This semester I have been volunteering at the Sidney Lanier Center. The Sidney Lanier Center is a school for kindergarten through 22 year olds that has programs for students with intellectual, learning, and physical disabilities or behavioral problems. Though I expected this to be a more challenging assignment than some of the others offered in the Alachua County school system, I chose it because I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn about working with children and a chance to observe an experienced teacher and the techniques he or she would use to help the children improve and grow.
As a future nurse, and especially given I have an interest in working in pediatrics, I will be working with kids and people in the future who may have various disabilities. Given that, it is important for me to work on gaining the special skills and knowledge required to work with them in a productive and helpful way. Additionally, the techniques used to help manage children with behavioral problems would be effective with all children and I hoped to see how a teacher might manage inappropriate behavior while also being positive, encouraging, and motivating. Being in a lower socioeconomic area, I also expected this to play a role in the situation of the students, and I hoped this experience would open my eyes to this even more so.
While volunteering, I would help with many things throughout the day. I would get there 15-30 minutes before the children arrived to help the teacher set up, gather materials, and plan for the day. During that time she would also debrief me on what she needed me to do, particularly if it was something she didn’t want the students to be aware I was doing (like having me sit a certain place in the room to prevent certain students from interacting as much, having me monitor certain students more than others, or if she wanted me to be aware of certain behavioral problems particular students were having either in their other class or with her earlier in the week). After this I typically went with her to pick up the students and help them return to the room. The school uses a ticket system where students receive awards for walking to her class calmly, waiting outside the door quietly, and getting to their seats well, among other tasks, so I often got to hand out tickets if I observed these behaviors.
Next, she would go other the tasks for the day while letting the other students read and repeat the material. Afterwards, I would assist with whatever activity was planned. If it was a group activity, I would sit with the students to help and encourage them, while also trying to minimize the behavior they were working to avoid (like calling out, fighting with other students, etc). If they were working on the computers, I would walk around to ensure they were on task or answer questions while the teacher would work with the other students individually on certain skills and if they were doing well I would sit next to different students and have them talk about what they were doing or read to me. I would also have them read to me during their independent reading time and ask them comprehension questions or what different words meant, and help them with pronunciation.
At the end I would help her walk them back to class and clean up. The last 15 minutes were very educational for me as we would talk about the day and what went right or wrong. She would tell me about what was causing certain behaviors or why she did certain things to help curb those behaviors.
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