Whitney Elementary School serves a diverse student population, including a significant number of special education and English language learners, facing challenges such as low income and underfunding. Observations in a special education classroom revealed effective teaching strategies and the need for improvement in staff training and student redirection techniques. Overall, there is a positive community atmosphere and potential for enhanced mainstreaming opportunities for students with special needs.

1. Kristi Young
Educ 205
Classroom Profile Essay
12/7/10
Whitney Elementary School is a pretty rough school although you might not notice at
first glance. This 475student school serves 51 special education students and about 155 ELL kids
from 19 different countries. The students are mostly low income and many come from hard
backgrounds with varying family characteristics; 92% of these children receive free or reduced
price lunches. As I observed a P.E class one day it tore at my heart when they teacher told me
that many of them enjoyed this time so much because they may not own a ball or get to play
outside at home. Like many schools they do the best they can and seem under-funded but then
again who isn’t underfunded these days? They do have the advantage of some great community
outreach programs based right at their school to help point the kids in the right direction.
I had the privilege to observe Stacey Hammar’s class for 12 hours. I’m fortunate to have
prior experience in schools and with this population and felt like I had some advantages as far as
being able to assess their situation as well as the teaching techniques used. I learned many things
while I was there and I feel like I might have a few helpful points as well. The students needs
would be deemed mild/moderate though I saw a couple who might function pretty well in an
more immerged setting as well as one who might later be better served by a more extended
resource setting.
The whole school takes a positive behavioral support approach with discipline. Physical
contact is not tolerated at any level and in spite of some externalizing disorders which do cause
the occasional disruption in Ms. Hammar’s class; her students are treated with the same
expectations as the general population. The entire school uses a green/yellow/red light system

2. which seems to be very effective for most of the kids. There are a couple who just don’t have the
cognitive reasoning to understand why a recess may be taken away and so different
consequences are implemented for these students. I was intrigued by this class as they seemed to
do very well in some areas such as using total communication for one little guy who is hearing
impaired and also affected by Down syndrome. He has some residual hearing and benefits from
the use of hearing aids and also utilizes visual, verbal, and physical means of communication and
he does use sign language but it is my understanding that he tends to rely on it so much that they
really want to emphasize other avenues while he is still young.
There are areas where I felt improvement could be made by the district and the staff.
Staff training for one seems to be in order; we tend to get into a routine and know what works
and what is easy though it may not be the best choice in the long run. I saw need for
improvement in the way the staff sometimes addresses the students as well as their redirection
techniques. For one student in particular there tends to be quite a bit of “man handling” and
physical prompting that will not be of any use to him as he grows older and gets bigger. Some
non physical redirection could be used I think quite well with him and he seems to rely on being
able to provoke his aides to picking him up and repositioning him or reminding him to stay in his
chair by use by the aide placing her feet on either side of him when she faces him at the table. I
also saw that perhaps some more positive language could be used. I didn’t think I had been
uniquely trained but I have seen the benefits of saying things like “let’s not” instead of “don’t!”
for example.
The entire class receives a great deal of direct instruction. This is great and really helps
the students. With the changing atmosphere in special education I think that in the future if not
immediately all of these students could see a great deal a benefit from some more extensive

3. mainstreaming. The only time that they get to be with their peers is at lunch (where they sit at
their own table), at recess, and at P.E. and/or music. From seeing how well students of all
abilities can do in a general ed classroom from our videos in class I was genuinely surprised to
walk into a program with so much potential for that and not see it happening. I feel like perhaps
with a couple more sets of hands; co-teaching could be a very effective teaching strategy. Ms.
Hammar is a flexible and creative teacher who knows her stuff. She has a lot to offer other
teachers as well as the general student population.
The students as a class receive occupational therapy as a related service from a very
gifted professional. I have never observed OT in a larger group setting before and was delighted
to see it implemented in such fun and effective ways. Some of the kids have pervasive
developmental disorders which can be quite limiting and the OT seems to really push that
comfort zone for them and encourage interaction and sensory stimuli. The routine is reliable but
also active enough that no 2 sessions are the same. There are many opportunities for the kids to
work on both academic and various motor and social skills in this setting in sort of a functional
curriculum.
I was lucky enough to come into this class at a time when parent teacher evaluations were
being conducted and IEPs were being revised. I saw a lot of collaboration between the teacher,
the aides, and attempts were made to involve the parents. Given the basic demographics of the
school it seemed to hold true in this population that engaging their parents was not always an
easy task. As pure speculation I wonder what a program offering some more formal supports to
all families as a whole that have children affected by various impairments. It would be a
sensitivity training of sorts and focus on empowerment. I would be interested to see the

4. correlation between the learned helplessness of the student and their parents’ before and after
such a program.
In conclusion and back on subject I like that self regulation seems to be a goal of the
school as a whole and it seems that the school has a positive community atmosphere. This school
despite district underfunding that affects all school and the makeup of the entire student
population with such diverse backgrounds seems to have everything going for it with unlimited
potential. The staff is all hard working and seems willing to seek further training so I see no
reason why the district could not successfully address some of the issues afore mentioned if it is
found to be needed. As stated I believe that all of the students in this class would benefit from
some time with their peers in a mainstream classroom as varying intensities of course perhaps
through the use of tiered assignments much like what is already used in Ms. Hammar’s room
but of course in a more diverse setting. Whitney has a strong program with a lot of room to grow.