Developing Preservice Problem-Solving Skills Through Case Studies by Pitton Debra Eckerman;

Author:Pitton, Debra Eckerman;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 616366
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Education

DON’T EAT THE

LAB EQUIPMENT!

SETTING: Middle school science

FOCUS QUESTIONS: While reading this case, consider the following questions:

What is the environment like in your classroom? Is it a safe and comfortable place for all learners?

How do you structure your lessons so that your students with disabilities are able to participate fully?

How do you keep from feeling negative toward students who continually create challenges for you in the classroom?

Marcus was a good-looking kid. He had a great smile and liked to chat up the teacher and other students. He especially liked the ladies in the classroom, often sitting down next to them and asking them about TV shows or movies that were popular. (This usually happened when they were supposed to be working on an assignment.) He really tried to make himself liked by the other kids . . . and despite his being identified as ADHD and EBD and his overall restless nature, he got along well with the other students most of the time.

Marcus often arrived early to class, asking what we were going to do that day . . . despite the list of objectives on the board. When I began my student-teaching experience, he was not sure about my place in the classroom. He had bonded with Mr. Hawkins, the science teacher, and from day one he gave me grief. I spent a few days observing, so I saw a lot of Marcus’s behaviors before I started teaching.

The science classroom had a lab behind the rows of student desks, and there were lots of biological models and charts that had been made by previous classes. These were great visuals, but they also provided lots of things for my ADHD students to fiddle with as they walked around the room. Mr. Hawkins was a great teacher; he had lots of patience with Marcus and the other ADHD and EBD students in our classes. His classroom was a cluster classroom for special needs students, and the special ed teacher was in the classroom on a regular basis.

Early in the term, I worked hard to bond with Marcus, but it was difficult. He would loudly pound on his desk in the middle of my minilecture or during lab when he got bored. And when I say pound, I mean he slammed his fist into the desk. He was always getting bored. I had noticed that many students got into trouble because they weren’t focused in lab, but I had not been informed about all the students who had ADHD until I had been there several days.

Once I found out about the cluster classes, it made more sense to me that there were students with so many issues. There were also a few kids I had wondered about who weren’t identified as special needs but who had a difficult time sitting in class for any length of time over ten minutes. I know that this is also typical for this age—they are growing and developing and sitting still is challenging. I tried to make sure I kept changing things up.

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