[nobe-l] Behavior monitoring tips?

[Zainub Cementwala]

Hello, this is my first post to this list, and I really need some advice.

I'm going to be working as an in-class academic coach and near-peer mentor--generally providing support to a teacher--in a middle school classroom with mixed students (6th through 8th grades). One of my responsibilities is going to be helping my teacher manage classroom behavior.


Those of you who are or have been in classroom settings, how do or did you identify if a student is misbehaving (not paying attention, not taking notes, talking when he/she shouldn't be)? One of my biggest concerns is that I won't be able to catch my students when they're being disruptive simply because I can't see that they're doing something wrong, making me unhelpful to the teacher I will be supporting.

Also, I'm worried that my blindness will be a cause for distraction (why I walk with a cane, using assistive technology like a portable CCTV or laptop, what my assistive technology is, other such things) DURING class. Any ideas on how to keep their attention off of my blindness and on the lesson at hand or the activity I'm leading for them?

I will be in the classroom starting on Tuesday, and some advice on what I can tell the teachers I will be working with would be really helpful.

Thank you!

Sincerely,
--Zainub Cementwala

 
~/~/~/~/~
Zainub Cementwala
Bachelor of Arts, English
University of California, Berkeley
Class of 2011
Email: zementwala at yahoo.com

"Experience is never limited, and it is never complete; it is an immense sensibility, a kind of huge spider-web of the finest silken threads suspended in the chamber of consciousness, and catching every air-borne particle in its tissue."
--Henry James