On the third week I spent Monday with each student individually at their centers, and then on Tuesday I had planned an activity for them to do so that I could take the opportunity to try and find out what their likes and dislikes are about school.  I had them make brown paper bag puppets and then I wrote down three questions on the back of the bag for them to answer.  My plan was to have them answer the questions and then we could take five minutes to discuss their answers, but things did not work out like I had hoped they would.  I asked them to tell me two to three things that they liked about school, disliked about school, and liked to do in school.  However, I ended up spending a lot of time with one student because he just did not want to open up to me.  I don’t think he feels comfortable talking to me yet.

I am struggling with one of my students.  He is so shy and quiet that he will not talk to me like I want him to and I keep trying to reach out to him so that he feels more comfortable, however; nothing seems to be working so far.  I talked to Mrs. Shepardson about him and she told me that he went to a special pre-school because he needs a lot of auditory instruction, and she also said that he doesn’t have as many social skills as the other students.  I can see that he trusts Mrs. Shepardson, but she spends six hours a day and five days a week with him.  Because he won’t talk to me, I am having a hard time figuring out what his strengths are.  I know that he needs auditory instruction and help with phoniemic awareness, but I’m still trying to discover what his strengths are in school.

  I’m feeling frustrated, but I know I cannot give up.  I chose to focus on this student because it is challenging for me and if I succeed at reaching this child before the end of the semester, I will have conquered one of my fears of becoming a teacher.  I have learned that teaching is a trial and error profession, therefore; I will keep trying until I have a breakthrough with this student.  I feel like I am trying everything I can to reach this student, so that I can figure out what will or will not work when teaching my focus student.  I need to find something that he is interested in so that I can gain the information I need to teach this student.  I have found that he likes to play with playdough and paint, therefore; he likes doing things with his hands.  He also said that he likes to read, so I need to find some books that grab his attention.  I could use some suggestions of what I can do with a student who is so quiet and guarded.  How can I break down the barriers?

My Family Visit

On October 6, 2009 Brittney and I went to visit our cooperating family to listen to their concerns about their child and their educational environment.  At first I was a little nervous but the mom seemed very friendly and she immediately invited us in to meet her son.  As soon as I walked into their house I introduced myself to the boy and I was happy his face light up when he saw us come in the door.  He made me feel so welcomed into his home and he was so friendly that I immediately started to relax.  We made our way into the dining room to sit around the table, and his mom instantly started to tell us about their long hard road they had to go down throughout his school career.

            First she talked a little about all of her kids and showed us their pictures, and then she started telling us how she felt when she found out her child had special needs.  She felt scared because she was not sure what was going on with her son.  What she discovered was that she had a lot to learn.  When she enrolled her son into pre-school the teachers their worked very well with her.  They did an IEP for him and he had a great year there; however, when he had to go to elementary school she found that she was going to have to become a strong advocate for her son and learn anything she could about their rights.  As I listened to the mom’s story, it sounded like the kindergarten teacher was hard to deal with and her son did not make a lot of progress in the classroom that year. 

            His first year of high school was not much better; because the teacher there did not want her to visit the classroom unless she made an appointment in advance or that she contacted him to let him know that she was coming.  Her first thought was that the teacher must be hiding something, and that there were things that he did not want her to see.  So she made it a point to pop in unannounced. The teacher even went to the extremes of having all the security guards contact him over the radio that she was coming into the school.  I cannot imagine the fear this mom felt having to send her son into a classroom with a teacher who did not seem to be meeting her child’s needs.

Throughout the years she has had to fight for her son’s needs to be met in the school system, and she has had to teach herself how to become a strong voice for her son.  She has been fortunate to meet numerous people to help her along the way, and they have helped her become a strong advocate for her son as well as other kids.  Sometimes it just takes one person to make a change in the world or in this case in the school district.  I admire her along with all the moms out there fighting for their children.  It takes a lot of love and courage for the moms and their families to be a voice for their child or sibling and my heart goes out to all of them.

My experience going into the home of this family and listening to their story and their long journey of dealing with the school district was very emotional for me. Hearing about the challenges the boy had to go through during his school experience made me sad and angry.  Meeting this boy and hearing his story will stay with me throughout my teaching career.  I will never forget him.  He has touched my heart forever.  This experience has helped me to realize the type of teacher I want to become for my future students.  As a teacher I will do whatever I need to do to make sure that all of my students are successful in my classroom.  Every child deserves an equal opportunity to learn and succeed in school; therefore, I want to make sure that every student reaches their goals.  I will need to make sure that I have great resources and learning activities that will benefit all of my students because every child learns differently and different needs.  This family visit also helped me realize that talking to the parents is a great way to get to know the students in my class and get the parents involved in their children’s education.  I am going to do my best to visit all the families of my students so that I can educate them to the best of my abilities.