Learning Activities Plan

Reading:
In the classroom that I do my internship in, are all high school students in a special education
classroom. The students are able to earn outings such as Lefty’s or Applebee’s. But in order to be
able to go to these places, they have to go to the website and read it in order to gather
information on how much money they will need for activities, food, and drinks. The students
used their I pads (given by the school) to look up and read the website. After reading the website
they fill out a paper that asks how much the activities are and how much money they will need
for the food and drinks that they want. We do have one student who is Hispanic. He occasionally
needs help when reading. He does not always understand what a word means. The para’s help
him use his resources such as I pads, friends, and dictionary. Since this is high school special
education (I am in the life skills pod), they are more focused on making their students
independent such as getting to their jobs, doing their jobs correctly, cooking, staying on schedule,
and acting as adults. This assignment allows them to practice their reading skills while learning
to become independent. After they finish the paper I double check them and mark the correct or
incorrect answers. Then I tally up the score and give the results to the teacher so she can use it
for her data collection. I think that this was a great lesson and worked perfectly. The only thing I
would change is allowing them more time to finish the paper. I felt as if they were a little rushed
because they had to leave for their job sites.

Mathematics:
A lot of the students in my pod struggle with counting money. So the teachers gives papers on
counting and subtracting money. The teacher prefers that they do not use any calculator, only
scrap paper, so that they will be able to count money on their own out in the real world. After
they have finished their paper they bring it to me or another para and we double check their
work. We tally up their scores and report it to the teacher so she can put it in for their data. Most
of the kids in my classroom all have a counting money goal. So we need to make sure we are
thorough in our data collection. If we see a student struggling, we try to get them to figure it out
on their own and if they can’t we help them, that will reflect in the data collection. Our one
student who’s first language is not English, we just give him more support. But from what I have
seen, he does very well in math and does not need much support from us. I liked this activity a
lot. But what I would do is give them actual or fake money that they can actually hold it to help
them visualize counting and subtracting money. But on the other hand, they should not have
tangible money every time because then they will depend on that. They need to be able to learn
how to count money when they do not have actual money on them.

Writing:
In the class I am doing my internship with, they have the ability to earn “bonus work”. This
bonus work allows them to earn “money” so that they can buy snacks or buy special outings such
as Lefty’s or China Town Buffet. They get to choose their own bonus work. One packet is a
packet about Martin Luther King Jr. They learned about his speech and they have the opportunity
to write their own speech about anything of their choosing. Some of the students struggle in
writing full sentences and how to spell certain words. So I help them form a complete sentence
and what tools they can use to find out how to spell the words they are struggling with. The
students can use their I pad or a dictionary. We do have one student who speaks Spanish and we
do the same that we do for other students, with them. We give them the opportunity to look up
words they are struggling to spell. A lot of the students have writing goals. After they have
finished their writing assignment the para’s would go over the writing and take data on their
spelling and sentences.

Health and Safety:

I am observing in a high school setting where we have 15-19 year old students in the same class.
The speech therapist also does a boys and girls group where she talks to them about health and
safety. I am personally not a loud to be in the groups because they talk about very personal
things. If, I was an actual staff member I would be able to attend these groups. But it is
confidential and I am not able to attend them. But I have asked the speech therapist and other
para what goes on in this group. They talk about how to eat healthy, personal health, and how to
take care of themselves. But as for safety, I am able to help. One example in when we go to job
sites they have safety strategies that they need to abide by. The students need to wear gloves, hair
net, and sneakers for their safety and the health of the customers. They work at a local restaurant
and they work in the kitchen so they need non slip sneakers, and they need to wear gloves and
make sure that they don’t touch their face or the trash and then go touch the food. We also have
to make sure if something spills they clean it up immediately so that they and other workers do
not slip and fall. So we as para’s over see what they are doing to make sure they are being safe
and clean.

Ethically:
I got to sit in on a parent teacher meeting. It was not in person, it was over the phone because the
mother could not find a time that worked to meet. The teacher let her know that I was in the
room and was going to listen in, as long as it was ok with her. During this meeting I think that
the teacher demonstrated professionally. I thought that it was very professional of her for telling
the parent who I was and what I was doing and asking if it was alright if I listened in rather than
just letting me listen in and not tell the parent. I also think she demonstrated being professional
and being ethical in the way she responded to the parent when they started getting frustrated and
being a bit rude. Rather than getting rude back, she calmed the parent down and worded her
concern in a way that would not cause any frustration or confrontation. She also had a calm voice
and let the parent talk instead of interrupting and asked the parent for their ideas for a solution
rather than just giving her own opinion. As a teacher I think it is important to work WITH the
parents instead of working against them. The way she handled herself was very impressive and I
hope to handle myself the same way she did, if I ever get put in that situation.