Field Experience:

Ashley Albrecht – Rancho Pico Junior High School – 7^th grade Life Science – Special Day Class (SC7) High Functioning Autism

Introduction:

For my observations this month, I have spent my time working with Miss Ashley Albrecht. I personally am currently working at Rancho Pico Junior High School (RP) as a long term substitute for the majority of this school year due to the teacher being out on maternity and disability leave. RP operates on a rotating block schedule format. This means that every day we have three periods that are each ninety minutes. Every teacher teaches five periods and has one period for their preparation time (prep period). Each team has a teacher who teaches math, science, English, and history. The team that I am currently teaching on is the resource team. This means that we have mostly general education students but also teach the students who have some learning disabilities, anxiety, hearing impairments, autism, and other health impairments. Each team averages about one hundred and sixty students and our resource team consists of about thirty of those students having an individual education plan (IEP). My prep period is my second period. This means that every other day I have an available block to grade papers, lesson plan, have official team meetings, and do observations needed for my own school. Every third day our team meets in an official capacity to discuss the needs of our students with the school counselor as well as the assistant principle. Not only do we have resource students but we also have other students in need whom we are setting up meetings and IEPs for them as well. This has given me ample opportunities to have hands on experience as a teacher to see how situations for needy students are handled. It has also given me plenty of chances to communicate with people in an official capacity at the school and I am very grateful for this chance.

My collaboration with other teachers is very different compared to most at RP. Because I teach some students with exceptionalities as well as general education students, I collaborate with general education teachers as well as special education teachers. Ashley Albrecht is one of the other seventh grade teachers that I collaborate with. I met her several years ago when she and my mom were in graduate school together and it has been great working with her on a professional level. She teaches a Special Day Class for High Functioning Autism. Given that I have several students who also have autism, I have been using a lot of the same materials as Ashley and simply modifying it for my general education students. Over the last two years I have been Ashley’s main substitute teacher. I have not been able to sub for her this year due to the full time status of my current position. Therefore, I am fairly familiar with the layout and overall expectations in her classroom. This field experience was a neat opportunity for me though because I was able to see Ashley teaching for the first time.

Interacting With the Students:

This year our district has adapted the “capturing kid’s hearts” philosophy. This philosophy includes greeting students at the door and asking them about positive things that have been going on in their lives. I definitely saw this reflected in Ashley’s classroom. She was always full of words of encouragement, praise, and affirmation for her students. This way of speaking with her students really sets the tone for the atmosphere in her classroom to be a safe place for these students. It was really neat to see her asking them to share good things on several occasions. Once, I was in her room during the first period after the weekend and she followed through with some of the things she knew were going on in her students’ lives. Another time, she asked about how their lunch had been and was greatly encouraged by the social interactions that were taking place.

Ashley spoke with me about how important social interactions are in her classroom. Most have her students have been specifically placed in her room due to their inability to interact successfully in social situations. Therefore, she encouraged lots of instances of reading out loud, facilitating open discussions, as well as group work. With her desks being arranged in groups, it is easy for her to have her students move to group settings even though she has such a small class to begin with. Because of how uncomfortable some of her students can be with talking in class or answering questions, Ashley was always encouraging them and using clarification statements to ensure that she and the other students understood the answers that they were giving. This helped her students to feel more confident in their answers. According to Slaven (2018), “the main focus [for children with autism] should be on teaching these children social skills that might be taken for granted in other children.” This is definitely something that Ashley strives to achieve in her classroom with her students.

When some students would be finished up with a project and start to become restless, Ashley was very good at asking them questions to deepen their understanding of what they were working on. This helped to keep the students engaged and I felt like it was an example of her putting to use some UDL practices. There were a few projects that she had to inform aides of the students that they could modify the project for the child they were working with according to what they felt like that child was capable of accomplishing. There was one activity where they were doing certain physical activities to modify their heartbeats. This was a little overwhelming for some of the students and Ashley allowed them to move into the room attached so that they were not stressed out about the situation.

There were a few times when I noticed Ashley cutting off a specific child when they were trying to derail and distract the rest of the class from the topic at hand. I spoke with Ashley about the situation because it seemed so different from the way that she speaks to the rest of her students. She explained to me how this year has been a bit of a challenge for her because she is a very kind person who is always positive. However, for the first time this year, she has a student who can be fairly defiant. We talked about how this has made her leave her comfort zone a little but she has noticed improvements in that child’s behavior since she has been cracking down on that behavior. We discussed how sometimes as a pretty even tempered and caring person, it can be difficult to have to bluntly speak to a child like that. However, it can certainly be necessary to grow that backbone as a teacher. I have seen several instances of this being necessary in my own classroom and it was useful to have this discussion with her. We commiserated about classroom management being one of the most difficult, yet important aspects of teaching.

The Use of Technology:

In American Education (2018), Spring discusses the importance of the use of technology in today’s classrooms.  He addresses the fact that with the ever growing use of technology, it is important to create lifelong learners who are going to be workers that can engage in “continual training to meet the changing technological requirements of the workplace.” Because of this ever changing and growing need, it is important for teachers to adapt and be willing to use technology in its many forms in the classroom.

I definitely observed many different ways in which Ashley used technology in her classroom. She uses the Google classroom as the central hub for everything she has the students engage in. I use the Google classroom as well but it was very interesting to see how she has modified some of the specific uses to fit the needs of her classroom. Her use of warmup questions and follow up questions was a great way to have the students quickly answer so that she could assess how well they were grasping the material. She also had the students create a project using Google slides presentations. This was a great social opportunity because each student had to give a brief representation of their project in front of the whole class. Other tools that Ashley used included “prezi” for creating a study guide, websites with important information she had the students read aloud, videos, and even Kahoot! which is a game site you can have your students review for a quiz. Her students were constantly engaged because of the variety of methods she used.

The Interview:

Q#1: What is your current position and what grade levels do you teach?

A:  I teach 7^th grade Special Day Program designed for High Functioning Autism. This means that we are encouraging lots of social growth throughout the year to help integrate these students into mainstream environments. My class designation is SC7.

Q#2: What student information system do you work with? Give an example of some kind of data that you would collect.

A: The data system that we use in the Hart district is called SEIS. It helps me collect data in various formats. An example of something I collect, and probably the most important thing, is the Positive Behavior Support Point-Level System that I use in order to encourage participation of the students and motivate them to do their best.

Q#3: What kind of assessments are used in the process of early screening and identification of students who may need special education services?

A: There are many measures for identifying students in need. Some identification assessments include: classroom observations from the school psychologist to see how the student is interacting in their classroom environment, Fidelity surveys being submitted by teachers, students, and parents, as well as complete academic testing called the Woodcock Johnson. All of these tests combined and analyzed help us to determine which students are unable to completely grasp the curriculum and might need that additional support.

Q#4: What are the most important legal mandates a general education teacher should be aware of regarding services for students who have special needs?

A: The most important legal mandate for general education teachers is being aware of the student’s IEP. Assuring that the accommodations, according to that IEP, are being followed for each individual student. The IEP is a legal document that is binding for the school and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure that the every specification and amendment is being followed. This will ensure that each child’s individual needs are being met.

This is definitely something that I have had to be aware of this year working on the resource team. I have had to make a few adjustments and grade changes based on specific allowances for IEPs.

Q#5: What advice would you give to new teachers, specifically as a special education teacher speaking with a general education teacher? For example, what should a teacher be aware of regarding services and medications?

A: General Education teachers should always be aware of what medication students are taking. This can be found on the Present Levels page of the IEP. Potential conflict can arise when a student forgets to take his or her medication. Some of the problems can include refusing to do work, hyper or hypo behaviors, anger outbursts, etc. A teacher should always be willing to contact parents or the school psychologist if they feel like the behaviors they are observing in class are related to the child’s medication. However, it is important to remember that educators should never suggest medication (or changes with that) since we are, for obvious reasons, not medical doctors nor psychiatrists. It can be tempting sometimes when you observe something that stands out to you as possible needing to be changed.

I honestly had never really given too much thought to paying attention to the medications that some of my students are on. It is definitely something I will now be more aware of.

Q#6: What is your experience implementing UDL in your teaching practices and during collaboration with other teachers?

A: My goal is to implement as many UDL practices as I can at all times. In order to truly reach all students, this should be the main goal of all teachers, regardless of special education, since it is a fact that all students do learn differently. Honestly, UDL practices come pretty naturally a lot of the times without having to specifically design a lesson with that goal in mind. Collaboration amongst educators is so beneficial in order to get new ideas and have common practices so our students feel confident in their learning regardless of the environment.

Q#7: As I was reading Slavin (2018) chapter twelve which talked about students with exceptionalities, I made sure to pay special attention to the section regarding students with autism. Knowing that I was going to be in a classroom of students who were all diagnosed with autism, I wanted to ask about what the experience has been like working specifically with students who have that diagnoses. Also, the textbook mentioned Asperger syndrome saying that “children with Asperger syndrome may be able to function in society and be successful in school, but they have significant problems with social interactions.” Based on my previous knowledge of Asperger syndrome which was an area of concentration in college for me, I asked Ashley if she ever hears Asperger syndrome being used as a diagnoses anymore. How common is it for a student to still be considered to have that label, because a few years back (2013), I know it was taken out of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM)?

A: Ashley’s response was that Asperger syndrome is still commonly mentioned despite the ever changing labels that are thrown around. She has had a few students over the years who have an Asperger diagnoses. She says it is pretty obvious though that Autism Spectrum Disorder is, for lack of a better word, a spectrum. The severity of ASD’s impact on her students is so varying every year.

Q#8: How do you handle a situation where you feel as though a child is in the wrong placement and should either be mainstreamed or moved to a moderate to severe program?

A: Sometimes it can be really difficult when you have a student whom you feel is in the wrong placement. There are certainly modifications that you have to make when you have a student who does not really belong in your class. Unfortunately it can be really difficult to have them moved because of the number of legal mandates and such. My best advice is to take copious notes. Any situation that occurs that could be considered out of the norm needs to be documented. That way when a trianual comes up, you can present the evidence of what has been happening in your classroom. Then, as a group, you and the other professionals involved can decide if this placement is the best for the child. Sometimes it can work and the child will be moved, but often times the parents can still insist on what they think is best for the student.