Blog Entry 6

Strategies the teacher uses to actively engage the students and their effectiveness.

The teacher that I observed in my fieldwork experience used several different strategies to engage his students. I observed an autism unit where the teacher had to be very creative with his teaching methods to actively engage all of the students and to keep their attention focused on what he was teaching. He used the Smartboard, memory games, worksheets, scavenger hunts, and free time activities where the students could interact with each other.

Since socializing is often very difficult for people with autism, the teacher would set aside time twice a week for the students to play "social games." The students would be given an activity to do and they would have to complete the task by working together. Some students wanted to take over and others wanted to be left alone, so the teacher and his para educators were vital in helping the students communicate with each other and complete the task they were given.

The only thing that I saw that I felt the teacher could have improved on was that the students spent a lot of time sitting in their chairs facing the Smartboard. Although it is important for the students to learn to sit for long periods of time, especially those with autism, I thought that if the teacher could have shortened the time the students were sitting in their chairs they may have been able to focus better.