Bruce's EDU614 Blog

This year, while working with a group 6th graders in a Science class, I was trying to help a student with special needs understand a concept. After explaining the concept to the student at least two times, the student was unable to understand the material. That is when his buddy stepped in and said "Ok, John (pseudonym), look at me and listen . . ." His friend was able to slowly explain the situation to him in a language that he was able to understand and, in a way, that John was receptive to and in the end his buddy felt good for helping. I learned two things that day, students can teach students (sometimes better than teachers) and students like helping other students learn. First, I learned that students can be more receptive and able to learn from their peers because they are less removed from learning the content that teachers are. Think how it has been since you have learned how to multiply fractions, describe the difference between a noun and a verb, learned the caus...

Finding time to gather behavioral data on students can be a tough task for a teacher. Yet, keeping and maintaining data is what allows a teacher to effectively implement their lessons each day for maximum learning. However, gathering data isn’t always done just because it is a good practice, when Individualized Educational Plans come into play, it become a requirement for teachers. Behavioral data collection requires more thought and intentionality to collect that academic data, which can be collected thought assignments or testing. Instead, in order to effectively collect behavioral data, it must be collected throughout the entirety of the class. Some teachers keep clip boards, but the result of that is a new pile of papers that they must keep track of and then when they need to look up data on a specific student, they have to search through multiple sheets of papers to collect it all. Others keep it on their computer, but they may not have access to their computer at the moment,...

Hi, my name is Bruce Nelson. Currently I am a paraprofessional at a school in Salem, I hope to be getting a license in elementary education (1-6 th ) and secondary special education (5-12). In the future, I hope to have my own classroom of 5 th or 6 th graders. My ideal classroom would have around 20 students. Within the class, hopefully around 25% of the class would have an IEP or be a part of the ELL program rather than upwards of 50% like many of the classrooms I currently work with. By spreading out some of the ELL and students with an IEP, this will allow me enough time to put in effective accommodations into the lesson planning that will hopefully benefit all students. The schools that I have worked offer chromebooks to all students. This can create challenges, but at the same time, it offers giant possibilities.  One of the cool things about working with students who need accommodations is that it requires teachers to think strategically and outside of the box to mak...