460 Practicum Daily Reflective Journal 1

Special Education Practicum Daily Reflective Journal
Date---- 1/2 (or more) Page Daily Reflection of your day---- Total Time (hrs)
Example: 9/12/2016 4.5 Hours
Taught 2 lessons/Did a behavior observation/Decided that I really LOVE Teaching!!
Today in my practicum at the best High School in all of Idaho, I had the great opportunity to teach 2 lessons.
Thankfully, Brother Christopherson and the rest of the BYU-Idaho Faculty have prepared me so well. I was a little
nervous, but no one noticed. I used the “Moving On” binder and taught 2 lessons from the Self Advocacy section.
We completed Person-Centered Planning and Identified each student’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Talents and Skills—
My lesson plans are attached!!
I also conducted a behavior observation for a student. I will then have the opportunity to develop a FBA and a BIP—I
love talking in acronyms, HOWEVER I know that parents and other teachers don’t all speak in acronyms, so I know
that I must define each acronym that I use—So, I will have the opportunity to conduct a Functional Behavioral
Assessment (FBA) and develop a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) for this student—How cool is that!! (Brother
Christopherson calls it a FuBA instead of a FBA—because he’s THAT way!!)
And I decided that I love teaching: I will always remember what Brother Christopherson tells me at the bottom of
EACH of his emails:
“Every child is ONE caring adult away from being a success story"--Josh Shipp
“We are all teachers. We should ever remember that we not only teach with words; we teach also by who we are
and how we live our lives.”— Thomas S. Monson
You are a disciple of Jesus Christ. This means that you are a teacher, because discipleship includes teaching, blessing,
and lifting others.
Date 1/11/18 ---- 1/2 (or more) Page Daily Reflection of your day---- Total Time (4 hrs)
I started my time at the school, discussing procedures that I should follow when arriving and
leaving the school each day that I am there. I was given the opportunity to tour a section of the
school and learn where the important teacher things are. I met my teacher, Mrs. Duffield, and
went over the checklist with her. She has a few concerns about IEP’s because someone else in
the school takes care of all of them. She is going to help me get access to IEP’s or in contact with
the individual who has all access. We talked a lot about expectations and scheduling. She is going
to help me get all of my hours as well as finish the whole checklist. I got to sit in on her class that
came in right after her planning period. It was great to meet her students and see how they react
to her, their peers, and the teaching environment. I sat in on a math class and I can’t wait to
teach with her.

Date 1/18/18 ---- 1/2 (or more) Page Daily Reflection of your day---- Total Time (4hrs)
When I arrived at the school, Mrs. Duffield invited me to go directly to an IEP meeting with her.
When we got there, we asked permission from the family, for me to attend the meeting and to
take notes. After being approved to do so, I joined the meeting and signed in. The meeting was
very good, quick, and informative. The parent and student were very cooperative and agreed
with most things on the IEP. The student had the opportunity to talk about himself and the mom
was asked her opinion on many things.
After the IEP meeting, we went back to the classroom where we were able to help student
complete their independent study. I had one student who was especially struggling with the
assignment, that I was able to sit by and help through. It was incredible to see him gain
motivation to finish the assignment. I do have to say, I was shocked to be sitting by a high
schooler who smelt like cigarette smoke. I learned a lot about not judging who I am helping, and
also looking for ways they could teach me. I didn’t know how to use the program, so I allowed
the students to show me what they were doing, as well as explain it to me.
Mrs. Duffield has her planning period while I was helping her, so I organized a bookshelf for her
and helped her get the materials she would need for tomorrow’s lessons.
Date 1/19/18 --- 1/2 (or more) Page Daily Reflection of your day---- Total Time (4 hrs)
Today was a day that Mrs. Duffield was going to teacha lecture for some of her class periods. She
invited me to come and observe her teaching and take notes on different strategies that she
uses. When I got to her classroom, the students were using the workbooks for the resource
curriculum for math. Mrs. Duffield sat at the front of the room and showed the student on the
projector, how to do the math for the problems in their workbook. She showed about 3
problems and then had the students finish the section off of what they had learned from her.
Her and I walked around the class to monitor student needs while they were doing the
problems. Something that I noticed was that some students took the whole time given to do just
one problem, and other students whipped through the set before the time was up. The student
range in this class was quite diverse.
We did the exact same learning model for the other two class periods that I was there for today.
I had the opportunity to apply the things I knew from my own high school math, and help the
students when they got stuck. This was really hard for me at some points and I realized that I
should probably prepare before coming to help in the class.
There was a break today where I got to meet the lady that does all of the IEP’s for the school.
She gave me a lot of pointers on what I should and shouldn’t do concerning IEP’s.

Date 1/22/18--- 1/2 (or more) Page Daily Reflection of your day---- Total Time (4 hrs)
Today was a very interesting day at the school. I came during first period when Mrs. Duffield has
her planning period. She received an email that informed her of a missing student from another
school that is often seen at Skyline High. We talked about ways I could finish my checklist and I
was able to discuss what she does for school fire drills, and other emergency type situations.
It was perfect timing that we had this conversation, because shortly after 2nd period came in,
the principal announced a shelter in place. This was a great experience in the resource room,
where students have to learn to deal with their fears. We had a few students who were very
concerned about why we would be in a shelter in place, and what that meant. One student even
required a bit of therapy for his emotions so he wouldn’t get too scared. We had to stay in the
class period or “shelter in place” for the rest of my time at the school. The students were
working on a program called prodigy, which is on their chromebooks. They continued to play this
and I monitored their progress and helped them when they needed it.
Being able to help the students with their needs was a great way to be immersed in the special
education world. I really enjoyed seeing how students respond in emergency situations. This
situation was different for the high school than it would have been for the elementary school,
because the students had their phones and access to the internet to find out what was really
going on. This prepared me to be a teacher who doesn’t keep secrets from the students and it
also helped me realize the importance of knowing IEP’s and behavior plans for students who
may struggle in certain situations.
Date 1/25/18 --- 1/2 (or more) Page Daily Reflection of your day---- Total Time (3.5 hrs)
This morning, I was able to do the file reviews for 5 of Mrs. Duffields students. I chose to look at
a few students that had caught my eye previously. I thought I knew what some of these
student’s disabilities were, but I quickly realized that I was completely wrong, or they qualify for
an IEP in other ways than I had ever imagines. I saw eligibility for other health impairment,
autism, emotional disturbance. These students had a range of needs and all of their transition
plans and goals were different. I thought it was really cool that they all had plans for their
individual likes. I also really like that past goals are kept on the IEP so I could see how the student
and their likes have changed over time.
The students had the opportunity to choose which computer math program they wanted to
participate in this day. All 3 of her class periods have struggling math students as well as students
who are fairly proficient in math, but struggle with behavior and other things. Most of the
students in the first two periods chose the program, prodigy. I like this program because it is so
much easier than the other one. All of the students start at a first grade level and work up,
earning points. I saw so much joy from students when they finally got out of the first and second
grade levels. It is my goal, while I am in this class, to help the lower students learn. It is easy for
me to give them the answer to their problem because it seems more difficult to explain what to
do. I want to be able to sit by them and help them progress through questioning.
During the study skills class, if student finish 5 math problems, they can join a game of Settlers of
Catan. I really like this game because it includes simple math and strategy. I play this game with
students who finish their math problems, and do not waste time.

Today I focused on behaviors. My teacher showed me the IEP files for students on a behavior
plan. There was one student that I was shocked to find out that he had a behavior plan. He
seems so collected and polite when he comes to class. I really enjoy helping him, so it was great
that the teacher informed me of his plan and how she responds according to it. This student
either has really good days, or really bad days, and I have only been exposed to the really good
ones. We were able to discuss some of his triggers, and how I can help him reach his behavior
goals while I am in the class.
I reviewed a few more behavior plans, for students that I especially struggle to have a desire to
help. I learned a lot of things that helped me understand more of why some students are acting
the way that they are. The discipline administrator made a visit to our class while my teacher had
a planning period. She discussed her style of working with students in my class. She talked about
how their disability doesn’t exempt them from the consequences of their actions, but she is able
to be an advocate for them and help them make better choices in the future. This is the kind of
teacher that I want to be. I want to be able to help my students use their disability to their
advantage, and not to their disadvantage in any way.
Date 2/1/18--- 1/2 (or more) Page Daily Reflection of your day---- Total Time (3.5 hrs)
Today was pretty similar to many of the days that I have spent in the high school previously my
teacher had her students get a chromebook as soon as they got to the classroom. Her earlier
periods have to sign in to the game prodigy. Later in the day, the students are able to choose
whether they want to get on prodigy or Carnigee. Both programs test student math skills but one
is significantly easier. I was able to sit by one students most of the time, and help her progress in
the program. While this can be tedious and feels like I am not making a huge difference, I know
that my simple teaching during this time was able to help the student tremendously. I also
realized that it is best to teach in smaller steps and through step by step instruction, for many of
the students in the resource room. Giving them too much information at one time doesn’t set
them up for success, because they don't remember and then they get more confused or cna not
move on in the program.
I also stayed at the school through the study skills class. None of the students had work that they
were needing to have done so I played a math game with a group of them. I thought this was a
great way for them to help the time pass as well as learn math in a non traditional, textbook kind
of way.

WHen I arrived at the school, my teacher was having her planning period. We spent quite a bit of
time talking about the moving on binder, and she shared with me that one of the teachers at this
high school is the one who created this binder. She talks a lot and we weren’t able to get any
more work done, but at least now I know who I can go talk to at the school to be able to get help
on my unit of study.
In second period, all of the students the prodigy program. It lets them learn at a level that is best
for their math skills. THere are a few students who are only on a second or third grade math
level in the program, so I tried to focus my efforts towards helping them. One student in
particular, can not quite grasp the concept of place value. In the program, he has to count dots
on a page and then write how many tens and ones there are. He gets confused and switches up
the numbers, if he even gets it right the first time. I was able to sit with him and prompt him for
a while, but then I decided to write out an example for him that he would be able to refer back
to when he came across these problems.
In third period, the students had the choice to choose the program they wanted to work on.
There was a student with many questions about the program he was on. I suggested that he
change programs, to the easier one. I helped him set it up and get going.
My students did the computer programs again today. It is a thursday so we only had two class
periods today. The first class period worked fairly independently, and not one person asked me a
question. I walked around and monitored, but they were all getting the problems correct
without assistance. I decided to sign up for the program myself, so my students could battle with
me. Who ever got the question correct is who would win the battle. I started making my profile
but by the time I was just finishing up, it was time for my students to go. I will be able to use this
to connect with them in the future when I am at their school. I also think it is good for the
teacher to understand how to navigate the program. There are many benefits from me learning
and using the program.
During the study skills class, I noticed that one of the students that is on a behavior plan hasn’t
been doing anything. Today I approached him to see if he had any homework that I could help
him with. He told me that he just puts his headphones on because he doesn’t like hearing two
other students talk the whole time. I could tell it was just an excuse. When the period was over
and it was time to go home, like the bell literally rang, the student signed on to his chromebook
and told the teacher that he needed to do a few problems for participation points. She is so kind
and let him do it even though she had a meeting to get to. I talked to her after he left and she
shared that he has been struggling emotionally and she is just trying to help him out when she
can.

Today was another day with the students, playing the game Prodigy. THey really seem to enjoy
it. THere are still a few students who can hardly play independently, because of their low math
skills. I spend my time near them, allowing them to ask me questions. As a teacher, it is really
hard to watch them get questions wrong repeatedly. I just want to jump in and teach them or
give them the answer. I also want to be a teacher who allows students to recognize their
weaknesses and ask for help. I mostly sit in a place near them where they can see me when they
look up. I use this as a gentle way to remember that they can ask for my help when they are
struggling.
All of our students played this game today. It was long, and I wish we would do some more
teaching, but this is giving me great one on one experience.
When I arrived to the high school today, my teacher was absent and had a substitute covering
her class. Right when I met him, I introduced myself and told him what my purpose was in being
in the classroom. It was very interesting to learn what the substitute could offer the class, and
how differently it was run when the teacher was not there. My role was also different this day,
considering the fact that the sub did not yet trust me and my ability to teach and help the
students. He asked me if I would monitor student success. I am pretty used to doing this with the
students. I walk around and look for students who are in need of help on their computer
program. Today the teacher wouldn’t let anyone talk. There was a much greater need for help
because the student’s weren’t relying on each other for help. This was good for the sub but not
as helpful for the students. I couldn’t make it to all of the students who needed help and this
meant that they were stuck until I gave them my time. The students that I wasn’t able to help,
weren’t able to move on in the program and made no work that day. I learned a very important
lesson today.
I think that seating arrangements in the classroom are essential for student success. When
students can sit near people that can assist them when the teacher is not readily available, they
can progress in their work, and not solely rely on the teachers intelligence.

Date- 2/22/18--- 1/2 (or more) Page Daily Reflection of your day---- Total Time (3.5 hrs)
Today my teacher was teaching a lesson when I showed up. She started teaching a very
simplified version of solving for x with two step equations. After she got through her fairly quick
lesson, she gave the students 10 problems that they would need to finish by themselves with the
help of me and her. Many of the students still didn’t know what they were doing, so I had a lot of
teaching opportunities today. The second hour has a pretty low math comprehension level, so I
broke the steps up into written instructions. When someone raised their hand I was able to walk
them through the steps I had determined. They were really simple and easy to follow. Some of
the students even wanted to have the steps written down for their own benefit.
During the advisory class, my teacher talked to the students about their senior projects. It was a
predetermined discussion sent to her by the principal. I thought this was a good chance for my
teacher to work with some of the general education students. She doesn’t have them in her class
so she is able to work with the juniors on mondays during advisory.
The third period of the day is a bit more advanced than second period, but they still require
quite a bit of help. I was ready to help considering the notes I had prepared to assist the
students. These students actually followed the lecture a little more and were given 15 problems
to accomplish on their own. Many of the students that needed help were just forgetting a simple
step and needed a small reminder. This is a great sign that the students are being taught on the
level that they learn the best.
Today we taught the same lesson that we taught at the beginning of the week. The lessons were
on solving for X but instead of just sitting through lecture, Mrs. Duffield allowed the workbook to
lead the discussion. She shows problems for students to do and then they have to work on them
by themselves. I was able to walk around and help the students get the right answers on the
book work. Many students were complaining about the book work, even thought it was very
similar to what the teacher had taught. I thought it was pretty interesting to see that the
students thought it was just harder because it was in the book. As I helped some of the students,
they realized that the steps to solving the problems are always the same. All of the students
were able to finish their work early and got to leave class early.
For the math study skills class, I worked with one of the students that is trying to raise his grade.
I used a whiteboard to set up an equation for him to solve, and then he would solve it from
there. Near the end of the period, he was able to guess which equation he should use to solve
the problems. His teacher also changed two of his lowest grades for his positive work.

When I showed up today, the classes had a final that they were bring required to take. This was
mostly on the things we have been teaching since I showed up to the classroom. Mrs. Duffield
had example problems written all over the boards, so students could look to see how the
problems were to be done. She told the students what was on the board right as they showed
up, as a reward for being on time to class. She told the students that they could ask for help as
well. If they raised their hand, I would walk around and help them and if they needed and she
would sit at her desk. This way they could choose who they wanted help from.
The first period did a great job working by themselves. Most students finished before the bell
and those who didn’t would just finish tomorrow. I enjoyed helping the students on the test
because they knew I couldn’t just give them the answer. I mostly pointed their attention to the
similar example on the board. During the second period, more students needed help but all
finished before the bell.
Today was a teacher inservice day. It was a long day that my teacher had to work on progress
reports and other things to prepare for her students and the rest of the trimester. I spent most
of our time together asking her questions about the dynamics of teaching in high school. She
talked to me about how the classes are assembled, which needs are going to be met, and how
they progress monitor. I am especially interested in how the IEP works with the parole that many
students are on. It was pointed out to me that the law helps support the IEP while on parole.
Students have to come to school and do everything on their plan, especially if behavior is
involved.
We talked about some of the students and their behaviors. I was told some stories of behaviors
from students from the beginning of the year and we looked for progress on their behavior
plans. I thought this was a really good idea for the teacher to see what she can do to help the
students always be progressing. I think it is always a good idea to take an inventory of progress.
I was showed how they progress monitor for behavior. Many students on a plan have a google
survey that is sent to their teachers each day. At the end of the day, the teachers go to their
email and complete one for each student. These surveys are individualized to their plans. The
teacher answers a few short questions and then this is all collected for data collection.

Date 3/8/2018--- 1/2 (or more) Page Daily Reflection of your day---- Total Time (3.5 hrs)
Today we taught how to solve for X with multiple steps in a problem. We touched on this
previously in class, but it is very interesting to see how quickly students forget how to do such a
thing. At the beginning of class, we presented the students with a small bit of bellwork like work
to monitor where their abilities lay. It was so sad to see that many of the students couldn’t
remember the steps to take in this kind of problem. I really wish that they could have been given
homework that would have enforced having them remember these things. When I am a teacher,
I will give some assignments to help the students retain the procedures for this type of problem.
If they can not do these simple problems, they can not progress in the math world.
After re teaching the students how to solve these problems, we started to add fractions to the
equations. While this was a scary thing for the students and they immediately shut down and
thought they couldn’t do it, it was clear to see that they would be able to do this after some
more intensive instruction. This is something that will have to be taught for the next few days,
to help the students be able to progress towards more math goals.
The students are getting really good at the computer programs that they are asked to do. We
spend a lot of time doing these programs. Part of me doesn’t know if the teacher has them do it
so she doesn’t have to teach or what. I realized that the students aren’t even half way through
the book and the school year is going to be over soon. I think that the computer program would
be a great reward or way to reinforce what the students are learning.
The teacher only checks the students progress in the program near the end of the period, so if
they haven’t been working, they have really wasted quite a bit of time not learning. I asked her
who might need help today, and I was able to sit by her and help her. We worked on adding
fractions as shown on a numberline. At the end of the period she got to leave early for the first
time. This shows that support during the work is important for students. They can’t just always
figure it out on their own.
The juniors didn’t have class today so they could go to college fair. this means that we didn’t
have advisory because its a junior advisory. During this time, I worked on things for my checklist
and scheduled my last observation. I think i scheduled it for the right time, so we will actually
have an observation for that day.
When I arrived at the school today, my teacher asked me to help her teach the lesson because
she had somewhere that she needed to go. Since I wasn’t prepared to teach a planned lesson,
we used the workbook to guide instruction. I thought this was fairly beneficial as long as I was
able to explain how to do things and not just give the answer. Something that I found to be really
important was asking questions while I was teaching to check for understanding. Many of the
students were already participating and would shout out answers. This surprised me because it
was a high school classroom. I tried telling them that I wanted them to raise their hands before
they answered the next question and this worked a few times. I taught a lesson on ratios and
how to simplify them to add or subtract them as well as find congruent ratios or fractions. We
were able to get through the whole lesson before the end of the period, which I was grateful for.
My teacher’s study skills class was changed to 5th hour. When the students came in, she made
them do the carnigee program on the computer. They had to finish 5 before they could do other
homework. She lowered this to 4 if they went to the hall and cheered off the cheer team before
their competition. I helped a few students finish some problems on the program and then we
played settlers of catan until the bell rang.
Date---- 1/2 (or more) Page Daily Reflection of your day---- Total Time (hrs)
When I first arrived at the school, it was my teacher’s planning period and she wasn’t even in the
classroom. I had to wait for a whole class period before she showed up. After she did, we had
the students do a fast worksheet before getting on the chrome books. This was just a review
worksheet to help them remember how to solve for x, after their spring break. Most students
finished within 10 minutes and moved on to their computer game. No students had any
questions while playing online, so I walked around and hovered over their shoulders to notice if
they were struggling. There are two students that will never ask for help, so I especially watched
them. I was able to help a few kids in each class period.
When advisory came around, the students with good grades were able to take lunch for advisory
instead of being stuck there doing nothing. The students who needed to improve grades had to
get passes to go visit their teachers of those classes. I spent most of the time working on a
workbook page with a student that was sent to our classroom. He was solving for x in complex
problems. We worked together and finished the worksheet. His grade was raised and during the
next advisory, he can take an early lunch.
Today when I arrived to class, The students were given a brainwarmer worksheet. It was on
graphing certain points and being able to find points on a graph. We thought this would be fairly
easy for them but it took longer than expected. Some students could just not remember the
steps to doing this. After this worksheet was complete, I taught students how plotting points on
a graph and the slope formula are related and different. I had a few problems where I was able
to show them how to find the slope of a line that is graphed. We talked about the change in y
over the change in x and how we use this information to determine the slope. Once the students
had a strong understanding of what this looked like, we were then looking at lines and writing
the equation of the line after finding the slope formula. We did a worksheet with 8 problems on
it, where students were to do this independently. It was very hard for some of them, so I walked
around and helped them with the remainder of the time.
During the study skills class, there was one student who especially needed help with his unit in
the program Carnegie. He was working on breaking down the formulas for a cone. We had to
find the volume of a cone, the area of the base, the radius, and then the height. I was teaching
him and I actually taught him how to do it in a very confusing way, because I didn’t even know
how to myself except for this very abstract way of doing it. The teacher helped us come up with
the right formulas and then I worked with him to complete the unit. He finished before the end
of class and was even excited about the math he was doing.

This morning we started with an observation from Brother Christopherson. He came to watch as
we helped students with their carnigee problem in the beginning of the period. Each student had
to complete one problem. Because this program is more difficult than the prodigy program,
many students needed help to finish their one problem before they could move on. I had time to
help 3 students with this problem while the teacher and other BYUI practicum student also
helped students. All students switched to Prodigy and only one student, M**** needed
extensive help on the problem he was working on. I spent most of the time teaching him about
decimal places.
In the next class period, the students had to finish 2 carnigee problems before they would switch
to the easier set of problems. I sat exclusively with one student who was having trouble focusing.
I mostly felt like a babysitter as I sat there making sure he didn’t get distracted by watching
youtube videos. He did exceptionally well and I believe that my enthusiasm and some sarcasm
helped him be excited about the work he was doing. He really wanted to finish what he was
working on before the bell so he wouldn’t have to finish the work the next day, in case he forgot
it. He was very close and only missed one problem before the bell rang. He was bummed it
would be my last day helping him.
I spent the afternoon helping students complete problems on the online math games, to help
them receive credit for the day. There wasn’t much consistency in helping anyone, I just
answered simple questions as they arose.
There is a new student in the study skills class. I asked her if she needed help but she told me no.
I could tell that she wasn’t doing much work, so I sat next to her. The more that I worked with
her, the more I realized that her reading comprehension was very low. She wasn’t able to do the
math work because she couldn’t read the problems. I sat by her and read the problems to her.
She had a lot of questions as we progressed through the math program. I was able to teach her
about square roots and how to estimate them. We spent the whole period working together on
these types of problems. I think that a program on her computer that could read the problems to
her, would really help her.

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Special Education Practicum Daily Reflective Journal

Special Education Practicum Daily Reflective Journal

Special Education Practicum Daily Reflective Journal

Special Education Practicum Daily Reflective Journal

Special Education Practicum Daily Reflective Journal

Special Education Practicum Daily Reflective Journal

Special Education Practicum Daily Reflective Journal

Special Education Practicum Daily Reflective Journal

Special Education Practicum Daily Reflective Journal

Special Education Practicum Daily Reflective Journal

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