My Classroom Observation Experience

For my observation experience I went to Southern High School in Harwood, MD. Southern High School has a special education department for the students with disabilities. The teacher that I met with for this classroom observation was Ms. West. In the classroom there were at least four assistant teachers that helped Ms. West throughout the school day. The assistant teachers helped Ms. West co- teach the class and were there to help the students if they needed extra help. The school also has a couple of student aides that come in to help the teachers and the students in the classroom. There were at least twelve students in the classroom. The students in the class had many different exceptionalities such as learning disabilities, Down syndrome,

For that day the students participated in their community based instruction lesson. The community based instruction lessons help the students practice and learn life skills that they will need such as cooking, how to shop at a store, how to pay for something at the checkout lines at stores, and how to behave in a restaurant. For their community based instruction for that day the students were learning how to behave in a restaurant and were taken to an Italian restaurant to practice how to behave and what to do while they are there. The teacher went through the steps of what to do when you are at a restaurant (enter the restaurant, follow the hostess to the table, sit properly in your seat, order your drinks when they waiter asks what you would like, etc.). The teacher put the students into groups of four with who they will be sitting with at their tables in the restaurant. The teacher practiced with the students by going over to each group and asked them what they would like. This taught the students how to be polite to the server (saying hello, having eye contact with the server, saying “yes please” and “thank you”, etc.) and how to order their drinks and food. The students also had note cards that they had filled out and the note cards had what they want to drink and what they want to eat. These note cards

The teachers were giving the students positive reinforcement throughout the day. In class we talked about how positive reinforcement helps the students to succeed in their classes. Another ah-ha moment was the environment of the classroom. The classroom had no windows at all. In class we talked about what kinds of things are distracting to students with ASD in classrooms and one of those things are the windows in classrooms. The third ah-ha moment was the parent sheets that the teacher and the school provide for the parents. In class we talked about how parent involvement is very important for the students with disabilities. The teacher fills out the parent involvement paper that lets the parents know how the child did in school this week and what their child needs to improve on. The students must give their paper to their parents to look at when they get home. The things that I had learned during my observation experience that I will use in the future for my classroom will be including student learning objectives in the classroom, using positive reinforcement, and get the parents more involved in their child’s education. I will go over with the students what the student learning objectives are in the beginning of class so the students will know what they will be doing and what they will be learning throughout the day. I also will use positive