Grading with the IEP's

The whole process of grading is to see what progress they made in each graded subject. For those who are under IEP each subject could be modified if needed if so then grading might be adapted towards what their specific progress is in those subjects they are learning. It all depends on the Individual and the IEP.    

cedar rapids case

I'm on the parents side, because we need to protect those who can't protect them selves and I understand the money thing and it is a big issue, because schools don't get much money. But at the same time students with disabilities need to have right to be at school to be with their peers and have the same right to the education system that anyone else has.    

General Education Teachers and IEPs

It is important to have the general education teacher involved in the IEP process for a lot of reasons.  The first is they are with the child more than any other adult in the school. They see the student in a range of environments and situations and know the student best.  secondly, they need to be involved so that they can implement the IEP in the classroom.  The student should be in the classroom as much as possible and the teacher should never give up on them.

classroom management

The best way to have good classroom management is to have the class come up with the rules themselves.  I would direct them through their examples of classroom rules to the rules "respect others, respect property and respect yourself".  In my classroom I will use a clip chart and have class points.  At the end of a certain amount of time the class would get some kind of reward.  It is important to teach your students the first day of class what you expect so there will be no question of what is appropriate and what is not for the rest of the year.

Pre and Post assessments

Pre-assessments are really important because not only do they show you where the students are in their learning but it also directs your teaching.  You can see if there are subjects you can completely skip and you can see if there are subjects you need to spend extra time on.  Pre-assessments can also be a tool to show your students what they are going to be learning and what they objectives of the lessons are. They are like a little preview into the next section. Post tests are also really important.  They show you what the students have learned, where you may need to reteach and they are a motivator for student learning.

Grading with IEP's

I feel like the best way to go about grading students with IEP's is to set up a system to grade them according to the goals of their IEP's. Since accomodations are being made to help that student to come closer to reaching the A standard, making grad accommodations should happen too. They should be able to see the progress toward reaching their personal learning target.  They will be more motivated.  If they see how far behind they really are they may get discouraged and not see how much they are improving.

Service Hours

For my service hours I spent the day helping in Springlake special needs preschool in.  My mom used to work there and so they were willing to help me with this assignment and help out in the classroom.  Most of the things the students were learning in this preschool are the simple everyday skills that everyone needs to get by.  We talked about washing our hands the day i visited.  Because all of the students attending the school have special needs (and are only 5 or so anyway) most of my time during instruction was spent bringing students back to their seats.  For the other part of the day we played with toys and colored.  It was so much fun to spend time with them. They are so sweet! I can't wait to visit them again.

Visual Impairment

I didn't like the visual impairment because although i could not see the people around me, I felt like they were watching me the whole time.  I wore the mask during one of my classes that we do not do a lot of writing and therefore i don't feel like i missed a whole lot.  One of the hardest parts was moving around.  I could not tell where i was very well and could not see what the people around me were doing.  I feel like i didn't get the best experience doing this because i was only listening in class.  If we had to do more than that i would have struggled a lot more.  I feel like if you did have a student with a visual impairment you would want to make sure they sat in an area of the classroom where they the most possible.  I would also make sure that they knew the classroom really well so that moving around would not be so uncomfortable.

Wheelchair

I did my hours in a wheelchair while i was visiting home one weekend.  Since my mom has some trouble walking at times we have a wheelchair in our house. I felt a little lucky that I was able to do it at home because there would be less people looking at me.  Even though there were a lot of hard things that we had to do in the wheelchair, seeing people look at you differently would probably be the hardest.  The hardest physical thing to do was when I had to use the bathroom without using my legs.  I could not believe just how difficult it was to do!  It was also crazy hard to wash my hands i could barely reach the soap and could not reach the towel to dry my hands at all.  Going up a hill was also really difficult.  After i was done my arms ached. Overall this was i really interesting experience.  I am glad I had it. It made me so much more aware of what students in wheelchairs have to do everyday. I hope that someday when i have a student in my class who is in a wheelchair I will remember this experience and be able to make accommodations to help my student because of my experience.

Visual Impairment

This was extremely hard for me to do. I was fine with not being able to see very well I had a hard time with feel self conscious about the masks. I found the masks gross to put on so half of the challenge was putting them on without the inner germaphobe ripping them off my face. I was hard to see and I cant imagine what it would be like to see like that every day. My grandma is just about blind and so it helped me see how she sees. My grandma can only see like 13% of what is considered normal. I could at least take off the mask and se again at that was such a relief.

Grading With IEPs

I feel like grades are a way of showing progress in what they are learning. Giving a child an A on something that they have not learned is not something that I like. I think the report card should be modified on what they are learning. This is tough because I know that children share their grades as kind of a competition and if a child sees that someone who is not up to their level is getting an A on something that they didn't have to do a lot on then the value of getting that A won't mean as much. I don't know if that made much sense.  

Visual Impairment Blog

This was a very interesting experience. I was really scared and nervous to do this activity because I knew it would kind of freak me out. I did not like doing this but I have a huge appreciation and understanding for those who are visually impaired. I got a huge headache and did not like not being able to see what was going on. Even being half blind was really hard for me and made me have to accommodate differently to try and see what was going on. This has really helped me open my eyes to those who are visually impaired. I have a girl in one of my classes who is visually impaired and color blind. She has very thick glasses and has to hold things up super super close to be able to see them. She can not see the PowerPoint most times and is given papers that she can not really even read. She really has a lot of patience and has learned to accommodate and not be afraid to ask others for help. Although this was really hard for me, I really do appreciate it because I am able to understand her better and I am more willing to help her.

Wheelchair Experience

This was a pretty cool experience. I did not realize how hard it was to move around in a wheelchair. I did it for 2 and 1/2 hours and that was just a small experience of what people in wheelchairs have to go through. It was harder than I thought to go through doorways and go to the bathroom. I needed a lot of a help and it was so nice when people would push me around. It helped me to see the people willing to serve on this campus because they were all so kind to give me a helping hand. There were some doors that did not have the automatic button so it was nice to have people help me go through those. This experience was really good for me because it helped me realize what others have to go through and now when I see someone in a wheelchair I will be able to understand them a little bit more and I will be more willing to help them when they need help.

My Thoughts

Imagine you are the 5th grade classroom teacher and have two students in your class on IEP's. When it comes time to do report cards, your principal informs you that the grade you assign these two students should reflect their progress toward IEP goals and not how much of the in-class material they have mastered.  You also cannot make any notes to indicate this in the report card because that is illegal (this is true in Idaho and maybe other states).  Essentially, these two students will get A's in reading because they are making good progress, but they are unable to do 5th grade level work equal to that of most of their peers.  Please explain your thoughts about this.

I think that this would be a very hard situation to be in. I would do what I had to do but I would also make it a priority to inform the parents exactly of how the students are doing. I would call a meeting with the parents so that I can tell them how much they have progressed in their IEP goals but also how much they have progressed in class in general and the subjects or things they need to work on. I think that this is very important because it is essential to get the parents on the same page as you so that they understand fully about what is going on in class and how their child is doing. If the student also has a paraprofessional with them mostly I would also include them in the meeting. 

Grading children with IEP

I would want to find a different way to give the students grades that show how they are improving relating to their IEPS. I feel that giving them grades on report cards relating to their IEPs would not be honest. Yes most of the time students on IEP will improve over time. Growing up I was on an IEP. It would have been nice to have a separate report that showed how I was improving but also seeing where I was compared to to other students would have been nice also.

Pre and postassessments

There is a time and place for tests. The need for pre an post assessments are very important because they help to see where children are at. With out them you will never know how much the students have learn or what they are really struggling with. I agree that there are to many test, but there need to be a way to see where students are at.

Grading Children with IEP

It would be very hard to grade someone with an IEP fairly in comparison with an average grade student for me. I feel I would be very bias when overlooking their paper and looking at their improvements rather than how accurately the work had been done. I am not sure if this is right or not. Should we compare their intellect equally with those of other students? Or should we compare their intellect with only themselves alone. If an average grade student did the same work as someone with an IEP how would I justify my lower grade for them to them? I still think I would be more lenient in my grading of a student with an IEP, but I am not sure if this is right or not. I wouldn't give them perfect scores for work that didn't have right answers, but I wouldn't fail them if I could see improvements and effort being done.

visual impairment

My experience wasn't the first being visual impaired, I have really bad eye sight that is why I wear contacts. At times I have lost those contacts and have experience visual impairment. For this activity though it was interesting seating in class blind, just when people are talking you like to look them and kind of read lips plus hear the words at the same time, but when your blind it like your whole focus is in the hearing process and felt that my hearing was a lot better. Maybe it was because there wasn't so much distractions. Now for being one eyed blind was a lot harder then being totally blind, because that one eye works hard. Because I have experience this before having had only one contact at time knew kind of what would happen and guess what it happen it I got a headache which totally stinks. But it gave me a sense of what those who only have one working eye.              

Wheel chair

The wheelchair was interesting experience, just the fact of having people help. I'm a person who does things for myself and asking people for help is the last thing I like doing. But at the same time it was great to see, so many people willing to help from opening doors to pushing me up the hills. At the same time the whole experience let me experience a little bit of those who have to be in wheel chair every day and I'm grateful for two legs that work. And I'm more sensitive to the needs, because of this experience.   

pre and post test

In testing there has to be a reason behind assessments. You don't test for the heck of it. You test to first to see where their ability and knowledge is and what needs to be taught for the year which is pretests and two to asses the knowledge at the end of the year to see what they learn from your teachings. Those or to me why you do assessments.   

Service hours

I was able to referee a special needs basketball game. I noticed right away when I first got there I could see the joy that came from the kids faces, that they where excited. One of the kids names was Jason and he was one of first person to come to me. He told me and the other referee of how he was, so excited to be able play in his first real basketball game. As the game went on I meet and be came friends with a lot of those kids that were playing. The best part of the whole experience was just seeing the faces of the kids when they made a basket, they would smile, they would put there fist in the air and they would jump up in excitement. The over all experience was fun and joyful totally was worth it.        

Service Hours

For my service hours I went to the Special Needs Extravaganza which was three hours but counted towards my hour hours. I was fun to see and to help hang up the artwork that they have created this semester. 

I thought the Talent show was so fun. It was great to see all the effort they put into the program. The best was seeing their reaction to the applause and the energy from the audience. You could just see the joy that they felt in accomplishing their part in the program. My favorite was the first performance where one of the guys got up to do his talent and they were playing the wrong version of the song that we was going to sing to. While he was on stage waiting for the song to start singing he was totally confident up there and didn't let the fact that it was the wrong thing phase him at all.

Pre and Post Tests

I think that there is a lot of value in testing students. Testing can help you tell if a student knows the material you are teaching them. While there is a value in testing I feel like you must have a purpose in testing and if you do not have purpose then you are wasting your time and your students time. You do not need to test for every little thing.

Service Hours

For my service hours I completed 4 hours and went to the Special Needs Extravaganza. It was a really cool experience. I went there early to set up. We hung up the artwork that they had worked on throughout the semester. There was also food that was set up and chairs facing the stage to get ready for the talent show.

There were a lot of people that showed up. It was a great event. I loved the talent show. Each one was able to get on stage and share one of their talents. I loved how brave there were and how happy they were when they got cheered on from the audience. There were a lot of them that decided to sing. A couple of them danced. One of them that was pretty funny was a guy who gave movie quotes.

There was another guy that did magic tricks. I loved to just see the happiness on their faces as they accomplished going up on stage and showing everyone their talent. After that they played games and they ate the little snacks. It was nice to talk to them and tell them how good they did. It was a great experience to be able to go to and support. I am so glad that I chose to go and use this activity for my service hours.

Service Hours

      I went to the Life Skills spotlight night and it was such a blast! I went early to help set up and all I was doing was helping display the artwork of the students. I ended up hanging rockets in the entrance which took the full hour because there was not enough scissors to go around haha. I actually had no idea that it was going to be such a fun night, there was a talent show and minute to win it games.
     The talent show was beyond amazing. It was worth it just to see their faces light up on the stage and they were great performers, they really knew how to work the crowd hahaha. I especially enjoyed the two boys that danced to Michael Jackson. All of them had a really good sense of humor though.
     After the show there was a transition to games where we could talk to the performers and eat some light snacks. It was fun seeing the students smiling and one of the boys came up out of no where and gave me a big hug! It made me smile and told him he sang my favorite song, (Taylor Swift: Shake it Off).
     I then went to go look at the other artwork and was by the hand tree. Michael the magician was also there and wanted to tell me about the hand/leaf he decorated. He was so funny, he told me, "This hand is my life story. See here, these swirls mean that I appreciate intricate artwork, these spikes mean that I like a little bit of danger, and this one means that I like pie. Do you know what kind of pie?" The drawing he pointed at was yellow so I said, "Banana? (no) Lemon?" he then told me that he liked the 3.14 kind of pie hahaha. It was great talking to him, he had really good sense of vocabulary and a good sense of humor.
     After the activity I helped clean up and then went home. I am glad that I was able to volunteer and attend this activity. It was awesome and I really liked being involved with the students. I had never been to something like that before, or really interacted with people that had mental disabilities, but it was a great experience.

Pre and Post Assesments

What would you tell a teacher who says that doing pre and post assessments is just time wasted that could be used for instruction?

A teacher who thinks that pre and post assessments are a waste of time are probably right in their situation. A pre and post assessment has to be done with purpose. If a teacher thinks that they are a waste of time they are probably not using them correctly. To use them correctly you have to do them with purpose. If you do a pre and post assessment then your teaching should change in some way. If your teaching does not change based off of pre and post assessments, then yes they are a waste of time. 

Testing

What would you tell a teacher who says that doing pre and post assessments is just time wasted that could be used for instruction?
I think that this is a very good question. I can see where the teacher is coming from but then I can also see the benefits of both a pre and post assessment. When doing these tests you will be able to know what level the students are at before you give them instruction and then you will be able to learn how well they mastered instruction after. i think this is very important because it lets you know how well you are doing as a teacher in teaching a new concept and really helping the students learn what they are supposed to. You can make changes based on the pre assessment so you know where each student stands and you also know after the post assessment if you need to review the concept again or if there are only a few students that need help understanding the concept more. 

intrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation is the way we should live are life, that when we do something is should be based on this type of motivation. As I thought about this my mind directed me to the scriptures specially in the bible. As we all know that Jesus Christ came to mortality and with him he brought to earth a higher law which stop the practice of the lower law or Mosaic law which was base on rewards and punishment, but his higher law was based on are agency the individual choice. Now compare these laws to intrinsic motivation vs extrinsic motivation one is based of individual's motivation and other is based open doing thing based upon reward and punishment. I feel in class rooms we need to set up rewards and punishments, but that though out the year we need teach are students the importance of rules to the point were individual student will began to do things not based upon punishment and reward, but because individual understands the need choose to do it.           

pull out

I think pull out is the must effective way for special needs students. For one reason kids need be around their peers. They need to be able to learn how to work with and socialize with their classmates. The one of the biggest reason for school is to educate people on how to grow up in be part of a growing society. Which part of that is to work along side people as a unit for a common goal. For me student need to be in the regular class room as much as they can, at the same they still need help for their specific needs.

Pull Out

If I had a choice to which school I would want to work at, I would choose a pull out school. These schools keep students in regular classrooms, but pull them out at certain times. I think this is important because many students with special needs need that extra attention and care they can receive in a pull out method school.

Pull-out vs. Push in

After considering a lot of different things I have decided that I would rather do the pull out program. I feel like this is the best option because the students needs that time in the classroom where they feel like a normal student.  Socially I feel like pulling a student out for a little while during the day would effect them less on the social level than having a paraprofessional by their side at all times in the classroom.  I also think the pull-out program would be better for individualized instruction.  You can focus more on what that specific student needs. Lastly, I feel like student would be more apt to gain learned helplessness when they have a paraprofessional with them in the classroom.

"Pull out" or "Push in" Program

I can see the benefits and the draw backs of each of these programs in the school. I feel like with the push in they may not get all the one on one time with the teacher and instruction that they need but they will get to learn life skills with their peers. With the pull out they may be able to master the content that they need quicker. I think that really the decision should be made based on what the child does best in because no two students learn the same way.

"Pull out" or "Push in"

This is a very hard question that has really made me think. There are a list of pros and cons for each. There is a little boy in my classroom that I help teach at who has Down Syndrome. He has a Paraprofessional in the classroom with him but he is not able to do all of the things that the other students do inside the classroom. During math time she takes him to the back of the room to do math and literacy on the computer. Sometimes she takes him to the back carpet to do his own projects. He also leaves the classroom a lot with her to do testing. It is hard to say which one I would choose. I think it also depends on their amount of disability. I think I would probably lean more towards the "push in" options so that they can be around their peers and learn many life experiences that they may not be able to learn in a "push out" situation.

Wheelchair

Today I did my wheelchair thing. I spent 2 1/2 hours in the wheelchair. It was hard my arms were super tired just going from the Hinckley to the Ricks I can't imagine going uphill in a wheelchair. On the way to the Ricks I went downhill which was kind of fun but then I thought I was going to kill myself. I tried to slow down and it kind of gave me a rope burn on my hands if that make sense at all. I thought that the elevators were really small for the wheelchair and one of the elevators was filled with a stack of chairs that was just left there and that made it harder. Opening doors were also hard I struggled with those a lot. I didn't have to ask anyone for help if people saw I was struggling they were more than willing to help. Some people in my class were so concerned that I had hurt myself and asked what happened.

Visual Impairment Blog

This experience for me was a little strange. I felt like I got a lot of..."What the heck?" Looks from students on campus, and that's fine because I know I gave people the same looks wearing the masks when I didn't know what they were for. I don't think my pack had all the masks in it because it had one that was not blind at all and one where both the eyes were blacked out. I used the black out one and just went from totally blind, to blind in only the left or right eye by just peeling back the paper and tape. There also wasn't any instructions with the pack so I was really confused with how long to wear each mask, what I was supposed to experience with each mask, or which masks should be included in my pack.

Totally blind: Being blind was not so hard because I was just sitting in a lecture class and listening to the teacher. The thing that really shocked me was how good it felt to actually be able to see again when it was time to switch the mask up.

I kind of related this (and I don't really know at all), to babies that are deaf and then they can hear. They are not necessarily upset, but when they can hear it is just such an amazing experience for them.

http://youtu.be/UUP02yTKWWo

(above is the video of when the baby hears for the first time...if you haven't seen it you really should, it is so tender)

Half blind: For some reason it was weirder seeing out of only my right eye. I felt I had to turn my whole head a lot more to be able to see people or things and that was strange. With both my eyes though it was rather easy to see on the desk in front of me and to take notes, but looking at the board or reading the overhead projector was rather hard. I tried only a couple times and my vision was really blurry and I started to get a little headache so I stopped.

My Experience in a Wheelchair

As most of you know, I have a one year old little boy, his name is Eli. As I was going to rent the wheelchair I decided I would go around campus with him riding on my lap. My mom has been in a wheelchair her whole life and I am not sure how she did it with me and my two sisters! She told me  she would put us in laundry baskets cushioned by blankets and place the laundry basket in front of her and scooch us around the house when we were too little to walk/crawl. She also told me that when I was a little older she had to use a baby leash when we went on walks because she could not keep me safe without it. Well, my son has met my mom and would get little rides from her like you see me giving my son so I thought it fitting to do the same. I felt a lot more people smiled at me when I was in the wheelchair, but maybe that was just because I was carrying a cute baby and they were really smiling at him haha.

Here's even a picture of me getting a ride lol I was a funny looking baby

Well...now onto my experience! I had A LOT of embarrassing moments, but it was really an eye opening and beneficial experience for me.

1. Go to the restroom, enter a stall, and transfer your body from the wheelchair to the toilet. Reverse the process and return to the wheelchair.

- This was so hard! I had to like pull vault myself over the arm rest of the wheelchair while my son ran around in the stall haha, but I did it. Getting back into the chair was really difficult though because I had to touch the toilet seat some (EWW) and the chair kept bouncing up and down from my weight. A girl even asked, are you okay in there? hahaha I sheepishly said yes!

 2. Get a drink from the drinking fountain. 

- This was...just...ugh. I was so thirsty but the water kept dribbling down my face and onto my shirt! After I went to check my shirt, I noticed it had unbuttoned half way!!! So my garments, bra, and cleavage were all out for the world to see...must have been because of my son bouncing around or something, I hope he covered it and no one saw hahaha

3. Go another building on campus and ask for directions/assistance (e.g., Kimball Building information desk). 

- I asked where the bathroom was... I don't really know how this related to being in a wheelchair, it wasn't bad at all.

 4. Ride an elevator. 

- This was fine for me, I did have some trouble getting all turned around in there though! 

5. Go up and down a hill by yourself. 

- First, the wheelchair I had was like one of those stupid carts at the grocery store! I was so annoyed because it kept veering off to the right and it was really uncomfortable. Also, it was hard to go slow down a hill and very hard to even go up a hill at all.

6. Go through a door without using the door opener. 

- This was hard to do without using my legs! I kept wanting to prop the door open with them, but I resisted and ended up launching myself through the door frame with my arms haha

7. Go through a door using the door opener. 

- This wasn't so bad, but the door openings were very tight and I barely had enough room for all of me and the chair to get through the door.

8. Ask for assistance to navigate a tough spot. 

- People offered their assistance to me and that was nice. A nice man offered to push me up a hill, it wasn't steep at all haha but I must have looked like I was having a hard time (because I was). Also, I was trying to get into my car from the wheelchair without using my legs and this guy asked me if I would like him to hold down the chair for me. I said yes (because the chair kept bobbing up with me) and I regretted it! haha I had to launch myself over the arm rest again and I went way to high and hit my head and neck on my car door frame. Well, let's just say he was embarrassed and I was embarrassed and he said do you want me to just fold it up for you? With a rather strained look in his face like..."Oh my gosh...did that just happen? What do I say?" Well, I broke and told him it was just a practice for my special ed class and that it was harder than it looked and we both laughed and then he left.

Being in a wheelchair must be such a hard thing because a lot of the world isn't specifically made with people in wheelchairs in mind, but we shouldn't look down to those in wheelchairs because they are people just like us, only with more physical struggles in this life. If anything we should be nicer to them out of admiration, but never out of pity.

Intrinsic Motivation

Really looking deeper into intrinsic motivation I am not sure whether it is real or not. I do believe that sometimes I am excited to do things on my own, like a project I can get creative with...like when I can incorporate baking into a school project I usually have fun haha. I feel to get someone to be intrinsically motivated to do something they don't necessarily want to do on their own can be very hard. Like readings for class...I almost never do them unless I know we are going to talk about it in a group, or I am even more likely to do them when I am going to be graded on the readings.

Intrinsic Motivation

After learning about intrinsic motivation I don't think that it is real, at least for me I have never had the desire to do work unless it was for a good grade. In Jr. High and High School my parents paid me or gave me rewards for A's and I am certain I would have had stuff taken away if I had ever received an F, I never gave them the opportunity to use that tactic. I think the biggest part of my motivation to get good grades was my classmates. My class was fairly competitive with grades and would always compare scores on tests. I did not want to be ashamed of my grades when I would show them so that motivated me to study and do well so I could have the pride to go with the good grades. Today grades are still my motivation to go to class, study, and do well it has nothing to do with learning something for the sake of learning something.

This Week

This week really made me think about what my feelings are on Intrinsic Motivation.  After taking motivation management I had really strong feelings on the subject.  I thought that our goal to get our students to a place where they are intrinsically motivated.  When Brother Beattie started talking about it in class I was positive that he would say the same thing.  It surprised me when he didn't and it really caused me to think about what intrinsic motivation is and if it is even possible.  After a lot of thinking I have decided that intrinsic motivation is kind of like becoming like Christ.  Our ultimate goal is to become like him but there is now way we can succeed without the atonement.  Intrinsic Motivation should be the ultimate goal that we have for our students but there is really no possible way it will happen.  Even if just feeling good is our motivation that can be seen as an external motivator.

This Week

This week I really liked how we went over the FBA (Funtional Behavior Assessment). I thought it was good to learn about this because it is a good way to find out if a behavior is really a problem. It really made me think about the behavior and not only how it affecting others, but how it affects the child who is doing the behavior. I also liked hearing the experience from Brother Beattie about the girl that he had to deal with.

General Ed Teachers and IEP meetings

Like many of my classmates said, the role that the general ed teacher plays in an IEP meeting should be important. They see what the child is capable of compared to other children that are at regular levels of learning. I think the general ed teacher should be able to contribute a large portion of insight when preparing an IEP for a child with special needs.

Class Management

In my Early Practicum class I was taught about the importance of classroom management. It is important to establish classroom management because the student need to know what to expect and what the teacher expects from the student. There are many different styles to this that will work for the teacher and the students in his or her classroom. Some ways are more effective than others but again it depends on what works for the teacher and his or her class.

Classroom management

I think the first part of classroom management is making sure that the students know who is boss and that you will not be walked on. There needs to be rules but not so many that your students will not enjoy being in class. Having some sort of reward helps student want to follow the rules. There are many different ways to do it. One thing that I always enjoyed was earning class parties. One way to keep track of having a Jar that gets filled with beans or something like that.

Classroom Managment

One idea that I have seen for classroom management is giving points to teams. You can have each table pick a team name and if they listen to you or are being very quite you can give them a team point. You can also take away team points if they are not listening. (This can be ineffective because you are disciplining the group and not the individual. It can also be good though because their peers will enforce good behavior.) Another technique that I like is you have two jars of marbles. One for the teacher and one for the class. If the class is good and listening then they can get some marbles added to their jar. They could also get marbles taken away from them if they were being bad. (This could be ineffective because you could be punishing some students who are being good while others are the ones being bad.)

Classroom behaviors and adjustments

I don't exactly know what to say in terms of behavior management for a classroom because I don't agree with behaviorism. I would want to implement something in the class that would help nurture children's desire to be kind for the sake of it, not for a reward. I think the closest thing we talked about in class would be the classroom rules of respecting one another and ourselves. If children misbehave I do not believe in shaming them, but teaching them respectfully.

I did learn that when we are preparing lessons for an unknown audience we should always leave room for adjustment of different learners.

classroom managment strategy

My strategy on classroom management is that you set your class room rules with the help (not completely)   of you students at the beginning of the year, also this is the time that you explain why the rules are important. There is a lot of different strategies to choice from and for me I haven't really found one of my liking, but I know as a kid that one of my classes did a fake money thing. Where if you were good or did good on assignment you collected money and if you missed behaved, then you lost money. Then at different times of the year you could use that money for prizes. I think the negatives to this is that might divide the class form those who are good and those are bad, to oh they have more money, so the teacher must like them better. I feel it my cause some contention which you want the class to be unified and to respect one another.        

General Ed & IEP

As we did our mock IEP meeting I felt that besides the parents the General Education teacher knew the student the best. Everyone else at the meeting didn't really get to know the student because of brief interactions with her or just reading about her on a chart with her IQ scores. 

General Education teachers and IEPs.

While doing the mock IEP I realized that General Ed teachers are the ones that know the students the best. With out the general ed teacher the IEP would not get anywhere. A lot of times the general ed teachers will be the one who implements most of the IEP.

General education teachers

I feel that the General education teachers have very important part in the development of an IEP, because there the ones that at first referred them for a IEP and second they are ones that will understand how they act and learn, because they are around them more. So even though the special education teachers write the IEPs I think they will work closely with the general education teachers to get the best IEPs for the students.

The General Ed Teachers and IEP Meetings

When we were going over the IEP meeting, I  noticed who had the most amount of personal knowledge and say was mostly the general education teacher. The teacher is the one who knows the child best in the setting they were talking about. The parents know how she is at home but the teacher knows how she acts in the classroom and how she compares to other students. I felt like the others at the IEP meeting just knew her because of the IQ test that she took, but they didn't really have experience with her personally. The teacher is defiantly the go to person when talking about her progress in school and her strengths and weaknesses.

-Ali Wilcox

Cedar Rapids Case

After looking closely at the Cedar Rapids case this week I thought I had made up my mind to side with the parents.  I felt like their problem was one that could easily be fixed by the school taking responsibility for the cost of medical care. The parents could not afford it.  They wanted to keep their child in school but could not pay for the care.  The discussion we had as a group just continued to solidify my opinion.  A school should be a safe place where all children are welcome and can learn in the least restrictive environment. He needed to be with his peers and it seemed to me like the school paying was the only way to make that happen.  During the class discussion my opinion was swayed a little.  I had never considered that if they paid for one students medical needs they would have to begin to pay for a lot of other.  I also never realized how much money it would cost for the school to take care of the bill. Although there were a lot of good arguments for both sides, I still side with the parents.

Cedar Rapid's Court Case

In the Cedar Rapids Case I was, like most of my group, on the side of the parents. After hearing other groups opinions I thought about it the other way and now I am on the side of the school. I liked the example one of the guys in our class made about how a student needing glasses is a disability yet it is not something the school pays for simply because they can't see. If the school was to pay for someone's medical expenses once that would just open a floodgate of paying for other cost's not really relating to school stuff.

Ceder Rapid Case

At first I was on the side of the parents but after hearing the opinions of others in the class it swayed me to take the side of the school. Yes he needs a lot of medical help from his injuries but why should the school all of a sudden have to pay for it. They were able to get by for a little because of his aunt that they trained. I don't think it should necessarily be the schools responsibility, it should be the parents responsibility since they are going to be responsible for him for the rest of his life. Also if the school starts making exceptions for this him, then they might have to make more and more exceptions for others which may lead to the school loosing a lot of money. In the end it is very sad what happened, but I ultimately think that it is the parents responsibility to take care and provide for their kid. 

-Ali Wilcox

My opinion on the Ceder Rapid case

School: First, if we look at whether or not he qualifies for special education. In class we talked about three questions that we need to ask: 1) Is there a disability? The answer to that is yes, he is paralyzed from the neck down so he can not write. 2) Is there an adverse effect? Yes, he could die if there is not a caregiver.  3) Do they need specially designed instruction? This is where it gets complicated, he is smart and is able to learn in a normal class he will need different ways to take test, and do assignments, does he need a nurse or caregiver to help him with his school work, No he does not. So does this mean that the school should not have to pay for a nurse? To me I think that there is a good reason for the school district to really consider not paying.

Sonya's Journal Post

Week of 2/2- 2/6
I agree with the school! I thought that the school should not have to pay medical benefits, the child cannot learn without them, but the child also cannot live without them! Special service should be there to help the student learn, not live. I feel the family could train someone like they had the 18 year old aunt trained and they could pay them personally to be with the child at school. I feel that now they could get help through the government, but maybe not back when this court case took place. I feel bad for the parents for having to pay for this, but the child is ultimately their responsibility, not the schools.


I know we weren't taught this, but I feel it is a good guideline when we want to think deeper about things people say.

Lost ._.

This course has been so confusing to me. I am doing all the homework assignments, but I feel they are just going over my head because I am not sure what information I really need to learn. My brain only has room for so much haha -Sonya

p.s. I am writing this because the assessment asked if I had discussed with my group members and I checked yes, but I didn't want to lie.