Reflection of Field

Success

The students really seemed to enjoy activities that were hands on.  They were actively participating in the Desktop Organizer assignment and seemed to be enjoying themselves while they worked.

One thing that the students really responded well to was when we as the teachers would set our expectations at the beginning of the lesson.  When we established not only what would be taught, what we wanted of them and what we expected of them, then the class was always much better behaved.

A few things that the students really enjoyed in our lessons were our activities used in our Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima/Nagasaki lessons.  In the Pearl Harbor lesson, the students created their own paper airplanes after watching a video clip on Pearl Harbor.  They wrote their thoughts of the movie on their airplanes and they had the chance to throw them across the room for one another to read.  In a later lesson on the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the students enjoyed watching our Digital Story on the bombings.  A discussion was held after watching it and it was clear that each of the students felt something.  Many of the students participated in the discussion and expressed how they felt about the bombings and about war in general.

The students really enjoyed the lessons we taught, as did our cooperating teacher Myles Peterson.  He asked for copies of all of our lesson plans so that he could use them in later teaching of Social Studies and WWII.

Improvement

The places where I need to improve are in my classroom management.  We learned in field that once you can get a class to listen to you, to keep their attention and to maintain control in the class, then teaching becomes fun.  

During our first lesson, materials for the Desktop Organizer were placed on the back table.  When the time came for the students to go and get their materials, the table turned into a jumbled mess!  I learned that instead of telling the students to go get their materials all at once, we should have dismissed them row by row to prevent chaos.  

Another place I need to improve on is with my classroom voice.  I need to keep a tone that lets the students know I’m there and that I’m in charge.  In addition to that, I need to first let the students know that I am to be respected.  In doing so, I need to be strict first (let them know who’s in charge) and then later relax slightly so I can be their friend / be likeable.  I first need to establish that I demand respect and expect it from my students, and later is when I can make myself more personal to them.

Possibilities for Professional Development
   
I discovered during this experience that I need to always be prepared with a back up plan. I learned a few times that sometimes what you have planned either doesn’t work, or is so different than what you had in mind that a plan b would come in handy.  

Another point that I will emphasize in the future is to give very specific instructions.  Through this experience, I sort of assumed that older children automatically act more mature and well behaved.  I learned that the students feed off one another and if one student is confused than more become confused.  It’s important to give very specific instructions because no matter how old they are, someone could still get lost while the teacher is instructing.  

In plan on using these lessons in the future.  Some of them were very successful and the students really enjoyed them.  Our digital story lesson, for example, couldn’t have gone better.  I feel like the students took a lot from the video- both educationally and emotionally.  I like to think that the students in Mr. Peterson’s classroom will not soon forget that lesson because it was so social-emotionally captivating.

I had a wonderful experience in field and I look forward to taking what I’ve learned and implementing it in the future.