Running Head: EDU 203 FIELD OBSERVATION 1

EDU 203 Field Observation

Amanda Laymon

College of Southern Nevada

EDU 203 Field Observation 2

EDU 203 Field Observation

For my field observation I attended J.M. Ullom Elementary School. I was placed in an

inclusion second grade classroom. Throughout my 10 hours, I was able to attend an IEP meeting,

watch the students in class, and ask the teacher, Mr. Balde, questions regarding the profession.

As I pondered on the things I observed, I began to realize that there were some similarities to the

things that I learned in the textbook, and there were also some differences.

Similarities

The first similarity was noticed on my first day of observations when I attended an IEP

meeting. It was for a student in Mr. Balde’s class named Matthew. Those who attended the

meeting were his mother, a translator, the speech teacher, the nurse, Mr. Balde, a special

education teacher, the vice principal, and the IEP teacher. This is the same as discussed in the

textbook, “IEPs are written by a team…participation must include a parent/guardian; the child’s

teachers, including a general education teacher and a special educator, a representative from the

school district; and an individual able to interpret” (Gargiulo & Bouck, 2018, p. 63). The IEP

teacher was the one who was directing the meeting following page by page of Matthew’s IEP.

Another similarity from this event was the form that they were using, it was identical to the one

that we had to fill out for class. It included every test done on Matthew, as well as actions to be

taken to help him.

EDU 203 Field Observation 3

Aside from Matthew, Mr. Balde has two other students with IEPs. Matthew’s IEP is for

behavior and ADHD, however, the other two students have them for speech impairments. This is

something that ties right in with the textbook, which talks about how speech and language

impairments are one of the most common reasons students receive special education (Gargiulo &

Bouck, 2018, p. 377). Both of these students are still working on learning their sight words while

the rest of the class is progressing toward reading chapter books, which is another thing talked

about in the textbook. Those with speech and language impairments have “limited vocabulary”

(Gargiulo & Bouck, 2018, p. 381). Somethings that Mr. Balde does to help these students fully

participate in class, is alter the assignment to their level, such as, only writing one fact compared

to the three that the rest of the class has to do. He also lets them know beforehand that he is

going to ask them a question and then gives them plenty of time to answer it. This is one of the

educational considerations that is mentioned in the textbook, “slowly giving directions…[and]

allowing sufficient time for the student to respond” (Gargiulo & Bouck, 2018, p. 386). By doing

these things, the students feel comfortable participating and learning.

Differences

On top of the similarities that I found through my observations, there were also some

differences. The first one was noticed with Matthew in the classroom.
EDU 203 Field Observation 4

Matthew was always found roaming the classroom doing his own thing. While the rest of

the class was reading, Matthew was playing with blocks in the corner. After talking to Mr. Balde,

I found out that he has a check list for Matthew, and in between those activities he gives

Matthew a lot of free time. I was taken back by this action and the distraction that Matthew was

to the rest of the class. I was expecting more like what the textbook talked about, where teachers

should have “an organized notebook with all the required assignments in it” or assign “a

dependable peer to help with [an] activity” (Gargiulo & Bouck, 2018, p. 274).

Another difference I noticed was the use of assistive technology. Mr. Balde was lucky to

receive a Google Chrome Book for each of his students to use. He has fully implemented them in

his classroom in each of the subjects, however, when the other students are working on hand

written assignments a couple of the IEP students are still on the computers. This is a distraction

to the rest of the class. In the textbook this situation is called stigmatizing, where the student

stands out among the rest of the class. It is useful to have these technologies, but as mentioned in

the textbook it is important to avoid stigmatizing (Gargiulo & Bouck, 2018, p. 150).

Overall, it was a great experience for me to observe in Mr. Balde’s classroom, one that I

won’t forget.
EDU 203 Field Observation 5

Critical Analysis

One of my favorite things about this course was the opportunity I had to do this

observation. I learned a lot about what an inclusion classroom looks like. I learned that the

primary teacher, Mr. Balde in this case, is more like the secondary teacher for IEP students. The

IEP teacher, I previously mentioned, is the one who comes into the classroom to specifically

work with each of the students. If she doesn’t come into the classroom the teacher doesn’t really

work with the students that day.

Some of the things I knew going in were how the class was going to be ran. I knew that

the teacher was going to have a basic layout of what subjects were going to be at what time

throughout the day, and that he was going to teach them in the same general way each day.

Going into the IEP meeting I knew what the form was going to look, but I had no idea how the

meeting was going to play out. I honestly thought the teacher, Mr. Balde, would have done a lot

more talking but he just made a comment at the very end of the meeting.

I still have a lot to learn about how to fully include students with disabilities. I learned

how to include them in assistive technology scenarios, but not as much in regular classwork. I

know it’s different for every student depending on their IEPs but it’s still something that takes

practice.
EDU 203 Field Observation 6

This experience has made me want to be a teacher even more. I loved going into the

classroom and getting greeted by all of the students who were so eager to get to know me. I

loved the energy on the good days and the hard days. When I was talking to Mr. Balde about the

profession, he gave me this advice, “never take anything personally; add humor.” I thought that

was very fitting. I’m normally one to laugh things off anyways, so it only makes sense to do so

in my career. That being said I do know that there are times to be serious and to take serious

actions, but when it’s just kids being kids it doesn’t always need to be serious.

I cannot wait to be a teacher, to have my own classroom, and to have my own students

that I won’t have to give up seeing after just 10 hours. I know it’s going to be challenging,

especially at the beginning, and I know I will always be kept on my toes, but I also know it’s so

worth it. I know that every day is going to be a new adventure. I know that I’m rarely going to

use the lesson plan. But the most important thing is that I know those sweet students are going to

have so much light on their faces when they learn something new, and that is an experience I

can’t wait to be a part of.

EDU 203 Field Observation 7

References

Gargiulo, R. M., & Bouck, E. C. (2018). Special education in contemporary society: An

introduction to exceptionality (6th ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.