Field Placement 2

Reflection on learning

Over the course of this program I've learned so much. Between the coursework and field placements I've grown so much as an educator. Prior to this program, I worked with a few students with exceptionalities and I always had the sense that I didn't know enough and I didn't know where to start, but now I have a foundation of knowledge and I feel empowered to find out what I don't know. 

Specifically, I previously worked with a student with autism and diabetes who used an AAC device and a little ASL to communicate, now I feel confident supporting students with diabetes because of Physical Exceptionalities and Personal Care. I know the signs and symptoms of hyper and hypoglycemia and how to spot Diabetic Ketoacidosis. Through Communication Disorders I learned all about AAC, the principles of designing a communication system, and how to teach a student to use their AAC system. I also started learning ASL using the Lingvano App because of this course, I now know over a hundred signs and I can follow basic conversations in ASL. A wide range of courses prepared me to work with students with Autism from, Autism Spectrum Disorder to Challenging Behaviour and I'm confident I can better support students with a wide range of support needs now. I'm also up to date on discourse surrounding the ABA approach and how it has changed over the years to put the needs and goals of the student with autism over what authority figures want. I learned to approach challenging behaviour with curiosity with the goal of finding out what the student is communicating through their behaviour and finding other ways for them to meet their needs. I also strengthened my disability advocacy skills in Disability Issues, and now I have more confidence standing up for students and protecting their right to learn and be treated with dignity and respect. Through all of this learning, I know I would do a much better job working with this student with autism and diabetes now than I did in the past. 

Through my field placements I gained more skills and confidence. I was fortunate to have lots of experience working with students with ADHD and Learning Disabilities, so much so that I now consider ADHD to be my specialty. I developed a toolkit binder to bring with me around the school with a portable whiteboard, and a pouch full of alphabet tiles, fidget tools, and extra pencils. The binder has a section for my notes and paperwork at the back, and a section of resources for students, like graphic organizers and worksheets. Using the whiteboard, I created situation specific mini-visual schedules and task analyses, helped students brainstorm, and drew diagrams to scaffold learning. By using this method, I determined what visual resources would be helpful to students and made paper versions for them to keep. I also learned a lot about literacy remediation using the systematic direct instruction methods UFLI and Empower Reading. Over the course of my second placement I saw Empower Reading students making huge gains in reading and confidence. 

Overall this has been an incredibly rewarding and valuable learning experience and I feel well-prepared to begin my career as an Eduactional Assistant. I'm proud to say that I have secured a job as a Casual Educational Assisstant on PEI and once my transcripts are processed, I'll be able to achieve my goal of getting a full-time position as a Certified EA. 

SMART Goal 1

Her homeroom teacher actually found the first solution, specifically for the weekly journaling assignment that this student had never previously completed. The student said that she didn't like any of the prompts and had nothing to say about them, so the teacher gave her the responsibility of coming up with prompts for the class. This worked, and the student came up with prompts that the class enjoyed and she completed her journaling assignment each week since the change. The teacher used Invitational Education to engage the student, by giving her responsibility and fostering a collaborative educational environment, she gave the student ownership of her own learning. This empowered the student to engage with the task not as something she had to slog through and be judged on, but as a fun leadership opportunity she could make her own. I learned about Invitational Education in my Foundations of Education course, but it comes from Purkey and Novak's Inviting School Success (1996). 

We found the second solution in her IEP. It turns out she had self-regulation strategies in place in her Elementary School, which had not been continued into Intermediate School. This had been overlooked because there were other students with higher support needs in her class and she seemed to be managing independently. By reintroducing self-regulation strategies, we gave her the tools to pause before destroying her work and take a walk to cool down. Sometimes this gave her time to re-evaluate and keep her work, and other times she decided to start over anyway. The fact that she was more level-headed while making the decision was beneficial either way. 

Between those two strategies, we managed to reduce the frequency and intensity of her destroying her work. I also researched in my Intellectual and Learning Disabilities coursework and found out that students with LDs can benefit from strategies to reduce the cognitive load of tasks. Specifically, this student would benefit from having access to a rubric to help her know when a task is finished to the expected standard. By providing her with this information, it will take the guesswork out of knowing if she's done well enough. This is also a method of self-evaluation that I learned about in Assessment in Education which can help students self-reflect and develop and understanding of their strengths and areas for growth. By helping this student shift from worrying about being judged and evaluated, to taking ownership of her own learning through self-evaluation I hope to help her learn and grow away from perfectionism. 

SMART Goal 2