Spero Academy
Tuesday, March 3rd
8:30-11:30 (3 hours)
Ms. Roberston and Ms. Sieple
Today was the first official day of observation under Ms. Robertson. The morning starts very casually, kind of like Expo Elementary as well. Everyone slowly trickles in and finishes their breakfasts. Once they are done eating they begin their morning workshop packets. Once it hits about 9:00 Ms. Robertson gets the kids all lined up and brings them into Ms. Sieple’s classroom. This is where they read the morning message and have the option to share something that they find interesting. During this meeting, a couple of the kids were having some difficulty following directions. Each of the students has a different method to calm them down. Some are taken outside the classroom to the calming room. Where others are left alone to solve their own problems. Since there are around 4 adults in the room at all time, each student is given the opportunity for one on one attention. After the morning meeting, Ms. Robertson went over expectations. About once a month 1st graders come into the classroom and the fourth graders get to read to them. Before the 1st graders were in the room the 4th graders were fidgety, rowdy and talkative. As soon as the 1st graders walked in they seemed to all calm down and take charge. They set an example of what was expected. It was very interesting to see their behaviors change.
Around 10 they all lined up for Smart Circuit. (This is what the obstacle course is called) This gives the kids the chance to move their bodies and release some energy. A couple of kids had some meltdowns while being reminded of the rules. Once they did a couple of rounds of Smart Circuit they went into the track. This is where they really get to release all of their energy. These two activities get them warmed up for Phy Ed.
After Phy Ed, they come back to what they call Regulation time. This is a dedicated time to calm the kids down and get in touch with their emotions. They are asked in the beginning what “zone'“ they are in. The zones are a color range. Green is calm and focused. Red is angry, yellow is calming down, and blue is tired/sad. When a student says they are in the blue or red zone they are asked to find a tool to help them. In the case of blue (Tired) they were asked to go get an alerting tool. When a student was in Red they were asked to assess why and go to the reading corner and take a break. This allows all of the children to get in touch with their emotions and assess what helps them level out.
Observations
The ratio of boys to girls is about 12 boys to every 1 girl.
The ratio of adult to students is about 2 adults per every 10 kids. (I asked Ms. Robertson about this and she said that its a lot of work in general to help only 10 students. Since each child is on different levels academically they never really do whole group teaching lessons. There is a lot of individual lessons being taught. So it’s a great help to have 3 adults per classroom.)
92% of the children are special education
Some key phrases that I thought were interesting and helpful
“Let’s reset” The child who’s agitated/yelling/interrupting puts head down on the table and sits still. When they become calm again the teacher will say “Welcome back".” This gives the student a chance to asses what went wrong and gives them a chance to calm down.
“I am confused about what just happened” Allows the student to explain their behavior and reassess if it was appropriate or smart.
“That was a big behavior for a small problem.” Pointing out the size of their reaction helps them understand how they responded to a problem and if the reaction was approriate for what happened.
Spero Academy
Wednesday, March 4th
8:30-11:30 (3 hours)
Ms. Roberston and Ms. Sieple
Today was a little chaotic. Ms. Robertson mentioned a couple of times how the behaviors that were present today reminded her of the beginning of the school year. She said that the students are usually like this on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. She had to repeat her expected behaviors and told the students how disappointed they were. After she asked them if they can follow the expected behaviors and shape up they seemed to calm down a little bit. Mr. Bryan, one of the other adults that are in the classroom, brought the kids in after a bathroom break and had them all reset. Which I mentioned earlier is putting their head on the table and breathing. This was a very good trick to calm the kids down a bit.
Another thing that is different is that it is harder to connect with students than in Expo Elementary. All of which was expected. So my biggest challenge in these next couple of weeks will be how to integrate myself into the classroom so that the students will be comfortable with me enough for the lesson to run smoothly. Right now a lot of the students have become connected with their set people and it’s hard for them to interact with new people. I also found the struggle of when to interact. Many of the kids have specific behaviors that are dealt with in different ways. Since I am unfamiliar with how they would respond I am hesitant to say anything that might upset them. All of these may get better in time when I become more comfortable with the classroom.