Reflecting and Monitoring of my Practice.

 Reflecting on what happened in Term 2  to my Target students.

                               Student 1

Toward the end of term 2, student number 1 seemed to struggle with managing his emotions. His anxiety increased and became more restless. He was emotional and got upset easy. This student accessed the Regulation corner more often throughout the day. He did a pretty good job taking himself to the self-regulation corner when needed. Student 1 tried his best to calm himself but seemed to me that he needed more help to support his emotions.  This student knew what to do but he cannot cope or handle it when difficult challenges occur.

                   Student 2-

“NO” …… was always the response from Student 2 when he was asked to complete a required task. He often drops to the ground and refuses to comply. Student 2 prefers to play and not to participate in required activities. Our team had to brainstorm some ideas to ensure student 2 was also following the instructions given and complying with our classroom rules.

                                              Student 3 

In term 2, student 3 has made a great improvement in his ability to cope when other students interfere or join in his game. When others knocked his creation down he managed his emotions quite well. He often gets up and walks away. His toleration skills in play have significantly improved. However, there is an area 

where he struggles to build resilience. 

Student 3 hurts himself every time a particular student calls his name. Student 3 does not want to interact or play with this student. Student 3 cannot tolerate this and he showed his frustration by scratching his face. This incident was bad in term 2 because of the scratches and marks on his face. Student 3’s parents and I had to talk about strategies to use to address this behaviour. Student 3 became more upset in term 2.

Due to all the challenges and behaviours that my students displayed in term 2, I had to do something different.

What did I do?

  I contacted these key people for their support.

Behaviour Specialist

Occupational Therapist

Parents

        Through discussion, we came up with this plan.

1-Behaviour Specialist

-Assigns time to come in and observe the students.

-Gives advice and support to staff by trialling/implementing 

 strategies to address the behaviour.

-Provide ongoing support for the students. Take notes and monitor their progress.

2-Occupational Therapist

-Create an appropriate program to support the targeted behaviour.

-Explain the importance of the programme and its benefits to the students.

-Demonstrate and support staff to implement the program.

  3-Parents

 

-A regular meeting with the parents to talk about the behaviour/ anxiety/emotions that are noticed at school.

-Update the parents with what is happening at school.

-Inquire about information from the parents about what the

student is like at home.

-Request for ideas/strategies/methods parents are using at home.

-Share with parents ideas/ strategies/ methods used at school.

-Ensure both parents and teachers are on the same page to address the target behaviour.

What are the new changes implemented into

the classroom programme in term 3?

1- Ongoing support from Behaviour Specialist.

2-Regular meetings with the parents.

3- Run a daily “Go Zone” programme in the morning by (OT)

        Resources:

         Teacher and Parent meeting Template

Date	Points of Discussion
	What is going well at school?:	What is going well at home?
	What is not going so well at school?	What is not going so well at home?
	What strategy is working at school?	What Strategy is working at home?
	What else?

 Go Zone! Activity (prepared by our OT)

Activities	How to assist
Warm up, group activity:  Animal walks	Have all the students have a frog jumping race down the length of the school hall.
Spinning using an office chair	Have the student sit on the office chair and slowly spin them no more than 15x clockwise and then 15x anticlockwise.
Scooter board crawling or pulls	Encourage students to use their arms to crawl forwards. They can be rewarded by being pulled back gently by holding their ankles.
Swiss ball rocking	Encourage student to try to reach forward for the ground with their hands while rocking forwards and backwards. Support the student by holding their hips and moving forwards and backward. Can be completed 15-20x on tummy and back if tolerated.
Pushing bean bags	Encourage student to race each other pushing beanbags down the hall length.
Sushi roll ’n’ squish	Try to finish with this activity. Complete 4-5 times.  Roll the student up in the mat and roll the Swiss ball up and down their body about five times. Put some pressure on the ball as you roll it so they feel the Squish. Make sure the head is never covered and they can breathe easily.

When the tamariki (child) has had a sustained 10-15 minutes 

of movement and pressure with the above activities, you 

have assisted them to regulate their senses in their environment.  

                     This period of regulation can be effective for up to 2-3 hours.

1. Animal walks:

Have all the students have a frog jumping race down the length of the school hall.

2. Spinning on the chair 

Have the student sit on the office chair and slowly spin them no more than 15x clockwise and then 15x anticlockwise.

3. scooter Board crawling 

Encourage student to use their arms to crawl forwards. They can be rewarded by being pulled back gently by holding their ankles.

                             4. swiss ball rocking

Encourage student to try to reach forward for the ground with their hands while rocking forwards and backwards. Support the student by holding their hips and moving forwards and backward. Can be completed 15-20x on tummy and back if tolerated.

3. Pushing bean bags 

Encourage student to race each other pushing beanbags down the hall length.

4. 4. Sushi roll ’n’ squish

Try to finish with this activity. Complete 4-5 times.  Roll the student up in the mat and roll the Swiss ball up and down their body about five times. Put some pressure on the ball as you roll it so they feel the Squish. Make sure the head is never covered and they can breathe easily.

 Implementing Play-based activities into our Maths Programme to -Tell the time, develop number recognition, quantities, addition, subtraction and multiplication.

Students are engaging in this activity to compare two activities to see which takes the longest.

Stacking of the cones or sequencing teddy bears on the card?

Students are making their own clocks to learn about the numbers on the clock.

Learning to tell the time by using the ‘People clock’ and What’s the time Mr Wolf game? To practise telling the time. (an hour and half an hour)

Learning to skip count in 2’s and 5’s by stacking the cups.

Using numicons and blocks to learn and recognise numbers and quantities. Students also learn to combine numbers. They love to work with numicon pieces and blocks and they actively participate.

The students are so creative, that they turn these blocks into number blocks. They interact with each other to explore addition, subtraction and multiplication in their own ways. 

Can Play-based learning help my students develop Resilience and Reduce their anxiety?

 

Due to the uncertainty that we are all facing including our students. My focus in term 1 was to create an environment to give my students opportunities to play.

Most of my students engaged and seemed to enjoy the play activities provided for them. However, all students in my class played in different stages of play.  (Solitary Play, Spectator Play, Parallel play and Cooperative Play)

Solitary Play-5 students	Spectator Play-2 students
Parallel play-5 students	Cooperative Play-2 students

I have noticed in term 1, there were 3 students who seemed to be very anxious, emotional, got upset easily and begin to self-harm.

Student 1-

Was always anxious about the weather when it was cloudy and rainy. Wanted to be the first in everything and got upset if he was not getting attention, rewards or praises. He often cried and needed a staff member to help settle him.

Student 2-

Was non-compliance, reluctant to follow directions given and often does the opposite of what is asked of him. This student was quite difficult to motivate to stay on task. He ignored instructions given and dropped to the ground if he does not want to.

Student 3-

Often got upset when he was asked to do something that he did not want to do. Once his name was mentioned he started crying. Sometimes he hurt himself by hitting his face. 

This raises a question for me on what to focus on in my Inquiry for this year.

“Can Play-based learning help my students develop Resilience and Reduce their anxiety?”