For my practicum, I am in a 4th-grade classroom at Smith Elementary in Cortland New York. The class consists of 18 students between the ages of 9 and 10, all differing abilities and emotional development. After speaking to the head teacher I found out that approximately a little over half the class participates in free or reduced breakfast and lunch program. This tells me that a lot of the students come from middle our low-class families. I was told about a student that also misses at least 1 day of class a week from school interrupting in his learning and overall performance in the class. Other students in the class seem to have varying abilities and learning styles. There are no English Language Learners in the class; however, there are two students with an Individualized Education Plan. Both students, have varying disabilities, therefore, I have decided to use both students for my observation. Due to confidentiality, I will be naming these students Veronica and Alana. My observations were taken on two different occasions, observation 1 took place Friday, March 11, 2016, and Observation 2 took place Friday, March 18, 2016. During both observations, I focused on their daily schedules such as when or how often they were taken out of class, or when co-teaching occurred between the classroom and special education teacher. Observation 1: I mainly focused on the morning section, Veronica and Alana both have an Individualized Education Plans are pulled out for most of the
I teach first grade at Lowe Elementary School; my class is made up of twenty-four very diverse seven year-olds; they come from all over the city of Louisville, from a variety of socio-economic situations. Each student brings a unique personality to our classroom community, and they all work hard to become “smarter and smarter” and to “go to college”. Thirteen students are boys and eleven are girls. Of these twenty-four students, three of them are English Language Learners. Additionally, eight students receive tier two interventions and two receive tier three interventions in reading. In math, five students are tier two and four are tier three. I also teach one student who receives ECE services for a developmental delay. Within my class there is a wide achievement gap.
Daniel RR was a six years old boy with down syndrome. He was enrolled in El Paso Independent School District. In the 1985 to 1986 school year, Daniel had attended a half-day early childhood program for special education students. Going into the next school year, Daniel’s parents asked if he could be placed into a general education pre-kindergarten classroom. Daniel was permitted to have half day in regular classroom and another half of the day in special education classroom. At the beginning, it seemed not to be the best situation for Daniel, teachers and classmates. His ability required him to get many accommodations and individual attention, and the teacher could not modify curriculum to meet Daniel’s needs without changing it completely. The school team decided to place him back to special education only classroom. But he could get lunch at school cafeteria with other students while his mother was there to supervise. He was also permitted to stay with students without disabilities at recess time. Daniel’s parents were unhappy about the school’s decision. They wanted him to spend more time with students in general education classroom. The school states that his attendance in general education
For my observation, I observed a first to third grade special day class at a public Fresno Unified School District classroom in Fresno, California. When I first entered the classroom all the students, approximately 10 students, were sitting down on the rug in front of the class as the teacher was reading a short story to them. When she finished they would go over their reading assignment.
For my Field Experience I chose to observe at Krahn Elementary which is a part of Klein Independent School District. After my approval, I was assigned to four teachers and their classrooms. I observed at Krahn Elementary on six Tuesdays between 15 September 2015 and 27 October 2015, and more or less followed the schedule that was given to me by the Assistant Principal Ms. Shannon Strole. From 8:30 am to 9:15 am I observed Ms. Judy Burkes, who is a third grade Math and Science teacher. Her classroom is comprised of twenty students which range from average to below average learners and a student with ADHD and another with autism. For most part of my observation, M. Burkes had been working with her students on fractions and multiple digits addition and subtraction. From 9:15 am to 10:30 am I observed Ms. Lisa Parker who is a Math co-teacher and resource teacher at Krahn Elementary for grades K-5. During my assigned time, Ms. Parker usually joined Mr. Duru’s fifth grade class of twenty three students as a co-teacher and when required would pull out a group of six students after initial instructions from Mr. Duru and would teach them the concepts separately at a slower pace. This particular group of students with special needs was mostly seen to be focusing more and more on mathematical word problems. These students were students with Learning disabilities, behavioral issues and one of them was a student with ADHD. From 10:30 am to 11:15, I was with Ms. Janice Bluhms, who is a
In this case study, Miss Smith is co-teacher of biology at Hamilton High school where she aids Mrs. Patel, a special education teacher because they deal with students with varied reading abilities. In this particular class, these teachers are forced to read text loud the asks listening comprehension as students raise their hands as they wait for recognition by the teachers
If a student has a learning disability that should be immediately addressed by perhaps sending those students for one hour to a special need class at the school or getting permission from the parent to provide him or her with tutorial on certain days, if it is necessary this show that the
My observation this semester is in a self-contained classroom for students with emotional and behavioral disorders. The class is taught by one special education teacher who is assisted by a teaching aide. The desks are spaced out from one another, allowing each student a lot of room to move around. I believe the desks are arranged this way so that the students have limited contact with one another. There are books and games on a shelf that the students are allowed to use during break time. There are also two computers that they may use during breaks or after they have completed their work. In one corner of the room, there are two bean bags and a sign that says quiet zone. The students are taught reading, math, and language arts in this room. They go to an inclusion room for science and social studies. They eat lunch in the cafeteria with the rest of the fifth-grade students. They also leave this room every day to attend related arts with the rest of the student body.
The class I observe is called World Humanity class. In this class students learn Social Study and Literacy together. There were 25 students in sixth grade, including two special education students under IEP (Individual
For the Fall of 2016, I worked at Cornatzer Elementary School in Davie County. Cornatzer Elementary School was a Title I school where 60% of the students were considered economically disadvantaged and qualified for free/reduced lunch. I worked in a 1st grade classroom that was composed of 25 students; out of those 25, 15 were male and 10 were female. The majority of the class was Caucasian; however, there were 4 Hispanic children, and 1 of two or more races. During a typical week, we had 5 children who received pull out services. Specifically, we had one student who qualified for English Language Learner (ELL) services, 3 students who solely needed speech services, and 1 student who received speech and behavior interventions.
Currently, I am student teaching at Alfred E. Zampella PS #27 School in the district of Jersey City. The school is located in a busy city, next to John F. Kennedy St. which is especially busy in the morning and during rush hour. This results in several late students on a day to day basis. On the other hand, this school is also highly accessible and as a little over a thousand students. The school has grade levels from kindergarten to 8th grade, and has a mix of general, special, and inclusion education classrooms. Typically, families that enroll their students into this school are of lower-middle socio-economic class, and tend to be majority Hispanic, Indian, and African American, with few Caucasians and Asians. This school provides a variety of special programs for their ESL students and special need students. Students may be offered speech language pathology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, ESL programs, reading recovery, and counseling.
I am placed in a third grade classroom at BB Elementary (preK-5) in NN city, MM county. According to the BB website, the school enrolls around 480 students, two-thirds of which are English Learners. The demographics of this school are comprised of primarily Hispanic, African American, and South Asian families. All instruction is done in English. The pacing of this school is determined by the SBAC, or the Smarter Balance Assessment System based on the California Common Core standards. The MM school district determines the pacing based on how each school scores on the SBAC. Due to low test scores, and to keep up with this intensive pacing, the school and the district has removed recess from the daily schedule.
All things considered a system that applies one method for all students is bound to fail and has failed based off the ongoing education gap. Personalized education creates a system that works for the student not against. Without a shift in the focus of our education system the gap will persist, our nation will continue to fall behind in comparison to other nations, our economy and social issue will persist and ultimately we will remain a tumultuous state. Without educated and well rounded citizens the country will fall. The future of our nation lies in the hands of our children. What they learn is what they will create.
Many current situations in course planning are extremely structured and do not allow for many modifications as the years progress. Teenagers are at a height of physical, social, and mental transformation and development, therefore their course choice opportunities should be able to change, as well. Schools do offer electives to fit the interests of their students, but at times there are rules and exceptions; new courses are required, leaving less and less options for student choice. These elective restrictions are also added to the fact that students must take a certain number of four core courses, in a set order,
Students in the EXIT Academy are in their senior year of high school, and with that stage of life comes a lot of preparation to ensure that students graduate and transition to postsecondary education. One of the ways that CEO Program staff support their students in the EXIT Academy is to ensure that they know and understand what is required of them during their senior year in order to graduate. This includes an understanding of the graduation requirements and a knowledge of deadlines for paperwork. In addition to these school deadlines required for graduation, CEO Program staff consider each student’s postsecondary plan and make sure that they understand the deadlines required for
The following data was gathered while fulfilling duties as a principal intern at Theresa Bunker Elementary School. The data was observed during five to seven minutes of classroom observation as part of a walk-through in the spring of the current school year. My cooperating supervisor for my internship was able to go on these walk-throughs with me in order to have a productive reflection meeting afterwards. This elementary school has two of each grade level from Kindergarten to sixth grade. Since it was more feasible in this small school setting, I actually was able to do a walkthrough in eight classes. Here I will report my observations from five of those walk-throughs. As I went in to each room I was looking for four