I was lucky enough to be placed in a behavioral unit throughout during my student teaching. I had the opportunity to learn many behavior systems in my classroom as well as come up with one of my own to implement. There were 5 boys in the unit I was placed. Their disabilities ranged from Autism to being classified as Developmentally Delayed. Some behaviors were consistent while other were inconsistent. Every day each student had an individual mini color chart just like the one pictured above. This was a great way for the students to focus on themselves rather than using the big color chart in front of the class for everyone to see. All students are very motivated by these charts because of the earned play time they get or do not get at for 30 minutes at the end of the day. The chart below is what we would log for the entire day. This is how we would determine how much free time each student would earn at the end of the time. This is a great way to keep track of behaviors and letting the parents see what is going on all day with their child. The students know the procedure and understanding the consequences and rewards from this system. This is a great representation of Standard 4 because it shows the structure of discipline I have experienced, implemented, and practices.
During my student teaching I was able to do almost a whole hour of math every single day. This was a great time to assess the students knowledge as well as cover necessary material in an engaging and methodical manner. It allowed me to create lesson plans that I felt best served my class with engagement as well as challenged them academically. One of my favorite lessons was one on creating their own story problems using multiplication. This was a hard concept for the students to come up with on their own. Through seeing this, I was able to scaffold and give them multiple examples of what the problem and words would look like. Because I knew the content of the lesson I was able to do more with the engaging aspect of it and build off of what saw coming from my students.
I believe that in order to have a successful classroom, the teacher needs to be a resource for the student's learning while making the classroom student centered. Teacher's should have a good hold on central concepts throughout the curriculum, encourage their students to think further by asking questions, and create a classroom environment where everyone's actions are held accountable. Throughout my teaching I have worked in numerous general education classrooms, but also have had many opportunities to work in resource classrooms for kids with disabilities. The two lessons that I have attached link directly with Standard 4. In one of my resource room I had a small group of 4th grade students with mild to moderate disabilities. Throughout the lesson I touched on each of their prior knowledge about the content, encouraged them to open up and ask me questions, and I had a good handle on keeping them engaged while managing behavior.
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