I remember first observing Kayla in my first day of fieldwork in Ms. Formoso’s classroom, room 208. Kayla is a 10 year old girl in a 5th grade inclusive classroom. She is an only child and lives in a neighborhood close to the school. My first impression of Kayla was that she was polite and liked to participate in class. She raised her hand whenever she had something to say and never spoke out of turn. Kayla was just one of those students you had to get to know. The more that I observed and interacted with her the more I learned about her. In one conversation she asked me where I was from because she said that I looked like her older cousin. After I gave her an answer, she shared with me that her parents were from Puerto Rico, but she was born in the U.S. Kayla struck me as a very confident individual. On that first day of fieldwork I didn’t notice that she used a hearing aid. Instead, I noticed that she was a little taller than the other girls. I noticed her long black hair and big soft eyes. It wasn’t until my next visit that I saw her trying to fix her hair that I noticed it was there. From that moment forward I started to notice that whenever she would get to class she would put her things away, sit at her desk, and then go back to her backpack and take out her hearing aid as well as the FM system. I noticed that she didn’t try to hide her hearing aid and that she didn’t care if other students happened to be looking at her as she was doing this, but since this was just part of her daily morning routine most students didn’t even seem to take notice.
Kayla is one of those students that likes to let you know that she’s present. When she walks through the door in the morning she likes to greet her teachers with a loud good morning...
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...is a reflective learner and does better in a quiet environment free from any distractions. She is that type of student that takes her time to reflect on the information and the instruction that has been given in order to gain understanding in the most efficient way possible. Kayla learns best through watching. She needs to be able to see and visualize information in order to understand new concepts. She displays various visual learning characteristics such as needing to have a paper and pencil handy. Kayla also benefits from writing down instructions and seeing it demonstrated. The teacher mentioned to me that modeled how to make a PowerPoint presentation including a cover page and how to design slides based on the information you wanted to include. The following day, Kayla was able to get up to the fourth slide having only been taught how to do this the day before.
Often the change and transition to middle is a difficult one for students, so it is no surprise that a student of Juanita’s caliber would be having trouble as well. Her regular middle school teachers were not going above and beyond to make sure Juanita succeed, if anything it seemed as if Juanita was a burden to them. If it was not for the Ms. Issabelle’s effort, Juanita would have failed the 6th grade, and possibly fell through the cracks of the education system.
She would mostly be alone and sit by herself being buried in books or watching cartoons. In high school she attended a program for troubled adolescents and from there she received a wide range of support from helping her get braces to helping her get information to attend community college. (59) Even with this she was already too emotionally unstable due to her family issues and felt like she couldn’t go through with her dreams to travel and even go into the art of culinary. She suffers from psychological problems such as depression and worries constantly about almost every aspect in her life from work to family to her boyfriend and just hopes that her life won’t go downhill. (60) Overall Kayla’s family structure shows how different is it now from it was in the 1950’s as divorce rates have risen and while before Kayla’s type of family structure was rare now it is becoming more common. This story helps illustrate the contributions of stress that children possess growing up in difficult homes in which they can’t put their own futures first they must, in some cases, take care of their guardian’s futures first or others around them. Again, this adds into the inequality that many face when it comes to being able to climb up the ladder and become successful regardless of where one
Nyla was a student that took a lot of work and effort that would make her successful. Although she did have some limitations such as her communication and transportation, Kissinger made it possible for her to be a special part in the classroom. The students in this school room then grew respect for Nyla and had an open mind of always looking out for others. This story of Holding Nyla was a story that had touched my heart. This is an exact model of what I want to strive for in my future classroom. The main lesson I got from this text was not to focus on the child’s disability and limitations as a student, but utilize the student and as one could see, that had a great impact among her peers and overall environment of the classroom. By the end of this transforming story, Nyla was not the only one feeling praise and importance in this classroom, or not feeling underestimated by her disability, but every child that was in that room felt that as
Kayla’s teacher reported, “Kayla is smart and can be a good a helper; however, Kayla does come to school and talk about both of her families and she is glad Kayla feels comfortable with her teachers to share the difficulties she experienced.”
When I walked into the school, I was greeted by the receptionist who kindly showed me where to sign in and then directed me to the teacher I would be observing for the day. The staff was dressed very appropriate for the day and on Friday they were able to wear pink because it was October. Although I did not see much interaction with factuality with each other, I was able to witness when the teachers of a certain grade would come to pick up their students. I saw how the teachers interacted with Mrs. Lee and they were very respectful. The student’s behavior varied from class to class. Most of the classes were well behaved with only a few students causing disruption. Mrs. Lee had warned me that the kindergarten class is normally noisier than other classes, but to her surprise the students were very quiet and did their work independently with no interruptions. Mrs. Lee did a wonderful job at keeping the students disciplined within the classroom. She would give positive re-enforcement and correct students when they would do something incorrectly. She worked really well with the students and they students responded in a respectful manner to Mrs.
She didn’t wake up every morning, happy to go to the school and learn more things, instead she felt terrified wondering what was going to happen to her. Some days were not as bad like the others but there was some days that Melba could've really got hurt but she always found a way out without getting too injured. Kids just kept taunting her every moment of the day and the worst part was the teachers didn’t do anything about it. Even though they know she is a child too and that they should care that because she could get badly hurt and it would be the teacher's fault because they didn’t do anything about it or to stop
Klara, a 4 year old African-American female, has been attending the Child Development Center of College of San Mateo for 2 years. She is an only child and resides with both her mother and father in San Mateo. English is Klara’s primary language.
Therefore, observing at the Roosevelt Middle School was something completely new to me. The classrooms were full of diverse students. There were students from many different religions and races in every classroom that I observed. The aide that was in the classroom worked with the ELL students who could not speak English at all or who could barely speak English. She worked on teaching them the English language as well as some of the activities done in class. I did not really get to work with these students sd I often stayed back in the classroom and helped the other students do their activities in there. I would have liked to have worked with the ELL students and get to experience what it is like to help these students with their education. Unless I get to observe at another culturally diverse school, I probably will not get to experience working with these
The interview I conducted took place in the courtyard of my complex in Smallville, with the interviewee and myself. For the purpose of his paper and to protect the adolescent privacy lets call her Regina. Regina is a fourteen-year-old adolescent female of Africa American descent. She is above average in height and carries a very shy and nonchalance deposition. She is a very attractive young lady and does above average work in her school setting. She appears to be a normal every day child with a lifetime of experiences awaiting her.
Furthermore, Amanda suffers from school anxiety and frequently has symptoms such as feeling sick and vomiting before or during school. When the therapist inquiries about school, Amanda become nervous, irritant, and fidget around in her chair. Amanda explains that she likes her teachers; however, she did not like attending school. Children at her school tease her about her appeara...
Learning my student’s abilities, interest, aspirations, and values of learning and development can be the most beneficial to understanding how to personalize my lessons. Supporting my students learning development is a must. I will set a community environment, by building trust and rapport amongst the class (Powel, 2000). To learn and determine my student’s strengths and needs I will develop a learning profile on each of them. This learning profile will include tabs such as: biological traits, cultural, social status, academic performance, and learning preferences. To help analyze the necessary information I will use different assessments, parent surveys, student self-reporting, prior standards learned, student records, assignments, and activities to determine knowledge, understanding, skills, and interest. Once the profiles have been made I will then use students preexisting and potential interest, experiences, and their way of thinking to personalize and relate lessons to each leaners, learning level and style (Powel,
As we all are fully aware, each student is diverse and has special needs when it comes to learning. There are three types of learners: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Visual learners learn best when shown how to do an assignment. They prefer diagrams, pictures, and charts. Simply allowing your class to create flashcards and color coding notes can help these types of learners memorize the information. Our brain organizes information through a process. Creating flow charts will help the brain map out the information from the lesson given. Auditory learners learn best when a teacher presents information by talking to the student. When directions are read aloud, they tend to succeed. Allowing time for students to discuss the material in a group before moving on to the next is beneficial for these types of learners. Kinesthetic learners are learners who excel when engaged in the learning activity. By participating in labs, skits, and presentations, they acquire the information faster. Starting the class with a few warm up activities, next a lecture, then a classroom discussion, and wrapping up with a review will help all types of learning styles. Without the knowledge from psychologists about the different types of learners and their special needs, teachers would not know how to respond to their students who may struggle with the material given.
I was interested in the debate over her taking medication. I, at first agreed with her and her parents about not wanting her on medication. I was also worried about her uniqueness and creativity being destroyed by the medication. I also was excited by the idea of her changing schools in hope that she would make friends. I did not think about the new school working as a substitute stimulus for her. I was very surprised to learn about her lying about her academics and saddened to learn about her social problems. I was surprised at how much the medication helped her in the end and glad it did not hurt her uniqueness.
It’s Wednesday and a mother just kissed her son goodbye as he walked into the classroom. The mother walks back to her car and proceeds to work. Her son has Down Syndrome, but attends a private school where special needs children have their own classroom. Her son Alex loves going to school to see his friends, like any child would. With Down Syndrome, Alex has some rough days in the classroom.
I had the privilege to observe Ms. Melanie Cagles’s kindergarten classroom. I did my observation at the Jasper County Primary School. Her classroom was a regular educational classroom. It consisted of male and female students of Hispanic, White, and African American races. Ms. Cagle is a kind teacher and she made me feel welcomed. She treated me with respect and showed me around her classroom with details. She always had a smile on her face. She was happy and showed cared for her students. One thing I noticed and liked about her is that she treats all her students with the same respect they deserve. The students received me with smiles and a lot of questions. They asked why I was there, how old I am, what is my name over and over, and will I be their teacher. They whisper that I was the