Observation park lawn day 2

I was only at Park Lawn for an hour or so today, and just did general classroom dynamics observations. In general, I noticed that kids worked in groups no larger than 3, each mediated by an authority. The authority figures used firm language, but also joked around with the kids. Joking around seemed to help gain focus for the less handicapped, but the more severely handicapped required a more authoritative attitude. Also, some kids were more affected by distractions than others. In particular, the less disabled children were more easily distracted (perhaps they're more aware of their surroundings?) The more disabled kids pretty much stuck to their task with an unbelievable amount of focus - although they didn't necessarily accomplish much of anything. Another thing I noticed was that kids were constantly coming and going. Patrick commented that the special ed classroom has very little strict structure - it's fluid, and very much confusing. No one seemed very sure at all of where everyone was supposed to be at one time, because everyone had such different schedules. At the same time though, the kids were responsible for their own schedules and figuring out where they needed to be. Also, there were still cliques within the classroom. The less disabled in general hung out with those of similar ability, whereas the most disabled were extremely isolated.