IDT 3600 Field Experience Reflection Paper

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Name: Jessie Steele
Semester and Year: Spring 2015
Day and Time of Field Experience: Fridays, 130-230, March
Campus School Teachers Name: Ms.
Grade Level: 4th
IDT 3600 Instructors Name: Amy Adcock

During my field experience, we had the opportunity to observe the

children in their classroom. They were very comfortable with the
teacher, and even with us- we got a cursory glance, and they went
back to paying attention. They were using Ipads to make a slideshow.
They were all very familiar with the protocol for technology, and how to
use the IPADS, and they were very welcoming to us as we sat and
worked with them. They even taught us a few things about the Ipad.
There were very clear rules and protocols in place, and these children
were familiar with them. Very few of them were reprimanded for
behavior issues. The room was comfortably cluttered with books,
posters, backpacks and desks. It felt like I was back in the fourth grade
when I stepped in. They also began a webquest, and showed us how
the webquests at campus school were carried out.
Unfortunately, we had to practice our teacher flexibility with this field
experience. Due to the inclimate weather, we did not get to teach our

children their lesson. However, as we were preparing, we remembered

how quickly they worked, and decided to set up post- lesson activities
for them, in case they got done.
Our lesson was social studies. My group was given secondary and
primary sources in versions of Paul Reveres midnight ride. and how to
identify them. Our groups drew numbers and were assigned topics
that way, because we all wanted the Paul Revere topic. My group sat
down and decided that we wanted them to graphically organize the
differences and similarities between Paul Reveres letter, and the
poem. We searched the internet for a good venn diagram outline for
them to use, in addition to the sources we found.
My group was very good at managing our time- we only had an hour
each Friday, and we would text each other if mid-week questions
arose.
We looked at the Wadsworth poem, and compared it with a letter
written by Paul Revere himself. There were several good sites my group
found, including the website for the museum of his house, and the
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. That was where we got
the bulk of our worksheets and our information- they had elementary
ready graphic organizers designed specifically for this lesson.
Unfortunately, we were snowed out. So we had to combine with our
other group, discussing people and events important to the

development of the American government. We were each given a

person or event, and I got the separation of the powers. Congress for
Kids had a lot of good resources, and definitions given for young
children, without a lot of red tape.
We all shared our websites and our findings, and the plan was to have
them create a powerpoint with a slide per person or event we talked
about, with facts and clipart. We were each in charge of finding our
own clipart, and we all emailed them to Kayla, who was assembling our
resources to send to Ms. Townes, so we could put them on the Schools
weebly.
We initially decided to have the students in the lab, but the lab had
several computers that were broken, and we wanted to minimize
moving around, so we had a group meeting and decided to use Ipads.

We kept getting curveballs thrown at us with the snow, but the whole
group was very nice to each other, and we managed to combine our
groups, and develop a very nice lesson that we tried to make as fun
and interesting as possible. Everyone was very agreeable and VERY
flexible, considering the circumstances.

The students never got to enter the lab, but we had planned for them
to enter and be numbered into groups by us. We expected them to
have lots of questions, based on how they acted during our first
observation- these children were not shy!

I planned to ask THEM

several questions as a warm-up to my portion of the lesson, and have

them raise their hand if they agreed with something. We were ready to
circulate the room and help them find good sources and remember key
facts we had discussed, though we had faith in them to complete the
powerpoints. These children were very technologically savvy. We also
had a link to Libertys Kids arcade, with games to play after they had
finished their powerpoint.
We planned on giving them brief rundowns of our topics with facts,
after showing them a comprehensive video of the beginnings of the
American Government, and then leading them into the powerpoint
activity.

We did not know what the students were doing in the

classroom at the time, so we were unable to connect this lesson to

what they had already learned.

We used Congress for Kids, Youtube,

several clipart sites, and Haiku Deck on the IPADS (after briefly thinking
of using powerpoint). All of our websites and information were put on
the Campus School Weebly by Ms. Townes,so the students could have
easy access to them. Technology was very necessary for this
assignment- it brought them book knowledge with the ease and
quickness of the Internet. We had planned to put the students in

groups, and to be honest, we didnt really plan what to do for students

who needed support or challenge. We should have thought of alternate
assignments or augmentation to our lesson for these students.

We

were going to close the lesson by having the students present to us

their powerpoints, and answering some softball questions we asked
them at the end.
In all honesty, the main thing I learned about teaching was to be F-L-EX-I-B-L-E. Blessed are the flexible, they will never be bent out of shape
is our churchs motto, and I lived it. We ended up, after planning and
combining groups, not being able to teach our lesson, which was a
disappointment. But in the teaching world, there are unexpected tests,
assemblies, drills, field trips, field days- this will happen to us again for
sure! I learned how to work with a group, and respect the opinions and
differences of them, and how to diplomatically change the plans with a
group. Mutual respect was absolutely dealt with, and trying to foresee
problems and plan ahead ( like seeing the broken computers and
realizing the hassles and headaches these could cause. )
From the teacher in the classroom, we learned the importance of a
signal they all know and listen too- it is a life-saver. We saw several
cool ways of keeping track of homework and assignments, and learned
a lot about integrating technology into the classroom. We learned that
things will not always go as planned- and thats okay.