This semester I completed a 25 hour field at Sharpsville Elementary School observing and teaching in one of their learning support classrooms. During this field I also got the opportunity to observe their ABA room, autistic support classroom. It was an incredible experience where I learned how important it was to differentiate my teaching to fit my students needs and I witnessed how the teachers supported their students.
ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) is a program that is based on the science of learning and behavior. It was really cool to see this program in action and to observe the ideas and strategies being taught in my college courses actually applied to their program of best practice teaching. The instructors had worked to create specialized plans that fit with each student and their needs. The skills the students were working on was based on their strengths and the skills they needed to improve. The autistic support classroom does not look like your traditional classroom but it looks like a classroom that is filled with learning and teachers of impact.
(Here is a picture of one of the instruction sheets hung around the ABA classroom)
When observing in the ABA room and with one of the students in the learning support room I got to see students using assistive technology to excel. One of the students in the ABA room were nonverbal and the teachers had a tablet for him where he could click on icons that would verbalize his needs and desires. We watched the teacher work with him on asking politely to use something. He would see something he wanted and then have to find the picture on his tablet and select it to ask to use the item. The other student using a tablet was a student in the learning support classroom who struggled to talk and so used the tablet in a similar manor to help communicate. Even over the month and a half that we were at the school this student got to the point that they rarely used the tablet and were able to carry on a basic conversation with the teacher and peers. It was exciting to see him make so much progress over a short amount of time.
During the time in the school I also got the chance to teach two lessons. It was so helpful to teach and then be able to reflect on what I could have done better. With my first lesson I struggled with some of the transitions between activities and class management in general. Even with only teaching one more time, I was able to incorporate the teachers advice to create a second lesson that was more successful with better class management. I learned that for her specific group it was really important to give very specific direct instructions, because that is what they were used to.
Here is a copy of the lesson that I taught on pronouns:
(Here is a picture of me teaching the second lesson on pronouns)
I am so glad that Grove City College does field experiences like this one, they are so valuable to teachers in training. A lot of colleges wait until the last year to get student teachers into the classroom but doing it early gives the students a great experience. They get the opportunity to observe and apply the theories they are being taught in their courses in a real classroom. This field especially was very helpful in gaining insight on what being a special education teacher is really like. I am very excited to do more fields like this one in the future.