What do sea monsters eat for lunch? Fish and ships.

All of my video release forms finally made it back to me! Everyone said yes to videoing, so that is a huge blessing. I am now able to walk my students to and from specials by myself, and I had to yell at a kid today for climbing on the poles outside, and he had to move his clip down two places. I helped a small group in math today, and they struggled grasping the concept, but at the end of the small group they all got it except for the one EC student. The EC student understood it more by the end, but could not do it on her own. Then the students who needed help in reading their AR books, would come up to me and read. I would then take them over to the computers and help them read the question to their AR test. The EC student in our class gets pulled away every Friday at 11. I got to give the students a Saxon phonics fluency and spelling test, individually. I have worked individually with the EC student on every subject we did today, but it was so great to be able to teach almost all day long.  I loved being able to teach small group almost all day long! I was also exhausted by the end of the day, but it was worth it. 

This week, I am going to research how to help the EC student in my classroom to be the best they can be. I found a wonderful website that talks about how the classroom could be set up in a way that is hindering the EC student from learning. "Common classroom conditions can and do affect many students adversely-to some agree, at one time or another, in one way or other0but, some students are especially vulnerable to classroom hazards. students with learning disabilities are among the most vulnerable-at chronic risk for "not learning" under the aforementioned conditions, for long-term academic and social problems, and for lifelong debilitating side-effects of their classroom experiences" ( Reading Rockets).  This website lists so many things that can effect the student from learning. I am just going to mention a few, that I notice in my classroom that may be effecting my EC student. The first being that the classroom is a busy place. Rapid verbal exchanges leave the EC student with a consistent residue of confusion and misunderstanding. The next is that my classroom is very time-driven. Transitions and interruptions batter the EC students already fragile orientation in time and space. Their frustration flares up when he loses his grip in time/space and, what's more, he is convinced that you take pleasure in constantly not letting him finish what he's doing. The last is whole group instruction. Overwhelmingly, classroom instruction relies on whole group instruction, accompanied by large amounts of loosely overseen seat work. Without frequent clarifying interchanges, the EC students are left in the dust of group-focused lessons and semi-supervised seat work. I will think about these different ideas while working with the EC student in my class, and talk with my CE about this situation. 

This blog ties into the NCTS number 4, of Teachers Facilitate Learning. I want to facilitate the best learning that I can for all of my students, regardless of their learning disability.