Research Project

The Ministry of Education document, Foundations for a Healthy School, is integrated into my placement because I can observe a well-rounded care and consideration for students, teachers, and staff. The focus is on building a school community that is ready to support one another. I can see this process through the willingness to provide support for children that exhibit difficulties with integrating within classroom schedules and routines.

For an assignment in my Child Development class, we were tasked with shadowing a student of our choice. I chose to research a student, which I named "Daisy". She is given support from her classroom teachers, educational assistants and principal to facilitate her development within her social, physical, cognitive, and emotional domains. I believe viewing a child through these different domains allows one to fully understand the whole child rather than just how they perform academically. Focusing and refining areas within these domains allows students to grow as an individual.

The other focus is on integrating Daisy with transitional periods throughout the day because that is where her behaviour is most disruptive. This includes placing members of staff as an extra set of eyes when children are out for recess, in order to ensure that Daisy is interacting with her peers in appropriate ways. Teachers are her role models for good behaviour and social cues because she identifies more with adults as there is a lack of other children in her home life. These role models work towards increasing Daisy’s support when interacting with her physical and social environments to create relationships with her peers.

Here we see Daisy making birthday invitations for her friends. This was interesting because it was her attempt at making friends. I noticed that Daisy doesn’t identify with many of her peers in class and I believe this has to do with her lack of social skills. So in order to support her and her initiative to socialize with others, we collaborated on ideas for the contents of her invitations. I wrote out the template and she wrote out the rest on of her own and handed them out to some of her classmates. I wonder if role-playing activities will help with her process of making friends and becoming more comfortable with social situations in general.

Daisy’s mother is also a supportive member of Daisy’s life in connecting her interactions at school and in the classroom. Her mother is given a weekly behaviour chart that updates her on Daisy’s progress and areas of improvement. This introduces a constant flow of communication and consistency of behavioural interventions that span from school to home life.