Fieldwork #1

What does a teacher do all day?

I'm doing my fieldwork in an autism unit in an elementary school. The children in the class are in third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. There are 13 children in the class consisting of 1 girl and 12 boys. The teacher that I'm working with greets the children first thing in the morning, and he and his two para educators then starts working with the children on their individual IEP goal work. This time is mostly used to teach them math and spelling.

Writing is taught before lunch. During lunch, the teacher and his aides watch the kids and help them to stay calm and under control and they also make sure the kids eat enough of their lunches. While the aides watch over to kids on the playground, the teacher takes a short lunch by himself in the classroom, that is if no children have behavior problems and need to stay inside with him. After lunch the teacher reads to all of the kids, teaches language arts, grammar, art, social games, or science. The aides are busy making sure that all of the kids get to their specialty classes and any other places that they need to go, like speech, occupational therapy, and adaptive p.e.

The teacher in the classroom that I'm working in has to be in charge of, and responsible for, each child's behavior and intervene when necessary, their education and all of the testing that each student needs, and for their social integration and formation. He needs to be a performer that is educating as well as entertaining the children so that they don't get bored while they're learning. Teaching is an incredibly challenging and demanding job, but I can see how it is very rewarding as well.