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Seth Ellenburg

Turn in date: 4-14-18

SPED 510*01

Dr. Flynn

Diversity Project

Introduction

General School Information

I was given the opportunity to complete the diversity project at the very school where I

would like to someday teach, Pittsburg Community Middle School (PCMS). PCMS is placed

toward the center of the city of Pittsburg. Pittsburg is a university town with some large scale

employment opportunities. Therefore, Pittsburg has a respectable amount of diversity, which I

discuss in my Building Report Card section. This diversity is expressed in the student population

at PCMS.

I was placed with Mrs. Collver in one of her sixth grade science classes. The classroom is

versatile with its computer module learning stations and its tabled lecture section. The feeling-

tone of the classroom itself is pleasant, as it has many scientific posters on the walls, scientific

artifacts throughout the perimeter of the room, and plenty of living plants that are staggered next

to a long, window-lined wall. Mrs. Collver also has interesting gadgets hanging from the ceiling

in some areas of the classroom. My favorite decorative pieces were these poster-like decorations

that went on the ceiling tiles. These pieces were scattered throughout the ceiling in the room. The

edges of the decorations closely resembled the ceiling tiles themselves in order to create the

effect that there were large, rough holes in the ceiling, through which one could see a brilliant
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night sky, littered with stars. All of the things in the room did a great job of pointing to the

fascinating, vast world that exists outside of the classroom.

I felt this was nearly the perfect setting for teaching sixth graders science. The class itself

is designed to introduce students to the different disciplines in science. It does this by

overviewing some of the main areas of science, including: physics, chemistry, and biology. The

class learned out of books that seemed like less traditional textbooks, only having about 100 or

so pages that dealt with the specific scientific area they were focusing on for that unit. I liked

these textbooks because they also doubled as workbooks, with question and answer slots on each

page. This class, from the layout, to the decorations, to the textbooks being used, is designed

completely to promote student knowledge growth in the subject area of science.

Building Report Card

As a preservice teacher, I greatly appreciate the knowledge I have gained from the

building report card. I have always had an interest in statistics, so the data portion of this

assignment actually took me longer than it should have because I was looking at more than the

assigned categories. By looking at other categories, I discovered that the Pittsburg Community

Middle School (PCMS) scored more poorly overall on the Science assessments than the average

of the state. Anyway, I do not believe that the information that teachers can find from the

building report card can be valued, because of how useful it can be to teachers, school district

officials, and the state officials. It is invaluable, in the best way possible. This information can

give people of influence (teachers, district officials, and state officials) the power of knowledge

about subject performances, building demographics, and the correlative relationship between the

two.
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I learned something almost immediately with this assignment: PCMS has a higher

Hispanic population than it does Black population. The Hispanic population is actually the

second highest population (16%) in the school behind whites (67%). I am not sure why, but for

some reason I did not expect this to be the case. Because of this fact, the two Ethnicities I

recorded for my data portion were Whites and Hispanics. I was surprised again when recording

the data for socioeconomic status. I know that Crawford County is the poorest county in Kansas,

but I did not know that PCMS had such a high amount of economically disadvantaged students.

The percent of students who are not economically disadvantaged is 35.69% while the percent of

students who are economically disadvantaged is at 64.30%. I am going to do more research to

see the standards that qualify/disqualify students for being economically disadvantaged, but even

though I do not know much more than general information, this ratio seems high. The amount of

students with a disability seems high at 20.33%, which means about 1 out of every 5 students has

some sort of disability. This number has grown by about 5% since 2013. Another percentage that

has grown, by an even greater amount, is the amount of English Language Learners (ELLs) in

PCMS. In 2013, the amount of ELLs at PCMS was 0.45%, and now, the number has increased to

9.49% in 2017. When I think about this number in the classroom setting, I imagine that about 1

of every 10 students at PCMS is an ELL; the thought makes me all the more appreciative of my

minor in the area of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).

For mathematics at PCMS, in relation to meeting the standards, the sixth grade

assessment results are better than that of the state results. PCMS level 1 scores are 22.27% for

the sixth grade, while the state level 1 scores are 28.3%. Overall, for math, PCMS has at least 3%

more students meeting the standards in all of the subcategories I reviewed, which include:

Free/Reduced Lunch, Self-Paid Lunch Only, Students w/ Disabilities, Not Disabled, White, and
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Hispanic. A few of the subcategories for the math scores which fall closer to the state standard

and are therefore worth noting are: Students with disabilities, White, and Self-Paid Lunch Only.

These categories are each within 5.5% of the state averages. All of this tells me that PCMS’ math

is above average at meeting the standards in Kansas, but, as anybody can see from the presence

of the level one scores, PCMS still has room for improvement.

The sixth grade at PCMS did not do quite as well at meeting the standards for ELA. For

all students (no subcategories), the sixth grade had 30.56% of their students score in the level 1

category, while the state had 32.85% in the same category. At PCMS, all of the subcategories

had at least 2% more students meeting standards than the state, except for one, which is the

White subcategory. PCMS had 28.03% of white students not meet standards (scored in level 1

range), while the state only had 25.55% of whites not meet the standards. Again, as with the

math, I am glad that PCMS is meeting the standards comparatively better than the average of the

state, but the school still has room to improve.

Although this assignment did not require me to view or record any data on the science

assessment results, I did so anyway because science is my area and I was interested. I found out

that, for some reason, the results for 6th and 7th grades are not posted individually, but 8th grade

is. The science results for the whole middle school are posted, and they are especially concerning

when compared to the state results. The state had 31.73% of students score level 1 (not meet the

standards), but PCMS had 42.64% score level 1. This means about four out of every ten students

at PCMS did not meet the science assessment standards in 2017. I see this number and I want to

help. I get that feeling for all of the statistics that say students do not meet the standards for

assessments, but I feel like the science scores hit home with me even more because I have the
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knowledge to share. I hope to keep this same motivation and passion for helping students when I

get into my own classroom.

Like I mentioned before, this information is an invaluable resource for anyone involved

with public schooling. For me, this information showed that the school has a high amount of

economically disadvantaged students, but that the school still does well in comparison to state

averages. It is important to look at how the students perform not only as a whole, but also as

parts of subgroups because these results can help educators see where gaps are occuring. By gaps

I mean areas/groups that need improvement through some sort of extra effort. Once the gaps

have been identified, the educators can take action and make necessary adjustments to

curriculum, provide specific accommodations in the classroom, and recommend helpful action

outside of the classroom. It is this information that can help educators be motivated to continue

to do better, to refuse to be satisfied with mediocrity. This data can be used to not only monitor

our progress, but to also seek and find the specific areas that need extra emphasis. Therefore, I

believe that this website should be bookmarked on each educator’s computer, and they should

review it regularly as a guide for establishing the plans set to help improve the students’

educational experiences.

Target Student Profile

The first piece of information I should get out of the way is that I was only assigned one

target student. I refer to the Target Student as “Student A” throughout my project because I was

not sure if I would be specifically assigned (as I was with Student A) to work with more

individuals. As recorded in my journal, I worked freely with some surrounding students,

especially during the few sessions that Student A was not present, but I was not assigned to

specifically work with another student and was not given any information about any of the other
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students who I briefly helped while sitting at their tables. Because I was only assigned one

student to work with, Student A is the only student I gathered information about and, therefore,

the only student I will discuss in this section.

Student A is a male sixth grader who I would estimate to be either twelve or thirteen

years of age. Student A is of African American ethnicity. I was not able to determine anything

about his socioeconomic status. Student A comes from a five person family and has all of his

family living with him at home. He is the middle child between two siblings. Student A’s older

brother was a star basketball player for PHS. Basketball is Student A’s favorite sport. He plays

on a traveling team, which practices in Joplin, MO at least one night during the week and plays

in tournaments at various locations on the weekends. Student A seems to have have friends who

are also athletes. Student A is not bothered by homework and has both of his parents and his

older brother available to help him with academics when he is not in school.

By far the best facet of being assigned one target student, rather than many, to work with

is the fact that I was able to discover some of Student A’s strengths and weaknesses. Student A

has strong capabilities in the following areas: interpersonal skills, understanding expectations,

and following immediate orders. I put interpersonal skills as one of his strengths because Student

A did not show hesitation when asking for help and displayed a desire to communicate and

interact with other students in the classroom. I stated that another one of his strengths is

understanding expectations because, when he is focussed, Student A does well at actively

fulfilling duties for classwork, as evidenced by his tendency to underline key definitions in the

chapters before the teacher would suggest to do so. And, like the other two listed strengths, when

focussed, Student A displayed strong ability in following immediate directions. He demonstrated

this through heeding my warnings for him to stay on task.

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Student A also has areas that call for improvement, which, for the purpose of this

assignment, I will identify as his “weaknesses”. Student A’s weaknesses include the following:

focus/attention, time management, and academic autonomy. A consistent theme in my daily

entries is the struggle with Student A’s lack of focus in the classroom, usually evidenced by him

staring at the table rather than his book or by him taking apart his mechanical pencils. I am sure

that part of the time management issue has something to do with Student A’s struggle with

focusing, but sometimes it seemed to reach beyond a lack of focus. There were numerous

moments where Student A appeared to feel overwhelmed by his assigned work, which caused

him to try to give up. Other times, a lack of interest and motivation seemed to be the cause of

Student A not managing his class time wisely. Student A consistently required my help to stay

on task and guide him through assignments when the class was left to do their work individually,

which is why I think that he needs to grow in the area of academic autonomy.

I want to plainly state the fact that I believe these strengths can and should be used in

Student A’s educational experience. Student A is a capable person with evident academic

promise, especially when working with concepts and information that is more concrete. Overall,

I see a bright future ahead of Student A, and I think that he can make academic improvements

soon with the implementation of some different educational methods.

Daily Entries

Journal Entry #1 February 20, 2018, 12:45-1:30

I was assigned my teacher just four days ago, and nervousness immediately tried to set in.

I had the teacher’s name, the school, and the time I was to be there. With that information I

began the project. I went into the office at PCMS to let them know of my arrival. I asked them

where to go and signed in, but was met with one thing about which I had forgotten: my health
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form. Luckily for me, they allowed me to start my project despite not having the health form. A

quiet student, who was going in the same direction as I was, led me to the classroom. I was

introduced to the class immediately after shaking Mrs. Collver’s hand. The class was kind,

welcoming, and seemed excited to have me, which helped to ease my nervousness. I was

immediately reminded of the difference it makes for one when he/she feels welcome in a new

place. As I am writing this I am encouraged to find strategies for introducing new students into

my classroom. I believe that working with the students to produce a welcoming environment will

be a foundational element in my classroom. I expect to reinforce this by explaining to my

students a procedure for welcoming people into our class. For the rest of the class I sat in the

corner and observed.

During observation I noticed several things from which I can learn. The students are

arranged rather well at rectangular tables that allow for up to four students, with two facing the

same way on both of the longer sides. I believe this grouping setup is beneficial for cooperative

learning. Luckily for Mrs. Collver, her class during this hour is comprised of 16 students and the

majority of them appear to be alert, eager to learn, and willing to ask questions. I want to foster

this attitude in my classroom by keeping my attitude energetic, my lessons interesting and

interactive, and allowing a small time at the end of each class for students to ask any appropriate

questions that pertain to science. I am not sure how it worked, but I witnessed Mrs. Collver take

a question as a poll and the students held up their books to show her the answer while she

pointed the back of her iPad at the students. I believe that the students held up a QR code that

took up a page in their books which corresponded with one of the answers (A,B,C, or D) on the

screen, while the iPad used a QR reader with the camera to count the answers that were being

given. I like this idea and I feel it is a good replacement for having tablets or laptops on the
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students’ desks with which they could vote (and get distracted). Mrs. Collver stated the percent

of the class that got the question correct, then explained the answer clearly. I want to look into

using some system like this to have my students cast in their votes for answers to questions

during test review sessions in order to help me know what I need to go over again. Mrs. Collver

also had a good, quick response when one of the students asked “who got the question wrong?”.

“That’s for me to know” she said, matter of factly. Mrs. Collver did a good job keeping her class

reigned in, even with eclectic personalities and energetic bodies scattered from table to table. Her

classroom management style is strict and effective. I, too, want to manage my class in a way that

allows me to cover the necessary material.

Surprisingly, despite the conducive classroom setup, I did not witness the use of any

cooperative learning structures. Mrs. Collver mainly just called on students who had their hands

raised for the questions, and, much less often, the students who did not have their hands raised.

The latter resulted in a few students guessing and giving wrong answers, only to look

discouraged and less confident when informed that the answer they had given was not correct. In

my classroom I want to implement cooperative learning structures because it can help all of the

students learn the material together, which will reduce the amount of students who feel

embarrassed, increase the classroom community, and improve the confidence of all students. I

want to be encouraging with students, whether they answer correctly or not. I feel this is where

implementing the cooperative learning RallyTable can help the students who struggle, because

they discuss the problem with students who are more confident in their answers. If I random call

and someone gives me a wrong answer after discussing with their team, then I know I need to

explain that concept better to the whole class, which will help me know that I need to improve.
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Also, having a positive attitude in general is a premium to me, and it is in this premium that I

hope to be motivated to respond in a manner that encourages my students to always try.

Overall, this beginning experience reinforces my excitement to be paired with a student.

Mrs. Collver talked with me for a moment after class today and let me know that I would

probably be paired with Student A, which did not come as a surprise to me considering he was

the only student sitting by himself. Mrs. Collver told me that Student A has not been diagnosed,

but that he has learning disabilities. I am not sure what she suspects those disabilities to be, but I

am glad that I get to work with Student A because I feel that he will help build my confidence in

working with students who can be classified as diverse. Whether Student A does have a learning

disability or not, I look forward to gaining experience and, hopefully, comfortability toward

working with students with differences. The one thing I noticed from afar about Student A is that

he is not involved as much in the class when compared to the other students. Therefore, my goal

is to increase Student A’s involvement in the class. Because the students do not seem to be

expected to interact with each other, I believe this increased interaction of Student A will look

like him actively trying to participate in giving answers to questions. After I interact with Student

A for the first time I may add more goals based on something I experience in that interaction.

Journal Entry #2 February 22, 2018, 12:45-1:30

I got to sit with Student A today, which allowed for me to adjust my focus to him and his

habits in the classroom. The class is learning about soil types, which I appreciate because it

reminded me of a module we just covered a couple of weeks ago in the Environmental Life

Science lab that I assist in here at PSU. The similarities between subject matter and the level of

difficulty of information reinforced the thought that it is important for these students to learn this
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information while in 6th grade. Much of the information that was gone over in class today was

uncannily similar to that which we went over in the ELS lab. Since my students will use this

information in later grades, it reinforces the seriousness of teaching my students well.

I quickly began noticing differences in reality from what I was expecting of Student A.

First, he can pay attention and do his work. The students went through the reading section in

their books with Mrs. Collver, read the material, highlighted important things such as definitions

and examples of terms, and answered short questions found in the margins of the book. Student

A surprised me right off the bat by highlighting all of the definitions in the section before the

teacher even got to the terms. He appeared to understand what to do and then did what is

expected of him, so I was puzzled as to why she thought he was having difficulty. I got to help

him answer a couple of questions. I did this by giving him more comprehensible, guiding

questions which helped him come to the conclusion on his own. I loved being able to help him

and listening to him come to the right answers. By the end of class he had raised his hand and

given answers to three questions. I believe I helped him come to the right conclusion with only

one of those, the other two he did without any prompting on my part. When he feels confident,

Student A does not mind offering to answer the question, which tells me he wants to participate.

This willingness to participate excites me and leads me to believe that he mainly just needs

someone to help him stay focussed. I believe that today I noticed both the behavior in question

and the antecedent to this behavior. The behavior I noted appeared to be fading attention to the

class. I saw student A highlight his definitions for the sections, but then he would look around

while everyone was supposed to be following along in the book. He never offered to read, and I

think this is in part due to not following along with the reading in the book because he was more

focussed on finding the terms and their definitions.

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I noticed something else about Student A today. After I asked guiding questions that

helped Student A come to the answer on his own, he then raised his hand to give the answer.

When called upon he gave a different answer that was the answer to one of my guiding

questions, but not the complete answer to the question that the teacher asked. This confused me

because just moments before he had reasoned through the answer with me. I found this odd, and

I related this incident to nervousness or possibly a lack of focussed attention. After he gave that

answer, Mrs. Collver used almost the same questions to guide him to the complete correct

answer to her question. As she asked Student A the guiding questions, he answered with little

apprehension, reassuring me that he did pay attention to my questions in the first place. It

appears that he just needed to be guided once again through the process.

A student raised a question that puzzled Mrs. Collver. Then, Mrs. Collver asked me if I

knew the answer, so I answered as best I could for the class, but it was right at the end of the

class period and the bell rang in the middle of my explanation. Mrs. Collver reminded the

students that she had not yet released them, so they sat back down and I quickly finished

answering the question for the students. While writing this journal, just an hour later, I took a

break and quickly looked up the concise information necessary to best answer the question that

the student had asked. I sent Mrs. Collver an email with the clearer, better answer to the

question. Anyway, I, too, want to dismiss my students, rather than letting them disperse

whenever the bell rings. I feel like setting this rule as an understood procedure in my class will

help me be able to keep my students engaged until the end of class and will allow me to finish a

sentence if I am in the middle of one when the bell rings.

Journal Entry #3 February 27, 2018, 12:45-1:30

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As I mentioned before, Student A typically sits at a table by himself. Last week I wrote

about the improvement Student A showed in the area of class involvement. Today I had the

opportunity to experience what I believe to be some of the motivation and reasoning behind the

special seating arrangement for Student A. I also had the privilege sitting with some other

students in the classroom.

The class is still studying soil types and the different aspects that are associated with soil,

and today the class got to look at examples of soil types and classified different items found in

the soil. I thought that Mrs. Collver did well with her experiment/activity and I definitely want to

have a similar experiment/activity in my classroom when covering soil. For the

experiment/activity we did in class, the students had trays that had the following items: four cups

of different soil types, plastic forceps, magnifying glasses, and plastic spoons. The tools were to

be used to complete the activity, which involved: going through the soil, finding different things

in the soil, and identifying and categorizing those found things as: organic, inorganic, or

unknown. This proved more difficult for some students than others.

Mrs. Collver moved Student A to a table with three students for this experiment/activity.

I felt this was beneficial for me because I got to observe Student A while he was in a group

environment and was doing group work. I would first like to start off by saying that the situation

had me feeling slightly overwhelmed, not at all because of Student A, but I felt a sense of

pressure because two of the other students in the group were having a difficult time with the

project and were, therefore, asking me questions frequently. Helping with these questions was

pulling my attention away from Student A, which I did not like. Student A displayed odd

behavior in this group setting. During this time he quickly and frequently became off task,

occasionally bothered other students, complained that the project was too difficult, and
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impulsively took tools from group members. But, he was able to complete a significant portion

of the assignment like the other two group members who were asking for my attention. About

halfway through the experiment/activity I began to more actively focus on Student A and let the

other students wait until I was done helping him before I responded to them. This seemed

effective for the most part, but if it happens again I have made the decision to tell other students

that they need to wait until I am done helping someone before they ask me a question. I feel that

voicing this expectation will help the students know that it is not appropriate to ask me

something repeatedly in order to get my attention. Of the other two students who were requesting

my help, one began the hour by being pulled out into the hall to talk with Mrs. Collver. I assume

the conversation was about being disruptive. Mrs. Collver talked to him directly outside of the

door, with the door open. The fact that the door was open and she could look over and see some

of the class from her position made me feel like she had not left me alone to control the class

myself. At that time another student in the class asked me for permission to do something and I

quickly and concisely responded “Please wait for Mrs. Collver to return and ask her.” I feel that I

responded well in the situation.

One thing I believe I learned from the situation in which I felt slightly overwhelmed is

that being a teacher requires good multi-tasking abilities and clear standards/rules for inquiry. I

think that both of those qualities can fall under the umbrella of classroom management. Which,

after today, seems all the more imperative to me. Mrs. Collver did not interject during any part of

the experiment/activity, so it seemed that she was comfortable with both the students at the table

asking me questions and me guiding them to the answers. Because I was so focussed on the three

students I was helping, I honestly cannot say who Mrs. Collver was helping in the class or how

many rounds she made. She could have helped every other student in the class for all that I
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know. I bring up this point because when I am a teacher I will need to be aware of all of the

happenings in my classroom at all times, and this shows me how I was unable to do that when

dealing with constant inquiry. I am not sure how to do this, but I want to become better at being

aware of the entire class, even when one group may be pulling for my attention.

One last piece I feel is noteworthy was an interaction with Mrs. Collver. Based on a

couple of comments she made to me last session after the class was dismissed, I got the sense

that Mrs. Collver has purposefully set me up in a situation that is great for learning and perfect

for growing as a future educator. The class walked out and I was helping put up the materials for

the experiment/activity when Mrs. Collver turned to me and asked me if I noticed the changes in

behavior. I replied back indicating that I definitely noticed changes in behavior. She stated that

she wanted to see if his behavior would be different if he was moved back to a group while I was

sitting next to him. Mrs. Collver said that his behavior was not really any different.

Journal Entry #4 March 1, 2018, 12:45-1:30

After today’s session, I feel like I better understand the demands on a paraeducator. I

started the hour helping Student A with the revisions on a quiz on which he received a poor

score. Student A was allowed to use his book to complete the revisions, but he still struggled to

write the correct answers into the blanks. A couple of times Student A tried to write something

down and then push his paper to me to see if it was correct. I held firm in not confirming or

denying whether or not his guess was correct. I reminded him to find keywords in the questions

and then look in the book for those same keywords within the definitions of the terms. Student A

found this to be difficult and at one point did not want to do it. I felt like a life coach, reminding
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him that “Giving up is not an option.” After three trips to Mrs. Collver’s desk to turn in the

corrected answers, she finally accepted the quiz because he had corrected all five answers. One

thing I found interesting about Student A’s uncorrected quiz was that he got all of the multiple

choice correct, but, on the fill-in-the-blank questions, he got one of six correct. This made me

think of the opening-class questions that happened at the beginning of my last two sessions;

Student A got both of them correct. The opening-class questions are also multiple choice. I want

to know why Student A seems to do much better at multiple choice questions than fill-in-the-

blank questions. I would assume that it was because multiple choice questions have the answer

as an option to choose from while fill-in-the-blank questions do not, but it does not seem that

simple because Student A was able to stare at the definitions in the book and still had a difficult

time finding the correct answer. He may need help learning how to most efficiently use a

textbook to find answers to review questions. I feel like this might be the case because, in the

next assignment I helped him with, Student A was trying to answer review questions for the

assigned three pages of reading and was still struggling to find answers that he underlined earlier

during the reading.

The struggles with the assignment caused Student A to display concerning behavior.

Twice he pushed his book away and then said one of the following “I can’t do this because I do

not know it” or “This is too hard and I don’t get it”. The first time I played the life coach again,

but the second time I tried a different approach. The second time he was trying to answer a

simple question that was plainly answered by the order of definitions throughout three short

paragraphs, and I resorted to explaining to Student A the natural pattern that water tends to flow:

from smaller bodies to larger bodies. After this student A pulled back his book, stopped picking

at his hand with his pencil, and guessed another time on the question. This time, though, he got
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closer. I then led him to the description of the term he needed to understand in order to complete

the question, and he made the correct adjustments to get the question right. I find it encouraging

to have changed my approach and then helped Student A to succeed. He is capable of answering

the questions, but I do believe he needs help focusing and understanding what he is reading.

After class I talked with Mrs. Collver for a few minutes, discussing some of my

experience over the last 30 minutes. She asked me how it went and I let her know that he was

struggling today. Mrs. Collver asked me if I had noticed how Student A did not miss any of the

multiple choice questions but did poorly on the fill-in-the-blank questions. I said that I did and

she mentioned that he not only did perfect on the multiple choice questions, but it was more

impressive because one of those questions most of the class did not get correct. Upon finding this

out, it reinforced my belief that Student A is capable of succeeding academically. It also made

me think that some of the struggle may be coming from the style of questions. Mrs. Collver also

shared with me that Student A has had sessions with a “brain whisperer”, who operates outside

of the school. Mrs. Collver said that “the brain whisperer was supposed to contact” Student A’s

teachers to coordinate with them and explain the process. I have no idea what a “brain

whisperer” is or what they do, but I think I will do some research to figure this out.

This was a great, albeit exhausting, session, and I feel I gained a couple of good things

from it. First, I learned how to change my approach to better accommodate for a student who is

struggling. Next, something I did not mention until this point, I got to use my serious face to let a

student know that his behavior was not acceptable. The student, the boy who was pulled out of

the classroom on Tuesday, discontinued his behavior and got back on task when I said his name

and shook my head with my “I mean business” face on. That moment in and of itself felt like a

small victory for the day. Lastly, I have what I feel is a good question to which I want to know
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the answer: What motivates Student A? I feel like I need something to motivate him. His

frequent statements of discouragement and acts of forfeiting concern me, so I want to know what

will motivate him to stay on task and continue to complete his work.

Journal Entry #5 March 6, 2018, 12:45-1:30

Today the class played catch-up with Mrs. Collver. She read along with the class and

used a class discussion format to answer the guided reading questions. Mrs. Collver began the

class by stating that this particular class was a bit behind and they needed to work hard today. I

felt it was a good thing to let the class know why they will be working especially diligently

today, so I believe that when I have one class fall a bit behind the others I may do the same so

that they understand the reasoning behind the increase in pace. The concept behind this catch-up

class period was good, but I feel that one adjustment I will make to the approach will be to use a

cooperative learning structure such as RoundTable or RallyRobin to get all of the class engaged

and interacting simultaneously. I would then check for understanding by random calling on

students to share their answers to the guided reading questions. I feel that, by making my

aforementioned adjustments, I could increase the student’s focus and attention in class and,

therefore, increase the amount of information the class intakes.

One new thing that I noticed was that the class seating has been rearranged so that there

are two students sitting diagonally from each other at each table. This new seating arrangement

has Student A sitting at a table with another student who, from my observations today, seems to

have less trouble staying focused in class. I hope that, once the class gets caught up, Student A

will get the chance to do some partner work with the other student at the table and she will help

him stay focused. At one point I reminded Student A to do the guided reading question that the
 Ellenburg 19

class had just gone over. He did it. One thing I will need to improve on is watching Student A’s

every move. I say this because he looked like he was paying attention, but when the teacher

checked his section at the end of class, he had not done most of the questions. I feel this was a

failure on my part for not watching him fill out the questions. Other times today Student A was

obviously not paying attention and I had to get his attention and get him back on task. His

attitude toward me when I do this is less than stellar, so I definitely get the idea that he does not

like being told what to do, but I feel this attitude is typical of most students who do not want to

sit in a class and listen to lecture.

Student A mentioned at the beginning of class that he would miss the next two days of

school and was told to talk to the teacher after class about what he needed to do while he was

gone. I reminded him to do so at the end of class and he told me that he already did. As he was

walking away, Mrs. Collver called for him to come back and find out what he is supposed to do.

This makes me think that Student A either has difficulty listening and following instructions

fully, or does not have the motivation to do so. I became concerned when Student A mentioned

he would be missing the next two days of class, mainly because, by this point, I have witnessed

his struggle with diligence multiple times, so I fear he will fall behind.

Journal Entry #6, March 8, 2018, 12:45-1:30

I was curious walking into the classroom today. I had no idea who I was going to be

paired with, or even if she would pair me with another student, since Student A was gone.

Fortunately, Mrs. Collver arranged the students into groups for today’s class and she sat me with

one of those groups. The students were assigned the group task of progressing through the

reading of a five page lesson and then answering the questions following each section of reading.
 Ellenburg 20

I became intrigued when Mrs. Collver assigned me to a group. I felt the intrigue because I had

observed each of the three students in the classroom and noted their different academic

personalities.

One student, I will call him Student B, I have noticed, would always be engaged in class

and he tried to answer any question, sometimes raising his hand when a question had not yet

been asked of the class. I was eager to help this student because he was eager to learn. One other

factor about Student B is that he is frequently vocal and, when being vocal, consistently loud.

Another student, who I will refer to as Student C, is quite different in her academic

approach. She is quiet and not often vocal in front of the class unless involuntarily called upon.

Student C is one of the students who I helped with the last group activity when the class was

going over soil types. During that soil experiment, student C asked me many questions about

what she was finding in the soil.

I will refer to the other student in the group as Student D. Student D seems kind of in

between the academic/social personalities of Students B and C. She does not raise her hand to

answer questions often in class, but when called upon knows the answers. She is not loud, but

will be vocal with her comments about the topics of discussion, as well as thoughts about what

other students say in class. Student D, seemed like more of an autonomous student from afar, and

by that I mean that she appeared to be self-motivated and confident enough in her abilities to

properly complete the work.

As anyone can gather, the group had an interesting dynamic. The group members each

took turns reading, myself included. I volunteered to read with them because I wanted the

students to see me as someone who was there to help them, rather than possibly being seen as a

babysitter. I accomplished this goal. I started off strong by suggesting that the students read the
 Ellenburg 21

questions for each section before they read the section itself, that way they could know what to

watch/listen for. They agreed this was a good idea, so we followed this procedure on every page.

The students’ answering practices were different. I helped to break down multiple questions so

that they could better understand what I believed the questions were asking, and Student B

vocalized his answers by far the most. Student D vocalized her answers when Student B was not

on the right track, but that was not often. Student C vocalized her answer for part of one long

question. I found this dynamic interesting, and, as I am writing this, I now think that I should

have tried to implement something where the students took turns answering parts of the

questions, giving each a fair chance to express their input. Well, I guess this is one reason why

being a reflective practitioner is essential as an educator, so that we can find ways to improve

aspects of education. The next time I get to help with group work, I will look to implement the

idea of equally sharing the opportunities for input . Student D worked autonomously, listening to

my guidance and writing down her own answers, not waiting for Student B to vocalize his

thoughts and writing those down, the latter of which seemed to be more of what Student C did.

Overall, I think that implementing the idea of sharing equal input opportunities would

help each student. It would help Student D to express her thoughts, help Student C to think

through the problems for herself, and help Student B with his social skills by forcing him to be

more disciplined about when he is vocalizing his thoughts. Helping Student B in such a manner

seems like it would be greatly appreciated by Mrs. Collver. I believe this because, during most of

my sessions, I have heard Mrs. Collver tell student B: “You need to be quiet”, “Let other people

answer”, and “That was not the question I asked”. I am glad to have come up with this idea

during my reflection.
 Ellenburg 22

Journal Entry #7 March 13, 2018, 12:45-1:30

Today’s session started out puzzling, and then became humorous. I walked into the

classroom like I normally do, except today Mrs. Collver was not standing outside of the

classroom with a line of students like she normally is. I walked into the room and noticed it was

full of students that I had never seen before, Mrs. Collver was nowhere to be found, and either a

paraeducator or the oldest (and bearded) sixth grader ever was sitting with students at a table.

None of this was ordinary, so I began to doubt myself. I looked around the class, and it was

definitely Mrs. Collver’s classroom. I looked up at the clock, and it was the time I always arrive.

Some of the students tried to ask me questions about who I was, so I said “Are you all supposed

to be talking right now? Please get back to work.” They quieted down, which left me with a

sense of accomplishment. So I remained standing at the corner of the tabled area of the large

classroom, awaiting my cooperating teacher. The paraeducator said nothing to me. Finally, a few

minutes after entering the classroom, Mrs. Collver arrived. I imagine she could see the perplexity

on my face, because she greeted me and then immediately began to explain what was going on.

As it turns out, state assessments are happening at PCMS, and, therefore, the school is on a two

hour block schedule because of it. She sat me with at a table where the group of students had just

left to go use the restroom. Apparently they were doing it in shifts since the bell schedule was

unusual and the students were not getting the opportunity to go as often.

The session was fairly straightforward. By the time that I had arrived, all of the class had

finished their work for the day, but I did not know this. The students at my table returned from

the restroom one by one, none of them asking me any questions about my presence. Mrs. Collver

was busy sending more groups to the restroom, so I encouraged my group to do the problems
 Ellenburg 23

assigned to them on the board. To my surprise, they were already finished with it. At that

moment I figured out that I had arrived in the middle of class. So, we all sat and waited for at

least five minutes. During this time, I just felt like a babysitter. I had no objective, other than

keeping them from being disruptive. I accomplished this, only having to warn one student a

couple of times, once to keep his voice down and once to stop playing with a dangling decoration

that was attached to another student’s binder.

Upon everyone’s return, Mrs. Collver had them open their books to their reading/question

assignment. She went over each section and question with the class, having them answer each

communally by calling on those who volunteered. This just required me to sit next to the

students and keep them from getting off task, which was fairly simple. I had to signal to two

students to be quiet, but other than that, I didn't really do much. The class finished going through

the assignment together and then Mrs. Collver mentioned some of the material that will be on the

test tomorrow.

The class ended and I spoke to Mrs. Collver for a moment. She mentioned that Thursday

will be like today. She also informed me that the group I was sitting with all had IEPs. I found

this interesting, especially considering how much less difficult I found it to work with all three of

them compared to working with solely Student A.

Journal Entry #8 March 15th, 2018, 12:45-1:30

The double block was still in effect because of state testing, so I saw the same students

who were in the class earlier this week. One of the main differences I noticed when I walked in

was that the paraeducator was not present. When I arrived, Mrs. Collver was finishing up letting

different tables go to the restroom. She greeted me and informed me that we are taking a test
 Ellenburg 24

today. I asked her where she wanted me to sit, and she had me sit with the group that usually has

a paraeducator. I thought that this would be a good opportunity for me to see some of the testing

habits and possibly challenges that students with IEPs can have, and I was right.

Mrs. Collver set up dividers at each table to act as a barrier between test takers. Mrs.

Collver gave the 6 students with IEPs a different test. I know this because of a few reasons. First,

she mentioned something when handing out the test about “here is you guys’ test” after walking

over and getting a different stack of papers from her desk. Next, she explained that she was

looking for about two sentences for the answer on one question, and then she told the EIP

students that the problem was a different number on their test. Finally, I also glanced at the test

of one of the students without an IEP who had been given her test back to correct something. The

non-IEP test was formatted differently, seemingly with a bit more writing required.

The lessening of writing for the IEP students seemed fitting when I look back on it now,

especially considering the fact that the students with IEPs were all the last ones done with their

tests. After the students with IEPs received their tests, Mrs. Collver told me that I could read

them a question if they asked me to, and then she informed the students of the same thing. I only

had one student ask me to read him a question, and he was from the table at which I sat during

last session (#7), not the table that I was sitting at today, the one that had a paraeducator last

time. Most of what I spent doing was reminding two students at my table to continue to work on

their test. I did this by tapping my finger on the test when they began to stare around the room.

I watched the student I sat next to take his test, and had to get him refocused on it three or

four times. I noticed that, along with staying on task, he struggled significantly with spelling. I

am not sure how a general education class teacher could help with such a task, but I want to

know how to help my students improve when they perform poorly in spelling. One of the other
 Ellenburg 25

students at the table took an extremely long time to take her test when compared to the other

students in the classroom, including the other students with IEPs. Mrs. Collver had to pick up her

test at the end, but she gave the student the chance to answer a question or two verbally for the

points. I liked this strategy, but, unfortunately for the student, she did not know how to answer

the questions when Mrs. Collver gave her this second chance. After the students finished their

tests, they were allowed to go do something on the computers. I believe they had to go to a

specific website and participate in a learning activity. I like this idea, so I feel I would use this

strategy in my class and add another option. The other option would be to go and read any of the

articles which I have assigned on ReadWorks.org. This would help me to direct student learning

digitally, while still giving the students some choice about that which they want to learn.

Journal Entry # 9 March 27, 2018, 12:45 to 1:30

Today was the first day back from spring break and I felt that it showed in the classroom.

The class seemed to have a bit of difficulty transitioning back to the classroom structure/rules. I

was glad to see when I walked in that the school schedule was back to normal. Today, for the

first time in almost three weeks, I was able to see and work with Student A.

We began class with a discussion of what people did over spring break. Most students

raised their hands to volunteer to share what they did, and Mrs. Collver took the time to let every

volunteer share. One situation I found helpful came when a student’s description of what he did

over spring break began to focus on his sibling getting sick in the car. Mrs. Collver discontinued

the student’s time to share almost immediately after she heard him begin to describe an incident

with vomit. This student was fixed on that incident, so Mrs. Collver chose a different student to

go. For this I am grateful because I did not want any students to listen to the story and begin to
 Ellenburg 26

feel sick themselves. I want to have the same sort of ability to halt any behavior or discussion

that is not appropriate for the classroom. I believe this ability is an integral part of classroom

management. I also want to be able to manage my class in such a manner that prevents, as much

as possible, inappropriate behavior or discussion from ever beginning. Anyway, I thought that it

was a good idea to allow the students share what they experienced over the break.

The class worked on one section today. The students were instructed to read a passage on

a page and answer the questions for it. Then Mrs. Collver discussed with the class the questions

and answers for that page. Next, she called on students to read paragraphs from a page. The

students did so and she worked with the class to answer the questions. Finally, Mrs. Collver read

the last page and worked with the students for the first portion of questions.

Once again, I noticed that Student A had gone through and underlined the definitions of

the vocabulary words in the pages. I watched him continue to struggle with answering the

questions and staying focused when he is supposed to work on school work. I now wonder if

Student A is exhibiting the coping mechanism of acting, which we discussed in SPED 510 this

week. I believe this could be the case, based on working with Student A and watching him

underline important terms and then not being able to give the right answer when faced with a

question that incorporates the same key words and almost the exact definition of an underlined

term. I know that Student A can read, but I am concerned about his retention and application

abilities.

We ended the day with Student A quickly answering the last two questions of the chapter,

but spelling both answers far from correctly. He shut his book and was about to pack up when I

stopped him from taking the workbook back to the designated storage area. I had him open it
 Ellenburg 27

back up so that I could tell him how correctly spell the answers he had put down. He quickly

erased and corrected the terms and then packed his book and went on his way as the bell rang.

One good thing I found out today about Student A is that he likes basketball. When I

found this out I asked him about playing for the school and he said that he will next year when he

is in seventh grade, which is when school sports begin. I have now found something that will

motivate Student A, which was a goal of mine that I set a while back. I am going to try to use the

enjoyment of basketball to help Student A stay motivated and on task in class.

Journal Entry #10 March 29th, 2018, 12:45-1:30

I was surprised, once again, upon arrival today, because the class was already sat down

and working when I walked in. This threw me off because I arrived five minutes early and,

normally, the class has not arrived yet when I get there. I looked at the clock as I walked in and

confirmed I was on time as I snuck to the seat next to Student A. The class was going over the

sections as a whole, so I just helped Student A stay on task. The class quickly got to a section

where the students would do some math on their own, and I got to talk to Student A about what

he was supposed to do as well as why they were already in the class. Student A informed me of

the fact that the school was on a Friday schedule since they do not have school tomorrow. I

asked him why the Friday schedule is different, to which he replied “because on Fridays we get

Dragon Time”. I wonder about the impacts that the Friday schedule has on academic class time.

While doing the math Student A would take initiative and do it on his own until he got to

larger numbers. He did have difficulty going through the subtraction process on the larger

numbers (100s and thousands) more so than he did the smaller numbers (1s and 10s). The

students were calculating how many millions of years (MYA) that certain periods and eras
 Ellenburg 28

lasted as classified in biological history. He really seems to not want to actually put forth time

and effort to accomplish his school work. He tried to guess the answers and get me to tell him if

they were correct or not without working them out, a practice which I did not tolerate. I

instructed Student A to work them out and then I would help him. This strategy worked and his

guessing-then-checking subsided.

I also helped the other student who was sitting at the table. She was very well motivated

and worked relatively quickly, but I did notice some mistakes on her math, so I advised her to

revisit the problems. She fixed the ones that I pointed out and then continued on to the next

portion of the assignment. During this time I was switching back and forth helping Student A

and the girl who is also at the table. Student A asked me to check some of the answers so I

glanced at the problem, then at the answers, and each of them seemed correct upon first glance.

Then the girl at the table asked me to explain one of the problems following the math portion of

the chapter. I did so and then Mrs. Collver decided it was time for the class to go over all of their

answers.

During this part of the session I felt like a lousy help because multiple of the questions

Student A asked me to check were off by a number in the “tens” place value. I apologized to

Student A for not checking more thoroughly to make sure the answer was exactly correct. He did

not seem to mind or blame me. I will have to learn how to better dedicate time to focus on one

student’s needs so as to ensure his/her success on the questions/problems that challenge him/her.

The class dismissed in the middle of my session, which was another odd thing about

Friday schedule. When the classes were switching I had the chance to talk to Mrs. Collver for a

moment and she explained roughly what Student A explained to me. Mrs. Collver informed me

that the next class was her most diverse class and that it “has about five students who are
 Ellenburg 29

classified as English Language Learners”. I was excited to hear this because ESOL is my minor

and I wanted to get to see ELLs in action in a mainstream classroom. Mrs. Collver asigneed me

to a new table and I mainly sat to keep students on task while she worked with the class as a

whole. I believe I figured out which student was an ELL right off the bat, and I focussed on him.

He seemed to struggle slightly with paying attention, as well as understanding what was going

on. He knew to copy the answers that Mrs. Collver filled in with the class on the screen, but he

did not pay attention or participate in any of the class discussion. I helped to break down some of

what the class was talking about so that the student was thinking about the questions for himself.

It was a interesting experience for witnessing how ELLs can “slip through the cracks” when not

being directly challenged by a teacher or para. The experience was reflectively valuable when

considering that utilizing cooperative learning structures could be an immense help to avoid the

practice of ELLs simply “going through the motions” and not actually learning in class. I was

unsatisfied by the fact that my session ended and I had to leave in the middle of the current class,

not allowing me to help the student throughout the remainder of the class. It made me wonder

how much he would learn and how much he would just copy once he looked up and noticed

another answer or two had been written on the screen after each segment of class discussion.

This reinforced in me the desire to learn how to teach ELLs, so that nobody in my classroom just

goes through the motions while never being challenged.

Journal #11 April 3, 2018, 12:45-1:30

The schedule was back to normal today. Today was similar to many of my other sessions

working with Student A. One thing I noticed that was different today was that Mrs. Collver did

not ask the class a “plickers” question, the question I described where the students hold up a page
 Ellenburg 30

in their books and Mrs. Collver scans the pages of the class with her iPad to take a poll. I found

this odd, especially considering that the plickers question is often the only way some students

participate in class. The students got their books and then jumped directly into the lesson. They

started by reading the first page on their own, and then Mrs. Collver asked the class questions

about what they had just read. I could tell Student A had disengaged from the class because he

kept taking his pencil apart and putting it back together. Next he kept finding opportunities to

make disruptive comments along with a couple of other students in the classroom. I gave

discouraging looks to each of the students involved in this, but that only subsided them for about

five minutes at a time. Student A stared off at nothing when he wasn’t doing the two previously

mentioned activities.

I have observed and noted behavior, now I want to discuss what I think could be the

antecedents to these behaviors and possible solutions to help Student A be more diligent. I

believe there are consistent antecedents that cause the aforementioned behaviors to develop. First

and foremost, the lack of involvement. At the beginning I noted this, and not much has changed

in this area outside of a couple of class periods where the students worked together. Now, I am

only with Student A in this class 40% of the time he has it each week, so I cannot speak about his

involvement the other three days each week, but I can speak about those for which I have been

present. During this time a traditional classroom approach has been used 8 out of my 11 sessions.

I do not feel that a traditional style of teaching is best for Student A because it allows for him to

choose to stay disengaged most of the time. He is not being forced or encouraged to participate,

and, for someone who struggles with staying focussed and motivated, I feel this almost ensures

that he will learn very little from this class. The next antecedent I feel helps to enable Student A

to disengage is that the class often goes over each answer together. I have watched it almost
 Ellenburg 31

every time, Student A is completely oblivious to each discussion (aside from the <5 times he has

volunteered to answer a question) while the answer is being discussed, and then, after Mrs.

Collver has written down the answer for everyone to see, Student A reads the answer and copies

it down, immediately drifting back to whatever his attention was on before she wrote the answer

down. This is where most of my help has come into play, trying to figure out a balance of

watching/intervening without allowing Student A to fall behind but also without bringing

negative attention to him via a consistent 20 second reminder to stay on task. I noticed today that

sometimes Student A is so disengaged that he does not notice me tap on his workbook as an

indication to get back to work, I then resort to addressing him quietly by name. Finally, Student

A is no more than eight feet away from the two students that I would recognize as “the class

clowns”. These students have been reprimanded for disruptive comments and behavior most of

the days when I have been in the classroom. Student A wants to engage in commenting or even

conversation with them during class time. This seems to be too much of a distraction for Student

A to handle.

In Educational Psychology we recently finished learning about antecedents to behavior

and preventing behavior as a part of classroom management, and I feel that each of these

identified problems have clear connecting points, which I have listed as antecedents. Seeing

these concepts I have been learning in Ed Psych actually manifest in the classroom has shown

me the practical importance of these concepts. Oddly enough, sometimes I think I forget that

everything I am learning about education needs to be kept ready for application upon entering

into the field. I now better understand the necessity it is to use classroom management strategies

when I have my own classes.

 Ellenburg 32

Journal Entry #12 April 5th, 2018, 12:45-1:30

I am actually excited to sit down and write what I learned during today’s session. Today

was a quiz day. When Student A walked in I asked him if he had studied and he said “yes”. I

gave him encouragement for having studied. Mrs. Collver gave the students a bit of time to look

over the sections they were to study before administering the quiz. Mrs. Collver suggested that

Student A let me quiz him over the terms in the sections which he needed to know for the quiz. I

quizzed both Student A, and the other student who sits at the table, over the information they

were supposed to know. Student A struggled to answer any questions and I had to specifically

ask him a few questions so that he would participate. He appeared to try to disengage by

covering his face with his book. Needless to say, with the pace he set of not really trying to

answer, we did not get far before it was time to take the actual quiz.

Following this brief study session Mrs. Collver began the quiz and did not tell me what I

was supposed to do, so I just simply observed for the first five minutes. This was unpleasant to

me for a few reasons. First, Student A basically stopped responding to me tapping on his paper

as a sign to tell him “stay on task”. He truly needed to be reminded because he only completed

the first question after the first five minutes had passed, and it was a multiple choice question. He

actually answered it within the first minute, but did not answer another one for the next four

minutes. Next, he seemed overwhelmed by the quiz. It was almost as though I could feel his

stress as he repeatedly rubbed his face with his hands and looked away from the quiz. When he

did respond to my “stay on task reminders”, he would try to read question number two, but then

he would rub his eyes and look away. Finally, even though he had said the correct answer to

number one during our brief study session, he put the wrong answer down. And then, as if she

knew I was about to come up and ask her, Mrs. Collver got out of her seat, came over to the
 Ellenburg 33

table, and let Student A know that I was allowed to read the questions to him, and then she

suggested to him that I do so for the rest of the test. This was great, because during this first five

minutes it was like I could feel his anxiety.

So I read each question to him. Immediately he picked up the pace. I read most questions

to him at least twice, and it was hard to watch him answer most of the remaining nine questions

incorrectly, but it was better than watching him appear to give up on the quiz. He got the chance

to use his book to correct the graded quiz just a few minutes after he turned it in. When using his

book and being reminded to stay on task, he was able to correct the answers he got wrong.

After finishing the quiz he began working on a study guide for a cumulative test that is

coming up. This is where things got even more interesting. He got out the assignment like he was

supposed to, but he basically just looked at it and flipped aimlessly through his book. He then

made it apparent that he did not want to do the work at the moment because he closed his book

and stared off again. I tried to appeal to him with reason and reminded him that the more that he

gets done during class, the less homework he will have. He responded by giving a slight shrug.

This led to a series of questions which gave me the following information: Student A does not

mind having homework, he has multiple people at home that will help him with his homework,

he is the middle child in his family, and he finds it easier to focus at home rather than at school.

He said he finds it easier to focus at home because “I only have five people in my house”. All of

this information will be put in my Target Student Profile.

The information I found out about Student A was a great window into his life. I now

know a bit more about his interest in basketball, how he perceives homework, and his access to

academic help outside of the school. Once the class was dismissed, I also got the chance to speak

to Mrs. Collver about my observations of Student A before, during, and after the quiz. I
 Ellenburg 34

explained that he seemed stressed and gave her some behavioral examples to support that

opinion. My observations seemed to make her more curious about his struggles. Her curiosity

pleases me because it shows me that she is putting thought into how to help her students, which,

I feel, is a significant sign of being a reflective practitioner.

Journal Entry #13 April 10th, 2018, 12:45-1:30

Today was a full unit test day. I arrived to class a couple of minutes early and Mrs.

Collver used the time to inform me of what she wanted me to do. She told me that she wanted

me to take Student A to one of the modules at the side of the classroom and read him the test

questions. I was looking forward to the opportunity because I wanted to observe his performance

in comparison to last week when he completed his quiz while sitting at the table.

Before the test I quizzed both Student A and the student at his table, the same as I did last

session before their quiz. This time, Student A impressed me by knowing more of the answers. I

encouraged him for knowing the first answer and he said with a big smirk on his face “I studied

this time”. We got through about half of the study guide when it was time to put everything away

and take the test.

Student A and I moved to the module stations and started the test immediately. I read

each question to him. His overall pace definitely improved from the pace in which he completed

the quiz he took last session. He did about twice the amount of questions in the same total

amount of time. He appeared to follow along with me as I read the question, which I appreciated

because I also want him to read while listening to the question. I noticed that for about half of the

questions he only had me read them once, but he hesitated for the other half, so I read them

more than once. Student A only made it to the second or third question before he did that thing
 Ellenburg 35

where he puts an answer down, then looks up and goes “is that right?”. That was the only time he

did it during this class period, probably because I responded to him by saying “I will only read

you the questions and answer choices.” One thing I noticed during the test is that we made it past

the second page and Student A dropped his head backward and leaned back in his chair,

something I associate with being mentally overwhelmed or exhausted. I know that when I work

hard on an assignment for long periods of time sometimes I tilt my head back and close my eyes

to give myself a ten second break. I believe this is what Student A was doing. I feel this act was a

coping mechanism or conditioned response similar to when he rubs his eyes and face with his

hands.

During the time Student A was taking his test, I experienced a major challenge. The

challenge involved Student A answering some questions incorrectly. I found that it is unpleasant

to switch from two different helping modes: homework and test. When I help on homework, I

can tell Student A to “take another look” at a problem when he has made a mistake, but I cannot

do that when testing. When testing I simply read the questions and possible answers. This

difficulty compounded for me when Student A answered incorrectly some questions that he

answered correctly when I quizzed him on the study guide before the test. It was almost painful

to watch him put down the wrong answers when he knew the correct answer less than ten

minutes before that moment.

After the class was dismissed I spoke with Mrs. Collver about how everything went. I

told her that reading the questions for him helped him to stay focussed and improved his pace.

Which we both agreed was beneficial. I also shared that I am concerned with Student A’s

tendency to struggle with application of knowledge. I cited the fact that Student A will answer

something, which he previously knew, incorrectly after simply changing some of the words or
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order of words in a question. The actual ability to apply the knowledge seems like a struggle,

which is why I noticed that, if nothing is changed and the question is worded the same as what he

studied, he performs better. I feel like keeping questions worded the same as what the students

studied will naturally result in higher performance for all students, but I strongly feel that there is

a deeper issue/struggle that exacerbates this tendency in Student A. Mrs. Collver found this

interesting. She also agreed with me when I mentioned that it seems Student A does significantly

better remembering and applying more concrete information than he does information that is

more abstract.

When speaking with Mrs. Collver after class, another teacher entered the room. Mrs.

Collver spoke with that teacher for a moment about a student who is still taking a standardized

test in another class. The two teachers worked out a compromise so that the student could

continue his test and then, during that class time the next day, come in and take his science test

for Mrs. Collver. I appreciate the collaboration and effort given to work together. I want to

collaborate with my colleagues so we can together for our students’ academic success. This is

but one reason why strong communication habits with my colleagues are necessary for me to

provide the best possible educational experience for my students.

Journal entry #14 April 12, 2018, 12:45-1:30

My last session was different than I expected. First, I was worried about being late

because, in my class before this session, my teacher kept me late to give me feedback over my

presentation. I was worried that, even though I was on time or early for every other session, I

was going to be late for my last session. Luckily, I walked into the class just a minute before I
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was supposed to be there. To no surprise, I later was handed my Cooperating Teacher evaluation

form and found that I received a “4” on the section considering punctuality.

I walked in and sat next to Student A as we all waited for Mrs. Collver’s directions. I

asked him if he was “ready to get rid of me” and, to my surprise, he shook his head. I said

“really?” An even bigger surprise came next as he said “No, you’re fun.” One of the students

who I previously described as a class clown must have been listening because he turned around

from his table and input his opinion as well: “Yeah, you’re cool.” I felt joyful in this moment

because this perspective of me was completely unexpected. I believe I was so surprised because I

felt as though I had spent most of the time during my sessions simply reminding students to stay

on task or signaling for them to discontinue distracting behavior. Knowing that the students liked

me, something I had no clue about before today’s session, made me not want to leave the class.

But, unfortunately, Mrs. Collver did not ask me to stay to continue helping for the rest of the

semester.

Next, I was given the opportunity to witness the students see the “before and after”

differences of their performance on the unit they had just finished. They graded their unit pre-

tests and then compared those pre-tests to the (graded) unit test they took on Tuesday. I was

pleased to be able to explain to Student A that the results suggested that he increased his

knowledge over the subject matter of the unit by fifty percent. I then told him good job and gave

him a fist bump.

For the rest of the class period the students were given their new books and we discussed

some of the topics in the new unit. During this time I did not do much besides remind Student A

to be quiet while Mrs. Collver was speaking. At the end of the class I got the chance to shake

Student A’s hand and tell him “Thank you for helping me learn more about what it’s like to work
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in the 6th grade science classroom.” He gave me a smile and a nod, and then grabbed his binder

and walked out with the rest of the students.

I thanked Mrs. Collver after the students left the room. She let me know that it was her

pleasure and gave me well wishes for my future. I appreciated her kind words. Next she gave me

her evaluation of performance during this project. She informed me earlier in the project that if

she had any concerns she would share them in person as they arose, so, since she had not shared

any concerns with me, I was expecting her to report that I did well. In my reflection I will

expound more on her evaluation, but, overall, she gave me a solid, positive report.

Some of what I learned today was about the feeling of departure. I am not sure if all

teachers/paraeducators feel this, but I did not enjoy the feeling I had when I knew that my time

helping Student A had come to an end. I felt the desire to “see it through” that he would continue

to make improvements. It felt almost as though I was abandoning him. This feeling reinstated in

me a desire to help as much as possible while I have the opportunity to do so. I want to

remember this feeling so that I am motivated to be intentional about using each day of the school

year to help my students as much as possible. I also know that my preparation and diligence in

seeking educational growth, partially through reflective practice, especially during the summers,

will help me to continually become a more effective educator, the type and caliber of educator

that all students deserve.

Final Reflection

First, I want to note that I strongly desire a classroom style physically similar to Mrs.

Collver’s. I want a classroom that students walk into and get a sense of curiosity as they see

things that point toward the amazing knowns and unknowns of life. I am beyond thankful for
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Mrs. Collver, her service as a teacher, her evaluation of my performance on this project, and the

privilege it was to complete my diversity project with her as my cooperating teacher. Every

element of this project worked as a nutrients which enabled me to grow in multiple areas

necessary for becoming an exceptional educator. Because of this project: I was able to grow in

comfortability toward working with students with differences; I witnessed the practicality behind

the information, concepts, and methods I am learning right now; and I felt my decision to

become an educator be bolstered through my experiences.

When I learned about the diversity project at the beginning of SPED 510, I was afraid. I

had little experience with students with disabilities, and my experience with students with

differences was also limited. I went to school in Frontenac, KS from K-9th, so the differences

were minimal. I can count on one hand the students I remember noticing having disabilities at

Frontenac, and only one of them was in my grade. My mother was a paraeducator for eight years

at Meadowlark Elementary, so I had heard her stories of struggle and her stories of triumph with

students who had behavior disabilities, learning disabilities, health disabilities, and mental

disabilities, but I had no clue how to provide the best educational experience possible for those

students. This project has helped to ease my fear. Students with disabilities and students with

differences are just that, students, and they will need help that is customized to work with their

strengths. After working with Student A, I am more comfortable in the classroom now,

especially in my ability to work with students with differences. I have gained this comfort

because I now realize that educating individuals is contingent upon finding out how to best work

with those individuals, rather than the success being contingent upon my knowledge of how to

systematically treat the weaknesses of each student with a difference or a disability. Even still, I

recognize that discovering the best approaches for working with each individual is not even close
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to being easy, but I have comfort in the fact that I am learning how to go about finding those

approaches and how I will be working with others as a team to provide the best educational

experience for my students.

As an educator there are an infinite amount of scenarios that can occur within our

classroom, and because we cannot learn exactly what each scenario could be and how to respond

accordingly, we must do our best in learning how to operate with whatever may come. This fact

has revealed to me the importance of everything I have learned, am learning, and will learn about

being an educator. The psychology behind education, the methods for educating English

Language learners, the techniques for teaching science, all of it (and more) is compiling the

foundation that will help establish an educator who can produce a learning experience for every

possible student in every possible scenario. I struggle with desiring to be perfect, but I know that

is not possible. But, what is possible, is for me to diligently acquire the knowledge it takes to be

the best educator I can be, which necessarily includes every piece of information, every concept,

and every method that is being presented to me right now while I am in the college of education.

Understanding this will help me to accomplish my goals as an educator, which will help all of

my students. Therefore, this understanding is invaluable.

Overall, my experience with the diversity project reinforced my decision to become an

educator. Every bit of success I had while working with Student A was more rewarding than

receiving the highest grade possible on a test or scoring a buzzer beater to win a basketball game.

And then, once I get past how it fuels me in the moment, I am left with even more motivation as

I think about what the future holds for every life that walks into my classroom. I will be able to

assist students in their journey on life. I will be able to teach students about the processes and

scientific laws that make life possible. I will be able to encourage and influence the minds of the
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next generations. When realize what actually happens in the classroom, I am reminded that I will

be able assist the life journey of future doctors, lawyers, politicians, and parents. All of that can

be either fostered or extinguished with what goes happens in the classroom, which is why I want

to be an educator, so that I can help foster individual minds with knowledge, encouragement, and

inspiration that will produce world changers.