I am writing this blog at a very bad time because my case study had a hard day today. Overall I would say that the plan put in place for him occasionally works. Whereas before we had no good days at all, now we are having about half good and half bad. I easily get frustrated that he is not showing more progress but I have to remember that any growth is a step in the right direction.
My goal now is to try to come up with ways to make the better days more consistent. I not only want him to use the strategies at school, but I would also like if they would carry over to home. His mom tells me that things are not getting better at home. He somehow forgets all of the anger management things we do at school when he goes home. Any suggestions out there?
Amanda –
I feel like your frustration is what sometimes causes teachers to unintentionally allow certain students to be, not forgotten, but somewhat looked over.
I think it has been an interesting study to be able to observe one specific child and I think it works well in our Student Teaching because we are able to tag-team with our CTs, therefore we have more eyes, hands, energy, and time. However, I am a little worried that next year, being just one teacher in a classroom of around 25, that it is going to be much more difficult to focus your attention on one specific student with so much detail.
I am hopeful, however, that over the years we will become more proficient at multitasking and note taking in order to properly observe students and implement interventions.
Melissa
In my experience, I have noticed that it is really important to have something concrete for students to associate with their behavior plan. If you have a plan for him at school, it needs to be something you can subtely point to when he is either doing well or needs to follow the plan, but you need to give the same concrete item to his mom for her to point at when he is at home. You could do a poster with steps of cooling off, where he can move a pin himself. You could give him a stress ball. I can’t think of something specific, since I don’t know the kid, but I think it would be helpful to give him something he can have as both a reminder of acting appropriately and things he can do to calm down.