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Field Observation Summary

Rebecca Jones

EDU:203 Intro to Special Education

College of Southern Nevada

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Reflection

My Field Observation was completed at Darnell Elementary School. I picked this school

because my both of my daughters attended their elementary years there and I liked the school.

Although, they went there 10 or more years ago, I felt the staff and teachers were always real

friendly and it's close to my home. I wasn't sure what to expect since I have never been in a

Special Education classroom. I was quite nervous, like going to the first day of school. I was

greeted by their awesome staff. They were having a book fair that day and there were parents and

students everywhere. Although it seemed a little chaotic and busy in the office to sign in, the

receptionist was very nice and had someone walk to my cooperating teacher's classroom. There

were 3 people in the classroom, Mrs. Epstein, the Resource Teacher, Her Assistant Teacher, who

goes to the general education classrooms to help and a Student Teacher/Substitute. We spoke for

a little bit before the students came in. They were discussing happenings of the day before and

what was going to happen that day. It was a Friday, it was Spirit Day and some of the students

came dressed as Cowboys and Cowgirls. Some had on their Spirit Day T-shirts. It seemed pretty

normal.

And then the students started coming in. They were pretty hyper. They were dressed up

and had been in the library for the book fair. The Principal came over the speaker for the daily

announcements. They had a 58 second moment of silence for the victims of the mass shooting,

discussed upcoming events and said the Pledge of Allegiance. The teacher handed out the work

for the morning writing. There are four boys and one girl, 4th graders. Two boys were absent.

There is a lot of talking. Two of the boys sit in desks not attached and off on their own. The

others sit at a T shaped table. One boy comes in at 9:45, 15 minutes late.
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At 10 o'clock they leave and the 5th graders come in for reading. There are six boys in

this class. One Autistic boy who is in his first week of partial inclusion. He is not on the same

work and walks around and talks to himself. A woman comes in and checks on him, she tells him

to sit down and then leaves. The student teacher goes to sit next to him to help with his work.

Two other boys come in for help on a test they are taking in their general classroom midway

through the test she is already giving. They can't sit still. A lot of talking, wandering around and

coloring instead of doing their reading. Meanwhile, most of the students come and go at random

times. Some are in the resource room for 20 minutes, some are in there for 30-40 minutes. It was

all very confusing.

At 11:00 I asked for her schedule. I could not understand what was going on. At the 11

o'clock was the 4th grade reading time. She normally has eight students but two were absent. The

same from the 9am hour came in and two more that I hadn't seen before. Three of the boys were

working on the computers doing their Raz kits. At 11:25 when the other student came in they had

to do a Reading test. It was a test she will give three times throughout the year, this being the

first time. It was on reading comprehension and answer four questions. It was a 3 rd grade level

test. No one passed. They all got at least one question right. The boys are rowdy, walking around

and not listening. The teacher threatens them with no recess and counts to five. At 11:45 the 5 th

graders come in to take the same reading test. A lot of movement and talking while the 4 th

graders are getting their stuff to go back to class. The 5th graders take the same test as the 4th

graders had just taken. None of the six students passed it and not all of them got at least one

question right.

After lunch, the students come in for Math. 5th graders come in first at 1:10 p.m. Some

stay 30 minutes, some stay 40 minutes. The boys are taking their timed multiplication test. Only
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one of the five gets it done in time. At 1:35 the 4th graders come in while the 5th graders are in the

middle of their assignment from their general class. One boy comes in 20 minutes late. There are

five boys and two girls. The teacher had to leave early so just the student is in the room for about

15 minutes with the students and it gets loud. The students don't listen to her. As the teacher left

for the day, 3 of the students didn't getting cookies for misbehaving. This is just the first day.

My second day was even more chaotic. The students were even more disruptive. One

student kept coming in with marbles. The teacher kept taking them away. He said he had brought

them from home, but after the second time, the teacher went and asked his general teacher if they

had any in the classroom. He did not but she remembered there were some in the Kindergarten

pod. She went and looked and saw that the jar lid had been removed and they were missing. This

was the students fifth time being caught stealing. Two boys almost get into fight during Reading.

They were a lot more agitated and the teacher was more abrupt than before. She threatened lunch

detentions. She is doing parent/teacher conferences next week and threatened them with telling

their parents about their disrespect.

After reading our text and then observing, I feel like the text didn't prepare me for what

was happening. I had never been in a Special Education Room before. The room I was in was

even milder than others she was telling me. The teacher I observed has been teaching a long

time, she was telling me stories of students that were violent or out of control. She said this year

students were a lot calmer than last years. I was in shock at how chaotic it seemed but she has it

under control. It was like she is a controlled chaos coordinator. I am not sure it is good to have

students staggered like they are. It is disrupting for the others and if they are in the middle of

something and others come in doing the same thing. The teacher has to stop and start over and

the other students get distracted. It was all very overwhelming for me. I am going to attach her
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schedule so you can see what I am referring to. As you read the textbook and think about the

scenarios, it is very different when you are in the room. The teacher and I were talking about the

5th graders that were moving on to middle school and how they are not ready. She said they have

even less resources in Middle school than in Elementary and that in High School they try to

teach them life and job skills instead of academics, which we had read about. When I read it, I

thought of students who were extremely disabled. I didn't think of the students that had a specific

learning disability. These students were so far behind, they can never catch up so they teach them

different skills to be successful adults.

This experience was very informational for me. I guess you could say I was naïve in my

thoughts of how Special Education worked. Reading about it and then experiencing it are

completely different. I am grateful for the experience.

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