This last week, I tried to focus some more of my observations on K. I feel like I focus on T's outbursts a lot because they happen much more often. K's behavior is much more subtle than T's.
On Tuesday, we had a conference with K's parents because my mentor teacher was really concerned. K is so off task that he rarely produces any work. She is concerned because grading period is going to be coming to an end soon and she doesn't have any work to grade him on. When we give a math test, for example, he will finish about five of the twenty questions and turn it in. When we bring it back to him, I often sit with him so that he will stay focused, but it takes a lot of re-directing. It's not that he doesn't know the material, it's that he cannot focus long enough to get the page finished or go back and check his work. At the conference, his mom said that it took them an hour and a half to finish the math homework last week. My mentor was concerned about this because it shouldn't take him that long to do 20 math questions for homework. She did suggest to K's parents that they get him on meds for attention. They said they had heard this suggestion many times before, but kept wanting to see if a different atmosphere (K was at a different SK school last year) would help his attention. This does not seem to be the case so far. Two days later, K's dad came in to tell my mentor that they had set an appointment up to see someone to give K meds, but not until March. I think it's great that his parents are willing to try this, even though it's the last thing they want. I think that K is so intelligent, some of his responses to the questions we ask during literacy are above the level of the rest of his classmates, but he rarely responds because of his lack of focus. I think that meds could be a big help to his focus problems.
On Wednesday, the Autisim Specialist and the Occupational Therapist came to visit the classroom. The Autisim Specialist gave us a new management strategy to try out with both K and T. She gave us "to-do books" that have three blanks so that we, as teachers, can insert three tasks that the students have to complete before they can move on to their break. They get to decide what to do on their break. This proved really effective for T, because he is very into being an "artist" and so he will complete anything in order to get five minutes of time to draw. However, K did not respond as well. He's a tough one to figure out. Both my mentor and I have not figured out what motivates him. One of my goals next week is to pull him aside and ask him for a list of ideas. I also went to Learning Palace this last weekend and made a "toy box" full of little toys - clay, silly putty, a squishy ball, etc. that they can choose for their break. These are all things they can do with their hands to get out a little extra energy. I got the idea from the classroom I was in last year.
On Friday, we tried a new management strategy at the carpet. We gave each of the boys something tangible (a gummy dinosaur) and told them that they could hold onto it as long as they were at the carpet and being quiet. This worked miracles for T but K did not respond to it at all. He was so distracted. I had to sit behind him and redirect him constantly. I think that we definitely need to find something to motivate him at the carpet because he rarely is taking part in class discussions.
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