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11/8/2013 Jasmine Jackson

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Jasmine Jackson November 8, 2013 Introduction to Exceptional Learners Dr. Stroble

Field Experience Reflection

This fall semester, Ive completed my field experience at Whittaker Elementary School. Whittaker Elementary is located in Orangeburg, South Carolina and is rated one of the top schools in Orangeburg. The school holds grades K-5. The approximate number of students in the school is 582. Gender demographics are approximately 51% of males and 49% females. Teacher student ratio in the classroom is 19:1. Mrs. Cassandra Jenkins is currently serving as principal. My teacher that I observed this semester was Dr. Teresa Jennings (which whom I have been interning for about two years now). Her classroom is room 13; which is located on the red corridor that represents the kindergarten hall. The grade that is taught is kindergarten. The classroom is general education with a total of 30 students (17 girls and 13 boys). The classroom also consists of one student teacher. From observing, Dr. Jennings is very well-organized. She believes that every piece of work that is completed has a designated section to be placed in such as a folder or the students cubby space. When visitors first enter the classroom, there is a

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welcoming mat found in front of the front door to welcome all incoming visitors for the first time. When entering the classroom, you automatically get a warm and nurturing environment from the student teacher as well as the students because they all speak in a polite manner. The room is decorated in multiples of colors so that the students are able to recognize the posters easily. The colors grasp the students attention. A lot of the information found on the walls is bold printed or either highlighted so that the students see that the teacher stresses high emphasizes on the information that is important. The objectives that are taught are written in the right hand corner on a daily basis so when she is being evaluated, the observer could clearly see what is being taught for the day. Overall, the learning environment of the classroom is great. Students have easy access to their materials and are able to utilize them in an organized way. The types of technology that are found in the classroom are the computers and the new smart board technology. There are 5 computers in the class for students to utilize. The students use the computers to take test on books; which is called accelerated reader. This is a program where students read a book according to their appropriate reading level and are asked multiple of questions about what theyve read. Dr. Jennings also uses software to help students with different strategies on the alphabets or numbers. If the student does not seem to have grasped the concept of the lesson, the software holds the student back and offers different activities to ensure the student is able to master the concept. As far as the smart board technology, she uses it for different demonstrations and activities when teaching math instruction to get the students involved and to have hands on experiences. When reading a book, she has an audio website that she uses for students to see it on a big screen and also the audio saves time so that the teacher could be completing another task while students are reading. The technology is useful on a daily

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basis so that it is not just book work consistently but also technology is incorporated for student interaction. The students in the classroom are well-behaved and very mannerable. By the teacher having all her rules posted; they are knowledgeable of what is expected of them when the teacher is present and when the teacher has stepped out and has a visitor. The students are always willing to help their classmates when one may seem to be struggling in some sort of way. There are a couple of students who are a little off task due to the fact that their understanding of certain lessons are very low. For instance, there is a little girl who is not able to say her alphabets. When she sees the letters she thinks they are the letter Y. So what she does is changes the subject to something that is irrelevant to what is being taught and jokes about it. When the teacher, realizes what is taken place, she places her with another student who knows alphabets very well and have them to practice with one another. Overall, their behaviors are not extreme. Their behaviors are manageable and under-control. When they see the teacher using nonverbal communication (looking at the student hard, act as if she is zipping her lips, counting on her fingers) they know it is time to straighten up and behave. In contrast to my previous field experience, it was totally different from my experience at Whittaker Elementary School. Last semester, I completed my field experience at another elementary school named Mellichamp Elementary School. This was my worst experience ever. This school is also K-5. This school is considered an F scored school meaning the scores were very low when the students were tested. So that was an extreme negative. I was placed in Dr. Richardson second grade classroom.

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In this classroom, there were a total of 32 students. This was also a general education classroom. My teacher was the only teacher who had the most students in her second grade class. She was also the oldest teacher teaching that grade level. The classroom setting was very unorganized. The desks were set up where there were about eight students in each group. There were posters on the wall but it was nothing to attract the students attention. All of the teachers paper work was found all across her personal desk and group table to work with the students. There was no room for me to interact with the students to help them on a personal one on one tutoring because there was no room on the table. There was no technology incorporated in the classroom. The first time technology of the smart board was used was when I came there for my field experience. She did not have any idea how to work the smart board; so she just left it alone. She also did not know anything about the mini white demonstration boards the students could use on their own. I had to also introduce that concept to her so that she could use it to help the students when she is teaching math. I guess because she was a little older she did not know the latest strategies or activities so she just taught the way she was use to such as lecturing and worksheets. As far as the behaviors in the classroom, the students were very wild. I would say there was not any classroom management skills exhibited during her instruction. Being that she was older the kids use to ignore her in a sense. She was not able to help one without managing the rest of the class because it was entirely too many children. There were a lot of Spanish culture students in the classroom. There wasnt any differiated activity to help them in any form or fashion. Therefore, one of the students would just sleep the entire period while the other one just smiled. I had to walk around myself and check the student understanding of the lesson. There

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were also other students from Claflin that came by every other day to work with the Spanish speaking students. From my experiences with both schools, I would definitely say it was an experience. One teacher pushed their students to go beyond their goals while the other sort of slacked off due to her age difference and her upcoming retirement. But I would say they both believed in students having a great education regardless of the slacking off.. In conclusion, I have learned so much from both experiences. I have seen the good to the bad moments of the classroom. These moments really help me to see that teaching isnt always going to be easy but at the end of the day the main focus are the students.