Fieldwork Reflection

I feels like just yesterday I was so nervous at the thought of teaching the sixth graders. Now, in what

feels like the blink of an eye, fieldwork is done! This time flew by so quick. I think back to the beginning when we were planning our lessons and that feels like so long ago!

Throughout this whole fieldwork experience, I most definitely learned more than I imagined. I learned what works and what doesn't work within the classroom. First, I definitely learned so much about time management. Sometimes what you think may only take a few minutes, might wind up taking a huge chunk of time and vice versus. I also learned how important it is so always have a back up plan! My group experienced that the first day when we had an extensive lesson and that morning the internet was not working! You always need to have a plan B because you never know what might happen! It is always better to be over prepared than under prepared! Another thing I learned was that although technology is a wonderful and amazing tool to spice up a lesson, you cannot always depend on it. Technology helps to enhance lessons and make them more engaging, but sometimes it may not work. 

Therefore, it is also important to not only rely on technology for your lessons. Furthermore, throughout this fieldwork experience I really mastered my skills of writing lesson plans! I got more experience writing different types of lessons plans and all the criteria that must be included within lesson plans. It is important to keep in mind that there are different ways to write different lesson plans! The way you write a direct lesson plan is not the same way you would write an inquiry lesson plan. This is really helpful because next semester when I student teach I will obviously be writing tons and tons of lesson plans! I am grateful I had this experience to really help foster and master my skills of writing lesson plans!

Another thing that was really helpful throughout this fieldwork experience was watching my peers teach. By watching them, I learned different ways to implement certain lessons and activities. I got to see different methods of teaching and how others work in the classroom. Sometimes, you think you have a great way to implement a certain activity and it goes south. But, you can watch other people try to implement similar activities and they may go great! Then you can keep this in mind and think about how you could possibly adjust your idea to make the activity go more smoothly. Although it is nerve wracking to teach in front of your peers, it really is a learning tool! We all grew so much throughout this whole experience. By observing my peers, it helped me to keep in mind how different people do different things. It is also good to see how one thing does not work for everybody. Therefore, I think it is very important to always have multiple ways for students to learn. One size does not fit all!!

Throughout this time I also got experience with creating and evaluating assessments. Before we began teaching our lesson we gave the class a pretest. This helped us to see if the students had any prior knowledge about our topic of minerals and rocks. The students actually did know a lot, so we were impressed! While we taught our lessons we assessed the students both formally and informally. Formal assessments were conducted through things such as exit tickets. We informally assessed the students by having them raise a flag as to whether they agree or disagree and analyzing the data depending on the answers of the students. While watching my peers teach, I also learned other ways to assess students. My favorite assessment that we did with the class was when we first met with them. We made a poster that we called "Sixth Grade Geologists" and the students were given pieces of construction paper that looked like minerals! On the mineral they were to write what they already know about rocks and minerals and what they want to learn. Then they decorated it with gemstones!

This time in fieldwork has also helped me to realize my strengths and weaknesses. I have realized I am not perfect and nobody is! This time to reflect allowed me to realize that there is always room for improvement! I know my strengths and I know my weaknesses. Now, I can learn how to build more on my strengths and improve my weaknesses! Teaching is an ongoing process. You will always be learning more, and learning as you go! I don't think anyone is perfect and over time I will keep getting better and better! 

Spending this time in the classroom has also helped me prepare for student teaching next semester! This has given me some more insight of what it may be like next semester when I am teaching! Also, creating our portfolio and practicing with edTPA tasks after we taught our lessons is also preparing me for what I will be doing next semester!