Jim Ivory

Field Experience
Exceptionality
6/28/14
I spent my field experience with a sixth grade EBD class on four consecutive
days during the last hour of the day. My time was divided up in three main areas: EBD
classroom, General Education classroom, and a de-escalation/intervention room they
called The Planning Room. This was a unique situation as it was in the building I work in
and with students I dont work with but have heard passing things about. I know the
teacher on professional level but dont work directly with her. Because I work in the
building and am a support staff in other rooms, I had the ability to do a little more than
just observe. I felt comfortable and was encouraged to engage in activities and
conversation with the group which lead to a high level experience.
The EBD classroom had sixteen desks arranged in the middle of the room which
were paired up facing a white board stretching across all but about five feet of the length
of one wall of the room. The desks were not attached to chairs but all had regular chairs
positioned by or under them for use. To the front right of the room was the teachers
desk area. She had her computer on a desk and a table was positioned to make her a
little personal work area. In front of the students desks were two tables. One was a
circle surrounded by regular desk chairs and two ball chairs. The second table was a ushaped table with desk chairs on the sides. In the back of the room, along the wall
behind the teachers desk was an area set aside for a quiet private space. There were
two book shelves angled to create a sense of privacy and a sheet and lights hanging

from above to create a dimmer and different environment. Inside the space were bean
bag chairs, books, head phones, books on tape, figits, weighted blankets, rubix cube,
puzzles, and other manipulatives. Right behind the student desks was a bank of four
computers. On the wall leading back up to the door, was a long counter top with
cupboard space above and below. The cupboards stored materials, snacks, and games.
There was also a sink and a microwave on the counter top. The room had a smart
board and projector.
The sixth grade EBD group came to this school from one of three elementary
schools in the area or from the local Academy which is a residential treatment facility for
youth with behavioral, emotional, or physical challenges. Of the thirteen sixth graders
spending full days at this middle school with the EBD label, 3 came from the Academy
and ten from the surrounding elementary schools. One student, a fourteenth, was also
coming from the Academy but only for the first two hours of the day and wasnt part of
this observation. I was told that three of the students also had the label of Autism
Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and two others had an additional label of Specific Learning
Disability (SLD). The racial makeup of the group was one African American and twelve
Caucasian. The community I live and work in is not very diverse. We do have a high
Hmong population but none are represented in the EBD classroom.
In talking to the teacher after the school day was over, she told me her main goal
was to get the students out into the general education setting as much as possible but
was not mandated by the school to do so. Her experience in the past was to utilize the
first four weeks of the school year to transition the students into middle school life slowly
and to build skills to be able to navigate the general education setting. She is a big

believer in letting the students have a chance to make their own first impression since
this is a completely new setting and fresh start for all of them. She has found that in
most cases, the general education setting is where these students want to be and when
they are in that setting the behaviors she sees in the Special Education setting arent
reported very often. The idea is that they dont want to stand out in the general
education setting but act the part they think they are supposed to play in the Special
Education setting.
When I was in the room, there was always a paraprofessional and the Special
Education teacher in the room. During the time frame I was able to visit, ten of the
thirteen students were in the room and this time was used for finishing a reading lesson
from earlier in the day that they all were a part of together in the SPED setting or was a
resource time to get other work done from general education classes. The teacher was
either leading the reading lesson or walking around checking in on individuals doing
their work. The paraprofessional was also moving around the room helping out and
conversing with the students. If the reading lesson was being done, she sat with one
student in particular who seemed to be at a lower level in reading. At the end of the day,
the paraprofessional was the one in charge of tabulating point sheets, which I will get to
later, and checking planners. The teacher would add to planners in case of something
important needing to be relayed to parent or guardians. Otherwise, for that last five
minutes or so, she used the time to try to have more personal conversations with her
students or just be silly and joke around. She was always very positive in talking to her
students at the end of the day sometimes reiterating the high points of the day of a

certain student or just chatting, always with a smile. They all seemed to like the
attention be it individualize or small group interactions.
On the big white board, closest to the board were some general expectations on
creatively pinned up on neatly decorated piece of light blue tag board. They read: Be
yourself, listen to others, everyones opinion matters, show your best effort, and you are
important. Another poster on the white board read PAWS with the letters written
vertically as an acronym for: Pause and think; Always take three deep breaths; Walk
away if you are still mad; and See and adult for guidance. The PAWS theme fits in with
the schools mascot which is a polar bear and with a PBIS motivator they call a
Pawsitve Referral, which is when a staff member sees a student doing something
positive and nominates them for a drawing read aloud at the end of each week. There
was also a poster that said instead of saying I dont know and had several other
things a student could say like: I need more time to think; Please repeat the question;
can I ask a friend for help; I am stuck, can you give me more information?
During the reading lesson I observed, the students were given the choice of
reading silently to themselves or joining the group and taking turns reading aloud. Two
students chose to read alone and were then offered head phones to cancel out
distracting noise but both declined. One student went to the more secluded section of
the room under the canopy and sat in a bean bag chair while the other chose to stay in
their desk. They all came back together to discuss the chapter after finishing reading. I
was able to observe some behavior problems during the group reading session. The
student who needed the paraprofessional to sit with him while he read struggled with a
couple sentences and perceived another students shuffling in their seat as an attack on

his poor reading skills. He acknowledged the movement and told the other student shut
up. The teacher told him in a very calm voice his language was inappropriate and
modeled telling the student to try to stay still as it was distracting to those trying hard to
concentrate. The student reading continued on but by looking at his facial expressions
and hearing his exasperated tone, you could tell he was now elevated. He soon
stumbled on another word and slammed his book closed, stood up, and threw it in the
direction of the student who had bothered him a moment earlier, missing him by about a
foot, and said I cant read! I am retarded! I hate this fucking school! The teacher calmly
asked him to please pick up his book and go to the Planning Room. He stormed out
without his book, telling the teaching to fuck off and headed to the Planning Room. I
decided to follow the paraprofessional who was following the student to see how the
Planning Room operated.
The Planning Room was actually two rooms, one with a teacher desk and
computer with two tables, one next to the teacher desk and one more in the middle of
the room. The second room had its own door and inside was one more table, a chair,
and a bean bag chair. The most noticeable thing about the two rooms was just how bare
they were. I imagine this was on purpose to not have much there to be destroyed and
the student could focus on the situation at hand rather than be distracted by other things
in the room.
When the student arrived in to this intervention room, he immediately went to the
more secluded area and closed the door. The paraprofessional relayed what happened
in class to the teacher supervising the room and handed over the book to her. The
paraprofessional said to he needed to take a break for at least ten minutes before even

beginning to talk with anyone. This was to give him a chance to cool down. Then he
needed to finish his chapter reading with the staff member in the room, fill out a fix it
ticket form, and go back to class and talk to his teacher and student who he threw the
book at.
The paraprofessional left and I stayed to talk to the teacher on staff about the
room and objectives and decided to stay to watch the process unfold. Because this was
at the end of the day, she said I might not see the end result because if he wasnt able
to cool down and fix the problem soon, he would have to start in there tomorrow
morning first thing. She was right, he was not able to get it together in time to talk with
her and begin to fill out the fix it form. I did get to look at that form and liked how it was
laid out. It had three questions that need to be answered: What happened in class?
What should I have done instead? And Who do I need to connect with now and what will
I say to them? I like this because it holds them accountable for their actions and clues
them into what is expected of them and how to handle it in the future. I also liked that
they have to go and talk to the others involved and get or give them closure to the
situation.
She also let me look at his behavior plan which was in a binder with other plans
and copies of the fix it tickets that had been completed throughout the year. Highlights
on the BIP for when he was in the intervention room were that he was to be given at
least 10 minutes to cool down before he engages in any attempt to reconcile his
behavior. If a half hour goes by without him starting to communicate what had transpired
to get him to this point, the person on staff was suppose to attempt to initiate the
process. If he was still not ready, he was to have 15 more minutes and then another

attempt would be made by staff. At that point, if no progress was made, the Assistant
Principal was to be called and she would come and take him to the office. His parents
would then be called and he may have to go home for the day. The staff member said
that this student was usually eager to get to work on getting back to class after the initial
ten minutes had past but today was different. Maybe because he knew he was already
going home before the heart of the plan would take effect.
Many of the students I was observing were on a point system where they carried
around a sheet all day and had their teacher of each period sign it and assign their
points earned during that period. They could earn 1,000 points for being on time
prepared, 1,000 points for participation, and 1,000 for overall good attitude and
demeanor. There was also a spot on the sheet where the teacher could add extra points
for whatever they wanted to acknowledge. This seemed like a great place for the
general education teachers to connect with an individual student to let them know they
noticed an extra effort or something they liked and would like to make sure the student
was aware they saw and it was appreciated. The paraprofessional helped the students
tabulate their point sheets at the end of the day and recorded the days total on a
weekly point sheet. At the end of the week, the students could cash in their points for
rewards like computer time, something out of the school store, lunch outside school with
a favorite teacher or administrator, or free time on an iPad. They could also decide to
bank their points for future weeks. The paraprofessional said that sometimes they use
the weekly point sheets to earn mini field trips in the community at the end of the week.
Overall, my time spent in the EBD room was eye opening and not in the way I
would have expected. Seeing these students in their element, working and interacting,

really put a new vision in my head of them. They are good kids, fun kids, just really
misunderstood and in need of the extra support. Sure there was flare ups but there was
also laughter, conversation and learning being done. I work in this building, hear all the
stories, and of course, unfortunately created my own preconceived idea of them in my
head without really knowing them at all.
I really liked how the teacher interacted with her students, was clear, calm and
fair in her instructions, and how she utilized point sheets to reward the expected and
above and beyond behaviors and expectations. It all started with how she had the room
set up to be open and have options of mini-environments to make use of the space she
had. She had useful things on the wall but it wasnt over the top or over done.
The one thing I didnt like after reflecting was the idea that the student I saw with
the behavior problem didnt get the opportunity to start with a clean slate the next
morning. I dont know what could have been done differently considering the time that it
happened but just dont like the idea of the carry over. It seems like it would set up a
possible problem for the next day. They might be able to move on quickly in the morning
but the student could equate being in that room as already having a problem that day
and be quicker to spiral back there. I know the teacher believed her students deserved
fresh starts daily and I will have to ask her about that kind of situation when we head
back to work in the fall.
After this experience, I think I would like spending time working with the EBD
students next year. I will admit that I have avoided signing up for working in that room
while opting for my comfort zone in the Cognitively Disabled room in the past. I dont

know if I could be an EBD teacher, but spending some more time in that environment
getting to know the students and how to best help them will be on my wish list for next
year.