or verbal learners. By helping students think about how they learn, you can help them develop self-awareness.

Reflection: I find it really important to learn how your students learn. This can promote the most success. Some students are visual learners and some are verbal. It took me a while to really find out the best way I learn and how I can have the most success with my education. I thought there was only one way and every student had to conform to the way the teacher taught. It wasn’t until I went back to school and worked in a school that I found out that teachers need to conform to the students. Although you can’t cater lessons and activities to fit the needs of all your students, you can be available to make sure they all stay on task and see how you can help to make things easier and better. This doesn’t mean that I don’t think you should challenge your students to see what they are capable of because I do think that. I don’t think as educators we should enable our students but sometimes things may be more difficult for one student than it is for another. I find myself being better at more independent work and work that is more visual than I do with lecture work. I believe that if we find a way to make school enjoyable and work for all our students we will have more success.

Concept 2: Signed Languages

Summary: Both spoken and signed languages have large vocabularies and complex grammars. The milestones for signed languages are the same as for spoken language. Children will say their first words around 12 months and will also sign their first words around the same time. Research shows that children exposed to signed and spoken language from birth do not cause a child to be delayed

Reflection: Sign language is a great tool for small children to have. Especially ones who are just learning spoken language. This gives them tools to be able to “say” what they need. Children often get frustrated because they communicate they need help or what they want. In the school I work in many students are non-verbal. Most of these students have AAC devices or have limited verbal communication. By teaching many of my students a few helpful sign language words this can help them communicate their wants and needs a little more. Sometimes their devices may not be charged or we might be doing something where they aren’t accessible so it's necessary they know simple words to communicate. Some of the words we teach them are “please, thank you, help, bathroom, sit down, stand up, food, drink, walk, play”. These simple requests and demands help my students and I communicate with each other. It also lets us pair words with signs. This can help our students learn the words but hearing them as well.

Concept 3: Social Class and Socioeconomic Status

Summary: Most people are aware of their social class and often have political power because of it even though they are not wealthy but because they may be members of an elite group. People may be aware they have groups above or below them. They may even show classism and believe they are better than some people. Socioeconomic status  is the social standing or class of an individual or group. It is measured as a combination of education, income and occupation. 

Reflection: I find it important to not only know our students' background but their families SES. This gives us more insight about them. It can also help us handle situations that may occur. It can help us know why they don’t bring in lunch, can’t afford to go on field trips, or on the opposite end why they also have new clothes. We have to approach situations with an unbiased opinion and make sure all our students aren’t aware of other students problems (unless told otherwise). We want all our students to feel comfortable in our hands and classrooms. If students are going through something at home we should be aware so we can offer help and make our class a safe space for them. SES is important for many reasons but I don’t think it should broadcasted. Even though our students go to the same school they can have completely different upbringings and their families can face different financial problems based on their SES.

Module 1

Concept 1:Teacher-Student Relationships

Summary: 

Chapter one is focused on what makes a good teacher and the impact teachers make. Woolfolk discusses on page 7 the importance of teacher-student relationships. A study done examined the connections between teacher-student relationships and engaged. By having positive relationships it was predicted the student would have higher engagement in school. The researchers also found that if teachers established a warm and caring environment and relationship students were more engaged in school. 

Reflection:

Although I haven’t done any field experience hours, I do work in a school. I work as a paraprofessional and I see every day (not now during this time off) how important teacher-student relationships are. I work in a therapeutic school for children with autism and a lot of my students have behavioral problems and rely on the support of their teachers. Most of my students need the help of their teachers to stay engaged during class every day. I’ve worked here for 2 years and have worked in 3 different classrooms with various ages and settings. One thing I’ve seen that has remained consistent is my student's needs for us to be there for them. Whether we are having a bad day or something is off, we need to remain that consistency for them. Oftentimes our students have trouble with school because it’s important to build a good rapport with them so they want to be engaged in class. One thing I always do is come into work with a positive attitude and leave all my personal business at the door. I start each day fresh. The environment I work in can be very tough and cause a lot of burn out so it’s important to come home and leave work at work. I start the new school day with a new attitude and as if nothing bad happened from the day before. This allows me to continue building those positive relationships with my students. Another thing we always do in my class is to keep learning fun. We do a lot of activities that keep the students engaged and involved. This helps with participation and makes sure they understand the lesson. 

Concept 2: Four Stages of Cognitive Development

Summary:

Piaget developed four stages of cognitive development. He developed these stages because it explains how a child constructs a mental model of the world. The first stage is infancy, which is the earliest stage on page 48. This is the sensorimotor stage because of the child's thinking involves seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and moving. The next stage is the early childhood stage on page 49. By the end of this stage, a child can use many action schemes and is moving toward mastery. The following stage is the later elementary stage on page 50 where the child has an understanding of identity and classification. The last stage is high school and college on page 53. At this stage, the focus of thinking can shift from what is to what might be. This requires the student to think and generate all possibilities for any given situation.

Reflection: 

Piaget's theories and works are significant to people who work with children, as it enables them to understand that children's development is based on stages. This helps educators understand exactly how students should be developing at certain points in their life. I do think this is important because it helps us understand the intellectual growth of children of all ages. Although this is just a guideline and a theory, I do think it is a great understanding. It can also help if children aren’t necessarily developing on what would be called a “normal” path and what we are educators can look out for. I am going into special education, so a lot of what Piaget talks about might be things I won’t see because my students will develop at different rates or might not hit certain milestones. Often times educators will use Piaget's knowledge to shape their curriculum and activities so students can grow through experience. Overall, I believe this theory is important and can help shape the way students grow and learn.

Concept 3: Self-Concept

Summary:

Self-concept refers to the mental picture of how we view ourselves. It is our attempt at how we explain ourselves to ourselves. It's the way that we organize our attitudes, impressions, and beliefs about ourselves. It is multidimensional and develops though different situations and using a variety of frames of reference. People often use verbal and non-verbal reactions from people to gauge their self-concept. This can often be the foundation for social and emotional development.

Reflection:

Having a positive self-concept is very important, especially at a young age. Growing up children are very impressionable and often have low self-esteem. Since working in the education field I’ve seen students bully other students. My first line of defense is to teach my students how wrong that is. After someone hears negative things about themselves, they tend to start believing it and that weighs heavily on how they view themselves. As educators, it is our job to truly focus on how our students view themselves and always make sure it is in a positive and uplifting light. Our job isn’t only to focus on the academics of our students but to truly lookout for the social and emotional aspects of our students as well. I think that part can often be overlooked and can really fall behind. After reading this part in chapter 3, I believe that self-concept is such an important part of who we are. People can tell you how great and smart you are but it is how you view yourself that makes a big difference.