I wrote this paper after participating in a field experience at a Head Start Preschool.

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Madison Bostdorff
EDUC 2120
December 12th, 2016
Field Experience Paper
My twenty hours of field experience were spent at head start in Dahlonega.
This preschool program provides schooling services for low-income families who
cannot quite afford a non-government funded program. Some services provided at
this head start include healthy meals, which incorporates skim milk and at least one
veggie and one fruit at lunch and even free dental and medical screenings. While
volunteering at head start, a few of my tasks included wiping down the tables and
chairs, printing, labeling, and cutting out images for around the classroom,
supervising the children outside, playing with the children inside, and observing my
classroom during free play. During the hours of observing and helping out in the
classroom, I found that most of the children listen to the teacher and interact how
they’re supposed to. Also I found that you could tell which children have bad home
lives. Over the course of hours I spent there, I watched those children settle into the
classroom nicely. Over the course of a semester, I observed much improvement. The
students who were shy at the beginning warmed up to the classroom and were
interacting very well at the end of the semester. Another observation of progress
was the interaction and knowledge of small groups. Usually one teacher gets a table
of all the girls and the other teacher gets a table of all the boys. I watched both tables
progress during my observation hours.

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One of the topics that we learned about in class was Inclusion. I saw this
come alive in my head start classroom. In my classroom there was a little boy with
Down syndrome and a little boy who acts different than the other students. Even
though he needs a little help, he is pushed to work and participate with the other
children as much as possible. I was glad to see them in the classroom, because I
believe in inclusion and it being incorporated as much as possible. In Full Inclusion
as Disclosing Tablet, Mara Sapon-Shevin wrote, “simply dumping children with
disabilities into classrooms without adequate preparation, commitment, and
support will certainly not work.” (Shevin, pg. 66, 1994) It is so important to prepare
and commit for inclusion. The students need the commitment and support and with
that they will be able to thrive in a general classroom with their classmates. The two
boys in my head start classroom that I mentioned earlier both love their classroom
that they are included in and during the time I spent with them I watched them
thrive and noticed they were exposed to so much. I enjoyed their company and their
personalities! Inclusion can be an issue when teachers are not up to fully committed,
but my classroom at head start certainly was.
Another issue and a couple of topics we have discussed in class that I came
across over the hours I spent in my classroom were bullying and racism. There is a
child who is around a year older than all of the other children in my classroom.
During free play, a few boys would do something they were not supposed to and
then blame it on the older child who was not even close to them. The teachers would
believe them and put the older child alone at a table with Legos. When the older
child does get in trouble, he is treated a lot differently than when the other children

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get in trouble. I believe this situation is a form of bullying. Also, the way they treat
him could be a form of racism, because he is of a different race than the teachers.
Sensoy and DiAngelo stated, “we do not have to be aware of oppression in order for
it to exist.” (Sensoy & DiAngelo, pg. 97, 2012) Another view of this situation is that
they could feel as though since he is older they need to be a bit stricter. The main
teacher that is treating him differently could be enacting a form of discrimination
against him. One reason that the teachers believe the children who blame the older
boy could be because he acts up a lot. With noticing how he acts in class, it is
possible that his parents are not being strict enough at home.
Culture played a big part in my experience with head start. There are a
variety of different cultures in my classroom and I think that is the base of head
start. With all these cultures in the classroom, the main culture that stuck out the
most for me was the culture of poverty. It’s sad to know that, “according to the
Children’s Defense Fund statistics from 2006, 1.3 million children have fallen into
poverty since 2000.” (Cuthrell, pg. 104, 2009) Throughout the classroom, I noticed
that everything that was labeled was in Spanish and English. Also, we sang different
types of songs dealing with different cultures. I think it is so important to teach
about each culture and expose the children to new things. Additional training that
could’ve assisted me in this field experience would be on Down syndrome. I feel I
was around the little boy with Down syndrome quite a lot and if I could have had
some additional training than I would possible be able to interact with him better.
From this field experience, I acquired some classroom ideas for future
reference but also learned about different cultures, inclusion, dealt with some

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issues, and did some quality observations of each student. Something that I know I
do not want to do when I become a teacher is have a table of girls learning together
and then a table of boys learning together. I will incorporate diversity into my
classroom, so I want to combine girls and boys together when we work at table
groups. I will also want to separate my high group and my low group at some point
to make sure that they are working at their own level. Something I learned in this
field experience that I would one day incorporate into my classroom is to take time
for songs, dancing, or a fun activity. The students will not learn if they have to listen
to me all day, especially the young ones! Overall, this experience has positively
impacted my journey as a future educator and only makes me more excited for what
will come in my classroom one day! My identity as a future teacher has improved
over this semester with all that I have learned and all that I will incorporate with all
the new material I have been exposed to. This experience definitely added challenge
and growth to my personal philosophy of education. To see my students be
challenged to reach a goal that is set high is everything to a future teacher! Growth
for each student, whether they are on a high level or low level is still growth and
watching their knowledge expand is exactly what a teacher wants to see. One last
personal philosophy of education for me would be inclusion. Making sure my
classroom is fully prepared will be on the top of my list when I become a teacher one
day. This field experience has impacted my journey as an educator immensely!

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Resource Page
Sapon‐Shevin, M. (1996). Full inclusion as disclosing tablet: Revealing the flaws in
our present system. Theory into practice, 35(1), 35-41.
Sensoy, Ö, & DiAngelo, R. J. (2012). Is everyone really equal?: An introduction to key
concepts in social justice education. New York: Teachers College Press.
Cuthrell, K., Stapleton, J., & Ledford, C. (2009). Examining the culture of poverty:
Promising practices. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children
and Youth, 54(2), 104-110.