Brent Seifferlein

Practicum Reflection for 01/12/2016

Today has been an interesting day. More so than other days, today has shown that you
have to be flexible as a Special Education teacher. There have been many distractions by both
students who are in the Mrs. Buells class and outside of the classroom. Mrs. Buell has
maintained a calm demeanor and concentrated on keeping her students focused throughout it
all.
This was consistency seemed especially important today as Robert was having a tough
morning. He is not following directions. His para, Brianna does a good job of maintaining a
calm demeanor, not becoming confrontational, avoiding escalating the situation and stating
clear directions. Still, Robert would not follow directions. He ran in the hallway, and started to
become destructive in the classroom (knocking papers off the shelf, throwing things, etc.).
Because of these actions, Mrs. Buell took him to the Star Room. He stayed there until about
10:20 am. At that point he calmed down enough to follow directions. He sat by the stars to
show he was ready to come out. Mrs. Buell gave him simple directions (touch your nose, solve
2+2, count the stars on the wall). Once he followed these, he was allowed to come out.
However, he had to then sit at a desk in the ALE room and complete some jobs. He traced
some numbers and letters. This helps with the calming down process and shows that he is
ready to continue to follow directions. Robert then returned to Mrs. Buells classroom. Mrs.
Buell had him pick up the things he had thrown on the floor. He then continued on with his day
with Brianna. Because of these problems, Mrs. Buell missed out on much of her morning with
other students.
I think it is important for to ignore inappropriate behavior by students in or outside of the
classroom. Keeping open lines of communication with the paras or people coming to help when

is also key. Mrs. Buell is a good example of this. She is not afraid to get her hands dirty but
she is also able to delegate jobs to the paras assigned to her students. This way their time for
her students is maximized. She is able to keep them busy even if her schedule is not going as
planned. She helps when needed but maintains a steady flow of students in her classroom
when not.
It is important important to maintain this consistency and communication because there
will be days like this. There will be times where it may be easy to lose track of your students
when trying to deal with so many other distractions. If you become distracted, distraught and off
track, then how can you expect your students to stay the course?