Assistantship Experience

Hello. Today, I would like to share some of my experiences with you in the classroom. One of my concerns of being in a regular elementary school classroom was the vast amount of printed material. I couldn’t help students because their work is also in print. Of course, my other concern was classroom management, which I have learned isn’t as big of a deal as it had previously sounded. These kids are used to being in school, and with the right tactics management isn’t all that difficult.
How have I solved the problem of all this print? Well, first of all, I borrowed books prior to writing the lessons to have a reader read the lesson on audio vor me. I would have scanned it for Brailling, but the book was too large to fit on my scanner. So I was then able to Braille the materials I would need for teaching the Social Studies class today. Also, today we played a game using playing cards. I did not know this would occur, and so I simply had students to verbally tell me their cards and my cards. This game was a Math game about mode, median and range, and so keeping the cards a secret was not a concern. On another day, I assisted in grading. Again, the child read aloud the answers, and I had them put their finger where the checkmark was supposed to go. If it were my goal to teach in this environment, I could probably bring in materials in Braille, but this verbal method worked well for me since I was assisting the teacher, and therefore, I was not able to preplan how to handle things.
Because of no Braille or tactile information, I am not able to play the games at indoor recess with the kids, but again, I just learned today that they did this, and I do have some of the games in an accessible format. I told the teacher this, and said I could bring those another day.
I think another concern I had was playground duty and lunch duty, mainly because I do not know the children. However, I have learned that this is really the easiest part of the day. At lunch, the children are in a routine, and they sit at the table and are free to talk with one another until a five-minute warning provided by the teacher.
At recess, we played indoor games, and again, the children were fairly well behaved. They were all in small groups playing games.
There are some tasks I am not able to assist with, such as walking around and visually checking to see if answers are correct. But, I am learning I can assist with some tasks, such as handing out materials. Overall, I am enjoying the experience. My future goal is to work in the field of blindness and not teach in a regular Elementary school classroom, but I am enjoying the experience and learning how management is mainly procedures, positive remarks about good behavior, and staying on a full schedule. Negative remarks about behavior are provided when necessary, but positive remarks helps the children to behave.
Finally, this is an open school, and I wanted to demonstrate to the teacher and principal that I could independently learn the environment. Before I was scheduled to begin the assistantship, I came to the school to learn the layout. In class, I use my cane to show the students and teacher I can navigate the classroom independently. However, I have decided to allow my teaching assistant partner to guide me from classroom to classroom simply because I am only here for three weeks, and learning the environment is not a main goal for me at this time. However, on the first day, I walked using my cane around the building because I felt I should do this to demonstrate my skills. Again, I wanted to know the environment in case of emergencies and to demonstrate ability, but I do not feel I need to learn the entire layout of the school since I’ll only be there for a short time period. If it were a building with halls and closed classrooms, I would probably walk from place to place independently.
If you have had an experience teaching in a public school and would like to share your experience, please feel free to do so. Also, I am sorry to inform you readers that I had to block anonymous commentors simply because I was starting to acquire junkmail, and I didn’t want readers to enter on a link and harm their computer. In addition, I did not want junk on the blog. If a link does show up on the blog, please do not click on it. If you choose to do so, this is at the risk of harming your computer, and I am not responsible. Also, never provide contact or other information to others you do not know, including those on the net. Again, sorry for this inconvenience, but I have to avoid junk from cluttering the blog. However, if you have a Google or other account available under the comment selection combo box, please feel free to comment, and also please do not provide a web address on the blog because the blog is not a place to advertise. If you do have a blog or other website about blindness, it is okay to share this on the Blindness Blog, but be specific about who you are and how this blog or website relates to blindness. Thank you.