Self Evaluation SEI 513, Spring 2014 Kara St.

Hilaire University of Maine

This semester, my practicum took place at the Childrens Center Augusta, where I am a special educator. In January when I first began my practicum, I switched roles from teaching in an inclusive preschool classroom, to working in a small-specialized program for children diagnosed with emotional disorders; many who have been victims of abuse, trauma, and neglect. Because of these childrens adverse backgrounds, they possess different challenging behaviors that I had never encountered. It was a huge change for me to go from working with children on the autism spectrum, to children with psychological needs;, and admittedly I was very nervous but excited at the same time to face a new challenge and learn about a new population of children. I felt comforted in knowing the reason I was moved was so I could bring my energy, set of skills and knowledge into the classroom, and to provide a different style of teaching, such as incorporating positive strategies. I knew I had some challenges ahead of me, as most of the teachers in the classroom had been team teaching together for anywhere from one to five years, using similar strategies focused around a behavior style model. While this made me feel a little un-easy, I knew there was no better time to start a semester long practicum to give the push I needed. I chose to cater my practicum plan around areas I knew I wanted to address with my new children, environment and staff, such as: conducting an early childhood environment rating scale (ECERS-R), creating a positive support plan for a child, arranging the classroom environment and schedule, and providing a training in an area of need. I do wish I could have somehow incorporated direct work with families into my practicum plan, however in this specific classroom there are three

children in foster care, as well as other children whos parents have such high anxiety they do not leave their environment; preferring to only discuss their child via text message with a case manager. I also chose to do an activity on assistive technology, simply because it was an area I wanted to do more research on. I began my practicum by completing an environment scale, the ECERS-R. It was a great way to kick off the start of the semester because I was able to objectively address needs and suggestions within the environment and schedule. Using the ECERS scores, I was able to professionally sit down with my co-workers and have a collaborative discussion on what enhancements we could make to our environment. The ECERS was a great gateway into my second competency area on arranging the classroom schedule and environment, which turned out to be very effective and got my co-workers excited to implement positive change. In fact, directly after the meeting was over we began re-organizing parts of the classroom, and began collecting books for the new literacy component I suggested. It felt good to know my ideas encouraged the team to work together and collaboratively discuss how to better enhance our classroom environment. Discussing the positive support plan I came up with for a student in our classroom was another time I felt like I encouraged good collaboration between the classroom team. I was extremely cautious to present my ideas, since often times I get told Im too soft or too nice in given situations with the kids, but with our clinician present and giving me positive reinforcement I felt good about the strategies I was giving. The following week when I did my observations to check the effectiveness of the positive support plan I did see providers trying to address the preventative measures I had talked

about, and noted the students behaviors were slightly decreased, which was wonderful to see. One area my co-teachers and I certainly dont see eye-to-eye on is that we should be strictly focus on social and emotional outcomes with the children we serve. It is a personal belief of mine that all children have the ability to learn, and giving these children the confidence to find out how they learn and what they are successful in is important. The training I gave was on multisensory teaching methods. I thought it went over pretty well, however it was clear it was not a topic of interest of theirs at all, based on their attentiveness and participation in the training. I suppose what I should have done, was talked to my supervisor about what training she feels the classroom needed most, and worked it out with her. Instead, I chose a topic I felt like the classroom needed, which turned out to be less effective, based on staff preferences and feelings on the subject matter. Overall, I believe I certainly grew over the course of this semester. I started out not knowing what kind of difference I could make when it came to working with children with psychological and emotional needs, and now I feel confidence in the skills I posses to help children of all abilities. Through the help of my professor, Sandra Doctoroff, I have come to realize that my passion in play based and relationship based intervention strategies can be across the board, not just with one specific population of children. Throughout this semester I also gained confidence. I am twenty-four years old and attaining a masters degree, and for that I feel extremely proud of myself. While I know there are always things to be learned, and areas to improve upon, I also know I need to believe in myself more, and not let others opinions control how my beliefs and values I have when it comes to working

with children. I have realized I need to use my confidence outwardly, and not be afraid to address needs and collaborate with others, even if I dont think they will agree. I look forward to seeing where my skills and confidence will take me throughout my career in early intervention.