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Miss Kristen's Teaching Blog!!

Intro: I am currently a senior Elementary/ Special/ Early Childhood major. So far in my student teaching journey I have taught second grade, sixth grade math and language arts and I am currently student teaching with a group of students who have severe autism. I will finish my student teaching at the end of July. Although I know this preschool placement will be different than my other three placements I am up for the challenge. I am looking forward to having a successful placement and creating ‍‍‍‍‍‍meaningful relationships with my new students and mentor teacher! ‍‍‍‍‍‍

First Week This week was my first week at my last placement. I am with a lively bunch of young three year old's and there are two co-lead educators, my mentor teacher and another teacher in the room. ‍‍‍‍‍‍When I first walked into the building I noticed how relaxed it was. ‍‍‍‍‍‍ With other preschool/daycare centers I have observed at or done placements at, there seemed to be a lot more commotion and everything would eventually become pretty overwhelming. My school is the total opposite of this. Everything is spread out and seemed extremely organized. I was quickly met by the director of the school who took me on a tour of facility. One of the things I really enjoyed about the director was that she was very people friendly and seemed that she wanted to be there and had a genuine interest in the students and faculty there. My mentor teacher and the other lead teacher explained to me that the school was very diverse and that they were an inclusive school. I soon learned how inclusive they meant when my students started coming in. At least two of the student's have an IEP and I think this may be one of the harder areas for me that I really want to make sure I can work with these students. One of the students is on the autistic spectrum while the other have a more physical problem which my teacher was not able to go into detail about because of confidentially. The student on the spectrum I observed he has a lot of trouble with following directions. When a teacher or adult in the classroom would say "You need to blow your nose and wash your hands" the students automatic response was no and he would start screaming or crying. But as one of my teachers noted, if someone said that said phrase in more of a sing song voice, there would be no problems and he would automatically do what was asked of him. ‍‍‍‍‍‍Both of the students on an IEP have TSS's which is going to be new for me because I really have never dealt with them in the classroom before. I am looking forward to be able to communicate with them and use them as resources when dealing with the diverse population ‍‍‍‍‍‍. On Friday I was able to observe some of an in service day. It was very nice because both of the teachers I work with attended and the part I stayed for was the transitioning of the students for next year. My mentor teacher received information about the students from the young 2's and my other teacher gave information about the students currently in our classroom who were moving to the young 4's. I did not participate in either one, just observed but all the teachers talked to me about how important is to know about which students get along and what their sleeping habits were. If you have one child who is pretty restless at night and two others who can sleep well without much stimulation from an adult, the child who is restless can be placed in between the two non-restless children. After this meeting I had told my teacher this was very helpful because as a student teacher, I think we tend to forgot about the paperwork and meetings involved with teaching and this just reminded me about the extra work to try and stay on top of. Next week, my teacher is going to have me do a small group activity with about four or five students. I am leaning towards doing something related to families and how everyone's are different because I know their is an extremely diverse class of families with these children and I want all of them to feel accepted. Aside from small group, I will also be practicing having a group meeting and setting up partner time. I am glad my teacher is giving me as much opportunity as she can to get me comfortable with the students because there will be a time at the ‍‍‍‍‍‍end of June when both her and the other lyead educator ‍‍‍‍‍‍ will not be in the classroom at all and I will pretty much be in charge and I want to get as much practice as I can now when I have two great teachers to guide me through the process.

Second Week The second week of my placement was full of ups and downs both positive though. One of the biggest struggles I had was working with the small groups. Since the group of learners in this class are so diverse, it was hard for me to really know all the students and their quirks during the group time. When you had come for my first observation, the group I had was only two children but one of the boys has special needs. It was not that he was not cooperating but I think more of both the TSS and I were new and trying to get and motivate him to do the work and really helped me proved to be a huge challenge for me. The other girl in my group was great and I had no trouble motivating her. I have been really trying to build a relationship with the special needs student and I have been finding he is starting to talk to me more and be a little bit more comfortable with me but it will take a while. The next time I did the small group I had the other boy who has a TSS as well as a girl who does not have any diagnosis but has some different behavioral issues the staff is trying to work with. The TSS for the boy was not there the whole week so trying to work with him and the other girl was really hard and sometimes frustrating with me. I found that the boy with the TSS was not looking at all at the book I was reading and would resort to kicking and distracting the others in the group. The girl with some other issues would count all the people in each picture and I would try to say, "let's count at the end" and for a minute she would settle and listen but then would get up in front of the others in the group and start counting again and this further caused problems because the others could not see. I think at this point my mentor knew that I needed some support and placed a book in the boy who has the TSS's hand so he could be distracted while I was reading. Drawing the families with this group went smoother but I had one child who was almost in tears after trying to draw his family multiple time, even with my help because he said it was not perfect. I tried very hard to let him know it did not have to be perfect but he wanted it perfect and then soon gave up. I was able to get him to draw some heads and legs so I kept that for the family portrait. A good experience for me that I encountered on Friday was the last day party. ‍‍‍‍‍All of the parents came to this and brought food and I was able to communicate with almost all of the parents and I think they are starting to warm up to me. This week we are continuing in small groups the family theme and I will be having the students tell me (while being recorded) what they love about their family and who is in their family. I will then type their responses and they will be put in the family books and will be able to go home with the child. I will also be trying a group meeting. ‍‍‍‍‍

Third Week This week I did my first group meeting. The meeting only lasted about ten minutes but it felt like an eternity. My mentor teacher suggested I do Winnie and Stewart with the group. Winnie and Stewart are dolls that the teachers use to help children act out different situations. I had never seen Winnie and Stewart being done except for a small group, which during that time I was also doing my small group. I choose the theme of restaurant manners to focus on. This are manners that the children practice at lunch such as "tummy to the table." I choose to do a situation of sharing. One thing that the children really focused on was the props I chose. At the time, I really did not think the whole situation through so when I started and decided that Winnie and Stewart were going to be sharing juice and asking one another for the juice, I quickly grabbed a block and explained that this was the juice. All at once the children not necessarily arguing with me, were concerned that the block was a lunchbox among other things. My mentor teacher quickly helped the situation and got me a real container that we use to put juice in. Since I had never seen Winnie and Stewart done with this group before I kind of took the idea of explaining the situation and involving the children in question and answers. We had the students practice with the dolls afterwards. All though it was not a failure, I still think I had some things to learn about this. Later in the week, the other lead teacher did Winnie and Stewart as a group and I really got to see how to use them effectively. I am going to try Winnie and Stewart again on Monday and decided to take the dolls home over the weekend and actually practice the whole situation and involve not only Winnie and Stewart but me as the teacher trying to help them solve the problem. On a different note, I have been trying to work more effectively J (the boy who has the TSS who you observed my second week). He has been talking to me and being more affectionate (hugging and sitting on my lap) a little more than usual. When he whines I try to say, "What's wrong J?" and try to ask him to use his words more. He has a new TSS that has been coming in on Tuesday's and Thursday's and the two have been bonding extremely well so far and J has been doing a lot better. Even one of the teachers noted how well the new TSS has been doing with him. As for me and him, I am still working on really getting a good relationship with him and although we are making improvements, I still have areas that I can improve in. I also did another family small group this week. I had the children recorded while they talked about their family and why they loved them. It went generally well and even J was ecstatic about it and listened pretty well (except after using different strategies anytime I would try to ask him about his family, even if I worded the questions differently, he would just say daddy!). H (the other boy with the TSS) also did pretty well for not being as verbal but I think for him I needed to make the questions yes or no answers instead of asking him complex questions. There is one child in particular I am sort of struggling with in terms of discipline. She can be very bossy and usually wants her way. One day, when the other teacher was setting up partner time, I was reading a story to the whole group. There were some problems with people moving to see and blocking views but that was pretty much it. Until this particular girl started moving and hitting into people and blocking the story. Even after some attempts to patiently ask her to sit criss cross applesauce and that I would make sure she could see, she continued to disturb the others. The teacher setting up noted that Kara, the sub may need to sit with her and the sub scooped her up and they sat down. At that point there was pure screaming and crying and trying to get out of the spot she was placed in. When the sub pulled her away from the group, it got louder and the others got distracted. I continued with the book and the teacher even had to go over and help the sub. For me it was hard because I had to keep reminding the others to worry about themselves and not K (the girl). There have been other times when I have tried to work with K and I just cannot seem to control her and have noticed that she acts this way with almost every adult in the room.‍‍‍ I think its just a matter of I do not have the strategies and techniques yet to really handle the situation with her in particular ‍‍‍.

First day of Four Week I am writing in this now to make an update about some suggestions that you had in regards to K. After you had left and we had lunch, she was sitting with J and a sub. At this point I did not really feel it was a good idea to sit with her at that time because of J and the sub also being there and that it was a smaller table. She actually seemed to do well at times during lunch and I tried to compliment both her and J about good eating. She smiled at me but I think it did not really register that I was really complimenting her because it can become hard to find times to really catch her behaving. When she does do something good and you give her a positive reinforcement as soon as you do she switches the behavior into something she knows it is not appropriate. After lunch, she had asked me to lay next to her. She really likes to play with other peoples hair (usually the adults in the room). I noticed that playing with someone's hair during nap time kind of centers her and calms her down and she falls asleep pretty quickly. I have been thinking about this ever since she fell asleep wondering if there's maybe some way she can have the same effect during nap time without having an adult with longer hair to play with. I also noticed during nap time she almost makings a sucking motion with her lips while they are closed. The teachers have mentioned she uses a chewie at times and if she is biting others or her shirt or hair, the teachers will give this to her. I am assuming the sucking could be some kind of coping/sensory skill? ‍‍‍If so, could there be something else to try with her instead of a chewie or as another alternative? ‍‍‍When she fell asleep I was unable to communicate with her because I had left before she had woken up. I think tomorrow will be a better chance for me to try more of the suggestions because I will have more time to work with her. ‍‍‍I will update this tomorrow after communicating and trying to build that relationship with her to let you know how it goes!

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Kristen: this is the video that introduces floortime - Enticing Alex that I talked about today.

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This is an overview of floortime: [|Floortime Overview]

__This is a great article about floortime: __

These are also some great resources for teaching with love and logic:







Tuesday and Wednesday I forgot to update this yesterday to let you know how K was doing. Both yesterday and today I was unable to actually whisper in hear ear that I was glad she came. I think one of the reasons why I keep missing the chance to do this is that when she comes I am engrossed in play with a group or a couple children and by the time I am able to really notice and get the chance to do it, she is usually running around the room looking and touching everything. I am going to keep trying to work this in sometime this week and see how it goes. I did try talking to her at first yesterday at the water table, she acknowledged my presence but trying to get her to engage with me in a conversation was hard (no responses) and I think it was because I needed to wait for her to start the conversation with me. During nap time she asked me to lay with her and I did. Again, she played with my hair and really had a good part of nap. There was a small time when she started having some problems and started crying and screaming about how she missed her mom and kind of threw herself on me crying. The sub was near by and I wanted to comfort her but I also wanted feedback from this long term sub to see if maybe giving her to much comfort would distract her more from the idea of laying down and napping. Finally, we were able to get her to lay down and she fell asleep. By the time I left to go home, she was still sleeping. Today I think I had a better time trying to work with her. It wasnt the greatest day but I think there was a slow progress. I tried as much to say, "You are doing a great job following directions" and looking for things she did well and although she did not necessarily respond or show she heard me, I think it did help a lot. My co-op teacher is coming back from vacation and will be in school tomorrow and I really want to discuss with her what I can bring in to try to entice K to interact with me positively and find out her interests. During lunch I made an effort to sit with her and she immediately started asking me questions about my lunch (I had a smuckers peanut butter and jelly sandwich and she was intrigued that I had it in the freezer earlier). Although there were a few behaviors during lunch, she was able to eat what the sub asked her to eat (usually she tries not to eat lunch and throws some tantrums about it so the teachers have a rule she has to eat some of her lunch before getting ready for nap). Before this, while the sub was setting up for partner time, I read a story to the group. K had trouble sitting still (she was not being disruptive or acting up just moving around a ton and its hard for her to sit still) and I am wondering if there is something that she can sit on or wear to help her stay a little grounded without feeling like she cannot move at all. When I left at the end of the day today, I went around to all the kids in the room and said bye to them. Some of them said bye and waved back and others were to engrossed in their toys to say bye. ‍Tomorrow I have both K and H in my small group, and I will update after the day is over and see how having both of them in the group works. ‍

Fourth of July I have not updated this lately but our classroom has been very busy since I last wrote here. Our class combined with the partners class on Monday for the rest of the summer. We have eight children still with us from our original room and five students from the partner room (along with a new teacher and a TSS). Getting a feel for the new children, I have a feeling the last two weeks of this placement are going to be really challenging. We have a new boy from partners, A who has a TSS and to me at least, is more behaviorally challenged, then both J and H who were in our class before we combined. The first two days we combined A had to be put in time out several times and it seems like he can get very aggressive if provoked. He has already hit and pushed some of our children from the young 3's multiple times. The other children seem generally well-behaved and very talkative and friendly. Something interesting/funny that I wanted to let you know about with J happened during nap time on Monday. My mentor teacher had me lay with him to help him get to sleep. For the first couple of minutes while I rubbed his back he was still and quiet. After a while though he was really talking about everything and anything. He started covering himself all the way with his blanket and when I would try to pull the blanket down so it wasn't covering his face, he would pull it up again and then say "Goodbye Christen (instead of Kristen)". This happened multiple times as well as every time a song ended (they play music during nap time to help the children sleep) he would say "I love that song!" every song that played. Even though this was a time was sleeping I felt myself giving a little chuckle every time I would hear him say this. Also, we have started doing water play outside with sprinklers since its been warm outside. K and I have been bonding a little during this time and at times she'll want to sit in my lap after being in the water for a long amount of time (with her towel on) and even though I get a little wet I figure its a good chance to bond and build a trust relationship with her. Also speaking of K, we did the small group puppets on Monday with her group and she was really into it and so was the other two children in the group. She ended up making a puppet of her dog. It didn't really look like a dog but she did have eyes and I thought that this was a start to recognize the attributes of an animal or human. Speaking of children who love talking about families, J seems to be really into the small groups I do. He always says to me (even when we don't have small groups) "Were going to be talking about our families!" the only thing about the small groups with him, is really helping him and getting him to focus on the activity. His TSS (the new one) has been really helpful and J usually gets some of the activity done with his help but sometimes its hard for either of us to get him to focus and we kind of have been trying different strategies to help him. On Thursday I will be doing a small group with A and I am anxious to see how to best work with him and trying to communicate with his TSS to get a better idea of how to work with him well.

Thursday (The fifth) I am going to make this update very short but I think today was a better success with K. She had a pretty good day and at one point when she was at the water table with some of the other children Rachel (My Co-op) asked her to start putting away the toys since we were going in soon. She immediately started following the directions and I shouted to her nice job K! Afterwards my co-op said that it was great that I did that, except to next time try to make it more personal (get closer and/or put a hand on her shoulder and say "I like the way you did that!") This is something I always mean to do but seems to slip my mind at the last moment. I am going to remember to try this the next upcoming days. Also, I had the spongebob snacks during lunch she likes and during the second snack time we were talking about them and I had her help me try to figure out which characters were which fruit snacks. After that she randomly hugged me and then all happily (did not seem to be sad) said "I miss my mommy!" I replied telling her that it was almost to go home and she would see her mommy soon, All in all she had a pretty good day (some small rough spots but nothing too major).Great