Student Observations

Mrs. Yardis' class and Mrs. Orlando's class
March 10th

    As students sit in a circle, Mrs. Yardis reminds reminds her students to sit on their bottoms. George moves around a lot, back up on knees after 2 mins. no SEP aide. During work time he is sitting and doing his work just fine. Great cutting, George has a thing with scissors and cutting. sometimes uses them too much.... Did his work then..... SEP teacher sits behind him George doesn't know she is here just for him. She asks him questions to keep him on task. Waits for teacher to do next part of lesson. Stays sitting, interruptions, etc. keeps working while clean up his occurring.


March 15th,
During art today in the art room, George enjoys drawing fish although he used supplies in appropriately. He uses scissors on pastels etc. He gets an well needed OT break and doesn't have a chance to finish project.

March 20th,
Before art Georgehas had a 1/2 OT time We are having art in the art room. On this day. T starts off being disruptive making notices. others copy . I give two warnings then move him to a table by himself. This seems to help. He starts cutting his pond,does a nice job, but never stops when he needs to giving the pond a trim. I fix it, so he can go onto cutting out lily pads and crinkle tissue paper for the flower part of the lily. He seems to enjoy this too. He works independently for a while drawing more little fish this time. He glues everything down. Not a pool of glue like usual. He taps the glue bottle but it soon turns into squeezing, but at least he's not finger painting!
Although George shouldn't use certain materials the way he does, it seems to give him some pleasure. Before cleaning up his mess, George took a giant pastel and drew heavy on a piece of paper. I reminded him he needed to clean up, before he did extra time, but he seemed to be enjoying it, so I sat there and watched him. Then he stopped handed it to me, and said, "this is for you. "
I felt bad for George sometimes, he is doing things out of a pure need, not to be a stinker! I plan to work with the OT to see if she can give me some advice.

Talked to the OT today, she recommends holding a thick folder behind what George is cutting for him to be more input when cutting. This she help with his over cutting, and snipping.
Told me that Sally get over stimulated because of all the visual stuff. recommends covering whatever she isn't reading or drawing etc. so she can focus better. Also sounds bothers her which I've already addressed with not ringing the bell.

Frenchtown School, Trumbull, CT
May 8th,
   3rd grade students were working on Day #2 of a Embossed Medal project
Inspired by Senufo Drawing. Despite the rainy day students we very well behaved.
This class was selected for me to observe because 2 students are in a program
Called SRP Special Resource Program. Before entering the art classroom I was introduced to teachers in the program and visited 3 of there classrooms.
Students earn special time to do things they like. One students had earned OT time where he was jumping and singing about the rain. Michelle H. Said they they work so hard to earn their special time they can be loud etc. Spaces were labeled and each student has a folder with visuals to help them achieve their individual goals.
One boy in a wheel chair enjoys earning time going on the school elevator!
Next, I walked around the art room looking at students work and really tried  to observe 2 student's in the SRP. One student did excellent, his skills were lower but I didn't notice any different behaviors then the rest of the group. Another student I noticed was a little anxious. His para was working very closely with him. She sat with him and worked carefully and quietly. I learned that the para got to know the project well because she had been in the room doing the same project two other times. The overall feeling of the room was not overwhelming despite the 20 ft. Ceilings. The walls were kept clean of artwork. there were a few small boards with art stuff on them. A large free standing dry erase board was to the side which was used to draw on for part of a demonstration. What made the visual part of the demonstration work well was the overhead called a TT-12 was used to display what Ms. Dean was demonstrating onto the smartboard. Every time she demonstrated something it was show in large scale for everyone to see!!!