Fiona Moynihan

Dr. Samuels

EDUC 320

1 October 2019

School Observations

Observation 1: Amanda Lopez (Paraprofessional)

During the first day of my field experience, September 10th, I was able to observe the

classroom during a writing lesson. Ms. Jurras was having the students work on drawing images

of their favorite animals and then captioning the images with the names of those animals. She

explained that she wanted the students to try their hardest to sound the words out and write to the

best of their abilities.

After Ms. Jurras completed explaining the lesson, there was immediately four different

tables of three students. Ms. Jurras sat at one table, which I would later learn were the students

that needed the most support with letter formation. I then saw Mrs. V, another paraprofessional

in the classroom, floating between the two tables on the other side of the room. I noticed all these

details while sitting at a table with three students with Mrs. Lopez.

During these 20 minutes, Mrs. Lopez took different approaches with each of the children.

All three were able to stay focused on the task of drawing the animal, so Mrs. Lopez focused

most of her attention on the student who is still working on developing his fine motor skills. She

helped him work on holding his pencils and markers the correct way. She also kept reminding

him of the assignment so he could remember the meaning behind his drawing.
 Once the three finished their images, they began working on spelling out the names of

their animals. The two other children at the table had drawn cats. They both knew how to spell

“cat”, but they both wanted to write the proper names of the cats on their pictures. Mrs. Lopez

helped each of these students sound out the names by going through each letter sound

individually. As she did this, she also used a highlighter to spell the word “chicken” for the

student who was still working on his motor skills. This student then used these lines to trace the

word himself.

After the students left, Mrs. Lopez explained to me that the one student needed to work

more on his abilities to hold a writing utensil than the other students. For him, the current goal is

to work on the fine motor skills related to writing before moving on to other areas of spelling. It

was also at this moment that I learned that Mrs. Lopez worked with these three students so that

Mrs. Jurras could work with the other students she was trying to observe that day. As it was still

early in the school year, Mrs. Jurras was using these lessons to get a better measure of where

these students stood in terms of their skills as writers.

From this observation, I learned why having paraprofessionals in a classroom is so

valuable. It allows special education teachers to complete more specific observations of students

without continuous interruptions from other students who also need and deserve help. I also now

better understand the role of a paraprofessional as a support to the special education teacher.

Mrs. Lopez performed tasks similar to those of a teacher but did so without being the primary

educator in the classroom. I was able to see this role perfectly executed by Mrs. Lopez, who meet

the needs of each of the unique children in a manner that helped them all finish their assignments
in the way most appropriate to their needs, while also giving Mrs. Jurras time to work more with

specific students.

Observation 2: Daniel Manseau (Special Teacher- Computers)

The time I spent in Mr. Manseau class was incredibly enlightening. During this time

block, Ms. Jurras’ class is combined with a general education classroom. Attending special with

these students allowed me the opportunity to observe a teacher work with these exceptional

students in an integrated setting.

On this particular class meeting day, Mr. Manseu had the goal of discussing trusted adults

and cyberbullying through the use of class discussions and a video called ‘Enter Badromeda’. He

began this lesson by asking the students to list trusted adults. Mr. Manseu would praise the

students for each answer, even those that were repeated responses. However, Mr. Manseau

would also follow these responses with a reminder to the class that it is great to have listening

ears so that everyone could hear the answers. This approach made it feel like he was reminding

the students to listen while still praising them for contributing.

After this class discussion, Mr. Manseau played the video. He would stop it periodically

to clarify what was happening in the video and ask the students questions to make sure they were

understanding what was happening. It was also during this time that I realized that Mr. Manseau

was asking questions specifically of Ms. Jurras’ students. He had done this during the main

group discussion, too. He would follow each of these questions up with praise for their

contribution. It was clear that Mr. Manseau wanted to make sure that the exceptional students in

the classroom were also being included and engaging with the lesson. Mr. Manseau would use

the same positive attitude for the GenEd students, so it did not feel like the praise was excessive
for the exceptional students. It simply felt like all the students in the classroom was being treated

equally.

I appreciated this time in Computers. This class was not one I expected to attend, but I

am very grateful I had this opportunity. Specials in Boland were a tool for inclusion in the

classroom. For many of the students in Ms. Jurras’ class, they need much more support in the

main academic areas, which would make it hard for them to spend other educational periods with

their GenEd peers. I was glad to have the chance to see how inclusion was still possible for these

students through times like Lunch and Specials. Mr. Manseau did an excellent job with this

lesson. It felt like all the students in the room were included and welcomed, regardless of

exceptionalities.