Field Observation

Yvonne Jackson
College of Southern Nevada
 Special Education students in many ways are very much like other students in general

education. After spending three days and ten hours observing a general education class of thirty

students, I believe that every student regardless of their disabilities deserves an education. When

I arrived on my first day of observation, the students were arriving to class from recess. Each of

them introduced themselves and greeted me with a handshake or a fist pump. Once inside the

classroom, Mrs. Mooshaigian introduced me and explained to her students why I was there. I

must admit, as I stepped into Mrs. Mooshagian classroom my first impression was that the

classroom was disorganized, unstructured and complete chaos. However, after ten hours of

observation here is what I found.

The classroom made up of groups which included a high, high medium, low medium and

low student seating structure. Each of the groups had names like Hot Cheetos, Da Golden

Llamas, Bug Heads, and Red Pandas. This type of instruction was the instructional technique

mentioned in our textbook on page 192. Cooperative learning is an instructional process whereby

heterogeneous groups of students work together on an assignment. Because of this, I did witness

that cooperative learning does, in fact, encourage pupils to work together toward achieving a

common goal. Mrs. Mooshagian uses the Kagan cooperative learning structure to promote

cooperation and communication in the classroom. This type of learning strategy boosts her

students’ confidence and retains their interest in classroom interaction. Along with cooperative

learning, Mrs. Mooshagian uses thinking maps as a visual tool to help her students generate and

organize their thoughts and ideas.

 Another observation I made in Mrs. Mooshagian’s classroom was her students' behavior.

At first, I thought the classroom talked too much. As I looked around, I noticed that there weren’t

any classroom rules. Before I could even begin to wonder how a classroom as loud as this could

learn, Mrs. Mooshagian utters the word “waterfall” and the students begin to chant “waterfall”

“waterfall.” As a result, the classroom became silent. In spite of the fact that Mrs. Moshagian has

no hard of hearing students in her classroom, she has taught her class sign language. Because of

this, her students use sign language to communicate when they need to use the restroom, get

some water, agree with a point of view, or want to expand on an idea. Mrs. Moshagian also

counts down and claps to command her classroom’s attention for class instruction. In addition,

Mrs. Moshagian uses positive reinforcements to encourage good behavior. As a result, she has

created an economy and point system in the classroom. In which each student, group, and

classroom can earn points towards extra recess and money for rent or purchases. Each Individual

student has a class job and is responsible for paying for rent and for purchasing any school

supplies they may need. Mrs. Moshigian also has an auction once a month and students are able

to bid on the prize with the money they have earned. Points and extra recess time will be taken

away for misbehavior. Ultimately, Mrs. Moshgian’s wants her students to be successful,

respectful, and responsible not only in her classroom but in the world. Amazingly, Mrs.

Moshigian had control of her classroom’s attention, behavior and every student demonstration

self-regulation. Self-regulation required her students to stop and think about what they were

doing and compare their behavior to what was necessary to obtain points, money or extra recess

as mention in our textbook on page 271. In addition, Mrs. Moshigian demonstrated a learning

strategy that was covered in our textbooks on page 236 and focused on teaching her students how

to learn- how to become more purposeful, active and an efficient learner.

 On my last day of observation, I noticed that Mrs. Moshigian used formative assessment

to set up her groups. She would use a small fraction of a concept to figure out if a student

understood the lesson. After speaking to Mrs. Moshigian, she did confirm that she uses the

formative assessment to assess the need, address the need and move one. As mentioned in our

textbook on page 562, children are not only at different levels; they also learn at different paces.

Therefore, once you know what the child knows individually, you must check their progress

through formative assessment. After the child has mastered the concept, they should move on.

Mrs. Mosigian clearly demonstrated this concept during her math lessons. As a result, a student

is not allowed to work on a computer, until they have demonstrated that they have learned the

math concept and practiced a math concept they are struggling to understand. As a result, a

student is not allowed to work on a computer, until they have demonstrated that they have

learned the math concept and practiced a math concept they are struggling to understand.

Because it was the last day of my field observation, I wanted to confirm with Mrs. Moshiagian

which students I thought were learning disabled. Mrs. Moshiagian confirmed with me that she

did have a few learning disabled students. In fact, she had one student who was previously in a

self-contained special education classroom, another student who struggled with math and reading

due to a nontraditional learning setting for two years and one student was receiving speech

therapy for a speech impairment.

At the end of my observation, I learned that a good teaching technique is so important

for a classroom to work. I also learned that not all students are the same and not all students

learn the same way. Every student is different, and each student is unique. I learned that some of

the contributing factors that a teacher faces in the classroom are diversity and a student's

circumstance. I learned that it requires an immense amount of patience, time, energy and
dedication to teach and be a good teacher. I knew from being a special education teacher’s

assistant at a high school that some students have issues with behavior and that positive

reinforcement works best when addressing these issues. However, when I saw the behavior of

5th graders, I was a little hesitant about being a teacher. In the end, I feel that I need to be more

structured and develop good boundaries. After my second day of observation, I was grateful for

Mrs. Moshiagian's teaching style and technique. She is an amazing teacher and she proved to me

that cooperative learning works. I learned that you can't judge a classroom by what it seems to

look like. Mrs. Moshiagian is actually a very organized teacher. Unfortunately, she lacks the

resources and materials to do her job. As an example, she has to share laptops with other

teachers and her lesson plans are often affected by having to schedule a time to use the laptops.

Considering the struggles of being a teacher, Mrs. Moshiagian did a great job of inspiring me to

continue my path as a teacher. Mainly, because she makes creating one large group of a group of

students work as a team and can still make a difference in the lives of each of her students.