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Field observation

Aurora Gallegos Zarate

College of Southern Nevada

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Field Observation -special education

Having the opportunity to enter a classroom and be welcomed into their environment and

their safe place is a great privilege. My special education class Edu 203 presented me with this

great opportunity to learn first-hand. On March 13th, 2017 I entered Ms. Garcia's classroom for

the first time. Beforehand I have had the chance to observe a general education classroom,

however observing a special education class was a completely new experience.

Ms. Garcia's classroom is located in the back of the building. To be frank as soon as Ms.

Hendricks (Ms. Garcia's aid), opened the door for the students and I to walk in I thought the

classroom was a bit small and crowded. The first thing I saw was a desk that could be used for

group activities instead was covered in loads of paper she would use for her weekly activities.

There were nine boys and only three girls. The kids in the classroom differed disabilities from,

ADHD, learning disabilities, autism and behavioral issues. From the very beginning Ms. Garcia

didn't just give the impression of knowing her students but she actually showed it. She would

take attendance and just by listening she would know which student was talking. During

attendance Ms. Hendricks jokingly told one of the students, named Erik, “what happened to all

your hair?” and followed with a contagious laugh, that made me laugh without really

understanding the joke. Ms. Hendricks kindly filled me in telling me that the week before Erik

had longish hair and he has had haircuts before but never has cut it this short. I smiled and

nodded and she continue telling me “oh he knows I am messing with him, after all I have been

with them for three years.” I thought it was surprising but now I knew why the students would

come in and seem so at ease. I asked if that was the time Ms. Garcia has been with the students

and she said no that Ms. Garcia had only been there two years.
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In the classroom, there are 11 students and they all come from different grades 3rd, 4th and

5th, so they all work at their own pace. However each day they start their day with breakfast, they

go the cafeteria and line up with bags, after all the students have their breakfast they walk back

to the classroom. Ms. Garcia and Ms. Hendricks use that time to eat breakfast as well. Whichever

of the students who was done eating first was in charge of getting a big black plastic bag and

open it and put their trash there for the rest of their classmates to use. Ms. Garcia told me that she

does that to make sure students learn basic life skills so they could do things for themselves.

When everyone's done eating breakfast they begin their school day with math. Since some

students are at lower levels than others, some would work on their own worksheets that were

more suited for them, the others would follow Ms. Garcia and her instructions. The week I was

there they were learning how to count money mostly nickels and dimes. Ms. Garcia would use

kinesthetic, hearing and visual learning. For kinesthetic she would pass around to the students

pretend money and let them play with them for a minute or so and so they could count them if

they needed to. For hearing she count out loud and encourage her students to count with her. For

visual she would put a video and once again counting along with the video.

As Ms. Garcia continued to teach I would see if the students were paying attention. There

were two students doing their own packets since they already knew how to count coins. However

there were two students who caught my attention one was Karina, she was so sweet and smiled a

lot, anytime a question was asked, her hand up pop up and seemed eager to participate. The other

student was named Asher, he had behavioral issues and simply slept through class and would be

waken up before going to P.E or music, which ever they did. I asked Ms. Garcia if he would fall

asleep every day, she told me that he would most days, since he would sleep late at home.

According to Ms. Garcia her advice to me was: sometimes you have to learn how to choose your
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battles. She told me that when they would try to prevent Asher to sleep he would scream and

start to throw stuff, which meant they would lose school time and Asher would still sleep.

I was able to see Ms. Garcia deal with another boy who had autism and have fits. She

would handle them very well in my opinion, she would tell the student named Milo to calm

down and when he was ready to join the classroom. Eventually she would check up on him and

he would be clam and ready to continue on with his day. She knew how to manage her

classroom, when she would ask them to be quiet they would. She had this money system where

if they lost a packet they were working on, they would have to pay 5 dollars to get a new copy. If

they needed to use the bathroom they would pay a dollar. I thought it was creative. Ms. Garcia

told me that she likes this system because like she said “just because they have a disability

doesn’t mean they can’t learn how life works and nothing in this life’s free.”

On my last day observing I brought cookies for the students with the permission of Ms.

Garcia to give. I wanted to thank them for welcoming me in their class and allowing me to help

them when they needed it. They were such sweet kids and they would laugh amongst themselves

it was obvious that they have been together for a while. One thing I loved was how Ms. Garcia

and Ms. Hendricks included me in their classroom they didn’t just leave me sitting there, they

made sure I had something to do and was involved in the student’s education. I felt very

welcomed and I enjoyed being there every minute. It just showed me once again that teaching is

for me.