I. Background and Context:
My
special education observing took place in a fifth grade class during two
periods: an inclusion study skills period, and a mainstream math period. Primarily I will be reporting on my
observations from the inclusion class and the special education teacher. However, there will be some comparisons to
the mainstream class as well. The class
I observed was in the Malverne, NY middle school,
where the grades range from fifth to eighth.
The middle school is a large 3 story building with an auditorium
attached to one end, a large recreational field in the rear, and a small front
lawn with sidewalks and a flag pole waving the flag of the
The middle school is a very positive and nurturing environment which provides a lot for the children. According to the Malverne school district website, the middle school provides various extracurricular activities, including sports for children in seventh and eighth grades. There was a decent size library and lab rooms of computers for the students to use as a class. The atmosphere of the school was a very welcoming for all. I was greeted inside the main entrance by a woman at a table in the hallway where I was asked if I needed help. I explained my name, where I was from, and my intentions at the school which were to observe room number 324. I then showed my id and was given a pass to enter and walk the halls to the special education office where I would meet the head of the department and then be escorted to my classroom. There are one to two security officers or teacher hall monitors in each hall at all times that hold walkie-talkies in case of emergencies. The halls were not very bright with lights, but bright from all the children’s art work and projects hanging up for display. All the halls were brightly painted and very clean. There were trash receptacles and drinking fountains were placed throughout the locker lined halls. One thing I noticed that I thought was very clever was the “Locker Song” that was printed out and posted on each individual locker in order to help the new to the school fifth grade students remember how to open their locks.
The classroom where I spent my time observing was highly equipped with various mediums to be used for education. Instead of the traditional chalkboard in the front of the room, there was a dry erase board across the entire front wall of the classroom which I observed being used everyday as well as an overhead projector that projected onto a pull-down screen in front of the dry erase board. Above the dry erase board hung an American flag. On one side of the room, there was a table with two computers and a printer. The back wall was filled with cabinets that held school supplies such as sets of textbooks for the class, dictionaries, art supplies such as markers and paper, and on the counter were baskets for students to hand in worksheets, and globe that sat on top. The teacher’s desk sat in front of those cabinets in the back of room where she very rarely sat. The sidewalls were large bulletin boards with various mathematical phrases and numbers because the classroom was the fifth grade mathematics classroom. As well as the ready made posters hanging, there was more student artwork and projects on the bulletin boards. The view from the room was not great. Due to the fact that it was on the third floor, all one could really see from the large windows was the roof of some other part of the second floor.
The demographics of the middle school were of a wide range of races and ethnicities. There are 49 full-time teachers to nurture and encourage the 530 students enrolled in the middle school. Based on the results of the 2005-2006 NCES, 62% of the students are Black, non-Hispanic, 21% are White, non-Hispanic, 14% Hispanic, 3% Asian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian/Alaskan Native students consist of <1%. During my time spent in the school, I noticed that teachers were also of various races and ethnicities. However, the special education teacher I observed was a white male in his twenties, and the mainstream math teacher was a white female in her forties. To understand a little about students and their family’s socio-economic status, the 2005-2006 NCES also reported that out of the entire student body for the school, 33% are eligible for the free or reduced-price lunch program. I was unable to find exact numbers on students with disabilities. However, according to the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in 2005-2006 the outcome was a ‘yes.’ All of this information I was able to obtain from http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/ny/other/1545#students as well as a city-data website.