Well if I am going to be perfectly honest, my project is starting slowly but surely. My teacher and I are still trying to determine which student I am going to collect data for and work with. There is one child in particular that I would really like to work with but he is already receiving services for behavior. The other child I am thinking about working with may be a better choice just because he is not receiving any behavior support yet. He may benefit from some sort of structure in place.
Despite the fact that I haven’t fully decided on a child, I am collecting data. Mostly, I am just taking and recording anecdotal notes on both students. Since I am not full time teaching yet, I have more time to write full notes on the behavior I see. I feel like more descriptive notes in the beginning of data collection will be good for me to have later. I do not know for sure what type of behavior plan I will start, but I am in the process of tossing out ideas with my teacher.
My goal is to have only one student to focus on by Monday. I am also trying to talk more with these two particular students so that I am building a deeper relationships with them. Hopefully this will help me!!!
Have you picked a student now? I find it difficult to focus on just one student. I want to work for the good of my whole class, so when I look for a student with troublesome behaviors that I find lots of little things that I want to “fix.” I’m being really careful to not let myself get into this mind set. I hope you found it easier to finally pick one.
Yes, I finally picked one! I think the one I have chosen will give me lots to work with so we will see how it goes! But, I understand how you feel. It is hard to focus on one child when there are many other kids in our classes that need attention too! Hope things are going well though!
Amanda –
I am wondering how your anecdotal notetaking is going? I have tried a couple of different ways to keep notes this way – post-its, checklists, emails to myself etc etc. While it is a little difficult to keep it all together and organize, I keep reminding myself that constant reflection will definitely be a key to this project.
Melissa