Emily Carpino

Diversity Project

December 11, 2016

General School Information:

The school I am spending my diversity project hours at is Southeast Elementary. I am currently

observing 4 students in Mrs. Martin’s first grade classroom. It is a classroom for general

education classes and I have been with all four of the students in the class periodically

throughout the semester. The general education course I am there for the most of the time is

math. I also am there for reading sometimes when I arrive earlier than normal. There are

currently 4 girls and 12 boys. There are two first grades at Southeast Elementary, it would be

interesting to find out if the boys in the other class are as dominant as in this one. I have noticed

one specific thing that I remember us talking about in class. The special education classroom is

in a separate building than the rest of the school. This school is a little older and probably does

not have as much funding, but I just thought this was interesting. The school office is also in a

separate building that is almost identical looking to the special education classroom. This could

have been their only option for implementing the special education classroom. It could have also

previously been in one of the rooms inside of the school and they needed a bigger room so they

built the building outside of the rest of the school. It has a very welcoming atmosphere and the

staff and faculty act like they’re all very close. It was very nice when I walked into the office on

my first day and saw the secretary that was my secretary at my elementary school. I would like

to someday work at a school that has this same warm and welcoming atmosphere.
Building Report Card:

The results from my building report card were very surprising to me. The school I’m

spending my diversity hours at is Southeast Elementary. The other school I decided to gather

data from was Columbus because I graduated from there and I thought it would be a neat

comparison since they’re so close together. The results were not as close as I would thought they

would be. I figured the district totals would be quite different because Southeast is quite a bit

smaller than Columbus. The Southeast district total was 538 and Columbus’ was 984. To be

honest, I thought that Columbus would have been a little higher than it was. The male and female

percentages were about the same for both schools. For Southeast Elementary, the male

percentage was 53.8 % and female was 46.2%. Looking at my class that I’m currently in, I

figured the female population would be lower considering there are a lot less fewer girls than

there are boys. Columbus’ Park Elementary school was a close comparison to Southeast. 55.26%

was the amount for males at Park Elementary and 44.74% was for females.

The economically disadvantaged students was quite the comparison. The percentage

under this category for Southeast was 74.85% and Columbus’ economically disadvantaged

students 61.05%. I didn’t realize that the percentage would be that much greater at Southeast.

You also have to consider that they have less students, so it’s easier to get a higher percentage.

It’s still crazy to think about when they are only about 20 miles apart! The next thing I compared

was the race/ethnicity. I figured that white/caucasian would be the dominant race and be the

biggest percentage, but I did not expect the hispanic percentage to be the next biggest. It also

surprised me that this percentage was greater than the African American percentage. The

percentage for the Hispanic population at Southeast was 1.75%, and at Columbus it was 1.05.
There were more students in the Other category for both schools than the African American

students. Now that I think about it, there are not any African American students in my class, and

none in the other classes that I have noticed.

The students with disabilities percentage was a pretty high for both schools. 25.16 % was

the percentage at Southeast and 30.12%. This is interesting because this is the first percentage

that is noticeably higher than the other ones I looked up. The only thing I can figure from this is,

the school is bigger. Maybe because of this, parents think that since the school is bigger their

student will benefit better from Columbus compared to Southeast. Columbus may also have

more resources to benefit students with disabilities. Plus, the special education classroom is in

the school building at Columbus. At Southeast Elementary, it is in a building separate from the

other buildings. The parents might appreciate Columbus’ location of the Special Education

building better and prefer their child to go there instead. There were no English Language

Learners or Migrant students at either of the schools I researched. This surprised me since there

is a greater percentage of the Hispanic percentage at both schools, but just because they’re

Hispanic, doesn’t mean they have to be an English language learner.

The reading assessment data I found was also interesting. Along with the all students

percentages, I also looked up the students with free/reduced lunch and students with disabilities

percentages. For the all students percentage for level 1 was 9.43%, level 2-3 was 84.84, and level

4 was 5.66 at Southeast. The Columbus scores for all students at level 1 was 20.55, level 2-3 was

75.83, and level 4 was 3.6. This is very interesting because growing up I always thought that

Columbus has better test scores than Southeast, but that’s not the case anymore. The students

with free/reduced lunch level 1 scores at Southeast was 12.12%, level 2-3 84.84%, and level 4

was 3.03%. This is a significant difference of percentages compared to all of the students. For
Columbus for free/reduced lunch level 1 percentages were 25.54 %, level 2-3 was 71.96%, and

level 4 was 2.51. The level 1 percent for this category shocked me when comparing it to

Southeast. 12.12% comparing to 25.54% is a big difference. I’m very curious as to why these

percentages are so vastly different, and if Columbus is trying to do something about this to raise

these scores. The last category I compared was students with disabilities. For Southeast the level

1 scores were 28.51%, level 2-3 were 71.42%, and none for level four. For Columbus level 1

scores were 53.84%, and levels 2-3 were 46.14%. That is also quite the difference in

percentages. I’m hoping that Columbus has done some type of building report card for another

school and seen the difference like I am now. The thing is, you also have to consider that they

might be in the process of improving their scores, and they’re trying their best to help the

students the best way they can.

This was an interesting way to gather data and get a deeper look into the school I’m

observing. I also found it surprising the information I found about Columbus. Growing up in

Columbus, I always thought we had the best test scores from all around the different areas. Now

that I’ve compared Columbus to Southeast, we could use some improvement on our scores. It

could also be that they are in the process of improving them and this is just the beginning. It will

be interesting to see how these scores progress or change throughout time. I will definitely be

taking advantage of this website to keep updated on scores for various schools.

Target Students Profile:

Student A:

I’ve had the opportunity to work the most with this student this semester. He is a white male in

the first grade. My cooperating teacher gave me little background information over this student.
He lives in a single parent home and is more on the poverty side of living. When it came to

assisting him, he really tried to tell me all of the answers instead of working on it himself. This

makes me think that is what he’s used to with previous teachers or paraeducators. There is a

paraeducator in the room for half of the time that I’m there and it seems that she only tells him

the answer or tells him when he’s doing something wrong. She rarely rewards him when he is

doing a good job and working hard. I make sure that I let him work on it first and if he needs

additional help I’m right there when he needs it. I also reassure him when he’s working hard and

doing his best, because I feel like this will motivate him to want to keep on trying his best. He

struggles with focusing on his work but knows the answer once he starts putting his mind to it.

He is very social with his classmates and has many friends. I would consider one of his strengths

to be his social skills. This isn’t only with his peers. It’s also when he is having trouble with a

problem, he is able to ask the question clearly and appropriately.

Student B:

Student B is a caucasian, female student. She is in the first grade so I would say she is either 7 or

8. She comes to school everyday with her hair half up and with a big bow in it. She has good

hygiene and is always neatly dressed at school. This tells me that she has a supportive family that

make a decent living for themselves. She is very attention seeking, especially from me. Right as

soon as I walk into the classroom, her face lights up and she yells “Miss Carpino!” When I’m

working with her she seems to regress more than when I’m working with a different student. I’ve

noticed that she wants to talk about other things or try to give me hugs a lot while I’m working

with her. I have to redirect her quite often. I personally think that she works better independently
with me standing a further distance away, and when I see that she has done something incorrect

or she gets distracted, I redirect her. She has also been known to fall asleep during class quite a

bit. This could be from a number of reasons. Also, I recall one day she had to do her school work

in the office, but my cooperating teacher never filled me in on the situation. She never has had

any behavioral issues when I’ve been in the class so I don’t think it would have been from that.

She does have some social issues with peers from time to time but not very often. I think the only

problems she ever has with peers is wanting to do what she wants and not what her friend’s want

to do. This makes me think she could possibly be an only child or the youngest of her family. I

can tell when she socializes with peers she gets angry if they don’t do what she wants to do.

Thinking about others and sharing could also be a developmental skill that she is still trying to

grasp as a 1st grader.

Student C:

Student C is a white male who is probably around the age of 7 or 8 because he is in the first

grade. I have not had the opportunity to work with this student as much of the others but he is the

one that I have seen the most progress in since the beginning of school. The cooperating teacher

has even made comments to me about it. At first this student was very shy and didn’t want my

help. I think this was because he was nervous of my seeing him get a wrong answer, but he

eventually opened up to me helping him out. He started out struggling with his numbers facing

the right way, and I thought it could be because he was a student with dyslexia. Now as the

semester as progressed, he has improved gradually. He still struggles from time to time with

them, but once I point a letter out to him he understands what is wrong with it and fixes his
mistakes. It takes him a little longer to figure out problems but he works really hard and always

eventually figures them out. He is a very friendly student and loves to socialize with his friends.

It’s amazing how some days I will walk in and he will be very excited to see me and want me to

help him that day, but others he is a little stand offish.

Student D:

Student D is a caucasian male student. He was a new student in about the third week of school

which is when I started coming. The teacher informed me that he was not on an IEP when he

showed up but they were getting him started in the prereferral process soon. As I observed

Student D, I noticed that he was a very intelligent kid, he might have honestly been the smartest

in his class. My cooperating teacher informed me that he has moved 26 times since he was in

kindergarten. He is now a first grader. That has to have an effect on a student's life. I don't think

the prereferral process went through, and I don’t think it should. This student is a student with a

disadvantage, not a disability. He has also been known to fall asleep repeatedly in class, and my

cooperating teacher has not really shown any sympathy towards him. It is not my place to say

anything to my teacher about it but I’m glad that I have learned how to react appropriately to a

student like Student D. He has now moved to a different school already, and I can’t help but be

curious about all of the moving. There are many reasons why he could be moving so much and

my mind automatically wanders to the worst situations. Hopefully his future teachers are

sympathetic for his situation and try to teach him the best way they can and the best way he can

learn.

Daily Entries:
Journal Entry #1

September 22, 2016

10:30-11:30

Today was my first day I participated in hours towards my diversity project. I had already been

to the classroom a previous day this week for my clinical experience class. The class was very

welcoming and I got greeted with many hugs on my first day. The kids also asked me if I was a

teacher on the first day, before I could answer Mrs. Martin shook her head really big with eyes

wide open and said “YES, she is a teacher”. I’m assuming she thinks that if I tell them I’m not a

teacher, they won’t want to listen to me as well. During this time of my first day for clinical, I

took the opportunity to try to observe the classroom for students who might be special needs.

There weren’t any student’s I could identify at first. I thought I was going to possibly have to go

to a different classroom for my diversity hours. After talking with Mrs. Martin about my

diversity project, she informed me that there are 4 kids with special needs in her classroom. I will

classify these students as student A, B, C, and D. Only three of the four students were there on

the first day I put hours towards my diversity project. Mrs. Martin instructed me to closely

observe the three students who were there, and help when necessary. She said I would be able to

start working one-on-one next week, but she wanted me to get acquainted with their behavior.

Previously in the day before I started my diversity hours, Mrs. Martin had me give about

6 of the students a spelling test out in the hallway. The word “test” made me very nervous, just

for the fact that if I didn’t give the test correctly, it could affect the student’s grades. Mrs. Martin

didn’t give me any specific instructions on how to give the spelling test. I said the word, used it

in a sentence, and said the word again. Then instead of them talking or saying “Done!” after

finishing spelling the word, I had them put their thumbs up so I would know when to move onto
the next word. One mistake I made when doing this was I did not observe the hallway to make

sure we weren’t around any other students or teachers trying to do other things. At first, we were

a little too close to a para or teacher assisting a student. The teacher then came up to me and very

politely asked us to move down the hallway.

It was math time when I came back into the classroom from giving the students a spelling

test. During this time I observed the three students who were there. It’s amazing the amount of

information I learned about all three of these kids just from one day of observing. Some of those

things were how they learned, acted in a classroom, and how they respect authority. Student A

struggled with focusing on the subject and tried to ask me questions that were not related to what

we were working on at all. When he would do this I would say “Does this have to do with what

we are working on right now” and he would get right back to work. Student B was very tired on

this day and needed a lot of redirection from me. She would lay her head down, but as soon as I

pointed out that she was getting behind, she would get back to work. Student C did not want help

from me at all. He was very closed off and wouldn’t respond when I tried asking him questions.

Student C did not struggle as much as the other two with understanding what to do, he just

needed help staying focused. I would tell him he was doing a great job anytime he would finish a

problem without me redirecting him. Transitioning from student to student was kind of difficult.

I’m going to ask Mrs. Martin if next time I can work with one specific student the entire time,

instead of trying to work with all three of them. I am looking forward to learning more and more

things about these students and helping them as much as I can!

Journal Entry #2

September 29th, 2016

10:30-11:30

Today was technically my fourth day visiting the classroom, but my second day to log

hours for my diversity project. I am enjoying spending time in this classroom and learning more

and more about the students. The kids are really starting to warm up and get comfortable with

me.. Everytime I leave they ask me, “will you be back?.” I can already tell it’s going to be hard

leaving this classroom at the end of the semester.

 My cooperating teacher Mrs. Martin has been sick and gone from school this whole

week. The substitute teacher from Tuesday was very professional and controlled the classroom

well. The teacher that was there today struggled a lot, which did not help the students. The

students definitely noticed that the substitute teacher was struggling and took advantage of it. I

took the liberty of saying “Would we be acting this way if Mrs. Martin was here?” and they all

shook their heads and said “No.” The substitute mouthed the words “Thank you” and continued

with the lesson.

I explained to the substitute why I was there and what I was expected to do. I also

explained to her that I would be working one on one with Student A today and she was okay

with it. My student I worked with today struggled more than normal. This was partially because

the teacher was not doing well at being specific when explaining instructions to the assignment.

They were working out of their math books and she would write the problems on random parts

of the board but wouldn’t put the problem number they were on next to the equation written on

the board. Due to this, my student was writing the random equations in all the wrong spots. He

was also getting very frustrated when I would try to explain to him where the correct equation

went and why. He would say “But this is what the teacher has written on the board!” Which was

a true statement. This situation could have not even happened if there was better instruction

provided. I was not going to focus on this problem at the time because there was nothing I could

do about it. I was focused on making sure he knew how to the assignment correctly and was

learning what needed to be learning. I noticed he works better when I’m at eye level with him so

that’s what I did. We worked on every problem together until he was finished with the

assignment that was needed to be done that day. I’m curious on if the other student’s put wrong
numbers in the wrong spots, or if they even did the assignment at all. This was a challenging day

in the classroom, but I still feel it was a successful day working one on one with Student A.

Journal Entry #3

October 6th

10:00am-11:00am

Today was an interesting day in the classroom. There are two first grade classrooms at

Southeast Elementary. The teacher for the other classroom had a doctors appointment so my

cooperating teacher said she would take care of her class until she got back. Mrs. Martin initially

had her class from 10:30-11:15. She started out by trying to have the group of students play a

game together, but she quickly realized that there were too many of them for her to manage. Mrs.

Martin then found a Halloween worksheet where the students could make their own monster. I

had the idea of playing heads up seven up with them. I figured that this would help them stay

quiet and involve all the students in the activity. When I was getting ready to suggest the idea
Mrs. Martin decided on the Halloween worksheet. I now realize I should have still said

something to her about it and taken initiative, but the students enjoyed the worksheet as well.

I worked mostly with student C today. He is really starting to get more comfortable with

working with me and is not as shy as he was at the beginning of the semester. This makes me

really happy. Today I had the opportunity to see his creative side. I’m usually there during math

time so it was nice to see him work on something else. He worked very hard on his monster and

did not need very much redirection from me to stay focused on his work. He needed help when it

came time to name his monster. I helped him sound out what letters he thought were in the name

and corrected him if he didn’t say the right letter. He was very proud of his monster and made

sure he showed his teacher his creation. I really enjoyed working with him today.

I could tell my other two students I have been working with were getting a little jealous. I

made sure I showed some attention towards them and had them tell me all about their monsters

they had created. It’s amazing what kids can come up with. I also helped them spell out the

names of their monsters too. They were all very proud of their creations.
Journal #4

October 11th

10:30-11:30

I had the opportunity to work with student A on his spelling words before a test. He was

doing really well but got a little confused on a few. After I made sure he was doing well on the

ones he knew, we started focusing on the ones he was more confused on. There were three that

he kept getting confused on. I asked him to say the word, then spell it. I had him do this three

times for each work he was having trouble on. My cooperating teacher eventually came outside

and said it was time for him to take his spelling test. He ended up getting a hundred on the test

after I had finished working with him. I realize that it wasn’t just my help that got him a hundred

percent, but it felt good that I was able to influence him even just a little with getting the grade.

He was so proud of himself and had a huge smile on his face after he was finished. He ran up to

me to tell me the big news and asked for a hug ( that is one of my rules, students need to ask for
a hug first ). Of course I said said and told him I was proud of him. The teacher made an

announcement to the class also that he had received a hundred and his classmates clapped for

him. When there was extra time left at the end of class I approached my cooperating teacher and

said how proud I was of him. She stated how much progress he has made throughout the year

and how impressed she was with him. I really hope this moment today makes him want to keep

working hard, and lets him know that he can do anything that he puts his mind to! It’s moments

like today that I know that I am going into the right profession.

Journal #5

Emily Carpino

October 25th

10:00-11:30

Today I worked with Student D during math time. He does very well during math and did not

need very much help. He just needed me to help him stay on task but once he got on task he was

able to finish the work himself. He does so well in math that he also sometimes skips ahead from

where everyone else is at and gets in trouble for that. I helped him slow down today but had to

remind him several times to slow down and wait for everyone else. On the third time reminding

him to slow down, my cooperating teacher got onto him because I had to tell him so many times.

This resulted in him slamming his fists on his desk and yelling “I can’t help it that I go faster

than everyone else!” Once he said that, I couldn’t help but agree with him secretly to myself. If

he is so gifted in a certain subject, why is there not differentiated instruction for him to do while

his classmates work on this? He is not challenged at all during math, and it takes him very little

time to comprehend when Mrs. Martin is teaching a new idea about math. I also thought about

when Mrs. Martin told me that he has moved various amounts of times since he started
kindergarten. He could have been learning higher levels of math at these different schools where

the schools accommodated his needs and now at this school he doesn’t get the differentiated

instruction like he did at previous ones.

Student D not being challenged enough on assignments could also be why he has the

behavioral problems that he does. He could just be bored and doesn’t want to work on his work

because he thinks he’ll already know what they’re getting ready to learn. He also might

automatically think that he’s going to get in trouble when he works on his assignments because

he can’t help but work ahead because it’s too easy for him. The remaining part of the class he did

okay with keeping a steady pace and not going ahead. I sometimes would let him go a little

ahead before reminding him to slow down, just as long as he was still listening to Mrs. Martin

while she was teaching. At the end of the class period before it was time to go to lunch, Student

D told me thank you for working with him and how he wished I could work with him everyday.

This made me feel so happy and I replied “I wish I had enough time in the day to work with

everyone one on one”. I thought this was a good reply considering his classmates could hear me

too.
Journal #6

Emily Carpino

November 3rd

10:30-11:30

Today I worked with Student A. He had a rough morning before I arrived. The teacher

informed me that he didn’t come to school until around 9:30. Then once he got to school he ran

away and didn’t further explain why. I was confused what she exactly meant by “ran away”.

That could mean ran down the hall or ran to the office, so I asked her for clarification. I also

stated that it was okay and I understood if she could not provide me with that much information

about my student. My cooperating teacher said that she could tell me and that it wasn’t

confidential. She told me that he ran down the street because he missed his mom. I can’t help but

wonder why he really didn’t want to come to school. I really appreciate that she told me about

this incase this affected him throughout the time that I was meeting with him.

The time he ran away would’ve been at the beginning of reading time, and I know Mrs.

Martin has stated that he struggles with reading. He may have just wanted to avoid doing his

reading homework and blamed it on missing his mom. It could have also been a deeper issue or

situation that happened at home the night before or morning before school started.
 I could tell that the student was distracted during math time. He normally has trouble

focusing during math time anyways but today was an even bigger struggle for him. It felt like he

gave up on trying to work towards his math that day. I wasn’t going to try to force him to do

math that day though. I was going to allow him to go at his own pace. I felt like if I redirected

him too much to do his math, he might meltdown or run away again. It was an appropriate

situation I felt for me to back off and let him do what he wanted for the moment. He works really

hard every other day so I felt it was necessary. I talked to my teacher about it when I had time

and she said that was fine for the situation that was at hand. Unfortunately, I ran out of time

before the students had to go to lunch or else I would’ve asked her to inform me more on his

home life. I do recall at the beginning of the semester that she stated his home life was “sad”, but

that doesn’t tell me much at all. I’ll be looking forward to spending more time with this student

and hopefully learning more about his story. Hopefully in the future I will get the opportunity to

discuss more information involving this student with my cooperating teacher.

Journal #7

Emily Carpino

November 4th

10:30-11:30

I had the pleasure to be able to work with Student C at school today. I don’t get to work

with him as often as I would like to. It’s always interesting to see how much he has progressed

since the last time I was able to work with him. He has made major improvement in math so far.

It just takes him a little longer than the others and he needs extra help recognizing when his

numbers are facing the wrong way.

I came at a different time than I normally do today. It happened to be reading time when I

arrived today. My cooperating teacher asked if I would go out in the hall with him and help him

out with his reading test. I thought this was an excellent idea. It was good to go out in the hall so

that he wasn’t getting embarrassed by his peers and also it is what benefited his needs the best.

My teacher instructed me to listen along as he read, and when he needed the extra help, I would

help him sound out the word. I wish she would’ve went more in depth with her directions, but I

listened to what she said and went with it.

He struggled with most of the words and instead of trying to sound them out, he would

just sit there and wait for me to answer the word for him. The first couple of times I accidentally

just told him the word. Then as the test went on, I thought of a different way to help him out. I
would point at the letters in the word and have him sound out the sound as my finger went across

the word. He did really well with this method. I would have him try out sounding out the letters

by himself 3 times, then after the third time I would help him sound it out. I never once fully

gave him the answer. I think this helped him really well. He ended up doing fairly well on the

test too!

After the reading test she allowed them to have independent reading time. I sat next to

him as he used his finger to scan the words he was reading and to help him keep track. I could

tell when he was stuck on a word because his finger would stop in the middle of the page. I used

the same method as I did on the reading test. Point to the letters to have him sound them out first,

after three times of not figuring out the word I would sound it out along with him. I would do

this very quietly to where his peers could hardly hear him. He wasn’t reluctant to my help like he

has been in the past.

Journal #8

Emily Carpino

November 11th,

11:00-11:30

I only logged thirty minutes today because my cooperating teacher and the other first

grade teacher had me dye noodles for thanksgiving necklaces the first graders were making. I

logged time with student A today. While working with student A, I’ve noticed they have

improved a lot. The thing is, I’m not quite sure if they are learning the information or just

copying their neighbors and writing down the answers. I say this because he’ll always write

down the answers but when Mrs. Martin calls on him he doesn’t know what to say. It also could

be that he feels pressured to answer and loses the answer when she calls on him. I could

understand that because I also have problems with that myself. The teacher also stated that this is

a new math book that they’re currently working on and she thinks it’s too difficult for first

graders. The para agrees with her and it seems like they talk about it almost every day. I’ve

noticed student A wants to act like he doesn’t know what he’s doing when I’m observing him

closely. I use proximity development to watch him and if I really see he’s struggling I will

approach him and help. Today he was trying to distract me from helping him. He had a happy

birthday pencil and it had the type of decoration on it that started to peel off once you would

sharpen it. He started to peel it off and every time he would peel a little bit off he would get up to

throw it away. I took the liberty upon myself to tell him I would throw it away for him. He

started making this a game to get away with his work I think. I finally suggested for him to grab
another pencil and continue with his work. This helped from the pencil distraction. Mrs. Martin

is also trying out flexible seating. Student A is currently at a bar stool seat at a high top table. He

seems to handle it okay but I think he would benefit better from being further away from his

peers at a larger table where there is fewer distractions. I also think this will help with his

copying problems when it comes to math.

Journal #9

Emily Carpino

November 29th

10:30-11:30

I logged one hour today. I worked with student C and somewhat with student D. Student C

seemed like they were extra tired today. They still worked as hard as they could on their math.

They are improving so well on their math skills since the beginning of the year! The only thing

student C is still struggling with is getting his numbers backwards or writing them in the wrong

order. We haven’t went into very much detail on dyslexia in class but I’m curious on if this is a

sign of early dyslexia? Also, if this can be reversible with extra work at it? He seems like he’s

doing better, but still struggles a little but. He’s very proud too. When I was helping him today

he would write his number down then cover up his answer. To most people this could be because

he doesn’t want other people to copy his answer, but I can’t help but wonder if he’s nervous

about his answer being wrong and his peers seeing it. The other student’s in the class have a bad

habit of laughing at other students when they say a wrong answer. Mrs. Martin doesn’t react to

this behavior the same way I would. I would definitely give a warning then a consequence for the

students who continue to do it because I would not tolerate that behavior. That would be

considered bullying to me.

Student C is improving very much on his math skills like I said before. He likes me to

help him out and seems like he tries to work extra hard when I’m helping him. Today he kept

looking up and smiling at me when he would answer a question. If it was right I would give him

a thumbs up and say “good job!”. Even if the answer was wrong I would still smile and say “You
were so close! Let’s try this.” Then continue to help him get the correct answer and make sure he

understood how we got the answer.

Student D excels during math and is able to answer the questions very quickly and almost

too quickly. He also struggled with showing compassion for others. Student D and Student C

were sitting next to each other when I was working with them. Student D made the comment,

“This is so easy, I don’t know how you don’t understand it!”. I could tell Student C had his

feelings hurt because he didn’t say anything and just put his head down and kept working. I

wasn’t sure how to discipline Student D for saying this or if it was my place to say anything to

the Student D about the student. All I ended up saying was “let’s try to focus on our own work

and not worry about how others are doing”. I’m still not 100% sure that was the most appropriate

thing to say to him, but I knew I needed to say something to his comment. It worked because he

didn’t make any more rude comments towards his peers for the remaining time.

Journal #10
December 2nd

9:00-9:30

I worked with student A today. He showed up late again today and Mrs. Martin said it’s been

happening more frequently. It could be because his mom his sleeping in or because he is

complaining about not wanting to come to school. He came back to school during reading time

but it turns out the whole class didn’t have to do their reading work today. Mrs. Martin was sick

yesterday and the substitute teacher accidentally did the reading homework for the whole week

instead of just that days work.

Instead the kids worked on coloring a christmas tree, cut it out, and glued it to red

construction paper. Then they made snowmen made out of popsicle sticks and I sat with Student

A while he did his. During the Christmas tree coloring activity, the main direction was to have

ornaments on the tree and Mrs. Martin reminded them that it would probably be a good idea to

draw the ornaments on first then color green around them. Student A failed to start doing this and

just started coloring the entire tree green. When I reminded him of what Mrs. Martin’s

instructions were he was very reluctant to listen to me. I’ve noticed that he doesn’t listen to me

as well as he does Mrs. Martin. I think that he has figured out that I am a student like him too. I

also think it’s because he’s gotten more comfortable with working with me. After Mrs. Martin

redirected him to draw the ornaments on he listened to her. He rushed through the cutting out the

tree and glueing it on so it didn’t look as neat as the others, but he was still very proud of his

work he had done. He told me that he was going to give it to his mom and that she was going to

love it. I’ve noticed he mostly talks about his mom. She might possibly be more involved in his

life rather than his dad.

Journal 11

December 9th

11:00-11:30
 Today I was able to sit and work with my student B for my last day of observing. We

didn’t work much on homework today, it was more of a free day because of it being so close to

Christmas. Plus Mrs. Martin stated that they need to finish up their crafts that they’ve been

working on. It was fun to see Student B and her artistic abilities. She’s very articulate with her

crafts and exceeds in coloring and adding detail to projects. When I arrived they were working

on a drawing that involved a deer and a tree. Mrs. Martin was helping them out by teaching them

step by step on her own piece of paper how to draw the deer and the tree. Student B needed very

little redirection to stay on task and focus on Mrs. Martin. I believe this is because she really

wanted to make her drawing correctly and she was enjoying the activity. After making the

drawing they were instructed to color it. She did not give specific directions on what colors to

use so this gave the students the opportunity to use their imagination and create their drawings in

whatever color they preferred. Student B stuck to the usual brown deer and green tree. Then she

also added some snow and really big snow flakes. She does really well with staying in the lines

when she colors also.

This was really nice to see this side of her, where she’s not so stressed out and is actually

doing something that she enjoys. After I left and told the kids all goodbye, I received a message

from my cooperating teacher saying how Student B started crying after I left. This made me

almost start to cry. I got to thinking about why she would start crying. I thought that it could

have been possibly because she has had important people in her life leave in the past. This could

have possibly been a parent/guardian figure that made a big impact on her. When I was thinking

about it, I remembered a time that she stated to me “Mrs. Martin said that if I ever get sad about

my mom I should come tell her and talk to her.” It was not my place to ask why she needed to do

that. Then I thought about it and I should of asked Mrs. Martin if she thought this was a way that
Student B was trying to open up to me. I thought about it for awhile later that day, and it ran

across my mind that it could have been that her mom left her, her mom was sick, or that she

passed away. This really hit me hard when I started thinking about what Student B has gone

through to make her have such emotions. I wish I could spend the rest of the year to see how

much she grows and changes throughout the year. She has already changed in such a positive

way from observing her this semester. I’m glad I had the opportunity to watch her grow this

semester!

Key Experiences:

Giving spelling tests: There were a couple of instances where I was able to give my student’s

spelling tests. Once it was about 5 of them. Then two other times it was Student A and Student C

by themselves. My cooperating teacher instructed me that it was okay to help them sound it out if

they needed it but only if it looked like they were struggling really bad. Student A struggled

more than Student C. WIth student A, I repeated the word, the sentence it’s used in, and sounded

it out 3 times. I do believe this helped them, although I don’t think they got a hundred on it that

time. He also told me “The teacher usually just gives me the answer.” I’m not sure if he was

trying to get me to give him the answer or if that actually does happen. Student C tends to need

more help on the way his letters face. He would get the spelling right, just the letters would be

facing the wrong way. I needed to repeat the word, sentence, and sound it out twice to student C.

They both worked really hard and tried their best on the spelling tests.
Proximity Control: During my lesson plan I implemented what you taught us about proximity

control. There are 16 students in my class and during this time my teacher had the desks arranged

into groups of four. At first as I was giving my lesson I stood at the front of the room and taught

it. Then I noticed a couple of students at a group of desks that were distracting each other and not

following along. I then decided to start walking around the room as I taught the lesson and they

started to notice and behave better. Once I came by their table and put my hand down on both of

their desks they immediately were paying attention to me. This was useful because I was still

able to continue with my lesson and not interrupt the other students from learning.

Experiences with student: One day as I was walking into the classroom I kept hearing the

students talking about how it was shoe day. This kind of confused me and I was eager to find out

what it was. I was working with student C that day and he kept wanting to talk about it. I told

him if he got all of his work done then he could tell me all about it. Once he got this done, he

informed me that shoe day is one of the biggest days of the year for Southeast Elementary. A

family that attended Southeast schools donated money so that each one of the students at the

school gets a new pair of shoes. Last year even the teachers got a new pair of shoes. This has

been going on for about 4 years now and I think that it is an awesome donation!
Motivation levels of students : I had an incident where student B kept falling asleep in class or

complaining of being tired all of the time. Since it was almost lunch time, I told her that if she

worked really hard the time would fly by and lunch time would be here before she knew it.

Instead of getting onto her about falling asleep, I chose to talk about something that would

motivate her to keep working. Another trend I’ve seen in the students is that they always want to

give me hugs multiple times while I’m there. At first, I let them do it, but then I realized I was

interrupting class time by letting them do that. I’ve started telling them that they have to wait

until before we go to lunch to give me hugs. I discussed with my cooperating teacher about this

and she was okay with me doing that.

I was given a special seat that the Special Education teacher allowed us to try out on Student D.

It was a wobbly seat that was supposed to help kids who had trouble sitting still in their desks.

Before given this seat Mrs. Martin had just made the student stand up the entire class and wasn’t

given his seat back. I wasn’t very comfortable with this idea because I think flexible seating is

something that should be implemented in classrooms. Then the teachers had an in service day

and she visited a classroom that had flexible seating in it and liked the idea. She asked the

Special Education teacher if she could borrow the seat and try it out with Student D. The wobbly

chair did not fit with student D. He was more distracted by it and wanted to show off to the other

children that he was in that seat and they weren’t. This also distracted the other kids in the class

because they were more interested in him in his chair than the work on the board. She has stated
she wants to try different types of chairs and see what works out best for him. I’m looking

forward to see what best benefits him and his needs in the classroom.

Final Reflection:

Before taking this class, I thought that I had some previous knowledge and skills to

implement when observing and working with students with special needs. I have worked for the

Challenger program going on my fourth year now. This is a program for children who have

social/emotional disturbances. This program has taught me many useful skills, but I have

acquired and learned so many more during my diversity hours. While doing my observation for

this class, I did not realize how much more I would learn and the different skills I would need to

implement with the kids during the school day.

Since I do work for this program, I was able to reflect and compare how these students

act during the school day and after school. It is very interesting to see how they work in the

classroom. This involved how well they work during certain subjects and on assignments that

they either excel or struggle in. How they react to the assignments and the frustrations they have

was also interesting to see. I’m used to redirecting the students during play activities, but it is

definitely different debating on the different setting they’re in.

I was able to see that even though I have had some experience, I still need more

improvement on working with students with special needs. It sort of challenged my confidence

and it also developed it more. In the beginning of the observation, I was very nervous. I was

constantly worried about saying the wrong thing or not redirecting the student in the right way.

As my hours progressed more, I was able to become more comfortable with working with these
students. I also could process the best way to redirect them depending on their needs. I realized

that everything takes time, and I shouldn’t have let myself get so nervous in the beginning. Now

it makes me happy to look back at the beginning of the semester and see how far I’ve come and

the skills I’ve adapted over the time of working with my four students. I’m glad I can also realize

that this is a field where I will constantly be learning, no matter what or how skilled I am.

This observation has taught me so much. Although I have learned very extensive amounts

of information while we were in the classroom, there are some things that you can’t really learn

until you experience them for yourself. That especially applies to this project and profession.

This has made me more confident in my teaching abilities for the future and also helped me

realize that I will constantly be learning new things and new ways to work with all of my

students.