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My name is Abbie Cook and I am a senior at UTC.
My major is early childhood

education with an endorsement in middle grades and ESL. I plan to student teach in the spring of
2017 and I am so excited to begin that journey! I was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee
and feel incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to attend a university in my hometown. My
first grade teacher, Mrs. McKay, is the one I owe for my desire to teach. I have been heavily
influenced in such a positive way by a lot of teachers I have had in the past and I hope to become
a fabulous teacher like them. I would love nothing more than to be a Kindergarten teacher and I
look forward to what the future brings!
I had the opportunity to do my field placement observations at Battle Academy. Battle
Academy is a magnet school that requires an application, however, they also educate children
that are zoned for it as well. It is composed of 470 students, with 62.6 % of them identifying as
African-American, and the school is 56% male and 44% female. There is a 14:1 student to
teacher ratio. I observed in two Kindergarten classrooms, 1st grade, 4th grade, and two 5th grade
classrooms.
In regards to special education, I saw all sides of the spectrum. I observed children who
had speech delays and met with a speech pathologist weekly, a couple students with Autism
Spectrum Disorder, and many children with cognitive delays. I observed children in the
classroom setting, as well as in a pull out setting with the special education teacher.
Beginning with Kindergarten, I observed one child with a cognitive delay that needed
assistance staying on track and holding focus with class work. He sat in a lawn chair directly in
front of the teacher during circle time and had a taped boundary marker on the carpet of where
his chair was supposed to stay. He often needed help labeling his pictures for his stories, and
when asked more about his ideas, did not reply. There was also a child in the class who had early
signs of autism and was being assessed for records. A child in the other Kindergarten class had
speech delays and cognitive delays and was pulled out by Mrs. Wollam, the special education
teacher for younger students, every afternoon. Mrs. Wollam focused on identifying numbers and
writing numbers. She started the session by reminding the child how to sit and behave in order to
get perfect smiley faces on her behavior sheet. To practice identifying numbers, she gave the
child a pointer to point at numbers Mrs. Wollam called out on the hundreds chart. When she
finished the activity, she transitioned over into writing numbers. Mrs. Wollam wrote the numbers
1-10 on a dry erase sheet and had the child copy the numbers. The child had trouble writing the
numbers 3 and 5. The child also had trouble with the concept of zero. She seemed to always be
confused that zero meant you had nothing of something.
In first grade, there was a girl in Mrs. Calhouns class with a language delay and
cognitive delay. She required pictures and oral directions in order to complete her tasks at
centers. When students were at centers, Mrs. Calhoun conducted Guided Reading lessons with
different groups. In order to keep the student on task, she paired her with a peer who tried to keep
her on task. Unfortunately, instead of doing her work on her own, she usually copied her peers
work. When Mrs. Calhoun came around to check their work from the center, the child could not
tell the teacher anything about the noun book she had completed. The noun book was a small
flipchart that had three flaps consisting of people, places, and things. The students were to draw
an example of each kind of noun inside the flap. Instead, under each flap, the child drew all of
the nouns. For example, under the places flap, she drew herself with her mom and dad
standing outside of her house. She drew a car, a dog, and a tree, which are all things instead of
places.
In fourth grade, there was a boy who had cognitive delays. Unfortunately, his general
education teacher did not seem to support him and his needs. The teacher only called on students
that she knew would know the answer to her questions and did not seem to have time for
students who did not understand something immediately. However, when the student was pulled
out by Ms. Swoope, the special education teacher for older students, he seemed to really excel.
Ms. Swoope worked with him on sight words, using flash cards with words that had texture,
suffixes, digraphs, and prefixes. She also used the Wilson Reading Program and had the child
tap it out for help. After he read, she asked him if he pictured anything while he was reading,
and every time his answer was no. When she introduced new words on flash cards, like the word
want, she would have him say the word, spell the word, and paint the word with imaginary red
spray paint. She placed a plastic grid under a blank flash card and wrote the new sight word with
a crayon. She did that because it gave the word texture and made it multisensory for when the
child touched the word. She also had him use a magnetic journal with digraphs and letters in it to
construct words she called aloud.
In fifth grade, I observed four students who had cognitive delays. They all behaved in a
very similar fashion. For example, instead of engaging in the story being read in their
classrooms, they chose to play with an assortment of pens and markers. The teacher made it clear
that she wanted to challenge them, but I think they felt too challenged and gave up on
themselves. When the students were pulled out to go with Mrs. Swoope, they seemed to be more
engaged. She had them read aloud, but one child refused. When she introduced a paragraph
about almonds, she made sure to define words they might not know. After reading, she gave
them a recap of the story and asked them if they had any text to self connections. She also called
on each student to retell the story in their own words and that was when it was evident that only a
couple of them had been paying attention. The students disabilities included speech delays and
cognitive delays.
Throughout my observation, I did not see any integrated technology being used. I did see
boundary markers for the child in Kindergarten, and accommodations that included peer
partnering and pull out sessions. I personally enjoyed my observations at Battle Academy, but I
wish I had been placed in one classroom instead of five. It was hard to keep all of the students
straight and I was in a couple classrooms for only thirty minutes. When a teacher is in the middle
of the lesson, sometimes nothing happens that is particularly interesting regarding a child with
delays. I found that for the most part, the general education teachers did not really do much for
their students with special needs. Instead, the general education teachers seemed to only focus on
the part of the class that was engaged. I learned that the only support the students were receiving
came from Mrs. Wollam and Mrs. Swoope, but that was only for thirty minutes a day. I think the
students need more intervention and one on one help, and especially more support from their
general education teachers. This experience has most definitely changed my view on special
education. I think general education teachers need more practice and training in order to properly
support their students with special needs. It worries me that all of these students have IEPs, yet
they are not getting the proper instruction to build them up for success.

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My name is Abbie Cook and I am a senior at UTC.

My major is early childhood

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