Week 12: Diving into Inquiry

As I have continued with my inquiry and working through my doubts, I have discovered how much I am still learning. By focusing now on why things aren’t working and how I can change this idea I had. As I worked thought my data analysis, I have found out a lot about myself and behavior management.

I saw this plan and thought it would definitely work. I though just because I was individualizing something she would she the attention she wanted and her behavior would slowly get better. But as I quickly learned, not all children will have the same reaction to a change and to correcting behavior. 

I            believe that if I had maybe tried to focus just on her attitude and defiance or her on-task behavior, instead of both at the same time, I could have been more successful. By conquering one thing first, I believe it may have helped to focus in on one behavior and then the next.

This week my teacher made my inquiry student move her clip for reading a book during a whole-group lesson. She was not paying attention to what was being taught. Later in that day, she was doing the same thing so I gave her an orange sticker. She looked up at me and sighed aloud and slammed the book in her desk. She was still defiant to change but at least she was paying attention. This seemed ok until my teacher thought of something. She brought it to my attention that I should focus on a positive time she decided to read, and give her a positive sticker for it. This was because it was a big deal for her to be choosing to read on her own and we don’t want her to think it is a bad thing and punish her for reading. This made so much sense to me, and made time think that maybe a more positive only reward system may have worked better? Then I would only be drawing attention to her positive choices and behavior. I want to see if this will make any difference, or if this students really just needs something else to help her make better choices and change her behavior. Either way, I have finally realized that even if my inquiry is not successful, I am still learning through the process.

Week 11: Inquiry Doubts

            As I have worked further into my inquiry I am beginning to have some doubts. I know an inquiry does not always have to have an answer or solution, but I sometimes feel like they need to.

            This week I started my individualized behavior management plan. I started by pulling my inquiry student aside and explaining to her how it would work. I told her we were going to do something special just for her. How it would work was if she was off-task I would place an orange sticker on a small book on her desk. This would help from disrupting the entire class to fix her behavior. If she saw an orange sticker, she would know she was not making good choices and needed to change. If she was on task and doing all that she was supposed to, she would receive a green sticker. If she got 3 of either, she could move her clip up or down, accordingly.

            After explaining it to her. And receiving her first green, she seemed really excited about this special thing for her. This was all until and orange sticker was placed on her paper, followed by another. This only caused her to pout more. This is where my doubt comes in. I know I need to keep trying to see if it will eventually start working and that was maybe just the first orange that got her so upset. I am interested to see if her behavior will be affected at all by this plan, or if she may need something different to help her.

Week 10: What I've Noticed

As I went back and read through all of my blog posts, I found it quite interesting. I never really knew how I would feel about keeping a journal about practicum and blogging about it, but as I read back through my journal, I am enjoying reading what I wrote and recalling how I was feeling at that moment.

I noticed almost every journal to me is like a diary. Like Holly says, "Diaries are open ended: anything that can be verbalized can be included. At times the writer has a specific topic in mind to write about: at other times, thought flow unrestrictedly onto the page." I think by treating my journal like a diary, i enjoyed it more. I was able to verbalize all that I was thinking or feeling about a certain situation during practicum or could just use it as a reflection tool to go back over something. 

One thing I did notice about my journaling though was that I don't often use it to reflect on how it could have been different. I wish I had taken the time as I wrote each situation, to explain how it could have been different or changed. 

I believe this journaling for the past 9 weeks has allowed me to keep a running record of what has been going well, not so well, and just what is happening with practicum. It has allowed me to let out how I am feeling and to share my experiences. I have enjoyed journaling and the fact that I was able to choose how i wanted to write and express what I wanted to say.