ABSTRACT:

 FIELD  OBSERVATION  PAPER   1  

Field Observation Paper

Cassidy Finch Hart

EDU 203

Professor Hudson

December 3, 2017
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About a year ago, I did ten hours of field observation for an education class. This

classroom setting was just a regular kindergarten class, at Bilbray Elementary School. I enjoyed

that experience a lot, but until now I honestly had no idea what it was like to be in a special

education classroom. I learned a lot from observing the supervising teacher that I was assigned

to, Mrs. Sisto. Mrs. Sisto is a teacher at Rose Warren Elementary School who helps students who

have all had different types of learning disabilities and challenges.

Most days, my schedule only allowed me to observe between 11am-12:45pm or so. By

this time frame that I was usually able to do my observation hours, Mrs. Sisto had already helped

two students who had different reading challenges. I was only able to observe this once, as that is

all that my schedule allowed. As the students did many different reading tasks, comprehension

tasks were done as well. Mrs. Sisto focused a lot on making sure that her students comprehended

the information that was being read. I thought that this was really neat, because although a

student can be a very quick and an assumed “good” reader, it does not matter at all unless the

student comprehends the material that they are reading.

Then, there were two students who struggled with math and were way behind their grade

level. I observed her teaching them multiple times, because their class was in the time frame that

I was there. These two students were both boys, and they had a short attention span when it came

to learning math. Something that I found impressive was the variety of different ways that Mrs.

Sisto approached the math, and made it easier and more enjoyable for these students to

understand. Some examples of ways that she would make learning math for these students easier

were: math games, a story line that went along with the math assignment, math coloring sheets,

and so forth.
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The two students that were in this math class were Essiah and Raiden. Essiah was better

at math than Raiden was, and he was able to come up with the answers quicker; although he still

struggled with the subject. Raiden on the other hand would take a lot more time to solve an

answer, and it was even more difficult for him to grasp onto the subject. Raiden would often

times try looking at Essiah's worksheet to see what he got for his answers. When this would

happen, Mrs. Sisto would not get mad or upset with him, rather she would redirect his focus and

try to help him understand the problem better.

After Mrs. Sisto taught these two boys who struggled with math, we brought them back

to their regular classrooms, and we picked up another boy named Ayden from his regular

classroom and brought him to Mrs. Sisto's classroom. For this class, it was only Ayden who Mrs.

Sisto was teaching. Ayden had behavioral problems, and ADHD. He would have temper

tantrums, a very short attention span, and he had a hard time making friends. Mrs. Sisto would

go over many different scenarios with Ayden, to help him control his emotions better. In chapter

nine of our textbooks, we learned about students with behavioral and emotional disorders, just as

Ayden did in this case. In this class, the teacher would often give him different scenarios that he

had to answer with how he would respond, and how it would make him feel. One example of a

scenario would be;

Mrs. Sisto: "Suppose you went to your friends house after school to play, but he would not share

anything with you. He was the only one playing, and over time, you asked to play with his toys

and he said no. How would that make you feel? Is this nice of him to do? What would be

something that you could say or do so that he would share?"

Often times, Ayden would reply with answers like, "Of course he would share, everyone shares

with me, everyone wants to share with me." But when he actually thinks of the situation, and
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how it would feel, he gets upset. He would then reply more aggressively saying things like, "That

is so rude! If he is not going to share then I will tell his mom that he is being unfair, and I will go

home."

Although Ayden had anger problems, and problems with expressing his emotions, a lot of

those problems seemed to be caused from the family life that he had at home. He comes from a

family life of divorced parents, and would constantly talk about how much he missed his dad

who lives in another state. The special education teacher was able to get him to open up more,

which seemed to be helping him in a positive way. Rather than bottling up the anger or sadness

he may have, she has built a relationship with him to where he can trust her, and he can feel

comfortable with talking to her about how he feels.

In my observation of Ayden, I noticed the symptoms that he has relating to his ADHD

diagnosis. Ayden is easily distracted by outside stimuli, and this takes a toll on his education and

learning. It can be very difficult for the teacher to teach him, because it is hard for him to sit still

and to just listen, focus, and learn. I am unsure if he takes medication for his learning

disability. In chapter 9, I learned that since ADHD is so broad, it is very important for students

with possible ADHD to get examined by a doctor, and to get a few different opinions. I asked

Mrs. Sisto if Ayden did indeed get examined to determine if he did, in fact have ADHD, and

Mrs. Sisto told me that he did, and that yes, he was diagnosed with it.

It was really neat to be able to see the way that this teacher is able to help her students,

and make the material easier for them to understand. Mrs. Sisto has a lot of patience and love for

her students. Although she is only ever teaching one or two students at a time, she has to be

patient with their learning disabilities. I think it is so important that CCSD continues to have

these special education programs. This is because, without them, students with learning
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disabilities would not get the proper education that they need to progress. If the students that

Mrs. Sisto teaches stayed in a regular classroom all day, they would only continue to get further

behind in the subjects that they are struggling with. Special education teachers are very crucial

and very important because they are better able to spend one-on-one time with students and

accommodate to their needs. I am so glad I had the opportunity to observe this classroom

environment and gain a better perspective of why these teachers and these programs are so

important.