Storey 1 Abbey Storey SPED 426 February 16, 2013 Becoming a Change Agent During my time in the LBS1

program, I have gained knowledge and experience from my courses and practicum placements. I have seen examples of teaching methods and collaborative practices that I want to include in my future classroom, as well as those that I wish to avoid. Reflecting on the issues I felt hindered the students will help me figure out effective replacement practices for future occurrences. Last semester my practicum placement was one full of experiences I had never participated in before, such as co-teaching in general education Math and English classes and teaching a pull out Math intervention course. In this Math intervention course I had three students, each with a different disability. One student had a label of emotional behavioral disorder. This intervention class was designed for students who were two or more years behind in Math according to standardized test scores. This boy was at grade level, almost exceeding Math expectations according to his test scores, yet was still put in this classroom. I later learned this was because the general education teacher did not know how to handle his behavior. The behavior analyst for the school placed him in our room rather than trying to come up with strategies to reduce his problem behavior in the general education class that was more suited to his level. This was limiting to the student, who was often bored in our class, as he knew all the answers. His being bored would lead to him acting out and demonstrating problem behavior in class. He had been at

Storey 2 this school for half a year and still the behavior analyst had not written a behavior plan for him. My cooperating teacher and I did not know what methods to use when he demonstrated problem behavior and had to try strategies on our own. This placement impeded this student from making progress, but also impeded the other two students, as we had to stop class to handle his behaviors. These two students were two or more years behind grade level and needed this extra help, but instead were getting choppy, interrupted lessons due to the third students problem behavior. This problem is an example of the collaborative process being hindered. The behavior analyst had not met with his prior teachers from elementary school to learn about his behaviors or learn what strategies they had discovered helped this student to behave in a more positive way. She also had not created a behavior plan, nor did she communicate or collaborate with my cooperating teacher or other team teachers for this students needs. This put a burden on my cooperating teacher, myself and the students other teachers as we did not receive any background on the student or any ideas of how to promote positive behavior or lessen problematic behavior. By the behavior analyst operating as a completely separate entity, rather than collaborating with this students teachers, the students educational progress was hindered, the teachers became frustrated and their other students were negatively affected as well. To combat this issue, I feel that communication is the key starting point in this circumstance. Due to the nonexistence of collaboration that currently exists, the problem amplifies. To help solve this problem, I feel that the behavior analyst

Storey 3 should ideally begin collaboration with the elementary school teachers of her students in order to gather data and information to help this student succeed as they transition to middle school. I also feel that she should be part of the students teachers team weekly meeting to discuss with each of his educators the behaviors that he is demonstrating in their classes and together brainstorm ideas of the best way to reach this student and promote positive behaviors. I feel that my cooperating teacher and the behavior analyst could also have a weekly meeting to discuss the concerns he has for his class, describe in detail what is not working, and together share ideas of how to move forward. Communicating the issue, and all coming together to be on the same page when dealing with this students problem behavior will help the interventions to succeed if the student knows that consequences will be the same in each of his classes. Consistency would aid the lessening of problematic behavior and promote further collaboration of sharing results seen from the unified intervention. Overall, everyone in this situation would benefit from communication with one another. The lack of information and discussion hindered the progress of the student, the progress of his peers in the class, the teachers effectiveness of intervention and the probability that the problematic behavior would lessen. Collaboration is key in this circumstance to better the situation for all involved. In the future, if I were to come across a similar situation, I now feel confident that I could suggest ways to collaborate and combat the issue.