Blog Post 1: Samantha Beverly

I was placed at Tropical Elementary school. Tropical is a school that seems to be very relaxed but very devoted to special education. On my first day doing field experience, I noticed many special education classes walking together through the halls, I also noticed that many of the general education students reacted in a positive way when seeing the special education classes in the hallway. My clinical teacher is very motherly towards her students, she has great classroom management, and she is able to get students to become very engaged in the tasks at hand. I have been to field experience twice so far, and each time it was a positive experience. I felt welcomed in the classroom as an observer and as a future teacher, my purpose for being in the classroom was adequately explained to the children, and I feel that the tasks I have to accomplish for my university classes are respected and she will allow me to accomplish them. I mention this because I have found that not feeling welcomed in a classroom by the clinical teacher is often hindering to the work that university students can do in a classroom.

I usually come to observe every Friday. Friday at Tropical Elementary is test day. The first Friday I came, it was the day before Valentine's day. That day the children did not do very much testing. The next Friday I came to class, the students took a math test, spelling test, and a vocabulary test. As the students worked on their first worksheet before the tests, they were all on task and engaged in the work that they were doing. other than the occasional talking, I did not observe any behavioral issues in the classroom. Ms. Smith's teaching method seems to be very effective because almost all students are engaged with every task, and all students know the way that things are to be done in the classroom. Hopefully I will be able to observe a lesson sometime in the future.