Student Perspective

It was a great experience to shadow a student. I chose an RFEP special education student who happens to be a second year senior and taking a variety of classes- Geometry, Biology, ICS, English 11 and 12, US History, and Digital Imaging.

The student I chose finally accepted for me to shadow her. I was with her all day from 7 am to 1:45. We stayed together during breaks and visited the girls restroom several times, which I appreciated.

My experience was interesting. We spent a couple of hours in the special education room- for advisory, for English support, and for math since she was using the ALEKS program. It was my first time working with the ALEKS program and I can see the benefit of practice. I spent a couple of hours in the same science classes and then went to ELA 12, US History and Digital Imaging. I am not sure if my student shadow finished anything in class. She was hoping to go back to the Special Education teacher for help. I worry that she might not be able to finish all of those projects on time when tomorrow, she will have more projects to do. (How can we help? remains the essential question)

I must admit that I finished the day with a big headache. Seeing it through a student perspective, it is very difficult, specially on our Tuesday schedule. Every 36 minutes, students are expected to begin a new subject and change gears. In some cases, a new topic was introduced and it is difficult to make connections.