Field Experience!

Week 7

Hi guys! So today was our last day in the Pre-K classroom. I am going to miss the students that were in that classroom. I made some students be more social in the past 7 weeks, which is a great improvement. I was able to see the growth in those 7 weeks as well. It didn’t feel like seven weeks it only felt like three weeks, but times move fast when you are having fun. Something that I will use in my new field setting is that as the students are engaging then you are doing something right. My mentor teacher gave me a tip that short could be better sometimes when it comes to teaching a lesson plan due to the students not having that long attention span. I now know that keeping it simple is a lot better than making it complex and that it won’t always be perfect. I am excited to see what Kindergarten is going to teach me! Till next time!

Field Experience 4551

DODGE PG 60 Questions

  1. Children that are in my classroom, I do not know much about the student’s parents and how they feel about dressing their children, but from what I have seen I think the parents are pretty lenient towards their children in the classroom. I think maybe for the young children in the classroom like infants their parents would maybe want them to have certain clothes on due to them being premature, but other than that I think the parents don’t have a certain about how their child is supposed to be dressed.
  2. The next time when the students will dress up if they go outside, I will conversate with them and ask open-ended questions to hear what the child will respond. I think it is fascinating what children say when you ask questions because you don’t know what to expect from there, and they view things differently from adults.
Field Experience!

WEEK 6 Field Experience

Hi folks, and today in my experience it was something you would typically see in a classroom. Today when we went outside for an outdoor time, the students were playing with the ball. So what you would typically see boys do is kick the ball. Well, in this situation one of the boys kicked the ball too hard and it hit the other students in the face and they started crying. It was not intentional, it was by accident, so what I did was I explained the situation to the boy that got hurt and that, it was not on purpose it was an accident. The student was understanding about it, it was they were crying from the pain, not the fact his friend threw the ball in his face. Another thing that happened today was hearing a few students say that they didn’t want to play with other classmates. I brought up how we share the toys we have with other classmates, so they can play with them as well, and from a previous lesson when we are with our friends we take turns and play nice with others. From that, the students ended up playing together rather than having a student cry about the other student not wanting to play with them. I feel that today I did a lot of guidance towards students and I think that is one step closer to being an intentional teacher. Stay tuned for more fun stuff!

Field Experience!

Week 5 Field Experience

During my field experience, I got the chance to get to know more about students and build that positive relationship that we read in our textbooks. I was able to step into a role that I never thought I would see myself in which is seeing myself from a teacher’s perspective. I knew I was going to be a student when it comes to being in my classes and teaching, but to actually feel it and realize like wow this is it is different for me. In class, I read through a few books, but it was hard for me to finish them due to the students being more rowdy than usual. It was challenging to grab their attention to the book, so when it came to my peer’s time to teach the students were not as cooperative as we anticipated. The students were engaged in the activity after reading the book and the students were working on their fine motor skills while talking to their classmates. I engaged with the students and assisted the students if they needed any help. Overall, the day was an okay day and I am looking forward to what next week holds!

Field Experience 4551

DODGE PG 48 QUESTIONS

  1. I have never had the experience when it comes to a bedtime ritual for children. I don’t have children of my own for me to be able to go in-depth, but what I have seen thought was how the caregivers in the classroom would make the infants go to sleep they feed the infants and then change their diapers at least twice before they go to sleep. They then rock them on their rocker until they fall asleep. Another thing I also saw was the caregiver wrapping them in the blanket and the rock themselves on the rocking chair until the infant falls asleep. The infants fell asleep soundly and there weren’t any problems. 
  2. From what I have seen in the classroom, the only time I get to see any student really sleep are the infants. Their nap time is after lunch which I don’t stay for so I miss that part of their routine, but when the infants do wake up for a tiny nap during the time I am there they do cry a little when they wake up but that is if someone disrupts their nap that is why they wake up crying.
Field Experience 4551

DODGE PG.35 QUESTIONS

 

  1. I would think I am somewhat of a healthy eater. I eat some salty and sweet treats here and there when I crave them. Most of the time, I just crave coffee, that’s what I mostly intake. If I were around children I think my nutrition would change a lot with children, because what I eat is what the children would see and copy. If they see me eating more unhealthy food then they would do the same, but if they see me eating healthy foods, then I would be more encouraging for them because they would see me eating what they are eating as well not only them.
  2. During breakfast time, I somewhat encourage conversation. One experience that I remember from breakfast time was when the children were eating toast and applesauce, so when I asked a student how the toast was, they corrected me by telling me that it was cinnamon toast, not normal toast. I then asked the students if they like cinnamon toast and they agreed they liked what they were eating. I then started talking about applesauce and a few students were using their hands to eat applesauce, so I told them to “let us use our spoons and scoop out our applesauce so we don’t spill it on the table.” I remember a toddler mimicked me and said “scoop, scoop, scoop.” The teacher was impressed by the fact that the student repeated what I said and actually used the spoon to pick their applesauce rather than using their hands.
Field Experience 4551

Dodge p.19 Questions

  1. The way would I feel when changing a child’s diaper is discomfort. I wouldn’t feel too great changing a child’s diaper especially if I don’t know the child, and there is a relationship bond between us. I feel if it was my siblings when they were babies then I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable because I know them. I never had the experience when it comes to changing a child’s diaper, but from what I have seen in my field experience, I have seen the teacher have conversations with the child and explain the rationale as to why the teacher is changing the diaper for that child.
  2. What I would feel if a child had a toilet accident is I would let them know that accidents do happen and it is ok, just next time if you feel that you have the urge to go just stop what you are doing and go to the bathroom. I would let them it takes a few times before they can get the hang of it and accidents won’t happen as much. I would not yell at the child to make them feel that what they did was wrong or horrible but let them learn from the mistake with a more positive and calm approach.
  3. What I would teach the children about their bodies would be that you have the feeling that you need to release to listen to that feeling and go to the toliet.

Field Experience 4551

Dodge p.6 questions

  1. Yes, you say hello and good-bye to each child and family member because when you say those saying every day you create a more welcoming environment along with making each child feel that they are important and it lets the parents also see that you value their child and themselves as well.
  2. What I think when a child is crying is that maybe the child’s parents get the chance to say goodbye because they are in a hurry to leave and go to work. If I were to see a child crying I would be sad because they are upset, but what I would do to cheer them up is to either distract them or tell them that their parents are going to be back, but until then let us look at pictures of your parents. Another thing I would do and talk to the parents have a morning routine where before they leave they will give the child one kiss and three hugs and keep that as a daily drop off routine so the child won’t cry as much.
  3. Some explaination that I would tell to the parents is that the child has some attachments during drop off and that is does throw off their routine at school. I would tell them something small or simple like giving them a kiss goodbye and reassure the child that they will be back, and that they will have a great day at school.
  4. Some ways to reunite the children to their parents at the end of the day is having the children create something for them like a painting or a drawing of them so when their parents pick them up they have a little surprise for them. I think if the parents knew that the children cry after they leave they would change their schedule to leave the house eariler so they have time to say a proper good-bye to their kids so they wouldn’t feel that abandonment from them.

Field Experience!

Week 4 in Field Experience

This week was teaching day and I was a bit nervous about teaching since it was my first time actually presenting the lesson plan I’ve written to the students. Before following through with the lesson plan, I was getting myself more adjusted to the students. So I was reading to the students, and I was interacting with them. During the outdoor time I was playing with them tag and was racing them, so I was able to be more comfortable with them which is what my goal was. When it came to doing my lesson I was able to read the book with no problem because I’ve read to them before, but I started getting nervous when it came to the flashcards portion in my guided practice because there was a lot of movement happening and students started telling me that they couldn’t see the cards so it made me second guess if doing flashcards was the right them to do as an activity because I didn’t have the pictures that were on the paper in color so I was hesitant with that in the beginning. I think overall the lesson plan could’ve been bad but it was ok for my first time teaching. Now that I have experienced what it feels like and how the students will react, I now know what to be expecting and I could better prepare myself for it. Overall, I think I did good for the first time, and I know that there will be more lesson plans and teaching to become better at this.

Can’t wait to tell you what I’ll experience next week! See you all!

Field Experience!

2nd Day In The Field!!

Today my field experience was a bit different than last week’s experience. So what happened today in my field today was when I came into the class today I didn’t know what to do. I was walking around the classroom doing nothing until one of the kids told me to read them a book; from there I got more children sitting around me listening to me read and then giving me a book they would like me to read next. After going through that moment, it made me realize that it is not going to be hard to teach the lesson next week to the children because I was able to read a few books and not feel nervous around the kiddos. I also got the chance to play with the students in the block center and get the students that don’t like to share to share their toys with me and other classmates. Today gave me a chance to see how the students will act for next week when I teach to the them. I am excited to see how the students will react to my lesson next week about friends! I will let you guys know more about what happens next week!