Learn & Serve 11/19

Today I went to make up the learn and serve that I missed on Tuesday because of the home opener basketball game, I know im such a devoted fan! When I got to learn and serve the students were working on three letter sight words with the teacher. Then we split into math groups I worked with the second graders like normal on their place values. Some of the students were taken out of class for testing throughout the time I was there. When my group was done they went to the computers and I worked with some of the first grade group on using blocks that represented their place values and numbers. Then it was time for social studies, they sat at one table and took a quiz about Thanksgiving on the smartboards. After this they went over the different kinds of food that go with the season and what colors they were so they could color when they got back from lunch. When they were done with that they washed their hands and got ready for lunch. Time today seemed to go pretty quickly and the students weren't too bad, they were a little thrown off because their aid that is usually in the class everyday had her baby on sunday so they have a new aid and they do not know her. I think that for students such as the ones in my learn and serve class, comfort and change are two big things that they find difficult.

Blog for class 11/2

Today in class, we were only in class for an hour. We picked partners to do partner crituqes, I am working with Dallan and Alyssa. One we were done going over the instructions for that assignment we were split into groups by our major and then broken into smaller groups and assigned our portfolio project, which is going to be our final. We were given the rubric cut into pieces and had to try and piece it together. Then we worked with out group to decide how we we were going to hand in our portfolio without using any paper, only technology. My group decided to make another blogger account and make entries for each of the topics we are responsible for. Once we were done with that, class was over. My group is meeting later next week to work on our portfolio and hopefully finish it.

Week 10 & Learn and Serve 11/3

1.) Today in class we met adults from opportunities unlimited. They were all adults with cognitive and developmental disabilities. I worked in a group with Dallan and Jerilyn. We got paired up with one of the adults from opportunities unlimited and had to find some way to represent a good work quality and a bad work quality. We went and got cookies and showed Ben the radio station in gally. When we left there we went to the class to work at the stations. We wrote about our day, played with playdoe, built a fort and did a worksheet on intellegences. When the adults left, we cleaned up and started our blogs until class was over.

2.) Describe your experience:

What did you notice?

I noticed that the adults were very excited to be doing the things we were doing. In the first station we went to and had to write a story, Ben didn't have to do this with us but wanted to write.

How did you feel?

Class made me feel good, I enjoyed working with Ben. I was a little nervous at the beginning because i didn't know what we were going to do for our assignment and then we had to try and help Ben do it.

3.) Connect to text:

Class this week connected to chapter 9 because we talked about multiple intelleginces and we also adapted the lessons and activities for the adults with cognitive and developmental disabilities. When we had our time to go anywhere on campus with our groups we had to use technology and in this chapter they talk about adaptive technology. We had to take video's or pictures showing our working habits.

4.) Critique:

The activities we did today were not well organized but I think that was good. I think that having them be more borad allowed us to make it our own in a way. When we went off to a place on campus with our groups we were able to do what we wanted while showing specific work habits we weren't told you have to do this and do it this way. This is preparing us to be teachers, you are going to have requirments of what material to teach, now its your chance to make the material apealing to the students. There was a point behind each activity and if you could project that point in your own way as a group I think that you successfully completed each activity. I really didn't see a problem with any of the individual activities we worked on today.

5.) Visually impaired students:

The activities we did might be benificial to students who are visually impaired in more than one way depending on what activities you did. First we went to the station where you had to write a story about your day, this might be benificial for a visally impaired person because its allowing you to kind of see the story with words not your sight. The second station we went to was the building a fort or house one, this was hands on and might allow the visually impaired person to use their hands as their eyes and make something. Third we went to the playdoh station, this did not have a lot to do with vision it was a hands on activity that would allow a visually impaired person to use their hands to feel the texture along with the shape of different objects and models that you could make.

4.) Learn & Serve:

Today at learn and serve I met the class in their classroom. Then we went to the library. Today they worked in the library on the computers, using the program fastforward. I walked around and got to see the student playing the different interactive games, this program is really interesting and the students loved doing it. Once they were done with their games they picked out a book, signed it out and were told to sit on the carpet. This is when they day really went down hill, the students were fighting and screaming and out of control. We got them to calm down and we went back to the classroom. They were told again to sit on the carpet and didn't follow directions. After they were yelled at and some of them were punished, they split up to do math. I worked with the second graders like I usually do, they were over all good. The one student who I usually have difficulties with was showing some improvement, he would tell me the answer it was just a matter of putting the answer on paper that he struggled with. Two of the students flew through the worksheets and went to the computers and the other student worked with me and did very well. Then they went to the carpet to read and were once again out of control. The teacher wrote one of the students up and took him out and asked me to sing songs with the students. Me and one of the students picked out two songs and sang them with the class. When the teacher got back, we got the students lined up for lunch and walked them to lunch.

Week 9 Post & Learn and Serve 10/20

1.) Learn & Serve:

This week at learn and serve, the students were terrible. I went to learn and serve and the class was in the Media Center or the Library like they usually are. When i got there, they had two new students and they were supposed to be watching a movie. The movie playing was Arthur, but the students were more concerned with the new girl in their class than they were with the movie. Some of them were put on computers to do "Fast Forward" which helps students with their listening and following directions while playing games. The rest of the students watched the movie and one by one got to go pick out their books for the week. When we got back to the room we sat on the carpet and listened for directions, the students were acting out and doing things, like fighting that they knew were unacceptable. Once the finally calmed down and were listening they were sent to their math tables. I once again worked with the second graders learning greater than, equal and less than symbols and when to use each of them. One student flew through this, another one of the boys knew how to do this with my help for each problem but there were two other students who were acting out. One of them just wouldnt do the work while the other one knew how to do it but just didn't want to follow directions. When the students were done with that assignment they went onto matching their addition problems with letters that were followed by their answers. The same general pattern went with the students, some were quick with this others needed assistance while others decided they were going to be helpless. When they were done with math they went to the carpet for reading time and each read their books they had picked out at the library. The student that I was working with, who decided not to follow directions the entire time we were doing math then threw a tempertantrum. He was kicking things and hitting things and continued to do so after the teacher talked to him. Then he threw a pencil followed by a chair into the carpet area where the students were reading their books. This is when the teacher directed myself and the other aid to take the student to lunch she called for assistance and delt with the situation. This was the first real incident that made me realize the extreme challenges of working with students placed in a self-contained classroom. This was eye opening because the teacher who has been teaching for so many years has learned to put aside their feelings for the students with struggles and knows how to handle the students, she had to scream at him to get his attention while in a regular classroom that wouldn't be necessary or even acceptable to the extreme it was taken at my placement.

2.) Connection to Chapter Eight:

In my learn and serve there are a variety of different disabilities at all different levels. All of the students have an IEP whick is discussed in this chapter, their families and educators work with the student to assure the best possible learning environment for the student. This can be difficult with a class like mine because there are so many students with so many different needs. The teacher has learned what each student reacts to in concerns to dealing with their behaviors in that certian way, the chapter also talks about the different treatment plans for students with autism spectrum disorder.

3.) Have you ever spent time with an adult with a cognitive or developmental disability? if yes, describe and explain.

I have spent time with an adult with cognitive or developmental disabilities on more than one occasion. First was when i visited my grandparents in florida one of my mom's cousins has a cognitive disability. That was the first experience I had faced and was kind of shy about it. I didn't know how to act around him or what to say. My second experience was with Special Olympics in the spring of 2009. We worked with a large group of cognitive and developmentally disabled people (mainly adults) teaching them to play basketball and training them for the Special Olympics event we planned at the end of the semester.

4.) New Links:

The first link we put on our blogger was CAST, this is a nonprofit research and development organization that is working to make learning opportunities better for students, particuarly those with learning disabilities. Their main focus is the Universal Design for learning. This link provides you with research and development, and policies and practices dealing with the universal design. The second link we put on blogger is, The Iris Center for Training Enhancements. This website has a variety of resources such as diversity information, learning strategies, resources dealing with the RTI model and accomidation resources. These resources include information for school leaders and teachers, give strategies and resources for different age groups as well as case studies and activities.

5.) Hearing Loss:

Students with hearing loss or impairments have a different way of communication, some use verbal communication and can read lips while others use sign language or a form of sign language. These students tend to socialize with students with similar impairments or losses. If students get the resources they need early on their academic abilities are ususally not affected in any extreme way. These students have accomidations and assistive technology that play the roll of their ears and allow them to learn like a typical student would.

6.) Differentiated Instructions for this population:

Differentiated instruction for this population would be writing lectures on paper or putting them on the computer for the students to read instead of listening. Another way of differentiated instruction would be to show the students the activities using hands on nonverbal cmmunication. Having a translator or using the microphones that are programed to the students hearingaids are also ways of differentiated instruction. Some students who are hearing impaired having note takers who sit in class and take notes during the lesson incase the students missed something important. When using music students who are hearing impaired obviously can't hear the music, a lot of times they can feel the vibrations so using music that has extreme vibrations would help these students. Also if the purpose of the music is the meaning of the lyrics, you could print the lyrics out and give them to the student ahead of time so they have an understanding of whats going on.