Field Observation Report

My field experience took place at Clay Elementary which is a title one school that is located in rural Mableton, Georgia. I observed a class of kindergarten class taught by a woman named Joanne Heller. There are about twenty students in the classroom and four teachers. The four different types of teachers in the classroom are, Special Ed, ESOL, Early Intervention, and Inclusion. There are no early intervention teachers this school year because the school is ‘low’. Joanne has to be the early intervention teacher and inclusion teacher for her students.

A title one school is funded by the government due to a high percentage of students coming from low-income families. This need to fund these schools stems from the No Child Left Behind Act, which

Heller began to cry as she discussed the recent happenings with her students. The school found out that one of her male students had been tied up and beaten everyday due to the color he received at school if he did not behave ‘well’. Children are often punished for behaving as they should. When placed onto this earth, and into a classroom, teachers make the assumption that a child is going to know right from wrong. In this case, I believe that her student was simply misunderstood and needed guidance instead of being oppressed by a color stick which determined if he behaved up to the teachers standards or not. Mrs. Heller would tell the students to ‘kiss their brain’ whenever the students would answer correctly, but then she would abruptly tell them that they are wrong whenever the students would answer incorrectly. This happened as all of their peers were sitting in front of them. As Kohn stated, this does more negative reinforcing to the kids than it does positive. Students begin to look for someone to always be excited for their accomplishment only when they are right, instead of praises when they have tried their best but were not able to get the question right. It is vital that young children such as these receive everlasting acknowledgement and admiration, for these are their prime years of