Megan Lee RTI/PBIS/GT Reflection Revision As an educator, we will constantly be working with various programs and different people

to ensure the best for our students. These schools may often have different RTI programs, PBIS, and gifted program depending on where we are. These are some programs that I would have to learn about if I am a new teacher in the school community. In my current placement at St. Joseph Grade School, I had the opportunity to learn more about some of their RTI programs, and their lack of PBIS and gifted programs. For their RTI programs, they have a system that is different than my past placements. Most of the students are pulled out at a certain point of the day to receive the intervention that they need. However the time that these students are pulled out varies from grade level. For example, in my classroom, students who need intervention are pulled out at the end of the day. Some students will go to intervention for math and some to a reading teacher. These teachers often would work one on one with these students or other times, some of these students are getting support and practice through computer programs. After our discussion in class, I noticed that the RTI programs vary greatly from school to school. As a new teacher, we will constantly have to learn more about the school culture and community. RTI is one of those systems that we would need to learn if the school is using RTI to meet student needs. Though RTI programs vary, I am not too concern about the differences. I believe the implementation of the RTI program will vary based on the schools conditions and its culture. RTI programs may need to be planned and adjusted according to a specific schools resource and environment. One program may work for one school, but that same program may not work for another school.

I believe a reason why the same RTI program may not work at different schools is because of the availability of resources at a school. Different schools have different amount and quality of resources. While one school may have enough teachers qualified to teach intervention, another teacher may not have the experiences or skills to do so. I think about my previous placement in which the school had every teacher teaching either an intervention group or a gifted group during their RTI time. Every student in the whole school would go to a different teacher for about 35 minutes. This may not work at a larger school with teachers who may not feel comfortable or qualified to teach specific students. Also I think one benefit that my school had was that it was a small school which allowed the students to rotate to different teachers. The staff was small as well, which made planning for students easier as these teachers can easily collaborate. When looking from school to school, we have to consider why and how RTI programs work depending on the schools resource and community. From what I have seen, I have not seen a program where I would consider being more effective than the other. I realized that not only does the school have different resources, schools have different student needs to address. Some schools may only need to focus on academics, but some other schools may have ELL learners with language needs or students with disabilities. RTI may only address specific academic needs, but it could also include intervention for ELL learners and students with disability. I would need to keep the progress of a student receiving intervention and also any other student who receive different support. I think as a future teacher, I need to keep in mind that RTI is not going to be the only program that I would need to learn about when I come into a new school.

There are also gifted programs implemented in schools to meet the needs of gifted students. In my current placement, there was a gifted program, but it is no longer being actively implemented. I also realized that among my classmates and their placements, it does not seem that gifted programs are common. Within my own classroom, I know that students who are more advanced in their academics are either given different worksheets than the class or they work on computer games. In my perspective, I believe that gifted programs can be beneficial and that if a student is gifted then these students have a need to be challenged as well. So it was surprising to see how uncommon gifted programs were across my cohorts placements. At my elementary school, I remember we had a gifted class. It was an exclusive class where students were tested to determine who qualified as gifted. When assessed and identified as a gifted student, students were given the opportunity to discuss with their parents if they would like to be a part of the gifted program. However, in this gifted program, students could be dropped from the program if they were not showing signs of successful progress. I remember one disadvantage that came out of this gifted program was that teacher expectation for the regular and gifted class differed greatly. This may be one setback for having a gifted program because some students and even parents may feel that their students in a regular classroom are having unfair treatment when compared to the gifted class. One of those unfair treatments can be seen through teachers expectation. If the gifted students are regarded with higher expectations, the teacher may feel more motivated to challenge students. With regular students, teachers could have a lower expectation and this could ultimately affect how the teachers guide and teach these students.

However I believe that the lack of gifted programs may be because the school is more concerned about students who are falling behind. Gifted students are more than likely to be meeting most of their academic grade level skills which can lead these students to be forgotten. As a teacher, I can understand that I would put more time and effort in helping students to catch up on their grade level skills, but I do not think it is an excuse to put gifted students on the side. They have a need for challenge and expanding their learning. Unfortunately, this may not be ideal or possible with some schools. Again, I believe resources and school community play a role in what is being implemented or not which can also explain for the lack of gifted programs. Another program that is popular in school is the PBIS program. In my current placement, we have a PBIS program, but it is not heavily enforced. As a future educator, I like the idea of a system where it is school wide because in this way, I can have consistent expectations and management rules to implement. Also through this way, other teachers can enforce the rules with any student they may encounter. Through this school-wide unity, teachers and staff can agree on a set of rules when disciplining or working with students. In this way, the students in the school will know what is expected and that a rule broken is a clear consequence. Though, I believe PBIS can promote a positive environment, I do not necessarily like the rewards system that often follows the PBIS implementation. I understand the purpose of the incentives and how it can motivate students to follow rules, but I personally do not want to rely simply on rewards to manage students. At my current placement, we do not have a rewards system, but we do have a respect board where students can sign the board for a bingo drawing where they will get a reward. With that type of system, I am not too bothered by it because it is not a system that is constantly rewarding students for their behavior. I have seen some schools follow the buck system where students can collect these bucks and exchange it for

incentives. I personally do not know if I would like to rely on incentives to put value or control on my students behavior. I understand that rules are needed, but I think PBIS cant be the only factor in controlling student behavior. Teachers know their students and class and there will be different ways to appeal to student behavior. Not all students are motivated by incentives and I think this is where the teacher has to step in. If there is a PBIS system in the school that I work at, I think I would still continue to implement it in my classroom. As I mentioned earlier, it is good to bring a consensus on school wide rules so it can create a more safe and comfortable environment. However, I would not let PBIS be my excuse to not have any management within my own classroom. With that said, I will implement PBIS if my school is implementing it, but I will continue to make my own discipline system within my own classroom. Overall, programs such as RTI, gifted classes, and PBIS can be all part of a school culture. It is obvious that we do not rely on ourselves when we come into a classroom to teach. When it comes to learning about these programs as future educators, it is going to be some of the important aspects of a school that I believe we need to learn about. Whether it is RTI, PBIS, or a gifted program, we are responsible as teachers to get connected to what is happening in our schools.