Field Observations

Oscar Garcia

Introduction to Special Education 203

Field Observations

Wednesday, December 02, 2015

 Field Observations

My observations hours took place at Hal Smith Elementary School in an assigned 2nd

grade classroom. Unfortunately, I did not get put into a class of only special education students.

However, the class I was appointed to did have several students with IEPs. On my first day in the

classroom, I was politely greeted by my cooperating teacher, Ms. Salazar, while the students

were timid in the beginning at my arrival. I decided to observe the teacher and the students

before partaking in getting involved in the classroom, so that way I can have an idea of how the

classroom is organized. The teacher I was working with told me that she believes what keeps a

classroom functioning is a structured environment. Something I liked that my cooperating

teacher does is praising good behavior while ignoring negative behavior. Although, she does not

leave the students to dust, so she shapes their behavior by practicing good behavior and praises

them afterwards. After the practice session, she would continue to ignore their negative behavior

but will recognize and praise the good behavior they learned during practice.

Ms. Salazar did most of her instructing on the carpet where she would teach a lesson in a

variety of learning styles. For example, she included the auditory learning style by partaking in a

lesson on adjectives where she would show a regular sentence on the electronic whiteboard and

explain that each noun in the sentence described can give more details to a sentence. She first

told the class what describes a noun, such as size, numbers, colors, etc. Ms. Salazar would then

choose a student as her partner to demonstrate the lesson to the other students. Once the

modeling is done, the students are paired up with a partner to try it out for themselves. The

teacher chooses some students to share their own version of the sentence. That is known as her

modeling process, which she follows for every lesson she teaches. I really liked the visual

concept of adjectives because she taught it by only showing a picture on the whiteboard, and the
kids were to describe what they saw on the picture following the modeling process. I gave my

cooperating teacher an idea for a kinesthetic lesson on adjectives, which she appreciated and

suggested I teach it. I had fun teaching the kids adjectives using objects in the classroom, so that

they can describe things using their senses, except taste. Ms. Salazar liked the idea so much that

she decided to add it on to the adjectives lesson using the five senses as the kinesthetic activity.

There were behavior issues present in the classroom, and I got to observe the way the

teacher handled it. She believes that a child should not be shamed, so she handles any conflicts

privately outside the classroom. It made me feel happy to finally get to see a teacher who does

not shame a student for doing something wrong in front of the whole class. The time she would

handle the situation would be after getting a lesson done, so that the other students can work on

something. She politely tells the student quietly to see them outside the class and handles the

conflict the way I was taught from my previous education classes. For example, there was a

problem where it was independent work time for the students who had their folders up, and one

student was being bothered by another because the other student was poking his folder. The

teacher would ask to speak to both of them privately and hear both students point of view one at

a time. The student who was poking the folder told the teacher that he was doing everything

unintentionally because he did not realize he was doing it. It is assumed that the unidentified

student has ADHD and it cannot be controlled, which the teacher understands. However, she

knows it is still not okay that he poked his companions folder, so she asked both students what

kind of things he can do to help him avoid that situation. Both students came up with suggestions

and modeled it. She also told the other student what he needs to do if such thing happened again.

They also practiced vice versa to experience how the other person felt, which was quite

interesting to see. Finally, there was an apology, and they both respected each other.
 Even though it was a general class, there were some students who had IEPs. I got to work

with the some IEP students, such as a student from a special education class who was getting

exposure to a normal classroom. The other second graders who already knew the classroom

rules and routine were so polite and kind to the student with the disability. For instance, if the

child was not sitting the proper way then another student would softly tap them on the shoulder

and showed them how to sit respectfully. I thought it was adorable on how kind and sweet the

students were with the student from a special education class. When the child would get a turn to

share their response to the teacher, they would endlessly be telling a story from a different angle.

It confounded the teacher but the other students tried to tell the teacher what he actually meant,

and the teacher would also try her best to understand what his response meant without anybody

judging the child. I also got to work with the child in creating his sentence by plugging in the

adjectives with the nouns. We would read the sentence together, and what adjective he would

like to put to describe the noun. Luckily, I understood his long stories because they were Batman

related. I wrote the sentence on a small whiteboard for him to see the adjective he chose, and he

would write it down on the paper simultaneously.

Throughout my time in the classroom, I got to work with a variety of children from

writing sentences, to spelling tests, to having them practice reading to me in order to test their

comprehension of the book. I stayed positive the whole time, which the teacher appreciated. She

also appreciated me for everything I did in the classroom and vice versa because I appreciated

the experience and helpful advice I received from her. I was upset to leave her class because I

easily get attached to the students. I know that goodbyes will be one of the hardest moments I, as

a teacher, will face. Ms. Salazar notified me how much the kids missed having me in the

classroom and the impact I had on her students. They wrote me letters, so I decided to visit
another day in the classroom to pick up the letters, which were kind and sweet. I did give Ms.

Salazar a thank you card and a treat for her and the class before I left to show my thanks. She

wanted to keep in touch in case I learn anything new and helpful that she can apply to her

classroom. The only thing I would add to my classroom that I did not see is a reward system. I

did learn that a teachers job is time consuming and busy, but it is the children who make me

want to teach.