Classroom Transition Paper

On Friday I spent the morning with Jacob who is six years one month old at College America. The morning began with a physical assessment and an interview of Jacob, and the afternoon I was able to observe him at play. Jacob is in first grade and he is the oldest child in his family with a younger brother and a younger sister. After doing a physical assessment and an interview with Jacob he appears to be an overall healthy and happy child with no obvious physical or emotional problems. According to Erikson’s developmental stages Jacob is in stage three where Jacob should be developing purpose in his life.

The classroom observed for this assignment was a 4/5 year old (pre-kindergarten/kindergarten) room in a local day care. After researching the correlation between play, development, and diversity, many realizations came to light. First, there are different stages of play and they all correlate with the developmental stages. Then, diversity is found in every classroom, either positively or negatively effecting the room. Educators who are flexible with change and comprehends the levels of development for children are expected to create a positive and effective learning environment filled with play-based activities. Below show three scenarios of classrooms from infants, toddlers, and preschool/kindergarten room.

getting out of his seat). Jayden will decrease the amount of episodes during direct instruction to

Listener responding was probed next. Brenden was able to looked 80% of time (or 8 out of 10 times) at his communicative partner. Then, the clinical team presented Brenden with playdoh. Fine motor skills where probed during playdoh activity, using playdoh scissors. Brenden was observed to have difficulty griping and using Playdoh scissors. Body parts where probed, he was successful at labeling his body parts (i.e. eyes, nose, ears, head, mouth, etc.). More communication skills were probed. He struggled with “What questions” with actions, he just echoed questions (i.e. “What are you doing?”). Colors where probed. Brenden was successful at labeling colors on his toys and clothing. Then, personal questions were probed, he knew his name, age, and parents as mommy and daddy. Finally, Brenden was observed to ask for attention by saying "Look" and upon departure, he said, “Bye” with no assistance/prompts.

The purpose of this observation was to observe how elementary students learn with a focus on conditional conditioning, operant conditioning, the social learning theory, as well as phonemes, morphemes, and syntax. The observation took place at Karaffa Elementary School on March 29, 2017 and March 30, 2017. There were 3 groups of students from the Psychology class going to observe 3 different classes at KES. The observation on this date was in Mrs. Donnelly’s classroom at around 1:00 pm. The subject that was chosen to be observed was a female who was in the 2nd grade. Both days of observation consisted of the same topic which was telling time. In the next paragraph, the description of the subject and the classroom will be discussed.

He makes eye contact with those that he talks to in class. Furthermore, I feel that he is forming a positive bond with his teachers. He called them by their names, Ms. Madison and Ms. Michelle. He looks them in their eyes when he is talking to them. For the most part, he listens to what they tell him to do. When Joseph finishes his classwork, he finds something to do quietly until the other students are done. On June 26, 2015, I observed Joseph cleaning up the toys while the others are working on their coloring sheets. Joseph likes to play with other children; however, I notice that he only likes to play with boys, two in particular. He is very vocal when he is not allowed to change into his swim clothes at the same time as the other students. He responded to the teacher’s actions saying, “I don’t want to be called last to change into my swim

Even though he shows a lot of strengths with his cognitive abilities towards certain topics Joe does have some skills that are still developing for him. One area that Joe is developing cognitive skills in is problem solving. Joe I noticed observes and imitates how other people solve problems and ask for a solution and uses it. Joe imitates how other people solve problems during block play, gym time and dramatic play. Paying attention to sights and sounds is an area where Joe is working on developing skills as he shows an attempt during morning circle when the whole class is doing the body parts song and Joe for the most part is able to follow along with the song by listening to it but pointing to the body parts fast is hard. He also does have issues with sharing sometimes when it comes to materials and toys in the classroom. Joe engages in parallel play, associative play and cooperative play and performs this play in centers like block play, dramatic dress up play and working with Play-Doh (Willis, 2009). I have noticed that he does like to play alone and not share any of the toys and I think that is due to the fact that he doesn’t have many to play with at home because his parents

Walking into a room full of fourth graders is all but intimidating. Kids are not afraid to speak their minds, especially if they do not like something, so I was unsure how to approach them. Also, having to be in an authoritative role adds a lot of pressure. Since I am not around kids very often I did not know what to expect.

Unlike my last visit to the writing center, I was able to commit all of my attention this session to seeing how things unfold in most sessions without also needing to focus on my own paper. I observed a session with Meredith, who seemed to have a different approach as a grad student than the undergrad tutors I had interacted with before. Another new element of the session was the client herself; from the panel we had in class, I had come to believe that repeat clients were rare, but the tutor knew the client and the client’s work well from past sessions. In fact, the client did not come in that day to get help on a specific assignment, but had seen that Meredith had an opening during the week and chose to book it for any general help that might come up. The client seemed to be both comfortable with and grateful for the opportunity to work with a tutor who had been seeing her through an entire admittance process.

For my clinical, I observed Mrs. Sniders 2nd grade classroom. During the three days I was with her, I observed in the back of the classroom and she also let me help out with the kids if and when they asked questions. The kids were a little antsy the three days I was there. I think it was because they had someone new in the classroom they weren’t used to. One odd thing I noticed, she had the students seated in groups, but she had them do a lot of individual work with some students pulled aside for reading groups. That just seemed a little odd to me. If I was going to have the students seated in groups, I would focus more on group work. I think the main reason she did this style of seating was for easier classroom organization.

The field site was Highline’s Cafe and sitting area in building 8. The Cafe and sitting area are in an L shaped part of building 8. The Cafe is at the end of this L and doesn't take much space up, the rest of the building is full of tables with chairs and just chairs on their own. Some tables are high up requiring stools, some of the chairs are made up of metal while others fabric and cushion. The Cafe is where students can get something to eat or drink, and the numerous sitting areas can let students study and converse with other students. I sat in one of the chairs closest to the entrance so that I could observe the whole space. My first observation was when someone would walk through the entrance that whether or not they were going to get something from the Cafe, they would look for a place to sit.

During a brief interview with Mrs. Poland a few minutes before class started on September 9 t, 2015 I asked her a question I gathered while observing almost the full day on Tuesday the 8th. After her answer I learned that Lewis E. Wadsworth is the only school that determined if a child is in needs of ESE services. Guess who came up with this amazing process that has been showing to be beneficial? It is the wonderful teacher I was honored to observe Mrs. Lesley Poland. I don’t even know where to start. I was initially nervous when I signed in at the front desk, however as soon as I entered the classroom I immediately felt at home. Mrs. Poland and Mrs. Kathy both made me feel welcomed and comfortable. Mrs. Kathy is

While I was home over Spring Break, I went to Boone Central Elementary to observe on Wednesday afternoon from 1:00 to 3:30. I sat in on Mrs. Flinn’s fourth grade classroom. During this time, the students worked on their projects about Native Americans, celebrated a birthday, and finished putting together their commercials about their favorite candy bars. Overall, the time I spent this afternoon was so beneficial. It allowed me to place more of a focus on the behavior management side of a classroom and the supports that are offered.

For the last week I have been observing the behaviors and patterns of a fellow ACPHS classmate. The person that I have chosen to observe is also a freshman. He is the roommate of a friend so I see him a lot, but haven’t had the chance to communicate with him besides a hi/hello here and there. There are two major things that I have noticed in his behavior and patterns.

Oscar is on task as long as there is an adult around or near him. Besides, when the adults redirect him, Oscar pays attention, makes eye contact and goes back to work on the given task. Each time he gets attention, he works and finishes the task at hand. Oscar does not respond to peer attention. He does not communicate or engage with peers around him unless an adult instructs him. In particular his off task behavior is extremely minimized when the teacher assistant is in proximity. He often asks other adults about the teacher assistant. He likes to get her attention and is generally on task when she is around. If the teacher assistant is not around, he seeks other adult attention. If there is no adult nearby, then he is engages in this behavior and in fact, the behavior escalates to the point where he rocks his body, flaps his hands, and makes loud noise. According to my direct data collection, the baseline graph displayed Oscar’s off task behavior is decreasing each time. On the first observation, Oscar displayed off task behavior as operationally defined seventeen times out of twenty. The second session, he displayed the off task behavior thirteen times out of twenty, and on the third session, he displayed the behavior five times out of twenty. However, it is crucial to note, on the third session, Oscar was working one on one with an adult in an ASD resource room; hence, that might have a huge impact on the behavior occurrence. In contrast, in the first two sessions, there were very few interventions from adults. His behavior greatly decreased when there was an adult available to meet his needs. Oscar’s off task behavior occurs quite often and only stops when an adult engages and communicate with