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Focused Field Journal #1

Nicholas Anderson
College of Education, Baker College
EDU 3310: The Exceptional Learner
September 20, 2021
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Focused Field Journal #1

Topic: Describe an activity you have observed where students worked together and

collaborated during an assignment. Share the way the students supported each other’s learning.

Describe the role of the teacher.

I am placed in a special education classroom with East Oakview Elementary in the

Northview Public School system. The general makeup of the classroom is special education

students in grades K through 4. 5th grade is in another building which makes this a new

experience for me. I’ve only ever been in schools that cut off after 5th grade. Our students have

exceptionalities that range from ADHD to emotional issues, that I have observed so far. I feel the

environment is a bit chaotic because they just moved into the building and my CT is still trying

to get things sorted out. I have limited time with her throughout the week due to my school

schedule and the fact that she has a TA with her in the mornings. My opinion is that I should not

be in this placement, but I will make it work the best that I can. I know I can make up the hours

it’s just going to take longer than I planned.

On my first day, the CT has me put paint swatches together for the kiddos. The

assignment they would be working on was to “follow directions” in a painting assignment. She

wrote each students names with a black sharpie and they had to dab the name out with a paint

brush. This could be done collaboratively as some of the kiddos have a bond with one another to

help each other get through such assignments. A few of the students were not paying close

enough attention and had to redo the assignment after being told what they had to do, as in

repeating the instructions. As mentioned before the objective was for the students to follow

directions but also an opportunity to engage in group work. For two of the students I was able to
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observe them helping each other with understanding the directions of the assignment. However,

this was not the only collaborative assignment I was able to observe this day.

The next assignment that required collaborative work was block building. A pattern sheet

was given to the two groups of students. The CT divided them up as the boy team and the girl

team. The girls had the opportunity to start with flower patterns and they had to work together to

build them. The boys were set up with counting patterns/cards. To help them on the trickier

pattern the CT gave them a hint that to count numbers greater than 10 to build a tower of 10 and

set it aside and then count the second number to help them achieve the goal without constantly

getting confused. It seemed the students worked well together and demonstrated a good sense of

teamwork when it came to building.

I write down all of my notes in a journal and then upload them to my google drive. I like

having the opportunity to go back and reflect on something I have seen to explore other ways of

doing instruction or to see how well something work and perhaps implement it into my plans in

the future. This placement is awesome, and I appreciate the opportunity to work with special

education students again. The more I work with them, the more I believe that special education is

the right area of teaching for me.