NP= Nick, my advising teacher. Counseling degree in addition to special ed. Boys varsity basketball coach.
NP uses sports psychology to teach EBD kids to manage their emotions. I think it is brilliant, just the right intellectual level, gives them some insight into their own actions without being too demanding. He makes two or three power points every week. He gives them graphic organizers to help them take notes, and gives them points for taking the notes. This week's topic is "Intensity". Intensity is when your mind and body are enegized. The point is that intensity, in moderation, can be a powerful tool. However too much or too little intensity causes problems.
But first, our extra credit logic puzzle: If you receive one dollar every week, how much will you have at the end of a year? Will anyone get it? One. Sigh. This was after realizing that one kid, a junior, didn't know the months of the year. He was asking what number March is.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Welcome to student teaching
I am in a really new place, having started my student teaching officially this week at another high school. Not so different in some ways, it is another suburban school. In other ways it's a different world.
There are two big differences I'm starting with. Today I learned that every Wednesday they have a homeroom-type schedule, called Advisory. All the kids go to a homeroom and watch a weekly, student produced video. I was pretty impressed. Then, for this month, we worked through a powerpoint to practice MCA questions. The group I was with were sophomores, so they were doing reading. They got all the questions easily. This was the first mention of MCA's, now four weeks away, that I have seen at this school so far.
The second new paradigm was a meeting I attended yesterday. It is called SWIM, an acronym for Special Education Weekly Information Meeting. Seems simple, right? But really, the idea of 3 social workers, the school psychologist, and a rotating crew of special ed staff meeting weekly was earth shaking. They had an agenda, 5 kids, 15 minutes each. This meeting took place during the last hour of the day. My room has prep, but I was told that people who are teaching get someone to cover for them in order to attend. Mostly it amounted to a "who needs to do what" on due process stuff but there also was a concern, and a group check on the level of "Are we doing well for this child at this time?"
There are two big differences I'm starting with. Today I learned that every Wednesday they have a homeroom-type schedule, called Advisory. All the kids go to a homeroom and watch a weekly, student produced video. I was pretty impressed. Then, for this month, we worked through a powerpoint to practice MCA questions. The group I was with were sophomores, so they were doing reading. They got all the questions easily. This was the first mention of MCA's, now four weeks away, that I have seen at this school so far.
The second new paradigm was a meeting I attended yesterday. It is called SWIM, an acronym for Special Education Weekly Information Meeting. Seems simple, right? But really, the idea of 3 social workers, the school psychologist, and a rotating crew of special ed staff meeting weekly was earth shaking. They had an agenda, 5 kids, 15 minutes each. This meeting took place during the last hour of the day. My room has prep, but I was told that people who are teaching get someone to cover for them in order to attend. Mostly it amounted to a "who needs to do what" on due process stuff but there also was a concern, and a group check on the level of "Are we doing well for this child at this time?"
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