14 April 2011 - My Field Experience

During my field experience I learn a lot. I realize teachers never have enough time in the year to cover all the material needed for end of the year testing. I got to go to Timpanogos Elementary in Provo, and actually loved my time there. In fact I would rather be going to school there instead of going to UVU. I have a more appreciation for how hard teachers have to work and what discipline is needed to have an successful classroom. I learned myself that management is the key element of a classroom. How you manage your class makes or breaks what kind of teacher you are.
I was placed into Mrs. Gardner’s 6th grade class. I was kind of scared at first because I had heard some things about this teacher from other students in the after school program that I taught at. I didn’t know what to expect at all, and I was scared because I was all alone with no partner like everyone else got. My first day everyone I knew from the after school program was excited to see me, and even some of my trouble causers from after school in the end started to like me. I knew I was going to have a good time.
Mrs. Gardner you would say Is a pretty nice teacher if you are nice back. She allows free time to her students who finish their work early. One of things I was really surprised at was, how every two students share a Mac computer in her classroom. I was so impressed to think how far we have come with technology and how everything is dependent on computers now days in classrooms. All of the students assignments were all the computer, the teacher never had to print anything out. Everything was submitted online and graded in an instant. Which is awesome! The teacher showed me so many different learning website’s that kids can go and play games and learn material by playing games.
Another main thing the school focuses really heavy on is reading and math. Everyday the students would have time to read a book on their reading level. Which all the students are on different levels. They would have to write summaries of what they read and share it in group settings. Everyday the students would have at least 1-2 different math lessons where the teacher would set a goal of what they we need to learn for the day. This teacher was very into cooperative learning which I think is the best way! She used a lot of group work and a lot of partner work. Which led to more noise in the classroom, but then no one felt left behind if they didn’t get something learned that day because they could always get help from their partner.
My experience went very well and I am happy to know that one day I can be doing this for a career and have a classroom to myself. I am so excited to be working with kids everyday, and during my field experience I looked forward to my everyday with my 6th graders. Its like they became my life and I loved it. I don’t think I could ever teach 6th grade due to me getting attached to those students and then having to send them off to Jr. High the next year would make me really sad. I hope to be able to teach the 3rd grade or younger. I know my time doing field work will just make me that more excited to become a teacher! I want to be a teacher that students can look up too and come to when they need to talk or need help with a problem. I am so happy I got to go to Mrs. Gardner’s class and she taught me a lot of things I need to know to become more accomplished with handling students.