CRITICALREFLECTIONWEEK1:

DESCRIPTION: (100 words)

The general ages of my class (grade 3/4) are between the ages of 9-10 years old.
A disruption happened with the other grade 3/4 classroom (could hear it because of how close
the rooms are and how they are joined).
A young boy in the other class has epilepsy and had a seizure whilst in his classroom. This
particular seizure lasted for roughly 15 minutes. It managed to disrupt the learning that was
taking place in both the 3/4 classrooms.

INTERPRETATION: (228 words)

This particular event was critical for future experience. In my past placements, although students
had particular setbacks, I was never around or had heard of something happening whilst I was on
placement (in regards to epilepsy). As this happened during my reading lesson, I had to maintain
control over the groups I was looking after. I felt that the teacher in the classroom (both my ST
and the other teacher in the other classroom) had a great knowledge, or were at least
comfortable with handling the effects from the seizure, as the attitude towards people with
epilepsy are influenced by the degree of knowledge of the condition (Shiu, 2004). They had to
remain calm and focussed on their work whilst the teachers assisted the boy. This event prepared
me incase something like this was to happen in the future during my own class time with my own
class. This impacted the students however, as they were worried about their friend (even though
this has happened before). What was interesting about this disruption was how something that
happened in the other classroom could affect my class the way it did. The boy who had the
seizure was a close friend to many of the students within my classroom, and due to the panic of
the other students who witnessed it, my class reacted the only way they knew how.

OUTCOME: (100)
Because of this particular event, I will be better prepared and if something like this ( a major
distraction) were to happen in my classroom, I would know how to be prepared in order to
regain control of the classroom and ensure that they are calm and focussed, trusting that the
teachers are handling the situation. The only thing I would be able to do is to see how teachers
respond to situations like this, and hope that I will be as prepared as they are to face a challenge
like this in my classroom. It is something that each teacher must be prepared to deal with incase
it ever occurred.

Reference:

Shiu,S.(2004).Maintainingthethread:Includingyoungchildrenwithchronicillnessintheprimary
classroom.AustralianJournalofEarlyChildhood (1),33.
29
,