#caitteaches

[cait-teaches]

Inquiry #8

The past two weeks have been spring break so I have not worked with the students. This however has given me time to catch up on writing lesson plans and organizing for the inquiry conference.

[cait-teaches]

Inquiry #7

This week has been a bit more focused on behavior management. It is the week before spring break for us so there is an addictive hype that the student have. My initial student is surprisingly not as hyper but he has reclused into his books. He throws a small immature tantrum when I take the book away. I think the excitement at school is too much for him so he will tuck himself into a book at avoid the extreme wave of emotion. The other two don’t have a self-employed strategy like this and have been very over the top in their behaviors. I have had to revert back to a behavior management we had in place at the beginning of the semester. They were resistant at the beginning of the week but have readjusted to the old method and corrected their behavior. I have been working with one of the students on volume control and using a concrete representation to help him visualize.

[cait-teaches]

Inquiry #6

This week I wasn’t able to observe the student in my class but reports from other teachers said that the method is still working, just needing prompting. I’m guessing the newness of it has worn off and it now can be forgotten by the student occasionally. Unfortunately the student was absent for most of the week due to a cold, but this week I have decided to add two more students to this project. One student is in my first class of the day and tends to start tapping excessively when the coursework is not engaging. He is in a class that is much lower than his actual abilities because he tested poorly on FSA the previous year.  I have reasoned that a fidget toy would be useful for this student because it could be an opportunity to mentally engage the student, which I believe this to be the cause of the behavior. The other student is in the same class as my initial inquiry student. He taps as well as a call for attention. I find a fidget toy may be useful for this student because having the device may be a way for the student to feel “unique” much like a “sit in the teacher’s chair” technique this gives the unique accommodation that makes the student perceive themselves as special from the class. I hope to be able to help these students as well as my initial student.

[cait-teaches]

Inquiry #5

This week I have had to switch to a more durable koosh ball. It was looking a bit bald and then over the weekend he explained that it had exploded. I gave him the new koosh ball and this one makes a bit more noise than the other one but it will last the time I need it to. 

As he gets more comfortable with me it’s been easier for him to talk about his fidgeting and he can explain that the movement helps him focus more on his thoughts. He was hesitant to talk about his hyperactivity with me at first but the more he gets used to me, he seems to open up. I also have been reacting to him differently. Instead of blowing up on him for fidgeting like I have seen some of the other teachers do, I make sure just to remind him to refocus with a tap on the shoulder or head. 

I can see he is not doing his behaviors with malicious intent and the initial observations have proven true that his hyperactivity is most prevalent during a mentally engaging task. Because of this I make sure to never show frustration with him over his tapping and just remind him of the strategies he has available. I have seen on multiple occasions and reports from other teachers that he will begin tapping but then stop to pick up the koosh ball. I count this as an achievement.

I realized Thursday night that the clay I have is dried out. I will have to get more over the weekend and work on the next part of the inquiry next week. Now that the student seems more comfortable with me, I hope he will be more receptive to the next strategy. 

[cait-teaches]

Inquiry #4

This week was a bit difficult to gather data. Half the week was testing. The other half of the week I was not able to stay for my student’s class due to hasty meeting made by the dean. I was however to observe and learn from other teachers that he does need prompting. He will occasionally also bring in his own object from home that distracts him. It is crucial to ask him to put it away and use the koosh ball. This upcoming week I will be working with the student on gaining self-awareness of his energy and finding a unique way for him to productively channel this energy.

[cait-teaches]

Inquiry #3

This week I began my inquiry project. The goal is to help my target student gain self helping strategies to help them have higher attention and retention during class time. Early in the week I filled out an ABC chart to catalogue the students behaviors. I have narrowed down the target behavior of fidgeting to two main causes:

1) The student will fidget and move excessively to stimulate when his mind is not being engaged. (Now this particular reason for the behavior was not planned to be addressed in the initial plan of the inquiry, there are some strategies that could help curb this behavior such as meditation or enrichment of his work.) 2) The student will fidget when thinking or working on an assignment. The behavior is especially prominent when the student is working on a writing assignment or one the requires higher order thinking. The second reason for the behavior is the purpose of this inquiry study. My theory is to find a productive and less distractive way to fidget and increase his academic productivity. The student currently does not have any accomodations to use fidget toys and form what I have observed of the student I feel he could really benefit from using the koosh ball. There is a great study here, that was done recently to explore the benefit of allowing hyperactive children to fidget when given an assignment. It’s a great read!

Later in the week I implemented my first part in the inquiry project. The first part is to give the student a koosh ball. I pulled the student aside during homeroom and we discussed what a koosh ball is for. Then we worked on what would be appropriate ways to use the koosh ball and ways to not use it. I would show his what to do and then things that wouldn’t work. Then we played a game where I gave the ball to the student and asked him to show me something he shouldn’t do. Then I asked him to show me something he should do. When I felt he had a real grasp in the purpose of the fidget toy, we moved on. To finish up our session together, I had the student create a contract. With prompting, the student and I created a contract that outlined what was the purpose of the koosh ball and what was not to be done, and what the consequence for not using the koosh ball properly would be. Then the student and I signed the paper, and I tasked the student with getting all his teachers to sign the contract as well, so that the other teachers knew this was meant to help and accommodate him. I double checked with the other teachers after school if the koosh ball was more of a distraction today, and none reported it being use incorrectly, and a two teachers actually noted that it had helped in reducing the tapping the student normally does.

The next step will be to enforce the fidget toy and eventually scaffold into an independent fidget that does not make noise.

[cait-teaches]

Inquiry #2

Unfortunately I was not able to begin working with the student on the self-regulation and meditation techniques due to difficulties in scheduling because of testing. However this week did not go to waste as I was able to take the time during testing to take anecdotal observations on the student’s behaviors relating to his hyperactivity. I was able to find some other solutions that may prove to be good in scaffolding to complete independence on the student’s part that not only fulfills the students need for movement but without becoming a distraction to the class and peers. I found this data to be important since this inquiry will focus on helping the student manage distracting behaviors and using his hyperactivity in a more productive manner.

[cait-teaches]

Inquiry #1

I will be conducting an inquiry project for my final internship. I will be focusing on using self-calming and meditative techniques to help improve a student’s focus and hyperactivity in class. I will be working with the students daily as a teacher, but I will also be working with the student weekly to work on these stratgies that I will introduce a reinforce. I will begin the process next week by first introducing the strategies and familiarizing the students with the purpose behind these strategies