Rachel Bartlett

March 24, 2016

Intro to Special Education

Special Education Field Experience

For my Special Education Field Experience project I observed special education teacher Marcie Sutton at Nelson Elementary School in Haysville, Kansas. Mrs. Sutton works with kindergarten and first grade special education students both in her own classroom and in the student’s regular classrooms. If at all possible she does not pull students out during reading or math periods so that they are not missing out on core subjects. Her classroom was very structured with rules and daily schedules displayed clearly on the walls. The room was set up in three learning centers, with the main one being where Mrs. Sutton worked with her students and then the two smaller ones where the paras worked with individual students. These centers were spaced out nicely so that one wasn’t distracting to the others at all.

 During the first grade reading groups in the regular classroom, she is in the room co-teaching. Her primary focus is providing any needed extra assistance to special education students but since there are only three students in the room at this time she helps all the other students as needed as well. During the kindergarten math period she is in the regular classroom. The kindergarten classroom had a deaf child and Mrs. Sutton explained to me that they provide para support as needed for hearing impaired students, but that for the younger grades if they have an interpreter (which this little girl did) then the interpreter ends up serving as para as well since so much of the early education is vocabulary.

When she pulled children from regular classrooms to her special education room, she worked with them one-on-one and in small groups of two or three. In my time at Nelson Elementary, I observed several students who were on the autism spectrum. One student mainly requires help with certain social situations. Mrs. Sutton said that she does coaching with him when something comes up and his teacher asks for assistance. I was able to observe one of these coaching sessions. This particular session was concerning a situation from the day before. She talked to him about how he felt and gave him some different ideas about how to deal with the situation next time. At first he did not really want to talk about it but as she talked to him and gave him different ideas he began to open up. Mrs. Sutton and the student took turns making up a story and she incorporated a similar situation into the story. Ultimately this gave the student an opportunity to practice a different way to handle the situation in a safe setting.

Another student on the autism spectrum is sometimes distracting to the other students because she moves around so much. They provided this student with a new chair that looks exactly like the other students chairs except it rocks. Mrs. Sutton said that they have had great success since transitioning her to this chair. It allows her movement without being up and around the classroom quite as much.

One of the students I observed was a first grade boy with sensory processing disorder. During my time observing him I saw him several times spit into his hands and play with his spit and noticed that he liked to put things close to or into his mouth. Mrs. Sutton said that he is much better about this then he used to be and that she will frequently provide him with gum to chew on to satisfy his need to have something in his mouth.  I noticed that he moved around a lot too and frequently stood up in place at the table or paced around the table. After he left I was told that as long as he is doing is work and not causing a distraction he is allowed to move around. The other students were obviously used to him moving around and it did not seem to affect them getting their work done.

I also observed a student with dyslexia in the special education classroom. He was in one of the small groups working on vocabulary with two other students. Mrs. Sutton explained to me that the other two students in this group were not special education students but required some intervention with vocabulary. The methods she used with this group seemed very effective in helping the boy remember the words. She would show them a word, have them read it out loud, take turns reading the word, spell the word, and then write the word without looking. It offered a variety of ways to commit the word to memory. She also played various different games with them, which made it very enjoyable for the students.

After finishing my field work, I had so many thoughts, but the first one was gratitude and deep respect for special education teachers for what they do to make sure each of their students is receiving the tools they need to succeed. One thing I noticed the most was how vital structure and schedule is for special education students. These students thrive on familiarity, knowing what to expect next and repetition. At the same time some degree of flexibility is required in that if a student is not grasping a concept then the teaching method may require modification or even an entirely different method. Another thing I noticed that I would love to incorporate into my own classroom one day was that Mrs. Sutton did an excellent job of incorporating learning into things that she knew would hold interest. For example if they read and spelled a word correctly then they got to put a pizza topping onto a plastic pizza. The students very obviously loved this activity. It brought to mind a line from Mary Poppins. “In every job that must be done there is an element of fun. You find it and snap, the job’s a game!” Knowing your students interests and hobbies and incorporating those into what you are teaching in an excellent way to make learning enjoyable and fun.

Last year my daughter was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum and received special education services for the first time. Getting to be in the classroom (her classroom even) and actually observing what goes on behind the scenes of it all was a very eye opening experience and one that I am grateful for. I don’t know if special education is the field I will ultimately end up going into but I can say I truly enjoyed this experience.

Mrs. Sutton and her paras were very sweet and gracious and the kids were all so excited to have someone new in the room. Until I have a classroom of my own, I look forward to finding opportunities to volunteer and be involved in making a difference.