Field Experience Day 3

July 13, 2010

On this day I completed my 3rd day of 3 hour field experience time. The students did their usual daily routine. Breakfast, restroom, music, dancing, activities. At 10:20 the students have recess time where they are taken outside to play, at first I thought it was a little early for recess but then I realized that they went to recess first before the regular summer school classes did.

I asked Mrs. Flores why the students where not allowed to play with the other students. She said that usually on a regular school year they will allow them to play with other children as long as they are in the same age range and because it is summer there are many students and all different ages. She also said that regular students sometimes do not take certain reactions well and they do not want to expose the children to be hurt.

While at recess the children all seem to be enjoying their time. One of the things I noticed that is a little different from a regular class was that many of them where playing individually. Some where on the play grounds such as the slide and climbing wall, but others were in their only little world. Some were sitting by the flowers and picking at them and others in the small spaces under the playground. I want to do my research on why that is, I am guessing they like time alone. The only ones doing it where the autistic and DS children. The speech impaired seemed to have no problem communicating at that time. They were so happy, all the children were in their own way.

At recess Mrs. Flores was telling me a little about the classroom arrangement. She said that the reason she has the desk arranged a certain way is because each student should have their own desk and working area, no sharing or grouping because it leads to major distraction for a special ed student.

We talked about centers and their arrangements. She said centers should be arranged in various parts of the room where students can have easy access to when they are done with their school work they can individually go to centers on their own in a quiet manner.

The last thing we talked about was the arrangement of the teachers and aids. Because some of the students require much more attention then others the teachers and aids should be positioned at apposite sides of the room as in front and back to keep a close look at all the students from both angles.