A Taste of Reality 2nd visit
A.
This is going to be an experience that will taste my restraint and ability to step aside. The teacher is driving me crazy without meaning to. He is overwhelmed and probably close to being burned out by this experience. I came into the class on Thursday with the intention of doing an interest inventory with the students and finding out the teacher’s opioinion of differentiated teaching and universal design. I also went in with the intention of asking if I could work assisting the students with their IEP goals. None of these things happened on this day in the classroom.
The first thing that happened when I came in was I actually asked the paraprofessionals their names because we weren’t actually introduced. Paraprofessional 2 and the other is Paraprofessional 1 both seem to interact well with the students. Paraprofessional 1 was setting up for the class while Paraprofessional 2 was on the computer and texting. I asked the teacher about what the students are able to do once they finish their assignment outside of choice time. The problem for me is that the students in the first period have a 15-25 minute instruction before switching classes. The assignment time that I have seen is 5-10 minutes the rest of the time is choice time. The second period is 90 minutes long their instruction time is maybe 20-30 minutes (at least for the two times that I have been in the classroom). That is the reason I had so many questions about the differentiated instructions and universal design. To me it seems like if this is the math and life skill class they could be doing more. He told me the students don’t have the attention span for much.
The next thing is, I was aggravated when I asked about assisting with IEP goals because he cut me off early. He let me know that the information was private. His attitude seemed to be on the defense so I dropped the subject and was about to ask about doing the interest inventory when he began talking to paras about the work he needed done. He was about to teach a life skill lesson and was not prepared. He asked me about my schedule because I come on Thursday mornings. He feels as though I would do better to come in the afternoon when the students really need direct instruction. Now keep in mind he has a para in the afternoon and one-on-one’s in the classroom to aid.
B. Honestly my feelings about the classroom are very conflicting. The only person in the classroom out of the adults that seems to be genuinely interested in the students is Paraprofessional 1. The teacher seems to care but in a distant manner Paraprofessional 2 seems to like the kids but does not really want to be bothered so right now I’m doing her job without the pay for the morning. It really aggravates me because this is the beginning of the day so if you are lazy and distracted in the morning how are you in the afternoon. But I will say that maybe when she is in another classroom she has a different personality. Looking at the paraprofessional’s in the classroom I see two different types I see a hands on and a hands on when I feel like it. Honestly, which one would you want in the classroom with the students. The teacher seems to just have given up and just lets it be. With me being in the classroom it seems as though he feels like I’m the new paraprofessional. Right now what I am seeing is teaching me to do the opposite. He has the students in small groups of low functioning and higher functioning but does not know how to adapt materials.
C. Adapting material should not be that hard at least for the activity he was doing on this day. He taught a lesson on looking up phone numbers for the both classes. Here is a visual of how the worksheet was set up.
Name
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Phone Number
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Address
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Pg. Number
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1.
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2.
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3.
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The majority of the students seems to have gross motor skills but probably is working on the fine motor skills. The boxes were not big enough to write the entire phone number with area code without going into the next box the same with the address. Can you picture how this worksheet looked once the student finished writing on it? The worksheet was supposed to hold up to eight people but he only expected them to do two. In the first period and second period the lower functioning group finished their assignment because they did the cut and paste version. The higher functioning group had 2-3 phone books between 6-7 students. The first period had Professional 2 with one group for 15 minutes they looked up two names and went to choice time, same thing with the group I worked with. The second period worked in the same manner but the time frame was different this group had 90 minutes but were only expected to do two names. The para stayed with the group for 15 minutes probably helped them do two names. After they finished the two names she went to lunch, I put two more names on the board for the students to look up. They looked them up while the teacher looked confused because I extended his lesson by maybe 2-3 minutes. The students were aggravated because they didn’t have enough room to write their information. They didn’t want their papers to be messing when they finished up to number four they went to choice time then lunch.
D. I feel overwhelmed and aggravated. My mind is questioning do the parents know or care that the students really aren’t learning anything. I’m aggravated because it seems like he does not think the students can do more. I watched the teacher make the worksheet, would it have been too much trouble to extend and widen the boxes to accommodate the students. I almost feel like me asking questions bother him. I watched one child have a meltdown, hit me and the para, but he did calm the child down. That was the most emotion he should the entire day. After that he was back to being nonchalant the class is bored and the paras have free rein. What I’m supposed to do? I don’t know where to start, which direction to take, I wonder if the kids are being prepared for transition to high school or anything, can I ask? I just need some direction
