A Reflection on the Fieldwork Experience

As I write this reflection on my fieldwork experience for Dr. Smirnova's Social Studies Methods class, I do not know where to begin. This class has been one of the craziest, challenging, and rewarding experiences of my educational career, and life. Before I even enrolled for this class, I remember hearing a lot of rumors about the class, including the workload, and teaching in front of a whole class. At first this was terrifying news to me because I do not like to get stressed out with a lot of work, and I had never taught to a full class before. The day that classes first began, I can't say that I was any more prepared than I was when hearing the initial rumors about this class. For the most part, the rumors I heard about this class were true: there is a lot of work that goes along with the course, and it is one of the most challenging courses I have taken because of it. However, what most people did not mention to me was how rewarding the whole experience is. All of the new technology i was exposed to this semester will hopefully be the technology that I am using in my own classroom in the years to come. Also, having the experience to teach a full class was truly remarkable experience. Without this experience, I would feel much less comfortable going into my last semester of college before student teaching. Although at times this class was overwhelming, I learned so much about teaching, and being in a full classroom with all eyes on you. This was a completely worthwhile experience for me, and for all of the other groups as well.

It helped so much to be able to observe the other group's lessons before my group taught our own. Besides the amazing people that were a part of my group, this was one of the key factors for us to create great lessons. One aspect of this fieldwork that was especially helpful was the organization of the lesson's taught. In other words, every group began with a direct instruction lesson, then taught an inquiry, and finished with a cooperative. Because all of the people in our class expected this, we could all come into the lesson with expectations of what exactly was expected of the group. For all of the lessons, I brought in the reflection form and made notes during the other group's lesson. This helped my to write my reflections after the group finished teaching, but it also gave me ideas for my own group's lessons. The reflections on the performance of my other classroom colleagues helped tremendously when our group created our lessons, and many of our decisions considered this. For example, we noticed that in cooperative, and inquiry lessons, time management was a problem. We noticed this and tried to alter our activities to accommodate this. Also, some of the other group's activities for guided practice and independent practice did not go as planned, so we decided as group

to avoid these activities. In some cases we decided to attempt similar activities to other group's, but for the most part, we observed how the lesson's went for the group, and took notes on how to change this for our own group's lessons.

As for my own group, I am thoroughly impressed, and amazed at how well we collaborated as professionals, and worked together to plan and teach our first full-class lessons. I know that this was the best possible group combination for us, because we all worked together so well. Without this group, our fieldwork experience would have been totally different, and for the most part,  I only reflect positively when I think of what we did as a group in the second grade. It is amazing to be up in front of a classroom for the first time. All of a sudden, something that I have been working towards for years is right in front of me. Naturally, this is a totally mind-boggling experience not to mention the video camera rolling, and my entire class of peers observing and taking notes on our performance. Despite this, it was truly a remarkable experience to teach a full class. Our direct instruction lesson was timed absolutely perfectly, and all of our activities went exactly as planned. This was a huge confidence boost for my group. However, in following lessons, our timing was slightly off, which we had to consider, and change our activities accordingly. This was a great experience because it is exactly what happens in a real classroom. Sometimes due to unexpected circumstances, your timing is off, and activities go longer than expected. This is something that we, as a group had to solve, and it is also something that we, as individuals will experience at other times in our teaching careers. Although the timing of the lesson is only one aspect of our lessons, I feel that it applies to everything. Sometimes, things went exactly as planned and worked great, and sometimes even when they did go as planned, there was something else that needed to be fixed or addressed.

My point is, teaching is not an easy profession. It is a process of planning, and adapting, then planning again, then adapting your changed plans.  This is something that cannot be taught in a textbook. Teaching is a process, and should be treated as such. The only way to become a better teacher is to go outside of your comfort level and jump into it. The only way to grow as an emerging teacher is to just do it. As beginning teachers, it is important that we teach our students, but in reality it is the students that are teaching us.

My Philosophy of Education

Jean Piaget: founder of Constructivism

Students have been taught in a very similar, ineffectual method for some time. The establishment of a formal curriculum only succumbs to a teaching method that is outdated and leads to student burnout due to a lack of interest and personal motivation to learn. To promote the best learning environment possible it is important to help students establish their own desire to learn. School should not be boring. School should provide an opportunity for kids to express their own ideas and opinions in a student-centered collaborative environment. Many teachers today establish themselves as a classroom dictator, however students respond better to an environment in which they have some control over what is going on. This is not to say teachers should not play any role in the classroom; teachers need to be active in directing students in a way that allows them to learn on their own. By engaging students with meaningful and purposeful instruction, it promotes intrinsic motivation, which over time will advance their ability to think critically, and become motivated members of society.

While using curriculum to try to transform students into motivated members of society, it is imperative to also teach about our past. With an understanding of their history, traditions and symbols, coupled with the intrinsic motivation of student centered learning, we can promote a self-motivated desire to learn. Providing meaningful instruction is imperative to teach social studies concepts. According to Sunal and Haas, (2011) this is practiced “when teachers intentionally select what to teach, and students grasp the knowledge and skills taught” (p. 8). By establishing clear goals, and making a plan for what is to be taught, students can have a more meaningful experience in developing social studies concepts.

In order for a teacher to reach his/her students, it is important to foster an engaging environment. One effective way to engage students is to offer a challenging, yet appropriate level of instruction. To do this, teachers should “think critically about when to take the lead during instruction and when to support the leadership of student[s] in investigating ideas and issues” (Sunal & Haas, 2011, p. 8). In other words, teachers should make a decision about how much interaction they will have with the students and to what point will they assist their learning.