Summary
For my 25-hour field experience, I taught in an Autism/Life Skills room at South Fayette Elementary School. In a COVID free world, I would have been teaching in person, but I decided to help online. Each week, I would jump into Google Meet sessions with one student at a time. The students included in this had labels such as Down Syndrome or Autism and were in grades 1-3. For each session, the teacher would have a time slot of about thirty minutes to work on various subjects. Students would have multiple time slots a day depending on their pull-out schedule from the regular classroom. In the sessions I observed, students would be working on math, writing, spelling, and sight words. The tool utilized for instruction was called Boom Cards. When using Boom Cards, the teacher would provide a simplified question that pertained to a skill and then click on the answer the student provided. The students could not interact with the technology, but there were ways to have students select an answer with a pointer or point to the answer with their finger. The teacher wanted the student to provide an oral response, or the parents would assist and tell the teacher what answer was provided. Boom Cards were also a good tool to use when tracking data. The teacher knows exactly how many the student got correct and check back on it. The technology made learning engaging and provided multiple visuals for students. Google Slides were used for sight words, so they were less engaging, but still effective. Online schooling can be beneficial for some students.
One aspect of online school that is beneficial is students are provided with more freedom from a hectic classroom. Some students with Autism would become overwhelmed by the constant chaos of the classroom. One other important factor of online learning is to make sure parents are communicating with you. When teachers would be instructing students online, it made learning more efficient with a parent guiding their child. Parents are the key to helping children with special needs because they know them more than we do. I saw through this field that collaboration with parents and other teachers can help the student's learning. Overall, the field was extremely beneficial to see how online teaching works and what not to do in the online format. The field gave me a new perspective on how the world of teaching is growing and it will always be changing. Technology is a part of my life every day, so it would be beneficial to learn more ways to use it in my classroom. The field in Mrs. Coll's classroom provided me with multiple ideas for teaching in my future classroom.
One aspect of online school that is beneficial is students are provided with more freedom from a hectic classroom. Some students with Autism would become overwhelmed by the constant chaos of the classroom. One other important factor of online learning is to make sure parents are communicating with you. When teachers would be instructing students online, it made learning more efficient with a parent guiding their child. Parents are the key to helping children with special needs because they know them more than we do. I saw through this field that collaboration with parents and other teachers can help the student's learning. Overall, the field was extremely beneficial to see how online teaching works and what not to do in the online format. The field gave me a new perspective on how the world of teaching is growing and it will always be changing. Technology is a part of my life every day, so it would be beneficial to learn more ways to use it in my classroom. The field in Mrs. Coll's classroom provided me with multiple ideas for teaching in my future classroom.