Case Study

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Case Study

See attached powerpoint

BIP so far…

Well my student has improved significantly since my BIP has been put in place. I have noticed that I have her parent’s cooperation which makes it great for contact and communication. I have also noticed that her parent’s have started a similar plan at home because as we have communicated her behavior at home seems much worse than at school.

My student is making progress but each day we make a plan for her and a goal for a certain number of smiley faces. If she gets a sad face she comments “well I only have to get ‘a certain #’ of faces to get a sticker My TA has really been working with me which makes the BIP much more manageable.

Lock(2004)Reflect upon your practice

This article speaks true to my experience in the School in Education. I know that I am programmed to think and reflect about all aspects of education. I reflect on anything that I do in the classroom. The model in the SOE has made me write a lesson plan, teach the lesson plan, write a reflection on the lesson and then discuss the reflection and the lesson. I feel that this model has led me to a great start for teaching.

Since my experience has been a little different in the last couple of weeks with my CT out for medical reasons, I have accepted a new CT, the reading specialist at my school. After my first observation, I had not even finished the hour of my lesson and I was already discussing and reflecting about the lesson for the next time. The first comment from my new CT was that I have very good reflection skills before I had even finished my lesson.

When I reflect I think about what I want the outcome of my next lesson and how I can improve my lesson for my students. This article gave me many resources to think about and realize that there are resources for my reflection other than my own thoughts and my colleagues in my school.

Reflection on my Case Study Student so far…

Who would think that my student teaching is nearly over and I am about to be graduating in less than 2 months. The weeks are flying by and I feel that I am never on top of what I need to be doing, I guess this is something that I will need to get used to my first year.

My case study student has had her up and downs lately. We started out with a behavior problem, my CT and I worked with her and her behavior. On my first week of fulltime teaching it was Friday and we were both so proud and excited about her behavior from the week. We decided to talk to her parents and let them know that she was really improving in the class and we were so proud of her. And then it went straight downhill from there. She has really turned 180 degrees and it is bad. I am noticing that her behavior is really getting to me and it is affecting the whole class.

We had a student at the beginning of the year that left in October and now he is back and I feel that she is trying to fight him for attention. He gets A LOT of negative attention and she wants all the attention. She has taken to meowing like a cat, screaming out and when in timeout she rocks in the chair. My TA becomes so frustrated that she puts her in the hallway that I really don’t appreciate, but I do not want to have a difficult time with the student.

We have discussed the behavior management and have used different forms to ease the situation. I am going to talk to the student about how much I care about her and her being in the classroom. We have also discussed alternative assignments for her to do as incentives. Since she loves cats, my CT and I have discussed working with her and a research project that will be her incentive to be a better student in the class.

I really care about my student and I feel that since the work is so easy for her, she is not able to keep herself engage which is leading to her behavior problems in the classroom.

Salend Chapter 9 – Specific Behavior Challenges

Reading this chapter has really helped me think about my student and be able to document the specific behaviors that my student has. I have been talking to my Supervisor about my student’s behavior and we have noticed that many of the behaviors are from a lack of interest in the lesson. My student is above grade level in all subjects and the work load is very easy for her. I feel that she acts out due to lack of interest in the lessons. I have noticed that I have to start finding harder questions to ask her so that she will be engaged.

My student is also a single child and I believe that from prior communication with her parents that she has a lot of attention at home. Her father is back at school at UNC and her mother works night shift and is at home during the day.  My student gets constant attention and does not need to share her parents with a sibling.

The behaviors that we have noticed in the classroom include:

• off-task talking
• getting out of seat
• making noises
• playing with objects
• hanging onto chairs/ table next to her
• impulsive behaviors

I have started to notice that many of these behaviors are associated with whole group instruction and observations that my student has a hard time in small group when it requires to share in group settings.

This observation is becoming very interesting and I can see that there are many outside influences on the behavior of the student.

Reflection on Data Analysis – Student in Kindergarten

Looking back on this week of data collection, I have seen many positives and negatives in the experience. Picking my student was an interesting process. Since I am in Kindergarten none of the students have behavior plans currently and we are completing SST on a few students in the class. I talked to my CT about a student that would benefit from a behavior management plan. We talked about the understanding of the student’s behavior and which students would be mature enough to understand the process.

After looking at the students, we decided to chose a student that is not a stereotypical type of student. My student is an above average, white female with the inability to control her actions and behavior in whole group settings. This is going to be a very interesting study for the year and I hope that it will help my student in the long run.

When talking to my CT about the process, she let me know that my TA is very supportive of the process and will help at any time. Setting up the data analysis required some thought process and the collection has continued this week. Since I am starting to take over most of the lessons within my classroom, I am finding it hard to take done data as well as teach my lessons. I am taking mental notes and then making sure to write down all the information that is necessary for the study. I have started to notice the moods of my student as well as the way she acts in different situations. These behavior actions have been consistent within the week and I am noticing how the data is helping to notice the behavior within the classroom.

Salend Chapter 7 Response

Response to Chapter 7 in Salend Text

Positive behavior can have such a great influence on students within a classroom. Since my classroom is a Kindergarten class we do not have any behavior plans in action at this time. I can see that there are many students in my class that would benefit from a behavior plan, but they are only in their first year. There are a cou;ple of students that acted out at the beginning of the year, they wanted attention. It did not matter if it was positive attention or negative attention, they just wanted something. As the teachers noticed this call for attention, we made an extra effort to show these students that we care. This in turn has change their behavior and they do not feel as if they need to act out in order for attention. Since the students have only been in the classroom for one semester we are still judging their behavior and seeing whether they are in need of a behavior plan or not.

The reading was very interesting and really gave me a lot to think about when helping my students with their behavior. In order for a student to change their behavior, they need to know that you care. I have noticed that when a teacher shows their students that they care then the student will want to improve more in the classroom. I can think of teachers that I knew did not care and in return I did not care about their class. The book gave great strategies for thinking about the students in the class and how to make the classroom a better environment for the students, but also for the teacher to teach.

I agree with letting the students take control of their behavior in the classroom, but I wonder if all the students would take their behavior model seriously. I would think that students at a younger grade would be more receptive to the models, compared to an older student who has given up in school. I also think that in order for these models to work, there needs to be a consistency in all the grades so that the students will see the growth in their behavior.

Classroom Management in my Placement

I am placed in a Kindergarten classroom in a school that uses PBS. The classroom management that is used in my classroom is very functional. My students are respectful to one another and I feel as if there is a sense of community.

The school uses a school wide policy of coupons that are given to classes that are following the rules in the school. These coupons are counted at the end of the month and then recorded on a school wide graph in the hallway. The classrooms with the highest coupons counted receive a pizza party and the class with the highest amount in their grade level receive Popsicles. This system works really well, and since my class is younger, they are very excited with the coupons.

Within my classroom my teacher uses a system of timeouts. Students are given a warning and then they are told to sit in the chair. There is also a behavior management worksheet that is used school wide that we have used with some students. The worksheet requires the student to draw or write about how they feel. The student then records their feelings about getting in trouble. The teacher signs the form and then sends it home to the parents. This is a way to keep the parents involved with the students behavior. This is a great way for the student and their parents to talk about the behavior at home and let the student tell the parents instead of the teacher. The student is takign responbility for their own behavior.

We do not have many behavior management problems in my classroom, at the beginning of the year the students were just settling in and I think that we thought there were going to be problems. My classroom is a great community and my students love to learn!

Classroom Management in Inclusive Settings

“Community-building management strategies that facilitate friendships, collaboration, parent involvement, and address challenging behaviors in a positive proactive, and educative manner are consistent with the goals of inclusive education.”

Positive Behavior Support is a support system that I currently use at my elementary school. Throughout the readings I recognized the implementation of the program at my school. I know that PBS is very important and I understand the process of parent involvement, but that is something that I am not seeing my my school or maybe I need to start looking. I know that PBS is a school wide program at Carrboro and all the teachers follow the school wide system of coupons, but I do not see the consistency in the classroom environment, but there is not a process to follow. There are behavior forms that need to be filled in and they let the students share their feelings about the discipline or broken rules.

When looking at the reading I agree with the PBS model. I especially agree with the idea of building a classroom community. I love the idea of letting the students take responsibility in their own classroom, and letting them make their own rules makes it harder for the students to break. I also want my students to have a positive experience in the classroom, and having to hear a teacher reprimand you all the time is not something that a student wants everyday. I want my students to be excited to come to school and love learning.

When looking at the PBS model I would want their to be a school wide program, but also consistency within the classroom. I think that this would then help the students succeed with behavior management when going from kindergarten to fifth grade with the same system. My question with the PBS model is how to get parents involved in order for the experience to be positive for the teacher, students and the parents. I am going to talk to my teacher about how she incorporates PBS with the parents and if some teachers try for PBS to be used in the home environment to help the students with consistency. It will be interesting to see the results.