The Classroom

My cooperating teacher’s classroom is different from all of the other classrooms I have ever seen. I am not sure whether the differences are due to the teacher’s style or that it is a special education classroom and this is my first experience in a special education classroom.

The first thing I noticed when I walked into the classroom was that the calendar was still on the month of January even though it was halfway through February. As a student, I know this would have bothered me because I would not know the date. I think this would be especially confusing to the special education students.

Since the school was afforded additional funding, they were able to hire two additional special education teachers. However, they had a classroom shortage. Therefore, approximately 1/4 of my cooperating teacher’s classroom was taken for one of the new teachers. The other side of the classroom contains the only chalkboard in the room. Therefore, my cooperating teacher does not even have a chalkboard. I believe chalkboards are critical for a teacher to properly teach the students. Without a chalkboard, a teacher cannot visually teach something to the entire class. She has to rely on other resources. In lieu of a chalkboard, my cooperating teacher has a small mobile white board where she writes the words of the week.

I believe technology is important in the classroom. Equipment such as overheads, SmartBoards, and document cameras allow an entire class to visualize and grasp material. Although none of these technological features are available in the classroom I am observing, I do not think they would be used effectively in a special education classroom. My cooperating teacher generally teaches only one student at a time. Therefore, she can show each student individually what she needs to show him or her instead of distracting the rest of the class with an overhead projection. On the other hand, there are three Apple computers in the classroom, which are used by the students to play reading and math games. The computers are used for a reward, but they also help the students with reading and math skills.

Given that there is less room in the classroom, I feel like everything is shoved together. In my opinion, the room is not organized because there are stakes of papers lying all over the room. Also, most of the books are in boxes instead of on bookshelves. There is not sufficient storage in the classroom.

There is not a direct access to the outside, but I think that is a good thing. There are a few of the students I can see running outside to either get away from the teachers or simply play outside.

Overall, I believe there are features in the classroom that are an asset, but there are also things in the classroom that I do not like and would not have in my own classroom. My cooperating teacher had an entire classroom to herself in past years then she had to consolidate into 3/4 of the space, which could have contributed to the lack of organization and adequate space.