handwritten on February 24, 2014
Today was most definitely a Monday. This is not to say that my Monday was bad or that my students had an awful day, it was just a challenging, yet wonderfully rewarding Monday. Today marked the day of my very first time taking over my teacher's position in the classroom. It was absolutely exhausting, but I certainly learned a lot. I learned that while I have been making some excellent personal progress following the Verbal Behavior Program, I have also been making some mistakes which I suppose is explanatory given the fact that I am only in the classroom Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Here are some of the lessons I learned today.
1. Even if the student has already mastered a skill, you...
handwritten on February 9, 2014
Last Wednesday, I sat down with my mentor teacher for two hours, and she taught me how to fill out and recording cold probe sheets. You see, at any given time, a student is working on around seven new skills at a time. These skills may look like the list I have created below:
Receptive: LR Action (Show me...(coughing))
Receptive: LR Pictures (Show me...(tomatoes))
Tact of Pictures: (What is it?...cat)
Tacting Action (What is it?...clapping)
Two-Step Imitations (Do this..Clap hands/tap thighs)
Echoic: (Say window: "Window")
Intraverbal Fill-ins (Peanut Butter and...JELLY)
It may seem quite simple, but when you are in the midst of cold probing and you are trying to keep the student engaged...
handwritten on February 4, 2014
Unfortunately, with the current weather delays and cancellations, I have missed many more practicum days than originally anticipated. However, today I felt like was a milestone in my development as a teacher. For the first time, I was able to cold probe a student. Basically, in the language that PATTAN uses in their verbal behavior program, cold probing is applying the various types of verbal operants during a manding session. As I soon realized about two minutes into my cold probing experience, instruction is rewarding but extremely challenging. There is a balance that a teacher must find in being able to record data while motivating the student to answer questions, imitate behaviors and...
handwritten on January 24, 2014
One of the goals I wish to work on this particular semester is becoming confident and comfortable with the Verbal Behavior Program that is implemented within our Autism Support Classroom. Currently, I am not comfortable using the terms such as Manding, tact, interverbal, echoic, learner response, imitation and matching response. I have memorized what each term means, but am unsure how I am to use these terms in an academic Manding session within the classroom.
Thus, my ultimate goal is to be able to successfully and accurately conduct a Manding session with one student or two students before the end of this term.
The second goal I wish to accomplish is to become more familiar with and...
handwritten on January 24, 2014
This semester I was assigned to teach in an all-special education facility containing 163 students ages 5-21, located in urban Pittsburgh. Approximately 29% of the student body is female while the remainder is male. Almost all of the students are African American. There are two regional preschool classrooms located within the school. These two preschool classrooms total around 40 students. The remainder of the students who attend this school are considered to be either Autism Support, Life Skills Support or Multiple Disabled. The Secondary Life Skills classrooms focus on functional activities and vocational training. There are two vocational training programs one of which is school-based...
