self-reflection assignment

Kaitlyn OsborneProfessor: Hedda Meadan-KaplanskyClass: SPED 426Date: February 18, 2013

Journal One: Section OneSelf-Reflection Assignment

At SS Elementary school the special education teacher, along with the

administration and staffs have a strict collaboration schedule that the teachers and

other staff follow. For this specific Monday, I had special education collaboration

with kindergarten through third grade special education staff and special education

paraprofessionals that began at 8:15 a.m. This collaboration meeting had a specific

outline to be followed that began with successes from the last week, then it would

be followed up by any issues that need to be addressed regarding the students, and

then any issues that needed to be addressed regarding staff, scheduling, etc. We met

in room 19 which is the kindergarten through third grade resource room where pull

out instruction for our students takes place. There was the special educator, two

paraprofessionals and myself. The successes from the previous week were talked

about first and all of the teachers had information to bring to the table. I did not

have any major successes to discuss so I did not participate much in this section.

The next topics that needed to be discussed were any issues regarding the students.

Both of the paraprofessionals had issues and C.G., the special educator would ask

them what she could do to help. I do not work with these students much, so for this

section I also did not participate much. However, I brought to the table an behavior

issue that needed to be addressed for a student that we all worked with. C.G. asked

what she thought I could do to help the behavior, and told me to brainstorm some

ideas. For any issues that needed to be discussed fin regards of scheduling, staff

members, etc. I also did not participate in because there were no changes in my

schedule that needed to be addressed.

Reflecting upon my behavior during this special education teacher

collaboration, I determined that I did not speak very much or add a lot of

information to the table. Given, the previous week was not a very hectic week, I still

feel as if I should have spoke up more than I did. I perhaps could have really thought

about some successes my students had the week before and participated in that

section or gave some input to the paraprofessionals that were having a difficult time

with some students. Reflection upon my behavior, I determined that I took a very

passive approach during this meeting and allowed my cooperating teacher to take

the main role during this collaboration time.


Journal Two: Section OneSelf-Reflection Assignment

Special education collaboration begins bright and early on Tuesday

mornings. The administration holds weekly special education collaboration for all

special educators and related services staff members to participate in. This meeting

begins at 8 a.m. in the vice principals office and continued until 8:45 a.m. To begin

the meeting, the administration opening right up with “Okay, who has something

that they would like to discuss?” Right away the special education teacher for

students in the fourth and fifth grade began to discuss a problem that she was

having with one of her students. The social worker stepped in and began to suggest

solutions that would maybe be able to help this teacher to diminish her student’s

problem behavior. All of the professionals, with the exception of the vice principal

continued to talk about this student’s problem behavior and why they believed that

this problem behavior was occurring. Some of the teachers had very different

viewpoints and began to argue a bit with why her behavior was occurring. A few

teachers began to feel overwhelmed and did not speak a lot after this conversation.

This conversation continued on for thirty-five minutes. When there was ten minutes

left in the collaboration meeting, the vice principal asked if there was anything else

that needed to be discussed today. All of the teachers, related services, and staff

looked overwhelmed and did not speak up. The meeting was then closed.

Reflecting on my behavior during this meeting, I determined that, once again,

I assumed a passive approach during this meeting. I did not speak up much during

this meeting, but I contribute this to be because we only spoke about one student

during the meeting and I had never met or worked with this student before in my

time at SS Elementary. However, I have worked with students that have had similar

problem behavior and have completed Functional Behavior Analyses’ on them, so I

probably could have contributed some useful information to this meeting. Overall, I

believe that I did not contribute as much as I would have liked to contribute during

this meeting.


Journal Three: Section OneSelf-Reflection Assignment

On Wednesdays at SS Elementary School there is not a specific meeting held

with administration or teams, however, the special educator collaborates with two

different teachers during this day. During the time that we are working on reading

with our third grade students on Wednesdays they leave thirty minutes early in

order to attend art with their class. Since the third grade teacher also has this time

free we begin by collaborating with her during this time. We co-teach for three

periods out of the day with this teacher so we are in constant communication with

her, however, this is a more formal discussion where we can address any issues

with students. We began by opening the meeting by asking if there were any issues

that needed to be addressed. All three of us decided that we did not have specific

issues, and so we decided to continue on to collaborate about what we would be

teaching to our students the next week of school. Next week is ISAT week, so this

was a relatively easy topic to discuss this next week. We chatted about schedule

changes during ISAT week and discussed all academic classes that we would still be

teaching that next week, which was a total of two. We decided that I would prepare

materials for these two academic classes and then she had to go and get her

students from art, so the meeting was adjourned.

The next collaboration meeting that we held began at 3:15 at the end of the

day and continued on until 3:30. This meeting was with one of the two

paraprofessionals that work with our students every day. During this collaboration

time, we usually discuss any topics that have come up since Monday, or that are

more private so they did not want to discuss them during the main team meeting on

Monday. During this meeting the paraprofessional talked about her day and a few

ideas she had in regards to teaching second grade math class. During this discussion,

I chimed in when she began talking about using the iPad and math and volunteered

to look up some applications that would be appropriate for their skill level. This

meeting was very informal and brief.

Reflecting on these collaboration meetings I determined that I participated

more than I have in the past meetings. I think I contribute speaking out more during

these meetings because I was extremely comfortable with the people I was meeting

with. I work extremely closely with the third grade general education teacher and

co-teach with her multiple periods a day. Also, I share a room with this

paraprofessional and see her often. I felt very comfortable and I think that is why I

spoke up more during these meetings.


Journal Four: Section OneSelf-Reflection Assignment

On Thursdays during at SS Elementary for special education teams, there are

not any specific meetings once again. However, the special educator and the second

grade teacher have a thirty-minute time frame that they are both free and this has

been designated to be their collaboration time. When the second grade students are

in art class, we meet with the second grade teacher because she teaches three of our

students with disabilities that we teach. The meeting began by the special education

teacher asking how everything was going in class. This immediately led into a

discussion about one of our students with challenging problem behavior and how

she believed that her behavior was beginning to get worse. They then began to talk

about a behavior plan that was implemented then phased out during the past

semester.

After discussing her problem behaviors, we decided to talk about how they

were doing academically and if there was anything we could do to help. She

explained that the students needed some modified work during writing class, and

explained to us that they were talking about fairy tales currently and that the fairy

tales they were reading and writing about were too complex for them to follow. We

decided that I would adapt the fairy tales that they would be reading in class and

adapt them so they were at their reading levels.

Reflecting on my behavior during this meeting, I believe that I contributed as

much as I possibly could. I did not know this student before this semester, and I did

not know what behavior programs they had in place in order to help her behavior.

However, I did agree when the teacher was discussing how she believes her

behavior is getting worse, because I work with this student a great deal and I am

observing the same behaviors. Also, I agreed to adapted the fairy tales so I

contributed to that conversation by asking questions about what exactly I should do.


Journal Five: Section OneSelf-Reflection Assignment

On Fridays, I only have two short collaboration meetings. The first meeting of

the day is between the special education teacher and myself and takes place from

10:30 a.m. to 10:50 a.m. During this collaboration meeting we decided to discuss a

behavior plan that I introduced to my group of students during general education

math class. She asked if she could view my data and we had a conversation where

she asked how I felt about this program, how I thought it was working and if there

was anything she could do to help. Reflecting on my behavior during this

collaboration meeting I was very responsive because it was just a meeting between

my cooperating teacher and myself. I feel very comfortable around her and we

always have frequent communication so I did not feel overwhelmed at all.

At 3:15-3:30 we also have a collaboration meeting with the second

paraprofessional that works with our students on a daily basis. Ms. B, the

paraprofessional mainly stays in one kindergarten classroom all day working with a

specific student. Due to this, I do not work with her very closely. Although this

meeting was brief and informal, they chatted about how the student was doing, if

they needed to adapt any work and the special educator asked if there was anything

she could do to help. Reflecting on my behavior during the second collaboration

meeting, I decided that once again I took a passive approach. I believe that I did not

talk much during this meeting because I did not necessarily know this

paraprofessional very well. However, I believe that I did have some useful

information that I could have contributed to this conversation.


Section Two: Behavior OneSelf-Reflection Assignment

Behavior: Category- Interactive Communication, Problem solving when conflict arisesCommunicate effectively in oral form

The first behavior that I believe I need to focus on is to contribute more

during collaboration meetings. The reason why I believe that this is a weakness for

me is because after I reflected on my past week of collaborative meetings, I

discovered that unless the meeting is just between another teacher and myself, I do

not contribute as much as I should be. I reflected on approximately nine

collaboration meetings and the only one I believed that I contributed as much as I

should have was a meeting between only my cooperating teacher and myself. Also, I

believe this is a weakness for me because after reflecting on these meetings, I

believed that I held knowledgeable insight on some of the topics that these

individuals were talking about and instead of speaking up, I decided to sit back and

simply listen to them brainstorm ideas. Contributing is also important when it

comes to problem solving conflict that arises. Many times in collaborative meetings I

will often not say how I am feeling when conflicts arise. This will lead me to often

take a role in which my concerns are not being met, only those of the other teachers.

This skill needs to become a strength for me because very soon I will have to be

advocating for my own students on my caseload and I cannot simply sit back and

not contribute to the conversation when conflict arises. Contributing ideas, thoughts

and opinions is a main reason that collaboration meetings are held, so since I am

taking a passive approach during collaboration meetings, I believe that participating

and speaking up more during meetings will be one behavior that I would directly

like to change through intervention. As discussed in class, one of the main qualities

of effective team communication is shared perception and without me contributing

to the collaborative communication I will never have effective team communication.

I believe that I often do not participate in these collaboration meetings

because I often feel like I do not have as much experience as the other individuals

present and at times I feel intimidated. For example, when I am meeting with

multiple special educators, related staff, and the principals I often question myself

when I am trying to decide if they would like to hear my ideas and thoughts. Also,

although I may have specific experience related to what they are talking about, I

often fear that I may be wrong or that people will not agree with what I have to say.

When other individuals say ideas, thoughts, or opinions I often just nod my head and

agree with what they are saying instead of inserting some of my own ideas and

thoughts.


Section Two: Behavior TwoSelf-Reflection Assignment

Behavior: Category- Personal CharacteristicsDemonstrate willingness to learn from others throughout the collaborative process

After reflecting on my past week of collaborative meetings, I discovered that

although I do not often verbally speak out during these meetings, I am finding

myself to not be very open minded in my thoughts. For example, when we were

meeting with the whole special education team, a special educator brought up that a

student was beginning to portray problem behaviors. During the time that the staff

was talking about why the behavior was occurring and I often found myself thinking

in my head that they were incorrect and that she was probably performing these

behaviors for other reasons. I refused to change my way of thinking and therefore, I

discarded what all of the other teachers were thinking. This is just one example of

when I was not being very open-minded in my thoughts. The collaboration process

is all about being open minded to hear others thoughts, ideas, and opinions so you

can gain knowledge and helpful insight to how to become the best teacher you can

be. I believe that this is a weakness for me because I often am very stubborn in my

way of thinking. Although I may not verbally express this, I often believe that what I

am thinking is correct. This is a weakness because if I do not change my behavior

then I will never gain anything from the collaborative process within my school

system.

I am not completely sure why I react the way I do when I believe that only

the information that I hold is the correct information. As we discussed in class, I

believe that my communicative climate is a defensive climate. I feel as though I

always attempt to evaluate others ideas in a judgmental manner even though I often

do not verbally communicate this. I believe that a reason why I may react the way

that I do is because I may have learned this information at some point in time and I

believe that I am correct. However, I know that many of these teachers,

paraprofessionals, related staff, and principals all have great experiences and a lot of

professional experience so I believe that if I become more open minded that I could

learn a mass amount of information from these professionals.


Section Three: Baseline Data, Day OneSelf-Reflection Assignment

Situation Encountered: The first situation that I encountered was during

kindergarten through third grade collaboration. One of the paraprofessionals began

speaking about why one of our third grade students was acting out during adapted

reading class. She believes that she was acting out and portraying challenging

behaviors because the other students were reading too quickly for her. I am the

main teacher for this reading group so I have been having some other ideas on why

she may be acting out during that class.

My Reaction:

After reflecting on this collaboration meeting, I discovered that both of the

behaviors that I want to directly change through intervention were present during

this meeting. Although I am the main teacher for this reading group and I had a very

strong idea on why the student was performing challenging behaviors, I discovered

that I did not verbally speak up during this meeting. I kept listening to the other staff

and teachers all brainstorm why this was happening, yet I did not speak up.

Also, as I listened to the other teachers and professionals brainstorm about

why she may be acting out, I found myself being very close-minded. I listened to

what the other teachers were suggesting, however in my mind I kept always going

back to believing that the student was just portraying these behaviors to gain

teacher attention. Other professionals spoke one idea after another idea of why she

was performing these behaviors and I still believed that my explanation for her

behavior was the correct explanation.


Section Three: Baseline Data, Day Two Self-Reflection Assignment

Situation Encountered: During special education collaboration with the whole

special education team (principals, two special education teachers, related services

and paraprofessionals) a discussion was being held about a meeting that we had

previously held the week before. This meeting was a Response to Intervention

meeting for a student that was struggling in math. In this meeting, we were trying to

show the parents all of the data that has been collected while we were providing

this student Tier Three Response to Intervention services. During this meeting,

there was a lot of off topic “chit chat” and the student’s father kept saying that he

just believed that his daughter was being lazy and that she did not need special

education services. This process continued until the mother said that she had to

leave for work and the topic of providing special education services in math for his

daughter. During collaboration, many people were brainstorming ways that this

meeting could have gone better.

My Reaction:

During this meeting, I found myself constantly thinking that an outline for

Response to Intervention meetings needs to be designed and implemented. As other

teachers were suggesting reasons why the meeting went the way it had, I just kept

being close-minded and believed that there was not a specific reason why the

meeting had gone the way it had, but I just kept thinking that if there was an outline

the meeting would have gone more smooth and all topics would have been

addressed.

Also, during this meeting, I found myself once again not speaking up.

Although I had an idea of how the meeting could have gone smoother, I did not

speak up and voice my opinion. I believe that during this meeting I was very

intimidated by the principals and other professionals that were present and

therefore I did not bring up my idea. However, because the meeting did not go as

planned, a student did not get qualified for special education services in math. If I

would have voiced my opinion for an outline for Response to Intervention meetings,

maybe someone would have liked my idea and it could have helped other Response

to Intervention meetings.


Section Three: Baseline Data, Day Three Self-Reflection Assignment

Situation Encountered: During collaboration with the second grade teacher, the

main topic of our conversation was the adapted fairy tales that we had previously

spoke about the week before. Over the weekend I adapted about seven of the fairy

tales that the class would be reading for our students for their reading and writing

assignments. The teacher believed that the adapted fairy tales were still too complex

for our students and that she was having to spend too much time working with our

individual students during this writing time and she was not having enough time to

work with other students.

My Reaction:

Once again during this collaboration meeting I found myself being close-

minded while she was telling me how she was feeling. I felt like we adapted the

work, and addressed the student’s behavior problems so she should have been good

to go. However the teacher was saying that she still felt like she was spending too

much time with this single student and that it was taking away from her instruction

to the other students. After reflecting on this collaboration meeting I feel like I truly

need to work on being very open minded to how others are feeling even if their

feelings are different than my own.

Also, during this meeting I once again did not voice my opinion. Although I

spoke to Ms. H, the second grade teacher, I never verbalized my feelings even

though she was telling me how I felt. I took a very passive approach during this

meeting. I would simply listen to what she was saying and then nod my head and let

the special education teacher go ahead and respond to the issue at hand. I feel as

though for the collaboration process to be successful there needs to be a sharing of

feelings, ideas, and thoughts and if I cannot learn how to share my feelings,

collaboration will not be useful for me.

Kaitlyn OsborneProfessor: Hedda Meadan-KaplanskyClass: SPED 426

Section 4Intervention One

Behavior: Category- Interactive Communication, Problem solving when conflict arisesCommunicate effectively in oral form

The intervention that I will put in place in order to become more verbal

during collaboration time, especially when conflict arises, is to do a self-reflection

and a self-evaluation after each of my collaboration meetings. The manner in which I

will do this will be to fill out a pre-made self-evaluation form after my collaboration

meeting so I can keep data on my progress. The self-evaluation will be ranking

myself to see how much I contributed to the conversation, if I stated my opinions,

and whether we were able to come to a decision via consensus on the issue at hand.

When there is not a decision to be made, I will just rank how well I thought I

communicated and contributed to the conversation as well as if I stated my personal

opinions/thoughts/ideas.

I chose this type of intervention because I believe that self-evaluation is one

of the best ways to improve your own teaching. You need to be able to self-evaluate

yourself and keep data in order to see if your behavior is increasing. Keeping data

charts and self-evaluating yourself are one of the only ways that you can show

whether you are making progress in meeting your goal or not. Rating scales have

been shown to improve collaborative efforts and I believe they would be extremely

effective for my to use personally as well.

In case this intervention does not work, I have a contingency plan in place. If

this does not work due to the time restraints of being a teacher and me not always

having time to self-reflect after every collaboration meeting I will then fill out a

collaboration self-evaluation at the end of every week. I will log how much I thought

I participated and whether or not I stated my personal opinions and ideas. This is

the contingency plan because I would like to be able to reflect shortly after every

collaboration meeting, however sometimes I know that this could be difficult with

the time restraints.


Section 4Intervention Two

Behavior: Category- Personal CharacteristicsDemonstrate willingness to learn from others throughout the collaborative process

The intervention that I will put into place in order to demonstrate

willingness to learn from others throughout the collaborative process and not be

closed off to hearing others ideas, I will use a mental strategy. The mental strategy

that I am going to use will be to stop when I hear an opinion that I do not necessarily

agree with. Then I will be sure not to close off my though process. Many times I

observed myself closing off my though process therefore I do not hear their ideas

and thoughts behind their opinion. Due to this I could be missing out on vital

information that these individuals could be telling me about my students. Once I

completely listen to the other individual and the collaboration meeting is over, I will

then reflect on the statement and take the time to discover how I truly feel about

their opinion. I believe that taking this time to think about what they said and being

sure to hear out their entire opinion will help my collaboration process greatly.

In case this contingency plan does not work out and I do not follow through

with this plan because it is a mental strategy, I will then have to implement a more

concrete method in order to change my way of thinking during my collaboration

meetings. If this mental strategy does not work out I will reflect after all of my

collaboration meetings and write down how I think I did on being more open

minded. I will rate myself on a scale and therefore I will be able to concretely see my

progress.


Section 5

Behavior: Category- Interactive Communication, Problem solving when conflict arisesCommunicate effectively in oral form-Intervention: Fill out self-evaluation form

A.

Today my opportunity to engage in collaboration and incorporate my

intervention was after a collaboration meeting between my third grade general

education teacher, the special education teacher and myself. During these past

meetings, I observed that I would not communicate verbally often because I felt

intimidated by these veteran teachers. On my self-evaluation before my intervention

I concluded that I was only contributing zero to one times each collaboration

meeting that I was in, I set my new goal to contribute at least three times during this

collaboration meeting.

During these meetings although I thought I had several good ideas, I would

not contribute them. Today in collaboration we were discussing new math rotations.

During this time I suggested that we could implement an iPad station since we had

just gained new iPads. They thought it was a great idea and then asked if the third

graders could be trusted to stay on math iPad applications. After this I then

explained to them an application that was able to lock the students in to certain

applications. When we were done discussing the stations they moved on to other

topics. I found that I had not contributed during the other topics.

B. After my meeting I went back to my classroom and decided to spend a few

minutes filling out my self-evaluation form. My goal that I had set before my meeting

was to contribute three times. While reflecting I decided that I had only contributed

two times during this meeting, but that was still a successful gain in my eyes. My

cooperating teacher also commented on my idea and how it was nice to have fresh

new ideas presented for them. I also logged that in my self-evaluation. I think that

this intervention really helped my collaboration skills because I set a goal for myself

and I knew that I wanted to follow through with this goal, so I made sure to

contribute to the conversation.


Section 5


A.

Today I had a new opportunity to contribute to the meeting when conflict

arose during a collaboration meeting between the second grade general education

teacher, the special education teacher, the paraprofessional and myself. During this

collaboration meeting, one student’s problem behavior was brought up. During this

discussion the second grade teacher asked that the student with problem behaviors

to leave the class during writing time. However this student does not qualify for

writing services, as mentioned in a prior journal we have been modifying this

students work in writing class because they are often reading books and poetry that

she cannot read during writing class. We began to explain to the second grade

teacher that she could not legally be pulled for writing. The second grade teacher

began to interrupt us and say that this student was too much trouble to keep in her

classroom during writing time and that something had to be done.

When the special education teacher was done speaking, I then decided to talk

to her about not just removing the student from the class in general because she

needed that instruction, but that maybe we could work together to form a Behavior

Intervention plan that would begin to address these issues we were seeing with her.

We discussed and set a time to meet further to discuss this student’s Behavior

Intervention Plan.

B.

I believe my intervention was extremely helpful during this collaboration

time because conflict arose. Whenever conflict arose before I would simply not

address the issues and therefore they would often go unsolved or the general

education teacher’s concerns would be taken on instead of my own. Since I was able

to verbally communicate to this teacher, the student will now be staying in the

general education classroom instead of being pulled out and I believe that we will be

able to collaboratively work together to come up with a Behavior Intervention Plan.


Section 5

Behavior: Category- Personal CharacteristicsDemonstrate willingness to learn from others throughout the collaborative processIntervention- mentally stop and listen to everything the individual has to say before jumping to my own conclusions

A.As mentioned earlier, today I had my first opportunity to use my intervention for

becoming more open to others opinions’ when conflict arose during a collaboration

meeting between the second grade general education teacher, the special education

teacher, the paraprofessional and myself. During this collaboration meeting, one

student’s problem behavior was brought up. During this discussion the second

grade teacher asked that the student with problem behaviors to leave the class

during writing time. However this student does not qualify for writing services, as

mentioned in a prior journal we have been modifying this students work in writing

class because they are often reading books and poetry that she cannot read during

writing class. We began to explain to the second grade teacher that she could not

legally be pulled for writing. The second grade teacher began to interrupt us and say

that this student was too much trouble to keep in her classroom during writing time

and that something had to be done. She continued to tell us all about how her

behavior was causing her to spend too much time focused on her instead of focusing

on her other twenty three kids in her classroom, how she knew the other children

weren’t getting the instruction they deserved, and how D.J. was just too far behind in

writing to be in her class. Before I began my instruction, I would have mentally cut

off this teacher as soon as she said that the student needed to leave the classroom

and I would have been thinking how it is illegal, and it would never work with our

schedule, etc. Instead, I mentally stopped myself and made myself listen to her

whole entire side of the story and decided I would reflect on this as soon as she was

finished.

B.

Reflecting on the effectiveness of this intervention I found it to be extremely

effective. Normally I would have mentally cut off anything else the teacher had to

say while thinking about my own thoughts. I believe that this intervention was

effective because it was truly great to listen to what the other teacher had to say.

Now, I completely understand what is exactly going on in the classroom during

writing time and I can now take her feelings into consideration when I plan an

intervention to fix the problem that is at hand.


Section 5


A.

The opportunity that arose for me to engage in another collaborative

meeting presented itself today when a conflict arose between the paraprofessional,

the general and special education teachers and myself. During this meeting, the

paraprofessional decided to state that she thought that she should be in the second

grade classroom during writing time instead of the other paraprofessional. As soon

as she mentioned this, the second grade teacher agreed with her immediately. Since

I was in full take over, my cooperating teacher decided to leave to give me an

opportunity to improve my collaboration skills by myself. When this occurred I

informed both of the teachers that I thought we should meet separately and set up

times now so it happened. I also contributed to the conversation to say that I

understood both of their feelings and I would take them into consideration while

planning for these next two meetings.

B.

After this meeting I went back into my classroom to evaluate myself after

reflecting on this conversation and my communication skills during the meeting. I

discovered that I contributed to this conversation many times and I averaged it to

about five times during this meeting. I also made sure to state my opinion and tell

them each that I would meet with them separately to discuss the problems on hand.

This self-evaluation really helped my to see my progression on communicating

during these meetings when conflict arose. I stated my opinion and told them that

after I came up with a solution I would meet with both of them to discuss it. I believe

that the self-evaluation is really helping me throughout this process.


Section 5


A.

An opportunity that arose today for me to use my intervention was during

the weekly special education collaboration with the assistance principal and all

related services. While discussing a student that was on my caseload, the school

social worker said that most of her inappropriateness at school is directly related to

her home life and that is why she is portraying problem behaviors. When she said

that sentence I began to feel my mind race around to what I believed was causing

her problem behaviors. As soon as this began to happen, I remembered to stop and

listen to everything that the social worker had to say about the student before I

decided to close off my mind. I found out many interesting facts about the student’s

home life that I had not known before hand. This really opened my mind about this

student and made me view her and her actions in a different light. Normally I would

have just closed my mind off to hearing what the social worker said, because I had a

different opinion but because I continued to listen to what she had said I gained

extremely valuable information for a teacher to know about her student.

B.

After stopping my brain and listening to the social worker I learned vital

information that had not been shared with me yet. This would help me with working

with this student on a daily basis. I believe that this intervention is working

extremely well for me. After self-reflecting after this meeting I am extremely grateful

that I decided to stop and listen to everything she had to say otherwise, I would not

have any knowledge of this


Section 5


A.

Today during third grade collaboration with the special education teacher we were

discussing problems that we were having with our third grade girls. These girls have

been constantly arguing, saying mean things to each other, and are just not being

nice in general. During our collaboration meeting I asked if we could discuss this

problem because it was impacting my instruction time with my students because I

was spending a great amount of time providing instruction on how to be nice to one

another. During collaboration the third grade teacher said that she already had an

idea for how to stop the arguing. Usually when someone would tell me his or her

ideas without even listening to mine I would shut off my brain and tend to think

about my own plan in my head. Instead, today I made sure not to do that and

completely open myself up to hear her plan. Since I did this, I was able to listen to

her plan completely and understand why she thought that this plan would work.

Then we brainstormed together on some ways to improve the intervention by using

some of my ideas.

B.

After this collaboration meeting I self-reflected to see how I think that this

collaboration meeting went. Since I stopped and made sure to listen to everything

she had to say before tuning out of the conversation, I was able to hear her ideas and

opinions for how she thought the intervention should go. Also, after I listened to

everything she had to say I believed that she had some great ideas and we were able

to collaborate together to include some of my ideas. Overall, I think that this

intervention really helped me because it allowed me to gain some insight into what

she was thinking and together we thought up a great intervention. The intervention

we created was better than mine or hers alone, and that can be directly related to

me listening to her and us working together to come up with a great intervention.


Section 5


A.

Today when I was collaborating with the special education teacher, the

paraprofessional and myself a conflict arose. Normally, in the past, I would have

shied away from the conflict and not contributed to the conversation at all. The

conflict that was presented was that the paraprofessional felt like she did not have

enough time to collaborate with the special education teacher and she felt like they

never had a chance to talk to one another. During this collaboration meeting I had a

goal of contributing to the conversation at least four times. Throughout this meeting

I believe that I contributed a great amount. When the conflict arose I made sure that

I repeated what she was saying in order to show that I understood what she was

trying to explain to the teacher and myself. Then I made sure that I understood

exactly why she felt this way when we had time dedicated directly to collaborating

with her every week. Then I decided that we would brainstorm together to come up

with a solution to this problem. Overall, the three of us together decided to switch

some schedule changes to come up with a solution to how we could collaborate

more with the paraprofessional. We decided to switch the schedule to increase the

time of her collaboration with us and everyone was happy!

B.

I believe that this intervention was helpful to me because it allowed me to

contribute to this conversation when a conflict arose. In the past I normally would

have not contributed to the conversation because I was scared of how something I

would say would affect the person I was speaking with. I knew that when conflict

arose and I was the head teacher that I would not just be able to shy away from the

conflict, so that is why this was so important for me. After self-reflecting on this

collaboration meeting, I decided that I contributed way more than my goal that I had

even set for myself. Also, the conflict was settled in a great manner and everyone

was happy. I am thankful for this intervention because without it I most likely would

have not contributed to this conversation at all.


Section 5


A.

Today another conflict arose between the social worker and the special education

department. When we were at the whole school faculty meeting, the social worker

stated several students names which was confidential in front of many people that

were not authorized to know this information. Since I was in full take-over, I

decided that I needed to confront the social worker to discuss this problem since the

information presented was confidential and I knew that it was it was my job to

advocate for my students. After the meeting, I asked the social worker if we could

chat for a few minutes to discuss the topic. We then went to her office and politely

discussed the conflict at hand and she told me that she did not know that this

information was confidential and that she would be sure not to discuss this to

anyone that wasn’t authorized again.

B.

After this meeting, I self-reflected and decided that this intervention had worked

wonders for me today. I believe that if I did not have this meeting I might have just

decided that the social worker did not mean to do this and I would have forgot that

it happened. However, due to this intervention I decided that I needed to resolve the

conflict at hand and because of that the students on my caseload were able to stay

confidential, along with their personal information.


Section 5


A.

Today in our collaboration with our paraprofessional she presented a problem that

was on her mind lately. This specific paraprofessional pushes into the second grade

classroom to assist with three specific students. Instead of pushing in lately, she has

been pulling students out one by one for about twenty minutes each. Normally, I

would have just told the paraprofessional that this is not what the students needed

and that she needed to push into the classroom in order to aide all of the students in

that classroom. Before I began thinking this way, I decided to stop and listen to what

the paraprofessional had to say. She said that she was overwhelmed in the

classroom and that she could not handle all of the three students at the same time in

the classroom. Listening to the paraprofessional really helped me understand where

she was coming from and it helped me to understand some of the issues that were

occurring in the second grade classroom during writing.

B.

Although, I had to stick with my opinion to make the parprofessional push into the

second grade classroom for legal reasons due to the students IEP’s, I am glad that I

did not cut the paraprofessional off. Because I listened to this paraprofessional, I

know understand her feelings towards the second grade writing class. I understand

that some changes need to be made to make sure that everyone is receiving the

instruction they deserve and that no one is stressed out being in that classroom.


Section 5


A.

Today we had special education collaboration and K.C. the school psychologist was

present. We began to discuss a certain student who we believed would be eligible

for special education services. The school psychologist was quick to jump to a

conclusion and say that she would not qualify for services although he has not yet

worked or tested this student to see if she would receive services. Suspecting that

this student may fall far enough behind in math this semester, I have been progress

monitoring her weekly in math. Because I used to be timid, I most likely would not

have spoke up and let the issue pass, or tell my cooperating teacher about the

conflict at hand. However, instead I decided to take initiative. I then began to explain

to the school psychologist that I had been progress monitoring this student and

presented the data to him. It showed that the student was at least a year and a half

behind in math which would allow her to at least be considered for special

education services.

B.

After this collaboration I decided to self-reflect on the meeting and how I believe it

went. Because of this intervention, and I knew I needed to advocate for my student

myself, I believe that it benefitted the student very much. She will now be at least

considered for testing to see if she will receive special education services. In the long

run, I believe that the student would have received special education services

because I most likely would have brought it up to the school psychologist once we

were alone, but I also think it was a huge step for me to talk about a conflict in front

of a group of people.


Section 5


A.

One of the students on my caseload today was given a detention by a

paraprofessional that did not work with my specific caseload of students. When he

was telling me the story, he described what exactly had happened. Before I began

this intervention, I most likely would have told the student that his actions had

consequences and that there was nothing I could do. However, I did believe the

student and I decided that I needed to get the other side of the story from the

paraprofessional in order to advocate for my student. I decided that I would ask the

paraprofessional about what had happened in order to listen to everything she had

said. When she was describing the situation I decided to tell her about my student

and why her behavior may not have been the right course of action and instead

sitting with the student and working the problem out might be more effective in this

case. Because I was able to hear the paraprofessionals story I understood where she

was coming and therefore I could tailor some instruction for my student on how to

prevent future problems like these.

B.

I believe that this intervention really helped me today in making the decision to talk

to the paraprofessional to get her side of the story. Normally, I would have just

listened to my student and said that I would not be able to help him because I was

not present during this conflict. However, by being open minded and listening to the

paraprofessional I was able to understand why the detention was given and I was

able to fix the problem more efficiently than making the student serve detention.


Section 5


A.

Today presented another opportunity for me to demonstrate willingness to learn

from others throughout the collaborative process by having an open mind. The

opportunity presented itself during our collaboration with the Kindergarten

teacher, the Autism itinerant, the special education teacher and myself. There are

two kindergarten students who have autism that will be moving on to the first grade

next year. I am in charge of their IEP’s and had begun making plans for their

schedules for next year. During this meeting, Mrs. R. began to say how she believed

that the students would not benefit from Mr. C’s classroom and she believed they

should go in Mrs. L’s classroom instead. Immediately I began to think about how I

thought the opposite however, I was able to mentally stop and listen to everything

Mrs. R had to say before I began to think about my own reasoning.

B.

Today I believe this intervention was very helpful. I do not work with these

kindergarten students often, however, I know that students with autism often

benefit from having a lot of structure in their environment. Therefore, after

observing the two first grade rooms, I decided which room I thought would fit them

best. While listening to Mrs. R. she gave great insight to these two students. She

knows a mass amount of information about these two that would be extremely

beneficial for me to hear. After talking to her I completely understood why she

believed each child should be in the classroom that she suggested, and I even took

her advice over my own opinions.


Section 5


A.

Today I had another opportunity to learn from others throughout the collaborative

process. My paraprofessional came to me today after one of my students’s IEP’s and

suggested some activities that she believed that we should begin with her. Although

I mentally began to think about all of the reasons why we should not be doing this, I

decided to mentally stop and listen to everything that she had to say before I

jumped to my own conclusions.

B.

Although I ultimately decided to stick with my own course of action, I am glad that I

listened to everything the paraprofessional had to say. I told her that what she was

doing was great, however, it would not benefit this specific student to switch

curriculums at the current moment. I explained that I believe that her inquiries were

very worthwhile and that she should discuss them with the classroom teacher at the

beginning of next year. I am glad that I listened to this paraprofessional because she

also gave me insight to what the student’s family would like to see. This helped me

because I then understood what I should begin with this student and how I should

plan her time for the next year because I am in charge of that as well.


Section 5


A.

In our classroom today another opportunity presented itself for me to practice my

communication when conflict arose. During our passing period, one of the

paraprofessionals just happened to mention that she gave another student of mine a

detention. Since this student has a Behavior Intervention Plan, the paraprofessionals

are not supposed to hand out detentions unless there is a team meeting before hand.

I made sure to listen to her whole story before I decided to speak. However, I knew

that I had to advocate for my student and say something about her giving the

detention. I decided to remind this paraprofessional about the student’s BIP and

how she had to have a team meeting before giving the student a detention. Although

this was an uncomfortable position, I am glad that I was able to say something when

the opportunity presented itself.

B.

After the school day ended, I reflected on this meeting with my paraprofessional.

Although I was very glad that I was able to say something I also noted that I should

probably speak with the paraprofessional again to tell her that I understood why

she gave out the detention. However, I believe this intervention helped me today

because I know that I needed to advocate for my student and hold a team meeting

before the student had to be reprimanded.


Section 5


A.

Today I experienced another opportunity to problem solve when a conflict arose in

the third grade general education classroom. For science, the third grade general

education teacher does not believe that one student with a disability was not getting

the important instruction that she should be receiving since she was in science and

social studies for our class. When she brought this conflict to my attention I believed

that it was my responsibility to advocate for my student. I had to tell the teacher that

although she may not have believed that it was the best situation for her to be in, her

parents strongly wanted her in class, the class was being modified for her and she

was learning by being around her same aged peers.

B.

After this meeting, I filled out my self-evaluation form and I was very happy that I

had this intervention in place. I understood where the third grade general education

teacher was coming from, however, I had to explain why the student was in the

general education class. I understand that sometimes teachers feel as if the students

are not getting the instruction that is best for them but it is our job as a special

education teacher to advocate for our students and for what the special educators

and the parents feel like is right for them.


Section 5


A.To go along with the previous journal, today I experienced another opportunity to

mentally stop and listen to everything a teacher had to say when a conflict arose in

the third grade general education classroom. For science, the third grade general

education teacher does not believe that one student with a disability was not getting

the important instruction that she should be receiving since she was in science and

social studies for our class. When she brought this conflict to my attention I believed

that it was my responsibility to advocate for my student. I had to tell the teacher that

although she may not have believed that it was the best situation for her to be in, her

parents strongly wanted her in class, the class was being modified for her and she

was learning by being around her same aged peers. However, I knew that I had to

also listen to everything the teacher had to say. I listened to the teachers concerns

and I am very glad that I did that because I found out how exactly she was feeling

and I knew I could change some instruction in order to make her instruction become

more meaningful.

B.

I am glad that I listened to what the teacher had to say. Even though I knew the

student had to stay in science and social studies class, I am glad that I did not just

dismiss this conversation as soon as it was brought up. The teacher brought up very

valid points and I believe that my student will be receiving better instruction due to

this conversation.


Section 6 Personal Reflection

I believe that these interventions have helped me tremendously throughout

my student teaching experiences. I never knew how great of a deal collaboration is

and how much could change when I decided to open up and listen to others ideas

and opinions and by contributing to the conversation. I believe since starting these

interventions I have come a very far way as a professional and I believe that others

in this school environment have begun to respect me more.

Besides myself gaining professional development, I believe that my students

have also benefitted from these interventions. I find myself advocating for my

students more often and I am sticking up for what I believe is correct. For example, a

student has now been tested to qualify for special education services and my

student in my third grade general education classroom for science and social studies

is now receiving more diverse instruction but she can still remain in the general

education classroom with her same aged peers which will allow her to grow

tremendously at this crucial part of her schooling.

Personally, I really enjoyed this assignment. I believe that the writing portion

was a little difficult for me to reflect right after a collaboration meeting had occurred

but I knew that if I did not I would not have remembered specifically what had

happened. Besides fitting this assignment into my daily schedule, I believe it was

very useful and I believe that these interventions helped me immensely.

self-reflection assignment

Documents