Classroom Management

Classroom management can be one of the most difficult things to manage as a teacher. Here is these videos I demonstrate communication between teacher and students. The rationale is to make clear demands while keeping a positive ton to not agitate students. When working is special education tone is an important part of communication.

The Good Response

The Bad Response

Using reinforcements (positive) to correct behavior to benefit all students leads to a better classroom environment. I believe in earning rewards not being entitled to them. Using these type of reinforce res are good but while being earned by class participation, well done work, and overall behavior. Punishments are another type of reinforcement that have their places as well. Removal punishment: Decreasing the chances that a behavior will occur again by presenting an aversive stimulus following the behavior; also called Type 1 punishment.

Using punishments or reinforcements in a classroom is inevitable, but using them correctly takes a lot of knowledge of them and practice or experience using them. In chapter 7 I suggest looking into the caption boxes for examples and scenarios with punishments and reinforcements being used. Not all reinforcements are result of bad behavior. As teachers I believe that reinforcement of good behavior is more effective. Students usually like being rewarded even if it is just a good job from a teacher.

From my own personal experience have rules and guidelines for students that are created by students often is more effective. For example, reinforcing the contract or list of rules that have been created by them gives the students some ownership and eliminates the "it's not fair" comments.

module 4

Chapters 9, 10, 11


With Common Core and technology knocking on the door in every classroom their are the basics that some seem to disregard. With in chapters 9,10,11 of "Educational Psychology", WoolFolk, the basics are talked about greatly. Things such as Learning strategies and their application, problem solving, critical thinking, brainstorming, and my personal favorite creativity.

Though they are touched upon in all of the chapters, chapter nine focuses on the list above.  What about the other two chapters you say? I do not want to take away their importance, but today in education, and like I stated above some feel the basics are being left behind. 

Starting with learning strategies such as READS or CAPS are so incredibly important especially in special education.  Most of the lower functioning special education students struggle with reading and comprehension of whatever they are reading or attempting to read. Using strategies like READS or CAPS can allow the students to break apart a story or text to allow for better understanding at a slower pace and a piece at a time.

Problem solving and critical thinking go hand in hand. Everyday we use problem solving skills and they usually include some critical thinking to resolve them. In my experience in special education I have noticed the early stages are where most confusion sets in.  Identifying the problem and the cause of that problem is where most of my students can not get passed. Most of the time once explained and broken down, like using READS or CAPS, they will come up with at least the problem itself. Once the students have even a small understanding of what the problem is they can brainstorm and verbalize what possible solutions could be.

Working everyday with situations of this kind, I have come to realize that the students I work with may never solve their problems. Using some of the strategies to recognize what the students are struggling with is a great tool for educators to assist them with coping with the struggles they endure. Also, though having a disability can not be cure we sure can show students how to work with it instead of just giving up.

Module 3

Chapters seven and thirteen are based on behaviors of learning and creating a classroom or learning environments. One point of chapter seven that I would like to focus on is actually in the introduction called the "Teacher's Case Book." It briefly talks about a student going to the nurse a lot and about nine out of ten times he/she has not been sick. It was recognized that the student would most often "feel" ill during oral assignments or when he/she had to speak in front of the class.

This reminds me of several of my students. They often say that they do not feel well or have had an emotional episode that puts them into a bad mood to which they can not complete the assignment or task at hand. This is a common behavior in my experience and to be completely honest my past schooling days. I have done something to this effect due to nerves or failure to complete work while I was in elementary or High School. At first it was an unconditioned response that eventually turned into a conditioned response. I had realized that if I did not feel well I could avoid that which my me nervous and that I was afraid of. Now older I have realized it was more fear than anything. After being punished for some of the behavior I was displaying it became worse, but after one teacher in sixth grade reached out and positively reinforced my actions I learned to change them. I became confident, out going, and well to be honest again annoyingly out going. That one teacher changed my schooling and my life. Learning how to change the response to a stimuli that I did not like or made me nervous allowed me to push through and really strive to reach my full potential.

Positive reinforcement is a n extremely powerful tool along with negative reinforcements or consequences or punishments. Correcting behavior with an constructive and or a preventive no threatening attitude or approach can again change lives. Is this so for every situation no, but I strive to be firm and clear yet reassuring that yes the student did not complete whatever was not completed but while correcting reinforce confidence and composure.

Module 2

Chapter 4

The readings and resources this week had me in a panic.  I only scored a 111 and 108 on my IQ tests and thought to myself am I not intelligent? After further reading I find I am average. With my past experience in taking tests I am OK with.  This is were it all clicked after reading.  With different types of learning and disabilities that could be possible are IQ tests even accurate. 

I also currently work with special education students with an array of disabilities. Reading about disability etiquette was one of the major points that caught my eye.  Realizing that the structure of your sentences can be offensive to the students is something I did not think of.  Granted I knew the basics of what to say and what not to say but for example " Students with learning disabilities" NOT "Learning disabled students." (Woolfolk, 117) Also, the different types of intelligence was very interesting. I always had the mind set of book smart and street smart. Obviously I was incredibly wrong. I found that the Triarchic theory of successful intelligence explains learning the best way possible.  It covers the three main learning influences that I see most while working with my students.

1) Thought process: My students, with various disabilities, their thought process are all different not only from one another but sometimes each day. The day to day change is usually  caused by an out side influences or experiences.
2) Coping with new experiences: Some experiences may be positive and some may be negative. Depending on the severity of the negative experience I have noticed that these are usually that cause for thought and behavior change.
3) Adapting to context:. This can be explained in several ways but I am choosing the path of culture and upbringing. For example, solely based on what I have been told from friends in the culture and experience within this culture, Middle Eastern cultures do not look at women in the same light that we as Americans do now a days. How does this point tie in? Well if you look at it from the outside you may disagree with someone else culture but if you understand and respect it than a behavior can be correct or understood due to the context.  

Chapter 5
Language development is a key part of education and now with ESL being a very big portion of public schools student body it is essential to better understand the process in differentiating lesson for ESL students. In 5.1 there is a table that reference the milestones in childhood language development. Children learn to speak as early as two or three years old. granted not in perfect sentences but the development of sentences starts with sounds then words. Then in table 5.2 the outside-in process which directly relates to site words, inside-out processes which is recognition of letters and growing from there. "Most school programs expect all children to learn to read in English." (Woolfolk p. 173)
With this being said any student that comes to school with ESL needs faces a much more difficult process of learning and learning the English language especially. The foundations of their speech is not developed in English . Not having the foundation of the English language is a set back but not one that can not be overcome. Referring to table 5.5 on page 180 of Woolfolk also explains even after three years of learning a new language complex grammar is spoken with errors. Granted the students would be able to tell stories, good comprehension, start learning and use academic language and have a larger vocabulary. 

Chapter 8
Cognitive views of learning is confusing to me at first sight, but after reading chapter 8 I now better understand that looking at the different parts of learning and how the brain and body react to it. The memory is most interesting to me, and with the given vocabulary breaks down the different types of memory for better understanding. The explanation of the similarities and differences between the different types of knowledge is mind blowing. Also the figures on page 285 (8.1 and 8.2) gives a visual explanation of information processing. My personal favorite is Gestalt, which is German for pattern or whole. The thought is that people organize their perceptions into coherent wholes. Gestalt is a set of principles of how we "see" patterns in the world around ourselves. (287 figure 8.3)

Educational Psychology Module 1

 The studies of Piaget and Vygotsky are unbelievable when you think about your own everyday lives.  I say your because I am sure that everyone has conversations silently with themselves about one thing or another.        
     To be more specific on what I am referring to in the text book Educational Psychology by Anita Woolfolk, on page 59, Table 2.4, the differences between Piaget's and Vygotsky's Theories of Egosentric or Private Speech.  Going over three main categories Course of development, Relationship to Social Speech, and Relationship to Environmental Contexts.  I am not going to completely regurgitate the table back to you, but I was instantly interested about both of their theories.
     Piaget says that social speech is a negative and that least socially and cognitively mature children use more egocentric speech.  While Vygotsky claims it to be positive and develops out of social interaction with others.
    Personally I look at this in two different ways.  First way, as an every day "Joe."  Thinking that this is talking to oneself.  Ergo, I said above that I am sure that everyone has done it.  Having an internal conversation to fix a problem or finish a challenging task to me is an everyday occurrence.  From a special education educator I see both gentleman's views but in a different light.  For example, I directly correlated Piaget's with some of my students.  Some of their disabilities limit their social interaction but yet they are constantly talking to themselves.  Could Piaget have been onto something with out knowing about it?  I will have to do some more research on that subject but again that is the first thing that popped into my head while I was reading that section. On the other hand, which will fall under Vygotsky's theories, in sports and all throughout my education I was taught to work it out in my head.  Which to me was "talk it through in my head."  Another example that occurred to me is "The Little Train that Could."  Continuously saying "I think I can, I think I can."
     Please comment and let me know how you view these theories.

Field Experience

              Hello everyone my name is Matthew Cucio and I am a paraprofessional/job coach at Bremen H.S. Dist. 228. I actually work at South Suburban College in a Transition program called Jobs2 (Journeys and Opportunities with Bremen/South Suburban. The setting is a bit different than what is considered your normal classroom. As a paraprofessional I help co-teach a vocational class that mainly consists of transition students from the age of 18-21. The state of Illinois allows these students to receive school based resources until the day before their twenty-second birthday. We do have an office and have a classroom provided by South Suburban College. As a paraprofessional I am incharge of a payroll program for our students through the South West CO OP, I organize and schedule all transportation to and from work sites, on site and off site job coaching, tutoring of all sorts, administrator for a computer based program called Career Cruising, and co plan including lesson plans, and grading. I do work with a counselor, certified special education teacher and another paraprofessional. We do have outside contracted help for speech pathology, state and federal benefits, as well as Alpha bus company. The disabilities that our learners have are very diverse. With 20 total active learners in our program and the range of disabilities are Aspergers, Autism, bi-polar, Schizophrenia, learning disabilities, behavioral disorders, traumatic brain injuries, sickle cell anemia (which caused stroke and brain damage), loss of hearing, and emotional disabilities.
           Students in our program are primarily grouped around the poverty line. Though because we are based out of the college and they are older than high school students they are not provided with lunch. The grade level varies as well but for an example the reading level range is 1st grade - college level of literacy. Out of the 20 active students we have 12 males and 8 females, and all of our students have a 504 or a IEP. 

For the table portion below there are a few listed but there are so many that it will take me a few weeks to target specifics throughout the student list in our program. I have completed a few and will continue to update throughout. 

Special Education Category	Number of Students	Accommodations, Modifications, and/or Pertinent IEP Goals
Learning Disability	Example: 10	Close monitoring, follow up, one on one test reading and follow up with current college teachers as well.
Emotional Disability	Example: 6	Open door policy with counselor and other staff members, regular counseling check ins, and open communication at all times.