Blog Post #1-Alexia Mezzini

In my first blog post, I will be talking about my field experience at Blue Lakes Elementary. I was assigned to Ms. Calderon’s 6^th grade Special Education class that consists of a total of five students (Natalia, Elio, Dion, Brian, and David). The school has recently become an academy for students with autism (the only one in Miami-Dade). Although there are no kids with autism in her classroom, Ms. Calderon explained that it has really affected the rest of the school in the sense that it is a lot more disorganized and chaotic. She has a graduate student that comes to help out twice a week but the rest of the time; she is the only one with the students. When I met her for the first time and we began setting up my schedule, she told me “please just come whenever you can, I need as much help as possible.” She was desperate for assistance of any kind and I soon learned why. In her classroom, each student has an IEP. Only two of the students are able to complete most of a task on their own, with minor supervision. On the other hand, the three other students constantly need supervision and help to complete their tasks/assignments.
            My experience so far has been challenging but very positive. Compared to my last semester’s field experience, in which I simply just observed the class with almost no interaction, I know this semester will teach me much more. I have gone twice to the school. The first time it was just to meet the teacher and students. The second time was when I actually got to be part of the class. When I arrived, the four students (one was absent) were sitting in the “reading corner” where they were about to begin listening to a CD that read the book they had chosen. Meanwhile, the teacher was sitting in her desk frantically planning the upcoming month. Natalia, the highest functioning student out of the four, was setting up the CD. Ms. Calderon told me that Natalia helps her out with the other students in the class and with setting up activities. I found her to be very kind and helpful. We went through two picture books and at the end of each book, I asked them questions about it. Before the reading corner, they had been working on math but according to Ms. Calderon, they needed a break. Once we finished the two books, we went back to math. I was in charge of helping two of the students while Natalia worked with the other student.
    We were then interrupted because it was P.E. time. This was the first time I got to see Ms. Calderon interact with her students. Her classroom management skills have been effective in the sense that her students listen and follow her directions. You can tell that they do so out of respect, not fear, and they know that she truly cares about each one of them. The students themselves are very kind-hearted and behave well. Her class joined another class that had three students with autism and we all walked together to the field. The P.E. teacher had not come in that day so we were forced to improvise and create our own activities. It seemed as though they had placed all the students with disabilities in the same time period for P.E. There were other kids with autism there as well; whom I believe had more severe autism with behavioral problems due to constant screaming and crying. The students in Ms. Calderon’s class were able to play the game we had set up, while those with autism were not involved in the game at all. Ms. Calderon was very good at picking up cues from James, one of the kids from the other class, in order to prevent him from shaking back and forth and covering his ears. Although disorganized, P.E. was an effective break for the students.
    When we got back to the classroom, the teacher offered donuts and milk to her students as an incentive to begin working on math. She continued to do her paperwork as I worked on the worksheets with the students. By the end of the day, I was able to learn each student’s capabilities: their strengths and their weaknesses. I got to spend a lot of one-on-one time with each student but did not really get to observe Ms. Calderon actually teaching a lesson. I did pick up some of her tactics for behavior management. These included eye contact, non-verbal communication, ignoring unwanted behavior, using praise/encouragement, and using rewards. She was good at giving directions correctly so her students knew exactly what to do. She had set up different “jobs” that each student had for the week. For example, Brian was the “time-keeper” this week. She was also very good at giving everything they did a purpose. When we were setting up the class to leave, she expressed her appreciation for having been so helpful. It makes me wonder how the day would have progressed if I was not there to assist her students. For the upcoming schedule, I am interested in observing how she interacts with her students during a lesson.

    Below I added Blue Lakes Elementary’s link to their page where they talk more about their “Autism Intensive Communication Academy.” I also added the link to the article “Classroom Management: 7 Tips From An Experienced Teacher,” which I found helpful to keep in mind next time I observe the class.

http://bluelakeselementary.dadeschools.net/autism.html

http://www.specialeducationguide.com/pre-k-12/behavior-and-classroom-management/classroom-management-7-tips-from-an-experienced-teacher/