Field Observation Report

Jordan Meyers

College of Southern Nevada

 On February 22, 23, and 28 I spent eleven overall observation hours at Thurman White

Academy of the Performing Arts, otherwise known as Thurman White Middle School, in

Henderson, Nevada. My main cooperating teacher throughout the observation period was Mrs.

Paige Rankin, a sixth-grade science teacher. Mrs. Rankin has been teaching for 28 years, and a

majority of that time has been at Thurman White. I observed multiple periods of her science

instruction, in which she teaches 35-39 students each class. Students with Individualized

Education Plans number from 5-10 for each class period, as they are pulled out of their special

education rooms for science instruction. Gifted and talented students are in separate science

classes, and I observed two of these periods taught by Ms. DeJong and Mrs. Davis.

Mrs. Rankin was not only very gracious in answering any questions I had, but she also

arranged times for me to meet with the aforementioned teachers of gifted and talented science

along with Mr. Renfro, an autism room teacher, and Ms. Huggins, a special education teacher.

Indeed, Mrs. Rankin cites flexibility and skillfully planning transitions between classroom

activities as effective strategies for maximizing instructional time, as her gesture of

systematically directing me toward the other instructors put her words into action. I watched

Mrs. Rankin demonstrate needed flexibility in the lesson plan between different periods. For

example, her fourth period usually needed far less time to jot down notes from the slideshow

presentation, while Mrs. Rankin would ask the second period if they needed more time and

notes.

One second period student in particular, A__, often needed more assistance and appeared

to have issues with acting out. When A__ dramatically slammed down his paper in the basket,

Mrs. Rankin asked him to use “less drama” in turning in his assignment. A few minutes later, the

same student had his toy taken away after being warned three times, which prompted Rankin to
remind the class to not have distractions in front of them. I observed A__ having a very

distracting relationship with another student, and as it turns out they both have IEPs. Mrs.

Rankin also had a student with high-functioning autism and emotional issues in her third period.

She described this student as ‘incredibly bright’, but he has been known to become increasingly

frustrated over even minor issues on a day-to-day basis.

Mrs. Rankin says students know what behavior is expected of them and if they flaunt

these expectations then she is liable to become ‘mean mama’ to remedy any issues. Rankin

generally utilizes the first nine weeks of the year to work with students on behavior and

expectations and finds that it usually works for the rest of the year. The four ‘School Rules’

posted in her class are ‘1. Respect Yourself and Others; 2. Listen To and Follow Directions From

All Adults; 3. Be On Time For All Classes; 4. Bring Required Materials To School’. In addition,

three ‘R’s posted in Rankin’s room and around Thurman White are ‘Respect, Responsibility, and

Reliability’, and she fully expects all students to adhere to these.

One of the primary challenges for Mrs. Rankin as a teacher is working with the varied

special needs of her students. Fortunately, she has an instructional aide, Ms. Franklin, who

doesn’t aid in the instructional plan but helps immensely by reading quizzes out loud, monitoring

lab activities, and helping with reading. As special education is a group effort, I also got to

observe how some of the other members of the team operate. Mr. Renfro works with three

students who have high-functioning autism in the self-contained autism room. In the period I

observed, two students were working on typing skills and Mr. Renfro was doing one-on-one

science work with M___, a student he refers to as a “history buff who can tell you anything

about World War Two”. One of the students working on typing, J__, had had some behavioral

issues but was earning tokens to get back his game privileges on the computers. J__ was not
using a calm voice, and Renfro had to remind him several times that he was moving away from

his goal to ‘get computers’.

I also spent a couple of hours with special education teacher Ms. Huggins. During the

periods I was observing, Ms. Huggins was giving a lesson on Greek Mythology, which would

then give context to a play the students would be seeing later. Huggins was very flexible with

the needs of her students, allowing J___ to read ‘King Minos and the Minotaur’ to the class after

he had asked, and letting a student from another special education room show off the mask of

King Midas which he had made. Huggins had 10-13 students in each class and didn’t have an

instructional aide during the periods which I observed, which made her seem somewhat stressed.

More disciplinary problems were present in the last period I observed, as seen by the progressive

consequence system used with student R___. Ms. Huggins had to reprimand the student once for

fidgeting in a chair and then two times for playing with a toy during instruction. After his third

reprimand, R___ was asked to call home.

Ms. Huggins had one student using the assistive technology of a headset and word match

program on the computer. In every class I observed, teachers tended to be very tech-intensive.

Mrs. Rankin utilizes e-textbooks on an iPad from which she prints out materials, and also uses

Google translate to address possible language needs of the 4-5 students per class classified as

ESL/ELL. I also observed Mrs. Rankin utilizing the low-tech assistive technology of trifold

brochures with highlighted information inside of notebooks, which three students with IEPs

referred to while she was orally administering the week’s quiz.

I observed how Mrs. Rankin doesn’t just engage her students academically but also takes

an active interest in their lives outside of the class. There was a basketball game the evening

following my observation, and she asked the students who was attending and if one student’s
sister would be playing the game. Thurman White takes pride in its academic excellence and

extracurricular activities-chess club, art club, rugby club, even a robotics team. Thurman White

is an overall heterogeneous school when it comes to the ethnic makeup of the student body,

including the students in special education. Such diversity brings Mrs. Rankin back to school

every year, and she says one of the best parts of teaching is that the variety of new personalities

each year never bores her.

In summary, my observation at Thurman White Performing Arts Academy showed me a

school committed to high expectations and an embrace of diversity. Mrs. Paige Rankin embodies

these two ideals in her classroom and rises to the challenge of accommodating students of all

types, with a strong emphasis on those with special needs. The arrangement of delivery for

special education services gives me a good idea of how such a system works smoothly within a

middle school and what I can expect when working in such an environment. Thurman White’s

motto for all its students is “Challenge Yourself”, a phrase that I’ve taken to heart following my

observation experience.