Summary Paper - Professional Development Needs Assessment

Observation, Practicum & Reflection in Field Experience  OBSERVATION I observed Ms. Sandon’s and Ms. Niliam’s, “Regular ED 1st grade” students with exceptionalities. This “sect” is made up of 6 (eight) 1st graders who are diagnosed with attention deficit disorders and other exceptionalities some are emotionally disturbed due to drug abusing mothers. A few of the students are misdiagnosed or have additional unspecified special needs.  As an alternative to the Stanford 10 they were ordered to test with Ms. Payne and Ms. Rosemary our “in school” specialist for Math and Reading. I, Ms. Reminton, assisted them and the students. I observed the 8 children as they tested for the standard 5 days it took to finish the Stanford 10 test. I even read a portion of the test as a proctor. Each day I spent 2 hours or more observing and assisting the children in their various accommodations such as reading assistance, wait-time, etc. The children work well together while Ms. Payne, the math specialist, and Ms. Rosemary, the reading specialist, work with the whole 1st grade children with IEP’s on their level of accommodations.  The physical organization of the classroom is located on the 3rd floor near a stairwell for easy exit in case of emergency. When you come in the door you immediately encounter one long table and a kidney table located near the rear wall window. The television is located on a cart right diagonally across from the long table. While there are shelve containing math manipulative’s, math charts and strategies flank the walls. The storage and the sink area for the teachers use are located right to your left as you enter the room. There are black boards across the wall to the right behind the television on the cart.  The pacing of each day is very quick using words and gestures as prompts. The beginning and end of each test day beings with students receiving a sharpened pencil a big eraser, a blank piece of paper if needed and a stick of Wrigley’s chewing gum, which is suppose to be helpful in stimulating the brain. Students wait to be prompted to begin with assistance from me, Ms. Reminton and the head Proctor Ms. Rosemary or Ms. Payne making sure that vision, proximity and wait-time accommodations are met. The students are closely monitored making sure their comprehension and work stemma is correct and appropriate. Each student is rewarded for their good efforts with an “after testing” snack while watching a down-time unwind cartoon more than likely on the cartoon network. The structure of the Stanford 10 test is very rigid. It consists of a clear objective a concise plan in an already available format with predicted timing.  Ms. Payne and Ms. Rosemary are careful to make sure each child receives their needed accommodations/ modifications. Teaching materials include the Test books which are colorful and closely followed by students, an answer sheet which is immediately utilized after each question. And section examples are seen before each section or transition in the test. The auditory part of the lesson is mostly Ms. Payne or Ms. Rosemary who make sure the children who need speech accommodations receive it! The calculators as well as blank paper are used for the students to compute the answers to various problems especially for the students who are motor/visual learners. Positive reinforcement is verbal and the promise of snack at the end of testing! She engages the children again with special needs by seating arrangement, time allotment and speech recognition. I, Ms. Reminton, assist in interruptions or proper time, also known as wait-time accommodation, given so the student can understand the questions.  OBSERVATION (Self-Care Skills)  MY ROLE I did a little bit of proctoring, and observed for those “Self Care Skills” that were apparent. I was actually learning right along with students. I made myself transparent in a sense. I became a “grade level” learner as well, learning, listening, responding and interacting with each child as needed. When they were restless I quickly reminded them it was almost over and gave them a little one-on-one attention and stayed with them until they could self-manage!  In my personal and professional growth this experience made me realize some of the situations problems and people I would come to deal with when I become a Special Education Teacher. I did not realize self-care skills carried over into “academic life” skills. For example, when there was one particular student who has been diagnosed emotionally disturbed, he would regularly say what ever was on his mind if allowed and “act out” and say whatever thoughts came to his mind though muffled it was defiantly executed outburst, especially when a student or teacher made him upset for whatever reason. And so I will begin my 5 day reflection of what I observed in the next section that follows...  REFLECTION (Self-Care Skills)  I will discuss those apparent self-help skills in general which may include… get ready skills, self-help skills, toilet training, independent living; self-care skills and information skills, as well as, there “sub-topics”. Get Ready Skills Grasping objects Sitting up Standing Walking Following simple commands And coordinating eyes and legs, hands, and fingers to work together Self-Help Skills Dressing Grooming Toileting Eating Bathing Toilet Training Recognizing the needs to go Waiting to eliminate Entering the bathroom Pulling pants down Sitting on the toilet Eliminating in the toilet Using toilet paper correctly Pulling pants back up  Flushing the toilet Washing hands Drying hands Independent Living: Self-Care Skills Teach children to be more independent by teaching them these three basic areas...  Self-care skills Home-care skills Information skills/ use of technology Information Skills Reading signs Looking at price tags  Recognizing symbols on the telephone Telling time  Using money  Reading sight words Using a Computer Again, I will’ touch on” those apparent Self-Help skills like Get Ready Skills, Self-Help Skills, Toilet Training, Independent Living; Self-Care Skills and Information Skills. Reflections: Day 1 On my first day observing there was a student named Ziona. Ziona had a disruptive defiant episode that lasted for about 5 minutes. I coached her to calm her down and help her to again regain focus and think. She just wanted to test Ms. Rosemary and me, we often had to tell her to be quiet and listen, “please focus”, we would say!  Her shirt was dingy and her hair was unkempt. I often had to borrow rubber bands so that her hair would be out of her eyes so she could possibly be effective on the test. She often had some type of ashy-ness or snot on her face and elbows, from what I could see. Over all most of the children all except for two, Ziona and Dionna were sometimes fetid and unkempt. My first thoughts of seeing those two, admittedly, made me believe they would do poorly on the test. Surprisingly Ziona did better than I could ever have imagined and Dionna did poorly on the math portion it seemed as if she did not care.  I knew what to look for and what was expected of me in observing while doing this practicum, since I did the Self-care skills presentation/ PowerPoint, “Self Care skills PowerPoint presentation” (mentioned in Artifacts). In the classrooms of Baltimore City it is rare to see children with exceptionalities effectively display each and every self-care skill effectively, which made my job, as observer, that much harder! So what would I do? From my prior experiences and observing these children, it really let me see what was to be seen in a Baltimore City Public School classroom. Many of the children I observed have mastered the skills of “Get-ready skills and toilet training” where many of them needed help and part of the reason why they were in this accommodated Stanford 10 was because of weaknesses in their independent living; self-care skills and information skills and last but not least their Self-Help Skills. Day 2 By the second day I was use to the students and their appearance and abilities to self manage and self-care skill level. My approach to the diverse situation population in this case was to first pay attention to their age and academic level differences as well as impairment differences. I assisted on this day making sure that their water break and bathroom breaks were effective. I observed that most of the children were able to self-manage and display their apparent skills like Get Ready Skills and, Toilet Training. They all did very well lining up listening to commands standing; grasping pencils but where they obviously needed help was with Information Skills. This area of Information skills which may include being effective readers would eliminate their needs for special education/ accommodation. So I assisted many of them with reading questions and small passages helping them to think through problems and staying focused. Many of them are bright students with the basic skills to succeed on the test.  If I had all of them as my class I would work on getting them to become better readers, staying focused and eventually self manage and last but not least self-help skills which would bring up their self-esteem and pride and expectation of themselves.  Day 3 On day 3 I was determined to test their self-care skills. I let them go to the bathroom one by one on their own when it was time for their bathroom break.  My orientation on this day is my overall plan that I will be a reflective and effective practitioner to learning meaning, I will quickly assess the situations at hand and decide effectively what the right thing for me to do is, creating intervention and setting up prevention skills. I laid down the rules I said and I quote, “Listen up other children are testing and or learning on this floor I expect you all to be quiet and act like the star, smart beautiful/ handsome students that you are and go to the bathroom take care of your business wash your hands and come back quietly! “Understood!?” They immediately straightened up and I had already built a rapport with them by this point, it was understood what was expected of them and “Success” they complied! In my opinion they did better than “regular ed” children, at being “mindful” therefore, self-manage, that other students were testing and learning in the other rooms on that floor.  Day 4 By day 4 my impact on the students was great they are looking forward to me substituting their classrooms and I have agreed to help them on the next accommodated testing. I will probably bring treats for their cooperative time and patience they showed fourth while testing. I was able to build rapport with the student who had the problem staying focused in the classroom, she knows I am concerned about her and I care if she is doing well. Ms. Payne decides to have a little intervention before we began testing. She knew their weakness on the math portion of the test and gave them some methods of solving a particular type of math problem while we were waiting for some late arriving student son that day. Day 5  By the fifth day this practicum/ observation made me step back and reflect on exactly what I would do, I began to think of all the intervention and skills I would have to teach. If I had no help from a paraprofessional, how would I manage, what I would do? I would of course reinforce and introduce those much needed self-care skills in general which may include… get ready skills, self-help skills, toilet training, independent living; self-care skills and information skills, as well as, there “sub-topics” to the best of my ability and maybe next year none of these students would need any IEP’s or accommodations to do well on the Stanford 10.  CONCLUSION This practicum experience defines my individual and joint obligations of the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE); including all the NCATE/CEC, COMAR standards, and INTASC Principles. My goal, in concert with students, families, and the broader community, is to prepare all students to be responsible citizens and afford them the opportunity to acquire the skills, knowledge, and abilities necessary to make informed decisions that lead to meaningful and productive lives. To the highest degree, I believe that all children can learn and achieve, when given the proper resources and that high standards and expectations must be maintained for each child and be reflective in their IEP’s .  I believe that a major focus should be the integration of special and regular education through an infusion of information about the special education system into courses taken by all students who are preparing to become productive citizens.  I have two priorities in teaching: The proper preparation of special education students and greater understanding of students in preparation for the outside. I am also open and committed to the production of new knowledge in the area of special education and developmental disabilities. My role as a special educator is to assist children and youth with exceptionalities to gain greater academic independence in diverse, literacy intensive, and technology-rich educational and community settings.  I therefore commit to creating seamless transitions and assuring effective articulation in students enabling students to meet high standards constantly preparing to teach to high standards; aligning expectations for and eliminating barriers to student progress; and identify collective strategies that involve improving student. I commit to maintain high quality and individual research which is focused on issues related to disabilities Artifact I chose our teams’ power point presentation on Self-care skills as an artifact. I choose the PowerPoint presentation because without it for the most part I would not have known what to look for while observing the children during my practicum experience. At first I thought of it to be hard to recognize if someone was displaying proper self-care skills then it became apparent what was needed in order to effectively learn and write about during this experience.