Alexa Knoderer Riley Reflection ED 243 | am fortunate enough to have gotten the opportunity to tour Riley Children’s Hospital School Program twice. | really enjoyed both times. 1. What did you find surprising? | was surprised by how many students they serve in a year, but | was even more surprised by how holistically Riley serves their families. The school program not only serves patients; they advocate for families and support patient's siblings. | thought that was so inspiring, 2. What did you like about the experience? | really enjoyed listening to the doctor's ideas about how school and the medical field could cooperatively advocate for the best interest of the patients. | also thought it was really cool learning about all the services that are provided to all members of the patient's family. 3. Any big AHHHHS!!! | think | would really like to get involved at Riley Hospital. In high school, | took 4 years of biomedical science in order to prepare myself to enter the medical field. | ultimately decided against this path, but | stil really enjoy working with students with medical needs and would like to try this. | am not sure how | would handle the emotional aspect of things, but | really do think that this could potentially be a career for me. 3b. Anything you did not like about the trip?It was really hard to see/hear the babies during the unit. Many of them were alone, and that upset me. 3c. Anything your professor could do differently? don't think so! 4. Think we should go again? Absolutely! 5. Explain how it relates to this class in Ed. 243, Many of these students have IEPs and other adaptive learning plans which we ‘spend time looking at in ED 243. However, the biggest connection for me was the advocacy work that these teachers do. As a special education teacher, | want to be an advocate for my students and their needs as a whole. Riley advocates for students and families alike, and | really think that is such an important aspect of helping that student. be successful.Today, | really noticed the impact that non-academic or specials classes can have on a student with disabilities. It gives them a break from being stressed about not being able to read or do math, and allows them to creatively express themselves. The student | worked with today really enjoys her music class and is proud of the role that she plays inside this classroom. Upon entering the classroom, she immediately got started on their procedures. She knew these very well, and it looked like the teacher had spent a lot of time teaching how to enter and begin their classroom time. This orderly process was disrupted today when the class found out that they would be having a sub and would not be playing their instruments today. They would instead be watching a movie with an accompanying packet. Her whole demeanor changed as she begrudgingly began packing away her “violin with viola strings.” When we began working on the packet, she wasn't really motivated and was constantly moving. The packet required one to read a short story and then answer questions using a number to letter code. This activity asked a lot of her, and she had entered class ‘expecting to just be able to play her violin. Because of this change in environment and expectations, we were not able to complete the packet. Having a sub can really throw students off, and students will disabilities especially need their teachers to be there as much as possible. Unfortunately, we did not get to stay to see how this change affected the rest of her day. | noticed one other very interesting thing about my student. She was extremely routinized in her behavior entering into music class. However, this structure and orderly behavior did not extend beyond the borders of that specific classroom. My student's locker was pretty disorganized, and so were her school materials. It was really awesome to see that in something she was passionate about, she was organized and methodical about her materials and her body. You could tell that she really cared about this music class.| was really impressed by the way The Butler Lab school brings the whole family into the learning process. The walls of the schools are filled with pictures of the students and their families. Each classroom has a welcome area with items students might need in the morning such as tissues, lotion, and even some essential oil diffusers, Right above this area (in every class), there are pictures of people and pets that are important to the students. This connection to students’ home lives gives learners a sense of security because all of their people are on board with their learning process. We didn't get the opportunity to meet with our students to see what rules at Butler Lab are difficult for them, but teachers attempt to handle this in the beginning by having the class create the rules as a group. They also call them “classroom agreements”. That takes away the negative connotation of “rules” and replaces it with a sense of collaboration and control amongst the students. However, some of the agreements were vague and would need to be modeled for students with behavioral challenges. | also noticed that all rooms had some sort of non-traditional seating whether that be a couch, chair, or even a tree stump. This allows for all types of learners who maybe would do better in a different setting besides the traditional desk. | was really surprised by how the science room was arranged. It had flexible seating, but still had lab tables so that experiments can be conducted. The partnership with Shortridge will be really crucial in supplementing some of the things that the Butler Lab school can't meet such as important lab equipment. This will also give exceptional science students the opportunity to possibly take classes at Shortridge and utilize that equipmentAlexa Knoderer 9/2118 Reflection #3 Middle school is a time of rapid change and development. Students are beginning to develop their sense of self-identity, and their physical bodies are going through changes that can cause confusion. Due to those factors, this stage of adolescence is a difficult one for learning social skills/norms and regulating your behaviors and emotions. In Spanish class, my student attempted guided meditation when prompted by the teacher. The class was asked to put their heads down and settle into a quiet space. Many students ignored the teacher, or they attempted to hide their hushed conversations. Despite these distracting behaviors, Anna put her head down and began deep breaths. It seemed that she knew this routine and believed that it might help her. It would have been very easy for her to get off task as many of her peers were, but she really tried to ignore disruptions by covering her ears and closing her eyes. The guided mediation was about 15 minutes long, so eventually her effort dwindled as her classmates were still disruptive. This mediation was an attempt at teaching young people how to regulate themselves and remain calm and peaceful (which are pinnacles of the Butler Lab norms), and | could see that this had, at some point, a large impact on Anna. She says that she is often frustrated by her classmates/teachers, and the breathing exercises give her something else to focus on. This coping mechanism is something that | think is a really useful tool for young people to learn and would like to incorporate this into myclassroom teachings. | also noticed that part of the procedure coming in was the DO NOW work. In this class, students were asked to write three statements one of which being | am safe. | thought this was really cool, and it seems like the Butler Lab school takes a holistic approach to their students education and knows that learning will not cour if certain needs are not met. These approaches are also preventative measures against negative behaviors. When considering students will disabilities, these methods can be utilized to help ease some of the anxiety that can be experienced in the learning environment.On Friday, | really saw the impact that peer relationships can have on a student with disabilities. We had the opportunity to observe in the same class as last week, and it was really interesting to observe how absences of certain students affect the learning of others. Last week, my student was sitting by one of her really good friends, and in order to get her work done, we had to remove her because there were many distractions as her friends were also not on task. Her attitude about learning depending on the attitude that her peers held about the teacher and assignments. These feelings were mostly negative, and when the work was challenging she became defeated without putting in much effort. This week, we saw a different student. She had grit and was working really hard (with our support) to complete her assignments. All of that negativity that we observed last week was gone. As the teacher transitioned students, our student was ready to do that. She was able to move at a pace that was closer to that desired by the teacher. However, we provided a lot of support in order to get her to this point, but her overall attentiveness was much better this week comparatively speaking to last week. We were in Spanish class with our student, and this teacher moves very quickly. Her classroom is set up in such a way that students are given a few minutes to answer many questions, and then are presented with the answers. Last week, we saw that students understood this routine and would often times not do their work because they knew that the answers were coming. This week we supported her through her lesson and tried to help her reach the answers before utilizing the teachers answers. She definitely needed that extra support to guide her focus, but | could tell that the learning was more meaningful when she was doing it herself. She seemed to be more engagedand would ask us if her answer was right. It was clear that she really cared about getting the answer whereas previously it had been a frantic rush to write everything down as soon as the teacher put it on the board.