Day 20:5/5/15

Blog 20

5/5/15

 

Today is my last recorded hour for 447.  I observed Jackie work with her students again today.  Finny was working in this group.  Dr. MacDonald had ask me to write a parent letter and make a certificate for Finny.  His grandfather had requested this.  I was happy to.  The parent letter read the following.

To the Parents/Guardians of Finny,

            It was my pleasure to work with Finny during the Sport and Splash Program.  Finny is a very kind and polite child who loves being active.  Throughout the semester we worked on different skills.  Some of these skills include throwing, catching, kicking, and running.  Finny especially enjoyed using the scooter and pulling himself around using a jump rope. 

            I am happy to inform you that Finny made great progress throughout the semester.  Some of his strengths include throwing and rolling.  We worked on the underhand roll and overhand throw.  I am pleased to inform you that now with verbal reminders Finny can step with opposition while performing both of these skills.  Another area that we focused on throughout the semester was staying on task.  Finny is very active and sometimes would leave an activity to pursue something else.  We worked on him asking to be done with an activity and cleaning up the equipment afterwards.  One thing you can continue to do with Finny at home is have him ask to be "all done" with an activity before moving on. 

            I am very pleased with how Finny did throughout his time in the Sport and Splash Program.  He is very enthusiastic and respectful towards all the teachers.  Finny has excellent manners as well.  He always says please and thank you which I really appreciate.  I would like to thank you for allowing me to work with Finny.  This was a great opportunity for me that I looked forward to everyday.  If you have any further questions feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Abbie Adams

abbie.adams@cortland.edu       

I think it is important to keep the parents or guardians updated about their child.  This can be beneficial and serve multiple purposes.  The parents or guardians can work with skills or behaviors at home with the child.  For instance, if Finny's guardians know that running away is a problem of his then they could avoid tag games.  Overall, this 447 experience has been a positive one.  This had made my passion for working with children with disabilities even strong.  I am excited to pursue this in the future. 

Blog 19:4/28/15

Blog 19

4/28/15

On Tuesday the 28th I volunteered for Dr. Davis' lab from 6-7 and from 7-8.  I will now discuss my experience with the 7-8 lab.   This lab is set up in a different manor than the one prior.  Everyone is in the big gymnasium and there are two main teachers.  The rest of the teachers just assist as needed.  At the beginning everyone is with a few students working on an instant activity in small groups.  Each group did a different thing which was cool to see.  One group was using the stacking cups to warm up.  This looked like a lot of fun so I gave it a try!  Some groups were throwing a football.  One group was using a scooter.   After the two main teachers took over.  The teaching styles the two teachers used were stations.  One station had the students using a modified version of a hockey stick.  The students stickhandled a ball through the cones and at the end they shot the ball into the goal.  The next station used the scooter one student sat on the scooter and the other student pushed them around.  The next station involved dribbling a basketball and shooting it.  A throwing station followed.  I was asked to help out and run the scooter station.  The groups were split up into threes so I had to adjust a little bit due to the uneven number.  I had two students work together on one scooter and I worked with the other student on the other scooter.  I started off pushing behind the student but my back started to hurt so I went and got a jump rope.  I had the student on the scooter hold onto the handles and I held onto the end of the rope.  I would move about at different speeds and have the students steer the scooter.  The students loved this so I rotated the students through on who could go solo.  We even tried two students on one scooter when I pulled.  One student and I were almost dancing to the music when he was on the scooter.  This a fun and we had to figure out different dance moves.  After all the groups went by the teachers ended with a cool down in their mini groups.  Overall, today was great I got to meet new students and had fun with the scooter station.  I liked giving students choices on what they would like to do on the scooters.  This helped motivate them.       

Blog 18: 4/28/15

Blog 18

4/28/15

On Tuesday the 28th I volunteered for Dr. Davis' lab from 6-7 and from 7-8.  I will first discuss my experience with the 6-7 lab.  Tonight was a full house for volunteers.  However, there was not a lot of students present tonight.  The graduate assistants Lesley and Maddy told me to float around the Rockwall gymnasium, the dance studio, and the Sims lab.  The Rockwall gymnasium had older students from around 2nd grade and up.  I observed Jackie teach six students.  When I was there she was very organized and used a system that I really liked.  Before each activity she would have the students sit on their poly-spot.  Once everyone was sitting she would explain the activity and then let the students do that activity.  When it was time for the activity to end she would have the students clean up the equipment to where they found it and return to their poly-spots.  Once there she would pick one student who participated well and sat on their poly-spot well to go check off the activity they just completed.  This extrinsically motivated the students to be their best so they would get the reward of checking off the activity on the poster.  I think this was a great routine that was put across in a positive way.  In the dance studio there was younger children.  Unfortunately there was not that many students today.  A few things the teachers were working on were locomotor and object control skills.  One activity that I really liked and never say before involved a movement story.  The teacher explained to the student about storms.  She asked what it means when it thunder and lightings.  She next asked if it was safe to be outside during a thunder storm.  They of course said no.  She next explained the game.  They are on a walk outside and this is when they do different locomotor patterns she selects when they see her stomp her feet this means the thunder is there and they have to go inside.  They do this by placing their ball on the cone.  I liked how the teacher incorporated a movement story into a simple activity.  If she were just to say to do a locomotor pattern and when she stomps pick up a ball and put it on a cone, students will not be as motivated.  Incorporating a movement story helps makes the activity fun and exciting for both the students and the teacher.  Lab from 6-7 allowed me to do something I do not do a lot which is to sit back and observe teachers teaching.  I enjoy getting involved in the lessons and participating with students but today because of numbers I could not do this.  It was good to see different teaching styles and strategies.  I can use these when it comes to my own teaching.     

Blog 17: 4/27/15

Blog 17

4/27/15

 

This afternoon I volunteered for Dr. Crafts 12:40-1:30 lab.  I worked with a young girl and another volunteer.  The young girl was new to the program today so it was a new experience for all of us.  Before the lesson we were unsure who we would be working with so we took a variety of equipment out of the equipment room upstairs.  Some of the equipment we took out included balls, bowling pins, cones, throwing and catching scoops, and scooters.  Having a variety equipment is part of being prepared especially when working with someone new.  At the very beginning of the lesson we gathered as a group and put on costumes.  I wore an eye patch and a pirate suit.  The young girl I was working with wore a princess dress and had a wand.  When everyone had a costume on we danced to a few songs.  The girl I was working with was shy at first but then warmed up to dancing.  She would imitate dances I was doing.  I showed her the shopping cart and lawn mower.  She showed me the fishing pole dance move.  This was a great time and I actually got a good little work out in myself!  I think as a teacher you have to go outside of your comfort zone sometimes.  Dancing is not my favorite thing to do but a lot of kids love to dance.  Me stepping out of my comfort zone and doing something I don't like as much is part of being a good teacher.  After we were done dancing and took out costumes off we went back to our station.  We asked the student what looked fun out of the equipment we had.  She wanted to play with the throwing and catching scoops.  We stood in a triangle and did this back and forth to one another.  At first she was having trouble throwing the ball forward.  This was because she was following through behind her.  We taught her the correct motion and she started to get the hang of it.  We played a game with the scoops.  This game involved teamwork as we had to try to see how many catches we could get in a row.  We modified the rules after two rounds because out student was having trouble catching the ball on the first try.  We allowed one bounce.  This slight modification made all the difference.  The record we achieved was 15!  After a little while we made an obstacle course out of bowling pins and cones.  We first used the scooter to get around the course then we dribbled a soccer ball around the course.  I thought it was good to get two different uses out of the course we made.  Next, we bowled.  We used the new foam balls with holes in it.  This was a good piece of equipment for the gym because real bowling balls would damage the floors.  When time was almost up we gave out student a choice of which game she wanted to play last.  She wanted to return to the scoop catch and throw game.  This time we used and overhand and underhand catch a throw.  Overall today was great.  Although there was not a lot of planning involved I believe our student took away a lot from today.            

Blog 16: 4/24/15

Blog 16

4/24/15

 

            This Friday I worked with Jessica.  Usually, Makenzie works with us as well.  However, she thought she might have strep throat so I told her to stay at home. I did not want to get Jess sick so I thought this was best.  Jess was a little late today. When I spoke to Stacia she said that she actually ran into snow. When Jess first arrived we transferred her into the blue chair. I am starting to feel really comfortable transferring Jess now. I asked Stacia how she did this for her van. She explained she had a setup in her vehicle that makes this easy to do alone. She also explained that luckily Jess doesn't weigh a lot so it makes this transfer fairly easy.  I think it is good to know this kind of information.  Knowing this gives me a different perspective.  I took a wheelchair out for myself again for Jess to follow me.  We headed upstairs to move around.  I put music on again and Jess seemed indifferent about it.  I asked Stacia if Jess liked a certain kind of music.  She said that she likes music but she has hearing issues so it would have to be on a loud volume.  This was good to know so I turned the music up a little bit louder.  When we got upstairs Jess did not seem to want to move on her own.  I would try to pull  her a little bit to see if I got her started if she would take over.  She still did not want to move a whole lot.  After a while I put my wheelchair away and tried to pull her around a little more.  She would have a few good pushes with one foot on the floor.  This was not as consistent as last time.  I wondered if it was because I was alone and not as many people were motivating her.  Or, she could have just been having a relaxed day.  It could have been a number of things but I could not figure it out.  When Stacia asked how she did I was honest with her and said nicely that she did not want to move too much today.  Stacia explained that this happens often and it has nothing to do with me.  It was good to hear this.  Hopefully next Friday she will be motivated and get a lot of exercise in!

Blog 15: 4/21/15

Blog 15

4/21/15

 

During the second session I wondered from gym to gym and ended up in the Sims lab.  Lesley and I observed Pat work with a young girl named Brianna.  Brianna's mom was also observing.  Pat did a great job with Brianna throughout the entire lesson.  He was enthusiastic and cared greatly about Briannas progress.  Both him and Bri were having a great time.  It was great to see someone so passionate with a student.  Pat knew tricks about Brianna that most would not know.  He knew if you pretended to sneeze she would giggle so hard.  He knew if you whispered "shh" into Brianna's ear she would light up.  Getting to know students is key and this is the biggest thing I took away from Pat's lesson.  I also enjoyed the system Pat was using with Bri.  He knew that she loved running up the incline mat and jumping off.  So, he used this as an award system.  He would do an activity such as kicking a ball.  After she did this a certain amount of time she would get the reward of the mat.  Brianna is a semi-verbal student.  What I mean by this is she can speak certain words or sounds but cannot yet put full sentences together.  Pat worked on literacy without even realizing it.  Before Brianna could go up the mat he had her say up.  This was an easy word for Bri.  Before she went down the mat he had her point down toward the ground and say down.  This word was a little harder for Bri but she would say the "d" sound pretty well.  I was wondering during the lesson if she used a PECS system at school or home.  Or, does her mom understand most of her wants and needs.  I think it might be a good idea to introduce a system like PECS with Bri so she can express her wants and needs to everyone.  I was truly enlightened by this lesson.  I give Pat all the praise I can.  You can tell he is very passionate and enjoys working with Brianna.  This was also my first time in the SIMS lab so I liked seeing the different things available there.    

Blog 14: 4/21/15

Blog 14

4/21/15

 

Tonight was my first night volunteering for Dr. Davis' Tuesday night lab.  I stayed in the Rockwall gymnasium and obsessed and assisted Jackie teaching.  Jackie had two students who liked to dart away from her; Finny and Jeffery.  I would help out by redirecting these two students back into the activity whenever possible.  I have worked with Finny in Monday night labs.  I am a T.A. for Dr. MacDonald so I work one on one with Finny.  I liked seeing Finny incorporated in a group setting.  I think he kind of followed what the other students were doing.  Jackie had some older sibling helpers.  I had them help me out by trying to keep Jeffry and Finny on task during the activities.  I think Jackie may have been a bit overwhelmed with the amount of students she was teaching.  However, this is realistic especially in an APE setting.  I have some experience in redirecting students because of my experience over the summer.  Working at BOCES in an ABA program helped me understand and practice how to redirect students.  I watched a few of my peers do this incorrectly and I tried to teach my one friend Hannah how to correctly redirect a darting student back into the activity.  If the student is running in front of you, the first step is to catch up to them.  Once there one hand goes across the students body on the chest of student the other hand is placed on the students forearm area.  It is important not to grab any joints such as the wrist or the elbow because this could harm the student.  Then you slowly guide the student to a hault.  It is not all at once but more of a slow motion.  Then you turn the student around by keeping the same hand on the child's forearm and moving your hand from the child's chest to the child upper back.  You slightly push the child's back to the direction you want to child to travel.  Often times the child may drop to the floor.  The most important thing is to lower down with them when they do this motion.  Do not tug on the child's limbs because this is dangerous.  Give verbal reminders as needed and try to guide them up to a walking position in a least intrusive way.  This is more difficult than it may seem and takes a lot of practice.  Luckily enough I experience this almost every day in the summer.  It felt good teaching another TA this method.  I think this should be taught in 356 because it is a strategy that teachers can use with a multiple students.