Week 11

This may be week 11 of student teaching, but it is week 1 of my special ed placement at a transition program! I am now working with 18-22 year old individuals with disabilities. It has been quite the transition....get it? Although I truly miss all my 5th graders, I have really loved my first week in the transition program. I am in pod 4 which is the highest functioning pod and I am in the vocational room teaching job skills. I will be teaching 3 classes each day. The students in pod 4 are grouped by ability level into 3 groups- A,B, and C. The day consists of:

30 mins of homeroom
1 hour of class
1 hour of class
30 mins for lunch
1 hour of class
1 hour of class
30 mins of homeroom

The three classes rotate so that each teacher gets one full hour of plan time each day. There are four class times but only three groups of students so that fourth class is used as the plan time.  Friday is used for adaptive PE and electives. My cooperating teacher teaches a cartoon elective. Many students are in and out throughout the day because of employment or classes at community college. Sometimes I have 9 students, sometimes 2.

My second day at the program, I was thrown in head first! Tuesday was baked potato lunch day, a fundraiser to help the class buy a basketball hoop. The vocational class runs an in-house business named Savory & Sweet. This business makes lots of food goods and sells them for profit. It not only teaches business skills, but also cooking skills and creativity. My cooperating teacher was scheduled for a meeting at 10:00 and the lunch started at 11:00 so I had to basically run the set up of the lunch! My cooperating teacher was very impressed with my ability to jump right in, but when you are with such awesome students, it is really no big deal at all.

I am sometimes intimidated by the fact that most of my students are my age, if not older than me. I try to turn it into an advantage by being able to related to my students on a more personal level, while still maintaining an authority. I do think they all respect me but I definitely see that some recognize how young I am and view me more as a student or friend. It is a tough balance that I am hoping to master.

Another thing I want to work on and grow in is my intuitiveness with students when they are struggling. For example, in one of my classes, I have a student who has Tourette's syndrome and what seems to be a short temper. Together, these things can result in some fiery situations with explicit gestures and language. I tried to calm the situation by talking the student through what was upsetting him, but it did not seem to be working. Eventually the cooperating teacher was very firm with him and basically told him to "knock it off- or else." This worked much better. I am eager to continue learning more about each of my students and what makes them tick as well as what calms them down and gets a hold of the situation at hand.