Thursday, March 22, 2012

Field Experience Day 9

FIELD EXPERIENCE DAY NINE on March 20th 2012
St. Marys School - 6th grade

TOPIC: Students with Special Needs

In this class there are two children with disabilities.One girl who was born with nerve damage, where her right side of the body is affected (mainly her right arm/hand). My host teacher told me he does not modify any activities for her unless he clearly see's a struggle. She is a type of student who does not want anything modified for her case, she wants to figure out how to move forward like the rest of the kids. Which ultimately, isn't that what all students want? She had fun playing with the other girls jump roping and playing tag. Because we were outside it was hard for me to see her skill levels specifically with her disability.
However it was interesting learning about her nerve damage, my host teacher was really knowledgeable on it. For every student that has any health issue all teachers including PE receive all facts on the health problem. I thought this was really great because even coming down to having allergy or asthma, the PE teacher is notified; in my eyes this is 100% necessary for safety and also security on the teachers behalf. The second student with a disability was a young boy diagnosed with Aspergers disorder. This type of autism causes a problem with social interactions and communication. What I noticed was that he seemed to be very aware of what was going on. He participated in kickball but was not very verbal like the rest of the 6th graders. He did not 'get into' the game like the others, he kind of just went out to play when it was his turn to kick. My host teacher stated that he loves running. I watched to see and when he kicked the ball he ran very fast to the base. When his team was on defense I noticed he was covering 3rd base. A player was running from 2nd to 3rd and they bumped into each other. This was a situation I could notice where socially he is effected. He did not know how to respond to the kids telling him he was in the way. He stayed quiet and almost looked confused. At the end of class he holds the door for everyone ensuring we have all gone in. The host teacher called it 'his thing'. He said if anyone else tries to hold the door he will act a bit uneasy. I thought it was very polite and sweet he wanted to hold the door for us all. Because we went outside and the day all in all was not very productive, it was hard for me to see if my host teacher makes good modifications for these two students. Their cases are not very sever, however I can tell that during some activities there must be modifications made. Being in 356 co-insigne 355, I am learning so much about all different types of students. Learning about many disabilities, I am now aware of how important it is so specialize each activity according to each individual student.

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