Education Case Study

Education Case Study

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Case Study

So far my case study has been going alright. In the middle of the semester I decided to change students because I had a student come in with severe behavior concerns. With his BAP we have been able to develop and put in place a plan to hopefully get him through the rest of the school year. I will be interested to see what happens when I am no longer in the classroom and if my CT will continue with the goals and behaviors we have set in place. We have him on a behavior chart where he does earn points and we have to keep track of it everyday. I have several students with behavioral concerns in my class, and I have noticed that these other students would also benefit from having a chart.

April Reading

For this month I read 20 ways to reflect upon your practice. I found several of these practices very helpful and believe that they will be very useful in my own classroom. The first practice that I found helpful is to audiotape or videotape yourself teaching. I know that sometimes when we are teaching we don't realize what we have said or how we have said it and that can confuse our students. By audio taping or videotaping yourself teaching it will help you be more cognisant of what you say. A second tip that I found very helpful in the reading is to conference with colleagues. I feel that they best thing you can do for yourself is to reflect on your practices and have somebody else reflect on your practices.

Project so far

Right now I don't feel like I'm being able to spend as much time on this project as I would like to. I find myself focusing on so many other things that this project seems to continuously be in the back of my mind. Hopefully over the next couple of weeks I will be able to get more things done with this project. I also just got a new student that has severe behavioral problems and I have been mainly focusing on trying to get this student adjusted to the classroom environment.

March Reading

For this reading, I definitely found the section on disruptive behavior the most helpful. In my classroom I have a couple of students who are constantly disrupting the class. One student in particular, who I consider the "class bully" is constantly making noises. It is very annoying to myself and the students who consistently ask him to stop making those noises. From what I've noticed the student is most likely doing this for attention, but I am still not sure about the root of the cause. Right now the student and I are really focusing on him using his self control. When he hears "I need you to use your self control," he becomes aware of his behavior and usually makes a change. Now that I have a plan for his issues with making noises, I need to tackle the bullying that he has been doing to other students.

BM plan

As of this week, so far I have chosen the student that I am going to do my plan on in my class. I actually worked with this student for my case study so this should work out well. I chose to do this student, especially because lately he has been very aggressive towards other students. The other day he pushed another student on the playground and then he gotten written up with a referral to the office. As far as my data collection is concerned, I have just been taking anecdotal notes on his daily interactions with students.

Salend Chapter 7

One of the most important points that Salend hit on in Chapter 7 was to employ relationship building strategies. Not only does this build a relationship with your students, but it also promotes positive behavior in the classroom. In the classroom, I have found it very useful to use the strategies Salend discusses to promote postive behavior. The strategy that I often use and appeals to me the most is to use humor in the classroom. Not only does using humor develop postive self esteem, but it also makes your students feel at ease and more comfortable in the classroom.

Classroom Management

As far as my CT's classroom management is concerned, he is pretty good about it. I am in fourth grade and as far as discipline is concerned he usually follows the school wide falcon policy. It takes a lot for him to move a students falcon, therefore most of the students behave well because when they do have to move a falcon it is a really big deal for them. As I am slowly taking over more and more in the classroom, I find myself following the falcon policy more strictly than my CT.

Classroom Management in Inclusive Settings

I think that this article by Soodak does have many valid points about classroom and behavior management directed toward inclusive settings. This past fall I had a student in my fourth grade classroom with a severe behavior disability. This student did have an IEP and was on a behavior plan that was managed by my teacher and his parents. This approach for the student was through positive behavior supports. While the supports were very positive, I can not say that they particulary worked for the student. By the third month of school, the student had transferred to a school that was specifically tailored towards students with behavioral problems.

As teachers it is important that we have positive behavioral supports for our students. These supports must be consistent "with the goals of inclusive education." I do believe that teachers need to provide supports and do what is in the best interest of the children in their classroom.