Managing Student Behavior

This week we talked a lot about managing student behaviors. We also went over the 13 categories of disabilities.

We talked about managing student behavior, which is so important for teachers to know about and to understand.  I feel like I have never been very good at responding to student misbehavior. I love that in the description for the Danielsen Framework (2D) it says, “Accomplished teachers try to understand why students are conducting themselves in such a manner…and respond in a way that respects the dignity of the student”. This is something that I want to work on. When I am in the moment, I always forget to think about why the student is misbehaving and I focus more on the behavior itself. Sometimes I think that I don’t go a great job of respecting the dignity of the student who is misbehaving because I am so focused on correcting the misbehavior. I understand that behaviors need to be responded to as quickly as possible, but sometimes I am not sure how to address certain behaviors that occur in the classroom. We talked about being able to catch the student doing something good, which I think can really go a long way in helping to build the self esteem of a child.

Talking about each category was very helpful to me. It is good to know what disabilities fall under every category. I feel that overall, I have learned so much about how to help and care for individuals with different disabilities of varying degrees. There was so much that I did not know! And so much that I still don't know! I realize now how important it is for general education teachers to be well versed in all kinds of disabilities in order to be able to help each student.

Guidelines for teaching one another

1. How do you feel about your lesson delivery and why? Was it effective, why or why not? I feel like our lesson went very good! Having the video simulation of what those who have ADD or ADHD go through everyday was very effective! I think that also having the statistics also helped show the class how common this disability is, so overall I feel it was a very effective lesson!
2. What evidence do you have (while delivering your lesson) of effective student engagement? Our students were very engaged as a group and discussing the video questions and discussing how hard it was to focus while watching the simulation activity.  
3. If you were to teach this lesson by yourself, not in a group, what would you change and why? If I were to teach this lesson by myself I would try to have a more hands on activity along with the video. Maybe while the video was going I would have the class do an activity and see how hard it was for them to concentrate with the loud noises and bright images on the screen. 
4. What could have been an area of improvement in your teaching? Honestly I think the only thing that we could have done better with is time. It is hard to explain such a common disability with only 15 minutes. There was so much more we could have said and done that we actually had to take out some information because it was just too much for the time slot. 
5. Based on the criteria for the “Teaching Experience” on our syllabus, would you give your group a 0, 5 or a 10?  Why?  AND would you give yourself a 0, 5 or a 10?  Why? I would give myself and the group a 10. It was so much fun planning this lesson with the group and the work was all very evenly distributed. Usually in group projects one person ends up doing more work or there is a slacker, but this group was awesome. We were all involved in the planning and I think it payed off. I would give myself a 10 because like I said the work was very evenly distributed.We each talked about and found research for 2 slides and it came together very nicely. 

Categories of Disabilities

This week in class we talked about the 13 categories of disabilities which include: OHI, emotional, mental, physical, language/speech, vision, hearing, ASD, Deaf/blind, developmentally delayed, orthopedic, traumatic brain injury, and multiple disabilities. I had no idea that there were so many different categories that disabilities could be categorized under. It was interesting to see what disabilities fell under which categories.

This weeks reading was about responding to student behavior. The reading taught me how I can/should respond to major and minor behavior problems. For managing minor problems it is important to catch them being good. Often times children act out because they aren't getting enough attention. If we as teachers catch them doing good things, we need to make sure that we acknowledge that and tell the student that we are proud and recognize his good behavior. For major behavioral problems I think the most important thing to do is understand why the student is acting in such a way, and then kind of go form there with how to respond depending on the situation. Peers can be a great way to help better student behavior in the classroom. You can have the students work in pairs and you could pair the student who has behavioral problems with a very well mannered student.

Behaviors and Review

     This week we learned about behavior of students and how to correct them to create positive behaviors. One thing that I thought was quite interesting was the different types of time out that can be implemented. I always thought of time out as just one thing and now I realize that there are so many different variations that can be used based on the child.
     Also reinforcers are something that need to be understood when dealing with children or a group that you want to behave properly. You need to know when to use them and when to take them away. As a teacher the plans that you make need to help with behavior need to include the reinforcers. Once you have created a plan you need to make sure that you observe the progress that a student makes while the plan is implemented. I like to think of these plans as IEP but for behavior. That's what I relate them to. They are also run a lot like and IEP. A group even gets together to create them for a student and then meets if changes need to be made to the plan that has been created and implemented for them.
     Also we reviewed in class all of the different disabilities and the types of disabilities that we have talked about this semester. It was fun to review these things and realize how far I have come this semester and how informed I have become as I have learned about special needs and special education. I feel that because of this class I will better be able to help my students because I have caught a glimpse of special needs and the role that I need to play. Also I have realized that my learning does not stop here in this class. Special needs and special education are always changing rapidly and I need to make sure that I take the time to study up on the changes so that I can be the teacher that my students deserve. I started out not liking this class and now I love it and all that it had taught me this semester. It has even taught me how to be a better student.

Learning Disability Experience

     For this experience I asked for help at the library to find a book and I went to a place and asked what hours they are open. When I asked for the hours I failed and ended up using a word with n in it. I had even planned out what I was going to say in my head before and I still failed after a very long awkward pause of trying to figure out what I was going to say to the person. When I asked for help finding the book I did a lot better and actually succeeded but I still had some awkward pauses and my sentences were not quite normal either. At first the girl was a bit confused on what I was even asking and then she figured it out thankfully because I could not think of another way to word my question.
     From this experience I feel like I was better able to understand what happens in a child's mind that has a learning disability. The world is moving so fast around you and the only way to get it to slow down is to ask but that is never a fun thing to do in front of your peers. I felt confused and my mind started racing trying to figure out what to stay and I still failed which was so frustrating. I honestly felt a little dumb because I could not think of any words to replace the words that I wanted to use to complete my thoughts. I also felt embarrassed because I could tell that the people that I was talking to were confused and that they didn't completely understand me.
     This has opened my eyes and made me realize that as a teacher I need to make sure that I slow down and give enough time for all of my students to understand what is being taught. I think to accomplish this I will need to provide a lot of scaffolding and also try to do small group instruction as often as I can so I can meet the individual needs of my student. Just because they may have a learning disability doesn't mean that they can't succeed they just may need a little more help or just simply for the teach to slow down a little bit.
     Although I learned quite a bit from this experience I feel like it would be more beneficial to have to write something without using l and n instead of going and speaking to someone and then having to document the time that you spent on it. I think it could be like a half page to a full page and maybe even a paper about yourself. Even then you might have to not even use your name because it cold contain l and n. Just a suggestion but it was a cool experience and I did learn from it.

Lesson 6/7 Blog

     I really enjoyed how the low incidence and high incidence disabilities were taught. I enjoyed teaching and also learning from my classmates. The disability that my group taught was learning disabilities. It was fun to teach this disability because it is an umbrella that encompasses so many common disabilities. Learning about these disabilities made me have more sympathy. I have always been pretty good at school. School is easy for me. It honestly just makes sense. Through learning about learning disabilities I was better able to understand others that I know some that are even close to me. I realize now that school can be a challenge and that we need to be willing to help those that are struggling and not just expecting them to do it on their own.
     I really enjoyed how we learned form others as well. I think having to teach and learn made us more active learners because it made us realize the preparation that other groups had to do because we had to do it as well.
     I really enjoyed that each group had to do something to model their disability. I really enjoyed the emotionally disturbed M&Ms modeling activity. It really showed me how frustrating it can be for students with disabilities if things are being done in a way that is frustrating to the way that they think and feel.
     I also really enjoyed the modeling activity for poverty. It really helped me to visualize how it must feel or even just how life is for those that are living in poverty. I honestly never thought of poverty as a disability until it was taught to me this semester and I realize that it is. I was so blessed to have the home that I had, the education that I have, and the life that I have.
     As I have learned about these disabilities I feel like we are all disabled in some way. This makes me realize that as a society we need to be more sympathetic to those that are around us because we all struggle in some way. It also made me realize the why of differentiated instruction on a deeper level. It is really needed to meet the needs of all students not just the ones with more prominent disabilities. All disabilities are important and have impacts on the people that have those disabilities.

Stuttering Experience

     This experience was actually one that I struggled to want to do because I knew that I would feel really awkward. For this experience I called and ordered a pizza and then went to an ice cream shop to get ice cream. When I called to order the pizza the girl treated me completely normal. I was actually really impressed with her because I thought that I was hard to understand and she understood me completely and was very kind to me. Halfway through our call the connection was lost and I had to start all over but the same girl answered the phone and was still very kind to me as I ordered my pizza. Honestly for me what I learned from this experience is how weird it must feel to not be able to say the things that you want to say in a quick and concise manner. It was frustrating for me to have to stop and think about how to say things and to wonder if she will even understand me or if I will have to try again.
     At the ice cream place the lady was nice to me and answered my questions but she had a really uncomfortable expression on her face. I could tell that she just wanted to get through my order quickly and let me be on my way. It wasn't that she wasn't being kind it was just that she felt uncomfortable and I could tell that she felt that way. I'm sure that it is hard for people who have a stutter and that they may get this uncomfortable look often.
     Because of my experiences I have been on the lookout for people that fit these disabilities. My husband and I played kickball together this semester and one of the games managers had a stutter. Since I had done these experiences I had more sympathy for him and also wanted to treat him the same way as anyone else because that is how I wanted to be treated when I did the experience. People who stutter look just like regular people. What really is regular people anyways? All I know is that we are all children of God and that is what matters. This is what these experiences and this class help me to see and also come to know.
Here is a really cool video that my sister showed me. I think that it is really inspiring. It is true that things can happen that could cause us to have disabilities so we need to treat people the way that we want to be treated because it could happen to us someday.