Week 10

These are 6 of my 7 students and they are adorable. This week Friday we went on a community outing to the Planetarium downtown. We do a lot of community outings with this class, so this is one of the many I am sure that I will have the chance to be a part of. The reason we chose to go to the planetarium was because this month they are learning about he sun. Exploring the planetarium, they had the chance to watch a show about our planets and our sun. We played in the various rooms that were all planet, star, and sun related. The kids loved it and actually learned a lot from being able to see and experience it. On these community outings, the students are paired up with an adult partner. I got to hang out one-on-one with one of the students (the one in the green shirt) all day long. I had a blast getting to know him a little better and building that rapport because I had some difficulties with generalizing with him this past week.

I have always heard of generalizing, but I had never experienced it until this week. I had observed my teacher work on IEP goals with one of my students and he worked great and had almost all of the items mastered. I took over this past week working on IEP goals with this same student. He appeared to know nothing when he worked with me. After some frustration, I asked my teacher about it. She explained that some students have issues with generalizing, so they may not be able to do a certain task with a certain person because it is not who they learned it with. Some can do the mastered skill at their center, but not at their desk because it is not where they learned it. She told me not to be upset because she even has difficulties with this when she takes over other centers that she normally does not teach. This was so frustrating and sad, but it helped me get into the minds of my students just a little bit more. Structure and repetition is huge!

There were a few points during this week that I felt frustrated. I know that in this placement, things are going to be different for me. I understand that when I take over full-time, it will look much different than when I took over full-time at Rehoboth. I have to keep reminding myself  of this because I often get antsy in my placement. I am not the type of person who likes to sit around, play with toys, and observe. I am a "do-er". I like to be busy and constantly be working. I often find myself sitting around waiting for students, the students take a lot of breaks in the day (which are VERY necessary), and there is not as much for me to do because there are so many helping hands in the classroom. This is hard for me. I also will constantly be asking my teacher if I can help in more ways or do more for the classroom and she usually does not have anything for me and says that it is all taken care of. I want so badly to feel useful and feel like I am needed, but I do not.

Next week, I plan to take over teaching  two more centers, so that I am teaching 5/7 centers. I look forward to working one-on-one with more of the students.