Community Engagement Project: Part 2 – Observation Reflection Assignment Reflective Journal: Compose and maintain a Word document journal in which you are to complete a reflective journal entry after

Henry

Kindergarten

IEP states:

Other Heath Diagnosis (OHD) - Truncus Arteriosus Type 1 with Mitral Atresia, Hypoplastic Left Ventricle, Primary Speech, and Vision Impairment

Total Observation Hours: 5

Total Observation Days: 5

JOURNAL ENTRY 1 - DAY 1 (1 hour)

4/14/2023

• Requires a one-on-one paraprofessional every day.

• Very energetic child who is always moving

• He does engage in classroom activities with some assistance to complete

• While sitting with the group on the rug in the front of the classroom

  • He follows directions and can follow along with the teacher on the smart board well but has a very hard time staying on task because he has difficulties staying still because of his hyperactivity levels

• When I arrived the class was doing stations and finishing up the morning assignments prior to clean-up and transitioning to the gym.

• He has braces on his legs due to his medical conditions. Although he has braces, he still competes in the gym games and or activities to the best of his ability.

• I noticed that Henry struggles with simple tasks like learning how to play spike ball with a kickball and a hula-hoop.

• It seems that activities that deal with repeated motions and or actions mentally drain him through deep and long thought processing

• Henry seems to learn better from hands-on activities and hand over hand assistance rather than learning from visual aids.

• He gets distracted very easily and or lacks the overall interest of any activity if the length of time that it takes to complete is too long.

JOURNAL ENTRY 2 - DAY 2 (1 hour and 15 minutes)

4/17/2023

• As I arrived, the class was sitting on the rug in the front of the room. the students were briefed on the assignment. He was required to practice writing by copying the words that were pulled out of an envelope. When Henry went to pick out a white board to complete the assignment, he had to search through all of the white boards to find the cleanest one. By this time the paraprofessional had to step in and make a decision for him, which got him frustrated and off topic.

• Although he struggles with choices, he does have a great sense of understanding of the time required for activities and notifies staff when the appropriate time for him to choose what he wants to do rather than it being picked for him each time.

• When he is on task, he can focus is really well and completes the task at hand

• Although he has a great recognition of time management, he sometimes forgets to notify staff that he needs a bathroom break. Thus, he has an accident from time to time.

• He has a great memory that allows him to recall past events and the positive or fun details about the past weekend or future plans for the upcoming weekend.

• He does great at transitioning from one activity to the next. He walked to music class. He walks in the hall with a great amount of energy. 

• While in music class, he was instructed to complete an action of 2 fingers on hand making a walking motion, he had a very difficult time completing the action. He seems to have issues with fine motor skills.

• When Henry was asked to stand still to sing part of a song for a choir concert, he could only stand for a few minutes until he had to move due to his balance and his medical conditions with his legs

• He was able to dance motions but was not able to turn around when needed, he almost fell over.

• He was able to remember all of the words to all the songs that were required for the concert.

• If there are a lot of gross motor skills combined, does well for a little bit but gets tired quick and than shows difficulties in stamina

• During the music class they were required to use boom whackers which is a noise maker to play along with a song, Henry had a very hard time even staying up with the pace of the music and timing of when he needed to hit his boom whacker to make the required noise in the song. Henry also got frustrated with the song and than just gave up and continued to just beat the boom whacker on the floor instead of hitting it to the appropriate time in the song.

• When he loses interest and or focus on a task, he tends to talk and distract other students around him due to his high levels of energy.

JOURNAL ENTRY 3 - DAY 3 (45 minutes)

4/18/2023

• Today Henry had gym class. He was able to partake in the gym activity that required to do sit ups with a partner. Due to his condition, the paraprofessional was there to assist him as he has the braces on his legs.

• He was able to the sit ups but had to spread his knees a little further than the other kids due to his physical condition and limitations

• The next task of gym class was to do the Pacer Running Test - this is a test where students have to run from one side of the gym to another pacing themselves to get the highest and fastest number of times they run across the gym before the buzzer goes off. He was not able to go past the first few buzzers due to his condition with his legs. He did his best but the fact that he was eliminated right away was devastating to him and he had to be reminded that all he needed to do was his best.

• After the pacer test, he was tired but he still was actively engaged in a game of dodgeball which was good at throwing the balls but not real good at catching them or running to dodge them. While out, he was able to get back in the game by following directions that were stated at the beginning of the game which was for students to do wall push ups in order to regain entry into the game.

JOURNAL ENTRY 4 - DAY 4 (1 hour)

4/19/2023

• When I arrived, Henry was actively engaged in watching a video on the smart board from their pen pals at a different school. He was still filled with enthusiasm and energy but he did focus on the screen and video.

• After they made the transition in order to go to the next class of Art, he was able to assist his other classmates by putting items away in the room. He did this to the best of his ability where he was not fully able to lift the heavy objects, merely just the lighter items.

• When they arrived at art class, the teacher handed the students a piece of plastic that had a different texture than the others in the room. Henry was able to completely define the texture of his plastic piece and answer the questions that the teacher was asking him. The question of “how does your plastic feel?” He responded that it feels scratchy.

• The teacher then assigned the students to a station where they were to complete several small art projects surrounding texture. Henry needed assistance at all stations but it was just minor reminders and a slight hold of the tiles from an extra hand from the paraprofessional. The stations were that of:

  • Station #1

    • Building / Construction out of small plastic blocks in attempts to make a tower

    • Henry did great at this station, there was nothing that he needed assistance on.

  • Station #2

    • Texture tiles were placed out so that students could color over them with crayons to transfer the texture to the papers

    • He was able to complete this portion of the stations with little to no help from the paraprofessional other than having them hold the tile so it wouldn't move while transferring the image.

  • Station #3

    • Using magnets to reconstruct a picture. Henry had to use a lot of a black magnets on white boards that would copy a printed picture

    • He was able to attempt to copy the picture but couldn't grasp the idea that some shapes were not the same and it was beginning to frustrate him the longer he stayed at the station.

HENRY WAS ABSENT ON 4/20/2023 FOR A MEDICAL APPOINTMENT – NO INFO COLECTED ON THIS DATE

JOURNAL ENTRY 5 - DAY 5 (1 hour)

4/21/2023

• When I arrived, henry was working on writing, spelling, and sentence composition.

• While he was sitting at a table writing, he communicated with the paraprofessional about what the sentence was based on. Henry was able to create a sentence based on a picture that he drew. He stated that it was a flag waving in the wind.

• When he lacked the understanding or know how to spell a word, the paraprofessional would make sound of the letter and he was able to write that letter. This was done over and over until the word was spelled completely. Once the word was spelled out, he knew the word and the sentence. Therefore, allowing Henry to complete the assignment in the appropriate time frame.

• He was slow to transition to the next activity which was going back to his music class to practice the songs they were to sing at their concert. Just like that of last time, he was able to remember the words to all the songs.

• The teacher changed part of the routine that the kids were to be doing while on stage due to the lack of room. Henry was unsure of what the teacher was asking the class to do, instead of disrupting the teacher, he quietly leaned over and asked the paraprofessional his question. With the aid of the paraprofessional going back over and restating the directions in a different way, Henry was able to fully comprehend what to do.

• Due to the medical condition of his legs, Henry did display great amounts of struggles while trying to march in place during one of the songs.

• When another song required Henry to clap along with the music, he was able to follow and know when to clap, but his actions were delayed slightly but he did remain on track with the music overall.

• At the end of the music class, the entire class as a large group activity required all the students to walk slow and fast, crawl, and skip all around the room. Henry was able to successfully walk and skip somewhat around the room, but crawling was very difficult due to the braces on his legs.

• Just as in his gym class, Henry showed signs of struggles when he was asked to complete two or more actions at a single time. The same was true for the use of the boom ackers on the last song. Today he was heard saying out loud that “I can’t hit it in time!” and “I keep missing it!” Although this frustrated Henry, he was aided by the teacher and the paraprofessional with words of encouragement. He did do slightly better on the second run of the sign than the original attempt.