Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 2026
Abstract
The setting of this study takes place in a rural high school, nestled in the center of corn fields, in a self-contained classroom. I’m the assigned leader of this group, an instructional strategist II, which is just a fancy way of titling a special education teacher with endorsements focused on moderate learning and behavior disabilities. Our classroom environment is a community of close-knit students and adults. The 10 students that have been selected for this study range from 9th to 12th grade. Each of these students are equipped with Individualized Education Programs, in the goal areas of social-emotional behaviors and learning disabilities. Many of these students are learning and implementing strategies for specific functional and sensory challenges that are associated with ADHD and AuHD. Supporting these complex needs, my classroom is designed as a highly structured environment with designated workstations to help minimize distractions. An incredibly under-recognized strength of my classroom is my staffing-to-student ratio; I lead the room as primary teacher, and for this purpose the researcher, and am supported by three full-time para-educators. Our four person team, which we jokingly prefer to be recognized as Charlie and her angels, provide a high level of individualized attention and consistent data collection that would otherwise be extremely difficult to provide in a generalized educational setting. This ensures that each student has a supportive adult readily at hand to learn the way of the digital self-monitoring tools necessary for this research. The research will look at how a digital tool , I-Connect, can step in to provide a form of external scaffolding these students need to help them be successful. Using a mixed-methods approach, I will be tracking both the hard number, like the frequency of time spent where on-task behavior is observed, and the human aspect, like how students’ sense of autonomy and emotional regulation shifts when the constant verbal commands are removed. With the support of my three paras, the investigation of whether the use of a digital self-monitoring tool can reduce undesired behaviors, which usually occur when a student is given a verbal command prompted by an adult. Really, what we want to see is if shifting from check-ins from a person-to-person style to a digital check-in will provide a more neutral support without inducing social pressures and frustrations that lead to and trigger bigger behaviors. The ultimate goal is to find a way to help my students take control of their learning adventure and still maintain high standards in academic and behavioral achievements.