March 8, 2016

8:00am-12:00pm

2nd Grade

Context: I was in the exact same setting today as yesterday, but today there were five
children absent. The children again entered and went to their desks to complete their morning
work.

When I arrived Mrs. C was getting the children into their seats and working, but soon
after I entered the bells rang and the children all stood up to say the pledge of allegiance. The
principle gave all the announcements and had a moment of silence. When their morning work
was done, Mrs. C again went over it with them, and then it was time for a restroom break. After
the break the children did reading with Mrs. C listening to a story and whisper reading as they
followed along. After reading was SWARM time, when all the second grade classes were split
into different groups to work on different skills for their particular level. This is when B and M
went to their speech. Then came lunch and time for me to leave.

Today I was surprised by how well the students did with reading, but in particular by one
little boy, J, who actually went to sleep while Mrs. C was doing the reading. She knew he was
asleep but did not wake him up, opting to let him rest for a little while. It was interesting,
however, because he would periodically sit up and do what she was saying and then lay back
down and sleep again for a few more minutes. When I asked her about it she said it was because
he did not go to bed early at all and would usually come in a little bit late and then fall asleep in
class.

For Mrs. C, her favorite saying is the only consistent thing in education is that it
changes. In this saying she is referring to all the laws about sped and how difficult it is to keep
up with everything that switches around all the time. Mrs. C says they are expected to treat every
student almost as if they each have their own IEP, so they have to know each students specific
level of learning and give each of them reading books or math problems tailored to their level.
She will often have them watch little movies that go along with the lessons they are learning that
day or week.