Diversity Project

Andie Casper
SPED-511-01
Fall 2015
 This semester I was given the opportunity to observe for ten hours at the SEK interlocal

at The Learning Center located in Girard, KS. I was fortunate enough to be given the chance to

observe three students in a classroom setting. The Learning Center is a special day school for

students who mainly have behavioral exceptionalities however the school also acquires students

that have been diagnosed with Autism and other functional disabilities. Since the school is

considered an interlocal, the school does not have a specific school report card as it doesnt

actually exist. Even though the school is planted in Girard, Kansas, students come from as far as

Chetopa, KS to attend. The building is around 4 years and they are out growing it with the

number of students that are attending the school. This school is designed to be for a special

school for students with behavior/emotional disorders however the school does not turn any

students away. The school also has had many low functioning students attend as well. Many of

these students who are low functioning have behavior disorders but their behaviors are usually

secondary to their primary disorders. Each room has at least one Para to help with any students

with inclusionary needs. Some students in the school require a full time Para that travel

throughout the day with them. So at times, classrooms have more than one Para. Some of the

services the school provides are speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and a

social worker will come to the school occasionally to talk with the students if that is specified on

their IEP.

I had the privilege to observe three students for most of the time I spent at the Learning

Center. Towards the last few hours of my observation, a fourth student was added to the

classroom. Student 1 is a white male who is ten years old. Student 1 is in fourth grade. He has a

primary exceptionality of an emotional disturbance and a secondary exceptionality of a specific

learning disability. Student 2 is a white male who is eight years old. He is a second grader at the
Learning Center. His primary exceptionality is developmentally delayed. Student 3 is a white

female who is 7 years old. She is currently a second grader. Her primary exceptionality is

developmentally delayed as well. Student 4 is an African American female who is 9 years old.

She is considered a fourth grader at the Learning Center. She has a primary exceptionality of

other health impairment.

Journal Entries:

10-8-15

9 am-11 am

It was a quiet day. There were only two kids in the room, one child was gone. I was there to

witness their start of the day routine and their English class. For English student 2 leaves the

room and two boys come into the room. Students are of 2nd grade and 4 grade ages. It was

apparent that they are behind developmentally as they are using words of two, three, or four

letters. They were learning about how double consonants are said as if there were only one at the

end of words. Reading these words were difficult for the children and they were often told to

sound the words out. It takes a lot of patience to work with these children as most of them are in

the school for behavior issues. Many students say inappropriate comments, mutter under their

breath, and try to say things that would annoy the teacher or make the teacher know they arent

listening. I learned at how patience is so effective for children who struggle with anger or

struggle functioning in a classroom. Allowing the children to get what the negative attention they

are seeking only takes them away from learning. Seeing how behind these kids are also opened

my eyes to how learning early on is so important. Reading to your kids as much as you can, how

that opens so many doors for them. The teacher always kept her cool, keeping the same calm,

even tone in her voice as she told the students the instructions, correcting them, helping them, or
telling them to act more appropriate. The kids listened to her well. They would be acting out but

as soon as she said something, they stopped. There was never any raising of her voice or getting

aggravated or even any annoyance tone in her voice. She kept calm and expected more out of

them. In her teaching process she added in games and often she would go around the room

asking a question from each student. Not really giving the chance for only one student to answer

all the questions. Going around the room requires the students to pay more attention and requires

them to actually participate. The games added fun into the learning process. They seem to get

bored easily and lose focus after a short period of lecture or story time. Adding interactive games

that teach them words and allow them to make words is helping their memory of letter sounds

and how to read the words. The kids also had a lady come in and do what was called

cooperative group. They made a shield that they colored and listed different things that would

help protect them. I am not sure what the backstory on this time and how often they do a meeting

like this, I will have to get more background. It was interesting to witness it. It was more about

social skills than academics. I think it is very important to reiterate proper behavior and social

skills in school curriculum. For a school with multiple daily accounts of negative behavior, the

atmosphere was very positive.

10/9/15

8 am- 10 am

I got to the school at breakfast time and I got to hang out with the students in the cafeteria. The

elementary, middle, and high school students all eat breakfast at different times. I got a tour of

the building and there are 3 halls, each a different age group. There is an office/entry area, there

is a gym that is part of Girard school district that they are able to use, there is a vocational

section of the school, and a lunchroom/library. Fridays at the SEK Learning Center are funday
fridays. They are days where the kids work through all of their subjects in the morning and then

after lunch they get a free day. They get to pick 3 or 4 activities to go to in different rooms. They

have choices such as games, electronics, coloring/crafts, movies, gym, etc. This is to reward the

kids and to help push them for better behavior. I do not know the specific background of the

funday fridays but I will have to talk to my cooperating teacher to get more information on how

that came about and why specifically they added that into their curriculum. I have noticed that

they offer many rewards for the kids throughout the day and the week. I think it is mostly for

good behavior. In the classroom today we did the daily morning routine of doing the date; saying

the day of the week, the month, day, year, writing it all out with words and writing it just with

digits. Writing out the weather; whether it was sunny or cloudy, rainy, etc. They have the same

sheet for every day and the teacher goes around and asks each student to tell her one thing. It is

good to have routine at the beginning of the day. It is something that the kids can expect and it

gives them confidence in that they start off the day doing right. They skipped social studies today

and then they were given sheets that had part of a skeleton on them for them to color, cut out,

and glue to a paper bag and make a puppet out of it. The teacher was going to use them for

later on in the day, some type of Halloween activity, but I was not able to witness it. I was able to

make one of my own before I left though. My cooperating teacher had printed out an extra and

allowed me to converse with the students and make my own skeleton puppet. The teacher played

music while the kids worked. Music that was appropriate for school and geared toward their age

and the kids loved it. I love music when I am working, especially when Im working on

something that doesnt require all that much thought. It really built up the atmosphere in the

room and it presented a positive environment for the kids to work. Although they would sing or

dance a little, it helped keep them focused. For kids who had ADHD it might be good to play
music while they are working. They could be doing two things at once and maybe it would help

them focus a little better. I really think in my future classroom I will incorporate songs and music

into my curriculum. Music is such a universal way to get kids interacting.

10-19-15

8 am-9am

I came to the school at breakfast time. I got to converse with the kids about their breakfast and

they told me some stories about their weekend. Once we got back into the classroom they did

their daily worksheets. They did their date worksheet that helps them work on knowing the day

of the week, month, and year. The digits as well as the words. Student 1 has trouble knowing the

order of the days of the week and struggles sometimes knowing what the date is that day if the

teacher says yesterdays date. Student 3 is slow in writing her answers. She writes each letter

slow and often writes every letter at least twice, erasing it multiple times. She gets very close to

her paper as she writes. I am wondering if she needs glasses. She struggles with counting as well.

She needs more guidance than the other two students. They also did a number of the day

worksheet. This required them to write the digits, the word ten, say how many tens, ones, and

hundreds, adding different numbers to ten, and requires them to draw a picture of ten. (meaning

ten objects) When the teacher separates the number this way they kids are more correct in their

responses. After number of the day the teacher went to this website that had brain break

activities. They were physical activities that incorporated songs and different academic lessons.

Each child got to pick one and they all picked ones with different songs they danced to. After

words the kids wanted to do this yoga activity. So before their story they got to do yoga that

came from a yoga YouTube channel. It was interesting and the kids were excited about it. I had

never heard of this yoga site and I will definitely be using it in the future. It helps calm the kids
down and gets them to relax as well as get a little bit of energy out. The yoga videos incorporate

yoga as if they were going on an adventure. The lady who does it makes them use their

imagination with the movements she adds as she tells a story. It get the kids interested and it

makes it fun for the students. I left in the middle of their video, but I will definitely be using

those yoga videos in the future.

10-23-15

9 am-10 am

Today was eventful. I came in after their daily work was finished and they were working on a

clock. I am not sure what this time in their day is called but they were cutting out clocks that

would have triangles along the outside of the clock that would say the minutes the number on the

clock correlated to. They also cut out a minute hand and a hour hand that they used a cooper

brand to attach to their clock so that they would spin around. The teacher said that they were

going to use it for help this next week. Student 3 I sit by in the classroom is usually very quiet.

She was not today though. She was very talkative. As soon as I sat down beside her she was

talking to me and making random comments while they were working. She is usually really

studious and focused as she is working. Today, she was slouched in her chair, very slow at

cutting out her materials and honestly she was loopy. She was resistant towards the teacher

which I have not encountered in that classroom yet. She wasnt staying on task and she wasnt

listening to what her teacher was telling her to do. At one point the teacher just came over and

took the scissors. After the scissors were taken, she just started ripping her paper to cut out the

materials. This wasnt working at all and she was just making a mess so the teacher just came

over and threw it all in the trash. The little girl just laid her head down and she was upset. She

started messing with her desk and talking a lot. She started saying hateful things like I hate you
and Im going to kick you to the teacher. She was tipping her desk forward. Her warning was

that if the desk touched the ground, she would be out of the room. After about a minute, the

desk went crashing to the floor and she was taken from the room. I am not sure what

happened after that. The cooperating teacher was in and out quickly, I am guessing it was

because she had to talk to the little girl as well as fill out paperwork. The little girl had a

break down. Her screams were heard with the door closed and music on. She was

screaming I hate you. I will have to talk to my cooperating teacher to find out the process of

when a student is put into isolation. I will have to ask my cooperating teacher the process of

putting kids in isolation. I will also have to ask her about the discussions with the kids that

teachers have and also all the paperwork she has to do to properly report the incident.

10-29-15

10 am -11 am

This was a Thursday. The school wasnt having school on Friday so their Halloween festivities

were today. The class I was placed in combined with the class across the hallway so when I

walked in, there were six students in the room. They were working on making witch masks out

of paper plates, the hair was their hands that they traced, colored, and cut out, and the witch had

a paper hat. The kids worked well. They asked for help if they needed to. One student got

frustrated because his glue wasnt allowing the hands to stick to the plate. After a teacher went

up to help him, they got it to stick. Another student was having trouble so I stepped in and held

the hands while he glued. They just had to hold it there longer. After they had created their

witches, they were given bingo cards. Instead of bingo thought, they presented ghost. There

werent numbers or letters on the cards for spaces, but there were pictures. They were Halloween

pictures such as a pumpkin with a spider on it, a ugly witch, a family of jack-o-lanterns, etc. The
teacher was very enthusiastic during the game as she drew the pictures. They projected the

pictures that the teacher pulled out of the stack so that they kids knew what exactly the picture

they picked. They used smarties as the game pieces to cover the pictures on their game board.

They played the game 7 times the normal way; until someone got a bingo and then they cleared

their cards for the next round they played it so that each student won at least once. The kids got

to pick from a group of prizes when they won. It was all Halloween stuff, like bat and spider

rings, pumpkin erasers, and candy. They played one last time that was a blackout round. Come to

find out, all of them got black out at the same time because there werent enough variety of

pictures.

11/9/15

8:15 am-9:15 am

Today I came into the classroom in the middle of the students doing a yoga video. It was a pretty

cool video. The web channel on youtube has yoga videos for all ages of students. They range

from fifteen minutes long to thirty minutes or more. There was only one regular student in the

room this morning. Student 2 was gone and student 3 was coming in late today. Not only did

they have student 1, but in the classroom there was a student from across the hallway. I will call

her student 4. Her name was on a desk in the classroom so I am not sure if she got moved over to

the new class permanently or not. I didnt get a chance to ask. It was so interesting watching

them both during the yoga video. I observed them and the student from the other class had a very

hard time balancing throughout all of the yoga moves. Even the simple moves you think would

be easy for their age, she struggled. She also got very distracted and bored. Halfway through she

was already asking when they could stop or when the video would be finished. The regular

student didnt struggle as much but he still struggled with balance. It was interesting to observe
the physical development of the kids. Sometimes I dont realize where students should be

developmentally in their physical abilities and this was a good eye opener for me. Also when I

was there they talked about land forms. They reviewed what they had learned last week and went

through all the examples. The teacher handed out a blank white piece of paper to each one of

them. They were then assigned to draw a landform on their paper. Any landform they wanted to

and they could color it. Student 4 drew one simple landform that you honestly could barely tell

what it was on the paper. Student 1 drew all of the landforms intertwined onto his piece of paper.

It actually all made sense also, it wasnt all scattered and each landform was by itself. The entire

paper was intertwined and connected.

11/11/15

8:30 am -9:30 am

Today was a little different than the other days I have observed in the school. The kids didnt

really do much for me to observe and study their development but I still learned a lot. I came in

and the kids were doing a brain break activity. They were dancing and doing physical

movements that got their brains pumping. It was an interesting video. They did all different

songs that were maybe 30 seconds long at the most. They went between different frames that

showed people dancing sometimes and then some of the songs were with animated characters

talking and leading the kids. It was fun to watch the kids. Students 3 and 4 barely moved during

the activity. Student 3 acted mesmerized while watching the videos. She just stood there and

sometimes she chimed in to sing along with the video. Student 4 was reluctant to participate.

After the first major dance song, she was finished participating. She stood there for most of the

time asking when it was going to be over. She acted like she was bored. The kids then moved on

to their social studies. They learned about bar graphs. They learned what the title was, what the
label on each side was for, about the numbers, and they learned how to read it. The cooperating

teacher read out the questions and then she skipped around the room calling each kids name for

them to answer. Student number 3 really tends to not focus. She has to have redirection and my

cooperating teacher has to really help her know where they are on the worksheet page. Today

their worksheet page, they answer the questions on there own which is rare in the times that I

have seen. It was interesting to see how they focus. Student 1 was done really fast. He said he

had done the sheet before and my cooperating teacher was thinking that it might have been in his

home school. After the social studies, the kids got to get on reading eggs. It was a website that

allowed the kids to study word recognition, vocabulary and other reading concepts. It has given

them an account with their own avatar and the do lessons to climb up levels. They loved it and I

thought it was pretty cool! I might have to use that website in the future for my kids.

11/13/15

10:30 11:30

Today I got to visit the classroom later on in the day which was nice. I hadnt really gotten the

chance to observe the students in the late morning/early afternoon. While I was there the kids

were towards the end of the reading portion of their day. There were students from other classes

in the room. The students were working on a new story about a city. It was about a pigeon who

went throughout the city and the book described each of the different areas of a city and all that

can be seen in an urban setting. The book was projected onto the screen and the cooperating

teacher clicked to turn on the page. On each page was also a speaker icon that the teacher would

click in order for a voice to read the page aloud. It was weird not seeing the students have a hard

copy and being read to by the computer and not the teacher. They seemed to hold interest in the

story, although a couple of students felt they had read the book previously. After the book was
finished I was sent to a high school room in the school where I knew the teacher, just to get a

little observation on the atmosphere of the high school section. It was very different. The room I

was in had all boys. The class was all boys except for when the bell rang and they changed

classes a girl came in. It was interesting to observe the dynamic of the classroom and listen to the

topic of the conversations. I am hypothesizing that many of the kids in the high school division

of the school were once part of the elementary section of the school. I feel like many of them

struggled with the same stuff when they were younger. I enjoyed getting to observe an older

classroom and getting the opportunity to compare the dynamics.

Reflection:

I have heard stories previously and known a little bit about the SEK Learning Center. I

had never been to the school before this assignment. Hearing about the types of kids that are

go to the school actually intrigued me and as soon as I heard about this assignment I knew I

wanted to do my hours here. Even though I wasnt given a specific student or given the ability to

give lessons and work on specific areas academically, I still feel like I learned a lot. I believe that

observing can be really informative and beneficial. Having the opportunity to observe my

cooperating teacher teach was very beneficial to me. It showed me how to handle certain

situations and it taught me different methods that are positive in the classroom. I am a

perfectionist and I am the type of person who likes to know how to do things before she does it.

So, having the opportunity to observe her and take notes on her tone of voice, facial expressions,

her patience, and other aspects of her teaching was interesting to me and helped me evolve as a

teacher. The atmosphere and dynamics of the classroom I was in was very different than what I

have previously experienced. It was eye opening to me to witness the struggles these kids deal
with. It was inspiring to me to witness the growth the kids showed in their academics and in their

behavior. I was put in a quiet room. My teacher told me that her students were pretty quiet and

calm compared to the other elementary classrooms and throughout the school. Meeting the

students, coming to know their struggles, and getting to know about their home life and their

background really inspired me to make a difference in students lives. I got to see different

dynamics in students and observe different personalities. I learned that it is important to be

flexible in the classroom, to have patience with the students, to let them work at their own pace,

and allow them time to try and figure things out on their own before helping them. My

experience has motivated me to focus on how I can become more positive and flexible in the

classroom and how I can adapt and change my instructions so that all of my students will

understand. Getting experience in a classroom with only children who are having difficulties in

school, academically and socially, really opened my eyes to the different kinds of behavior kids

with IEPs can have. It taught me how much attention these kids need. It is going to be

challenging to handle adapting my curriculum and accommodate different personalities, but it

will be fulfilling knowing that children are learning and growing. This experience has further

confirmed that I am pursuing the right profession.