I knew it would happen, eventually. I am happy with how long it took, I mean, I am into month 4 of 10 of this internship and today is the first truely crappy day? That really isn't too bad, right?
It all started with a planner. I write down everything into my cute polkadotted calendar. And it is always with me. Last night as I was laying in bed, I thought of all the things I needed to accomplish today: Observe a kid in SDC classroom, counsel my little tattletail, compliance training with kindergartner, Progress Monitor Tier 3 kids, meet with behavior kid, and lastly, go over info for IEP on Wednesday. Did I check my planner while I was making this beautiful mental list? Nope.
So then I get to my school site today at 8 AM sharp and am greeted by a giant, highlighted IEP notice hanging on the wall. IEP. Today. 7:45. Different School Site. WHAT?! That's not possible. It's supposed to be on Wednesday. I think to myself. I pull out my polkadotted companion and what do I see marked on today? IEP. 7:45. So at this point I am already 15 minutes late and I have no idea where the school is that I am supposed to be going to. I call my today's supervisor, Mr. H. He doesn't answer. I call my later in the week supervisor, Mr. P and he thankfully picks up and gives me directions. I get to the meeting 25 minutes late and right as my supervisor is finishing going over the results that I was supposed to have done. The mom was sweet, everyone laughed off that I was a dingbat and the meeting ended with no major issues. I however, felt, and continue to feel, like a moron. I apologized repeatedly to Mr. H who didn't really seem to care that I was late. But I continued to beat myself up. I get in my car and discover that I am pretty much out of gas. Super. I managed to make it to the gas station but that causes me to get back to my site even later and since I already feel terrible it just adds to it.
I do a classroom observation, thankfully it goes smoothly. I sit in the corner of the SDC room and get that done without screwing anything up.
Then, it is off to compliance training with my little Kinder. The problem with little Diablo* is that even after 4 weeks of us being in his classroom, his behavior really isn't changing. At. All. Sure, he will come with us to the room to get a prize at the end of the day, but that is pretty much the greatness of his accomplishments. Little Diablo had a rough day today. Although he did manage to sit on the carpet during carpet time his hands were on everything. I mean, EVERYTHING. Drumming on the wall, pulling things off of the teacher easel, trying to squish up behind the teacher. I honestly wasn't sure what to do. Since he was up at the front of the class, if I tried something it would interrupt the entire class. So I let him be since, for the most part, he was at least sitting where he was supposed to be - which is his goal. Then, an unknown teacher comes in to pull him for bench mark testing. Ummmm bad move. He flat out refuses to go with her and I have to bribe him to get him walking. Then the teacher makes us wait for a while, which is not a good plan with Diablo. We finally get into the library where he is going to test and he refuses to go to his seat. Once I coax him to sit, he begins to pull out all the crayons and throw them as well as his test on the floor. I pick them up and hand them back to him and he gets a crayon and proceeds to color on his table and his seat. I verbally ask him to stop and he actually does, but then goes back to the previous behavior of throwing the crayons. By this time I am completely at a loss for what to do with him. The teacher gives up and tells us we can go since he is just distracting the other children. We start walking to the psych office and he starts running ahead - a major no-no that I thought we had gotten past a couple weeks ago. Once in the office I am conflicted. My supervisor had previously told me that we try and reinforce him if he has done some good. He was pretty good during carpet time and he did go with a stranger to the library - so I provide him with reinforcement, but I am pretty sure that is a stupid thing to do since the last several behaviors he had exhibited were not what we were looking for. But I give him the prize and try to explain that he got it for the smiley face behaviors we saw. When we get back to class - teacher is pissy because he got a prize. But then again - so am I.
I really don't think this strategy is working. I think the kid needs a more frequent reinforcement. He's a low functioning 5 year old. A half hour is an eternity for a 5 year old. Regardless of the strategy that is put into place - he needs a new one, because the current one doesn't work.
I emailed my sup and filled him in on Diablo's behavior today and all the difficulties I had. I asked for tips since, even the teacher pointed out that the kid does not respond to me. Hopefully he can give me some guidance.
Well, it is only lunch time, the morning has definitely sucked and made me feel like I am not cutting it as an intern. Lets hope it gets better this afternoon.
*Not his real name... wouldn't it be sad if it really was though?
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