Running head: FIELD OBSERVATION 1

Field Observation at Pat Diskin Elementary School – Special Education

April McClure

College of Southern Nevada

Field Observation at Pat Diskin Elementary School – Special Education

My field observation for special education was done at Pat Diskin Elementary School and

I had the pleasure of observing Ms. Balkman and Ms. Phillips’ class as well as the teaching and

communication methods they use. I spent most of my hours observing Ms. Balkman (primary

resource teacher, K-3rd) and a few hours observing Ms. Phillips (intermediate resource, 4th-5th)

and gained a lot information and techniques from watching them do their tasks during their

workday.

During my observation I had the opportunity to observe students in an inclusion and

resource class. Ms. Balkman and Ms. Phillips’ classes are located right next to each other, are

very organized and simple making it easy for students to find materials they need such as

locating books, white boards, dry erase markers, erasers, and Ipad’s to work on their math or

practice telling time. In both classes, majority of the students were male and Hispanic. The

younger group of kids needed assistance with reading, math, and blending sounds into words

while the older group of kids focused on finding the main idea of a story, reading, and math.

Upon entering Ms. Phillips’ class, on the left hand side she has cabinets and shelves that

has all her supplies and materials. Going clockwise from there is a U-shaped table facing a

whiteboard where she does most of her group exercises with, a table for four next to another

whiteboard, then her desk in a corner, a computer table behind her desk, another table for four,

and then the resource aide’s desk closest the entrance. Each of the tables that have four seats are

for students that are working on a different exercise, who like to work independently, or those

who she finds that need to work by themselves. She explained to me about behavioral

intervention plans and reinforcement she uses in her class. There was a total of about thirteen

students who went to her throughout the day and the group consisted of fourth and fifth graders
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who mostly needed to work on their reading. After spending some time reading a few pages of a

book, she lets each of her students choose if they would like to either continue practice reading

or practice math on their own. If they did well, she would give them points on a point chart she

created and award them with things such as “student choice” (jolly ranchers, red vines). I noticed

Ms. Phillips has to be more firm because her students are a bit older and there were also students

who would interrupt her or give an attitude. When she spoke with the students who had an

attitude, she approached them not only as a teacher but also someone who they can open up to.

I spent majority of my hours observing kindergarten through third grade with Ms.

Balkman and did not realize how fast time flew by because she was always on the go. Her

schedule consists of going to inclusion classes for about forty to forty-five minutes, then her

class for resource, lunch duty, then all over again. On the first day of observation, the first class

we went to at the start of the day was in a third grade inclusion class where some of her students

are. As soon as she walked in, her students jumped up and immediately gave her a hug. She

walked around asking them how their weekend was and if they were ready for the day. The class

activity was how to make fractions and as all of the students were clearing off their desks, she

explained to me she tries to expose her kids ahead of time to whatever lesson plan it is the class

is working on so her students can understand the subject.

Immediately after her first inclusion class we went straight to her classroom to get ready

for her resource group. Her lectures are done in small groups of about twelve students and her

class is set up where the attention is on her. A rectangular table is connected to the bottom

portion of a U-shaped table and seats a total of twelve. There is a large whiteboard in the

direction the table is facing that she uses to write the objective for the day and lesson she will be

teaching. To the right of that on another wall are two other whiteboards next to each other that
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has lists of sight words and other notes. Also in her class are two desks and one other table; the

resource aide’s desk is against the wall facing the main entrance, a second desk belonging to Ms.

Balkman is located on another side of the room next to file cabinets and a table is located directly

behind her desk and has two computers on it.

As she was preparing for the class, in comes about eight adorable kindergartners and first

graders with big smiles on their faces. They all greeted “Good Morning, Ms. B!”, grabbed a seat,

and ready to learn. She asked them individually how their weekend was and each of them shared

their stories of what they did. She told me the purpose of her asking the kids is to have them

learn how to say a full sentence and use words other than “good” to describe their weekend. A

positive reinforcement she uses is “Ticket Out the Door” when at the conclusion of class each

student has to read a word and put it in a sentence before they can be dismissed. She also gives

out stickers, gives high fives but a lot of her reinforcement are praising the kids which she

noticed encourages the kids a lot more. Another thing I noticed about her students is when they

enter her class, they come rushing in and at the end of lesson they slowly walk out as if they

don’t want to leave yet. Her class rules she has posted are “We will listen when others speak. We

will work hard every day. We will be kind to each other. We will have fun learning.” and that is

exactly what I saw each time her students were there.

One student in particular caught my attention whenever he was in Ms. Balkman’s class

who she referred to as her little assistant. They were doing a math activity using cubes to work

on addition and were asked to make an equation such as “what two numbers added together

equals 4” on their whiteboards. He was always the first to finish and when another student

needed help, he walked right over to them, and wrote out the equation. They also had to work in

pairs to put the numbers 1-31 in order and he basically took charge.
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When Ms. Balkman had some downtime I took the opportunity to interview her and ask

questions such as why she chose to be special education teacher and her pedagogical approach.

Her love for teaching came when she was just 11 years old where she volunteered to help kids

with special needs and decided that was her passion since then. The only main challenge she

noted being a teacher is there isn’t enough time in the day to get everything done. I asked her

what is the best part of being a teacher and the smile on her face says it all “I just love working

with kids. Getting hugs from them is rewarding and I love to crack the code of teaching a child to

read”. She has been in this field for more than thirty years and knows exactly how the flow of the

class is going to be by how students enter her classroom which she also determines who will sit

closer to her that needs the extra support. She also doesn’t determine her students by their grade,

but by their levels where they are the strongest or needs improvement. Assessments she uses

regularly are “Ticket Out the Door” and she is also a firm believer in using CORE Phonics and

AIMSweb. Ms. Balkman holds dear to her heart that every child’s needs should be met to help

them focus in their studies such as providing food to kids who are starving or making sure there

is a way for her to help a student and their family get a refrigerator to put food in. I asked her

how she communicates with other specialist teacher’s information about a students IEP and she

stated she gives them a copy of the student’s accommodations and goes over it with them such as

verbal praises, grade level, and proximity of where they should be seated. When asked what

surprised her the most about teaching as a profession, her response was the amount of paperwork

involved and the number of times a student has to be tested. She also added she wouldn’t trade it

for the world because the love she has for the job and kids just keeps her going.

The required ten hours of observing special education teachers went by so fast but I

gained a great deal of useful information that I can apply in my future class. It was a bit different
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than what I had pictured prior to the experience. I thought we would be in a resource room most

of the day but it was neat that it was divided up so that Ms. Balkman can still keep assist her

students even when they are not in her classroom. Overall both teachers do a tremendous job and

I definitely had a great learning experience and feel fortunate to have been able to participate in

it.