The Past Semester

Overall, I really enjoyed my field placement classroom and I am looking forward to going back to work with the kids next semester. I feel that I learned a lot from the teacher and from the students. Working with the struggling students gave me experience in this area, including how to deal with behavior problems along with helping them understand the material being taught. I also helped the students develop their ideas and thoughts into completing problems and different writing assignments. Seeing the range of students in this second grade classroom really showed me how different a classroom can be. There will be students who understand everything and then there will be students who struggle with almost every assignment. The teacher showed me many different ways to teach the kids and just watching him was a great experience in itself.
The one disappointment that I got from the field was that I did not see much technology used with the students. However, it's a Lansing school, and they do not have the funding necessary to afford multiple types of technology. Also, I was hoping to work with some students who are more severely disabled. I wanted to see how they fit into their classroom, as well as how they worked in the special education classroom. I did work with students who were in the special education program at the school, and working with them was very helpful in my understanding of how to help and teach these students.

Technology

Over the course of the semester I have collected information on different kinds of technology that can be helpful in the classroom. In my CEP class, we had an instructor come in and talk to us about different assistive technologies that can be used in the classroom for computers. One interesting program that is free and can be downloaded online is Microsoft Reader. It is a program that reads text that is on the screen to students, a huge tool that could be useful for students with visual impairments, or for students who are just struggling with reading. The program can even work with Spanish and French languages, making it useful for ELL students. There are other programs such as this one that will read the text on the screen to students, including NaturalReader, and an add-on to Firefox that will read to the students. We also discussed some speech recognition software that can be used. Some examples include the IBM ViaVoice, along with a program withing Windows Vista, even though there have been problems that are still being worked out in the Vista program. Below are some links that can be used for information and how to use these programs.

http://www.microsoft.com/reader/downloads/pc.asp
http://www.naturalreaders.com/download.htm
http://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/918/
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/voice/viavoice/
http://www.istartedsomething.com/20060808/vista-speech-recognition-screencast/

Dynavox

Recently I went home and saw some of my kids from my summer camp. One of the kids had his dynavox with him, a tool that helps him communicate with other people. It has many different icons that he pushes on the touchscreen, and it then will "talk" from what was previously recorded. There is a section in his dynavox for the SCAMP counselors, and when he pushes one of our names it says it. Each one of us recorded our own name during the summer. It's a really cool device that helps him communicate, even though he is not always comfortable using it around people that he does not know. When he first brought it in to camp we had to encourage to show us how he uses it and what he uses it for. Now because he knows me, he will use it more willingly, which is great to see.

The Past Week

This past week in the field was interesting as I learned that two of Mr. Munson's students had been placed into the special education program at Bingham elementary. I knew about one of the students possibly being placed in the program as he was being tested a couple of weeks ago, but did not know that another student was being placed in the the program. The student that I knew was being tested is one that I help a lot on a weekly basis on almost every activity that he does. Whenever they are working on individual work, he comes over to get me to help him on his assignment. Even when I help him, he seems very unmotivated to do his work. Still, I am not surprised to see him in special needs because of the struggles that he has in multiple areas. When I talked to Mr. Munson about what will happen now, he told me that the student will be out of the classroom and in a different one for about 3 hours each day, working on mainly literacy and math during that time he is gone. These are the two areas that I have mainly seen him work in, and I definitely agree that he needs extra help and attention in his work. I look forward to seeing if he improves in these areas at all over the final couple of weeks.

In The Field

The past couple of times in the field, I have had the opportunity to work with students either individually or in small groups out in the hallway. We have worked on literacy skills and math skills. With literacy, we worked on reading short stories in some of the language arts textbooks. When I have groups of 2 or 3, I have the students take turns reading pages aloud. We would read the story 2 or 3 times, then go over some of the words that they had trouble reading. The kids were more involved in this reading because there were only a few of them and they were, for the most part, constantly reading. I have also helped some students in their individual writing, mainly helping the students who struggle more in the classroom. Both circumstances were good experiences because I am helping students who are struggling in the classroom. I can use what I learn from these experiences when I have my own special education class because there are going to be some similarities in some of the kids.

Different Types of Technology

Recently in my special education classroom, we watched a video that covered many different interesting types of technology available for people with special needs. I was truly surprised by some of the technologies that are out there. The video was called Freedom Machines. One of the technologies that is talked about is a speech program for the computer. It was interesting to see, though, because it involved a student that was in college and how she used it to write her papers, etc. Another machine that was mentioned was the JAWS program, which reads information on the computer screen to the user. Another interesting technology that was talked about is how a keyboard was programmed with larger keys because the man's daughter could only use her fists. Programs that go along this include intellikeys, which also uses bigger letters. These are technologies that I have heard of before, but it was interesting to see how people use them in their own unique way.
There were also some technologies that I was more unfamiliar with. One of the technologies that is talked about is a scanner that works with the computer that enlarges print for the reader. Examples that are used in the video including books and mail, and this program can definitely be useful for many different types of print. Finally, one thing that really stood out to me was a wheelchair that worked in a way that locked its wheels and rotate to move it up a flight of stairs (this is kind of hard to explain in writing). Some of this technology can be useful in a special education classroom, which is why the movie was so interesting to me. Trying to incorporate technology into my classroom is important to me, so knowing what is available and how its used is obviously something that is important for me to know.
http://www.freedommachines.com/

Week in the Field

I have still not heard whether or not the student that I previously talked about has been placed in special education. In the field, I find myself helping him a lot on his work. Part of it is because I know he needs the help as he is usually the farthest behind on his work. Another reason is because whenever we start a new activity or assignment, he immediately comes over to ask me for help. He definitely needs extra help in many areas of his learning to help him improve. He does not get much out of whole class instruction. Motivation is also still an issue with him as even when I help him he seems very disinterested in what he is learning. I plan on continuing to help him with his work, but also to try and find ways to get him more into what he is doing so he can begin to improve.

Waiting...

Also, I am waiting to hear on whether or not one of the students in the classroom has been placed into special education yet. He was tested on Monday...

Al Capone Does My Shirts

The past few days I read the children's book Al Capone Does My Shirts for me TE 448 class, the second level of a children's literature class. This book was very interesting as it dealt with the main character, Moose, and his sister Natalie, who in today's world would be diagnosed with autism. However, the book was set in the 1930's, so there was no diagnosis for her at the time. Her mother treated her as if she could be "cured," and did not accept her for who she really was as an individual. She had some remarkable talents, mainly in math as she could do multiplication problems in her head very easily, counted extremely fast, and had a great memory when it came to numbers. However, her mom wanted her to be a normal part of society and would stop at nothing until she got her into a school that could help her. Only in the end does Moose help her realize that she needs to do what is best for Natalie as her own individual, and to stop trying to make her into something that she is not.
I bring this up because special education is something that I feel very strongly about, especially in the school systems. In my second grade classroom at Bingham Elementary, over half of the students are below level, some needing special services. However, I wonder if the faculty is fully taking advantage of their strengths. They are always trying to teach these children things such as reading, math, etc, which is of course understandable as it is essential for the development. I wonder, though, if there is a better way to reach out to these kids in order to peak their interest in the material, maybe somehow relate the information to their backgrounds, or just in any way that could help them become more motivated in what they are learning. It could be as simple as finding the right children's book for some of the students. The teacher in the classroom has too many kids to really make an effort at this, and does an excellent job teaching his students in the first place. But his objective is to get them up to level by the time the year is over, which just makes me wonder if there is an easier way to get this done...

The past week...

This past week in the field I witnessed a few interesting things in my 2nd grade classroom. First of all, I noticed one of the students has two hearing aids that he wears only some of the time, which of course is a form of assistive technology. Whenever he is questioned about them by other students, though, he tells them that he is listening is to music and does whatever he can to play if off as if it's nothing at all. I talked to him about it just a little bit, being careful not to question him too much about it so that he would not be uncomfortable. This kind of shows me the environment in the school as a whole, especially because it is an inner city school.



I also talked to the teacher about one of his students being tested for special education on this coming Monday. He mentioned about how much he struggles, mainly in reading and writing. I have noticed this as well as I have helped him numerous times catch up when the class is doing a whole class writing lesson. He focuses extremely hard on the spelling and mechanics of everything that he does not comprehend much about what he is writing. I have not had the opportunity to work with him individually yet, but I hope to do so just to see how he works with someone directly helping him. According to the teacher, he will almost definitely be placed into special eduction once he has taken the placement tests.

Special Education Room

The past Thursday in the field I was able to spend some time in the special education classroom that some of the students in my field classroom go to to work on reading skills. When I was in there, the students mainly partner up with a teacher, parapro, or helper and read with them. I spent about 30 minutes reading with one of the students in my field classroom. It was my first time in a while being in a special education classroom in an elementary school because I usually am in a high school setting because that is what I want to teach. The fact that they only read during this time was a little disappointing to me, I thought more would be taking place to help them. However, I was only there for a short period, so maybe different things take place throughout the day. Also, the kids who were in the classroom needed extra help on reading in order to improve, so it made sense that they were working on these skills.

The Opening Entry

This blog is going to be used to keep track of what I see in the field, mainly related to special needs students and the assistive technology that I hope to see in the field. Because I am a special education major, I am in a CEP class that will be dealing with many of these issues, so I will be talking about what is discussed in that class as well as it will be relevent to what I see in the field. I also want to learn much more about assistive technology and how it is used in the schools, it is something that interests me very much because of the immense possibilities that are out there. Finally, watching how the students with special needs, as well as those who greatly struggle, work in the classroom is going to help me greatly when I become a teacher. Writing about this in my blog will help me keep track of all that I witness and learn.

I have been in my field placement two times so far, and so far the main thing that I have realized is that there are many struggling students. Out of the 28 students in the 2nd grade classroom, 17 are at a kindergarden level overall. A few of those students are going to be tested for special needs later on in the year. I have not seen any assistive technology in the school so far as I have not been there very long. However, I do know that there is a special education room that I plan to spend some time in later on during the semester, so I will be able to see how that classroom operates. In general, there are many struggling students in the school, some being special needs, so I will have many opportunities to see how the classroom is instructed to help these children succeed.

Overall, there is much more for me to see and learn, as I hope this semester of field placement turns out to be a successful one.