10/11

Hard time with Mila, but made progress by doing as we suggested. We were still trying to work with her to be able to cut with scissors. This time the teacher has a pair with a larger thumb hole and she was using the same ones over and over instead of trying different ones. Also instead of having her cut things for no reason which could be frustrating she was cutting through just play-doh with the goal of filling up the bin with materials she cut. We worked with her the whole time and I felt like we were actually making progress which motivated me to want to keep working with her. After about 30 mintues we ended up going outside where Mila bee-lined to the playground at the elementary school. The paraprofessional ran after her and was able to return her without any issues. While outside I saw a student climb under a portable to get a basketball, when he came out he was covered with thorns, I spent about 30 minutes pulling them off of him...I wish we could do something about the mess out here. I hope our outreach goes well!

I was more comfortable and more willing to express my ideas this week. I felt like I had more patience, but it might have just been less caffeine. In the future with my students I will make sure to have a real goal when having them do a task. It does not makes sense to just cut lines in paper or cut play-doh in half just have somebody combine it back into one piece. Another thing I learned was that when one ofyour students takes off, it really is a big deal because the para ran at top pace after Mila. Ms. Calls class is getting a little crowded it seems like there are more teachers than student in there and I can tell that it is making some of the students uncomfortable. I hope next week we can work outside of that room. 

I can tell that Mila has an issue with sensory needs. It seems like she is over stimulated by the smallest touch but loves to lightly itch herself and wring her hands. In class and the book we were talking about the sensory needs of students. As a reflection to the topic out group for our outreach project were talking about making a sandbox but one that is designed better for middle school aged students.It is important that sensory needs are met or else the students may not be able to reach their highest potential. Also, in the article I am reviewing about using tablets/IPads as educational tools they mention that some students just do not feel comfortable using mouses, pencils, or keyboards. It seems like this might be the thing with Mila, next week I want to try to get her on the computer to test some things out. While researching for our outreach/cleanup we were finding a lot of evidence that the environment the students are in plays a large role in their learning. I saw that first hand today and hope that we can make a real change out here in November.