Fieldwork Reflection KA7

Fieldwork came and went in a blink of an eye, but it has defiantly impacted me in so many different ways. When we first began our fieldwork experience it was nerve wrecking, none of us knew what to expect, for a lot of us it was our first time actually teaching a classroom full of sixth grade students a lesson. It took a lot of time, effort and creativity but the overall outcome at the very end left a rewarding feeling.

            When fieldwork first began I was given the opportunity to meet each student in the classroom, to go around the room in our groups and create a getting to know you activity with the students, this gave us a little bit of knowledge on each student in the classroom even before we started working with them and teaching them our lesson. My group was assigned as group number four, the last group to teach our lesson. As the weeks went on I sat back and watched my classmates teach their lessons to the class. I obtained a lot of information during this time and I was also able to see what strategies work well and which can be done a little differently. As I sat back and watched each group present and teach their lesson, I became more and more nervous for my first day of presenting our lesson. You never know what to expect and as teachers you always need have a back up plan just in case what you planned does not work the way you expected it to. When it was finally my time to teach this sixth grade class at Sacred Heart I had no idea what to expect.  When we first began to introduce ourselves to the class I was nervous, but once I began speaking everything seemed to come naturally. 

            As we introduced ourselves and began speaking to the class I was really thankful that I was able to watch my classmates do an amazing job teaching before it was my turn to go. It made me feel a lot more confident knowing that they were there to watch us and give us feedback at the end of our lesson, just like we did for them. I was ready to take on our task of teaching these students all about Plate Tectonics and they all seemed excited and ready to listen and learn.  Our first day of teaching our lesson was focused on  Direct Instruction. I think it is very important to teach the Direct Instruction to the class so that you are able to give the students a significant amount of information that they can drill into their minds before they are ready to go onto an activity based on the information that they have obtained. I worked with my group to come up with a power-point to show the class that consisted of all the information we needed to provide our students will in order to be successful learners on this topic. Along with the power-point the students were given a vocab worksheet to fill in so that they had the proper definitions for each word. Having this worksheet for the students helped us keep the students engaged in our lesson and also let us see who was understanding the material and who needed a little more explanation, that is where our emoji creation came in hand. We were able to see the students hold up a smiley face or a confused face when it came to the work we were teaching them. This allowed each of us to know where our students were at throughout this lesson and what we may need to spend a little more time on explaining.  It is important as teachers to know if your students are following along with the material you are providing them, if not it is our job to assist the student in anyway that we can to help him or her better understand the topic we are learning about. One strategy my group had used throughout teaching our lesson was having the students repeat a word after us, this helped us determine if the student knew how to properly say the word or if they knew when to use the word and what that word was connected with. It was a great way to check understanding on the information we have provided for them. We explained continental drift to the students and provided them with an activity to show them an example of what continental drift really was and what it looked like. Students were given construction paper and were asked to fold in back and fourth and then to place the two continents on the paper and move the paper apart and back together to see how the continents drift away from one another. This was a quick and easy way to show the students a visual on what we were teaching them. Some students often learn better when they are given a hand’s on activity rather than just hearing and reading information off of a power-point slide or a worksheet.  To wrap up the lesson from the first day we asked students to participate in our wonder box that we have created for them. Students were asked to take an index card and write down their wonders about continental drift, pangea or any other wonders or questions they may have had based off of the information that was taught during our first lesson. This provided us with information on what we needed to clarify for the students and we would use these questions for our next lesson. I believe as teachers it is very important to know what material your students are understanding and what material you may need to spend a little more time on.

            After teaching a Direct lesson our next task was to teach and Inquiry based lesson. This lesson was based off of questions, coming up with solutions or ideas, creating a hypothesis and proving it rather then just being given direct instruction and direct information. I believe that the majority of students much rather an Inquiry based lesson where they can come up with a hypothesis, try to prove it and work on hands on activities rather than recording information onto a worksheet.  While participating in an inquiry based lesson students are able to work on the 5 E’s, engage, explore, explain, elaborate and evaluate. As a teacher it is important to make sure that you create a lesson that allows students work on the 5 E’s. I believe that it really gets each child thinking, wondering and involved. They want to come up with an overall answer or finish the experiment they are given. Before you can begin your inquiry lesson it is important to review what you learned from your first lesson and to go over the information briefly with the students again before moving on. Refresh their memories. Our inquiry lesson included four stations with a mission that needed to be solved. The students were given a certain amount of time at each station before switching to the next. The four stations consisted of a station that had to do with fossils and where they would be located if pangea occurred, a station based on earthquakes, a station based on boundaries and a station based on convection currents. Having stations allows the students to work with one another and move form station to station to come up with clues that lead them to a final answer. It is a good way to have the students engaged in the work and participating with one another to solve information and clues. I loved seeing the children work together.

            Throughout my experience I have learned a lot. I learned what it is like to manage your time and to always have a back up plan. I learned the importance of technology in the classroom but not to always depend on it and have a back up plan just in case something goes wrong. I learned what it is like to work with other individuals and be mindful of their suggestions and I learned what it is like to stand up in front of a classroom full of unfamiliar faces and watch them learn and grow over time. Being a teacher must be an extremely rewarding feeling at the end of each school year and I cannot wait to have that feeling one day when I have a classroom of my own.  I am forever grateful for this experience I’ve been given. Not only was I able to teach a classroom full of students I was also able to learn and grow myself when it came to the feedback my classmates had given me based off of our lesson. I think it is really important to make suggestions for one another and to give constructive criticism, it helps each and every single one of us learn and grow, in the long wrong it will help us develop into the teachers that we will one day become. This was a wonderful experience.