Category: Field Experiences 3 &4

Hi Friends, so this week took an unexpected turn for me. My MT thought it would be a great experience if I taught every subject today! I was shocked to hear that because we had never done this before, and I was anxious to have all that responsibility and workload on myself. She explained how this would be a sneak peek of what it would look like when I got into student teaching, and I would have to teach all subjects for a couple of weeks. I was okay with it, but I wanted her aid in some of it because I never really taught the 95% Phonics section in the ELA block. So I got the chance to teach Math, Science, and ELA. I never thought it would succeed altogether, but somehow it did, and I’m glad because I’ve been practicing my teaching almost every week, and I make adjustments in areas that could become successful. For my science topic, I decided to teach the students about plants and how they grow. I also connected the different fruits, plants, and vegetables to parts of a plant. I loved their facial expression when I said they most likely ate a leaf, flower, root, stem, and even seeds. They asked me, “What do you mean, Ms. A.?” and that’s where I began to make real-life connections to foods they had eaten before. Most were shocked that their favorite food, french fries, was a root because potatoes turn into fries. This experience made the highlight of the day because I love science and tying real-life things they may encounter into the lesson I teach.

Since next week will be my last day there, I was thinking of doing a cool science experiment where I will bring in white flowers and coloring dye and have them observe that when you place the flower in the water with different colors, the flower will then change its petals. I thought of this topic because it is springtime, and the students are learning about plants and flowers. So, for next week, my MT discussed with me that I will be doing the same thing I did today: I will take over the subjects and teach them to the students because she wants to prepare me for student teaching. I appreciate that my MT is doing that because it allows me to have that exposure to what I will be experiencing and lets me see what the curriculum looks like for all subjects.

Here is an image of a handout that the students did today!

Hi friends, and welcome back! So this week was a successful day of teaching! The students were a bit chatty and excited, so it was a good way to test my classroom management skills. I felt that I did well when I taught the students based on how they acted throughout the day. My MT and I reinforced classroom expectations from the students and how we should follow the classroom rules throughout the day. For my lesson, I taught the students about how recycling is important since Earth Day was coming up. The students were very engaged in the lesson. I incorporated an interactive online game where they sort the items of trash into the correct bin. I could tell the students loved it because they shouted out where the item should go. What made this lesson successful was that I was determined to strengthen my weak areas: classroom management, transitions, and redirecting students. I fully put the effort into those areas when I felt like slipping up. Throughout my entire lesson, I kept implementing and integrating my objectives into each section to ensure that I was meeting the lesson’s goal. As a conclusion for my lesson, I had the students summarize what they have learned and tell me one way they could recycle and help the environment. Overall, I believe the students truly understood the lesson and will be able to implement what they have learned into their daily lives.

Even though this was my last day teaching, where I would create lesson plans and have my teacher observe me teach, it is not the end of teaching a subject in the classroom. My MT and I will continue to co-teach subjects. Next week, I will teach the students about plants and how plants grow. I think it would be a cute lesson since it is now spring. Until next time friends!

Hey friends! Welcome back! So this week was a good day! I went to the school’s playground for the first time because the teacher decided to have free time outside since it was beautiful outside. I never get to see the students during lunch/ recess and gym, so seeing them laughing and enjoying themselves made me glad. For this week, I taught the students about the seven continents in the world. I felt that it went successful since this was their first time being introduced to the topic. They were very engaging, and I ensured to have key details for them to remember the significance of each continent so that they could remember them better. My main focus was to make sure the students knew which continent they were, and by the end of the lesson, they were all excitedly shouting, “North America!!” I was thrilled that my lesson went well, but what I need to continue to do so it could be grand on my next teaching day is to have down authority when giving instructions so that students cannot interrupt or start talking. I’ve noticed that some students have been doing that, and I hope that speaking more and building those classroom management skills throughout the day will be able to handle the students when I teach again. I set this goal for myself in the beginning after teaching my first lesson, and I would say I have come a long way and am proud of myself. I felt that I wouldn’t get that down but practicing and having my MT guide me and give me tips has helped me down the road.

Next week would be my last teaching day, and my topic will be recycling and how recycling is important. I am excited about that activity because I am incorporating a game into the lesson, which I know the students will enjoy.

Until next week to tell you more about the lesson and how the day went!

This week was a successful week! I was able to teach two lessons which were Math and English -a writing lesson. My past lessons I was struggling with classroom management skills, so my MT and I came up with a plan to work on classroom management skills because I’ve noticed that I don’t have control of the students when I teach. As you all know from the previous week I when I taught my math lesson the students were not cooperating nor were they following instructions. After I told my MT about that, we began to practice those classroom management skills and expectations from the students. We kept redirecting the students and reinforcing positive behavior before my real lesson began. I practiced classroom management skills during Math so I could have a better feel to it, so when I do teach it’s flows better and it’s not awkward. an I am very proud to say that my MT and I were successful in that area and when I taught my lesson the students were following the instructions and were being cooperative. I had one student went ahead when asked and directed not too. So my goal for myself is to do the same thing I was working on this week, and not pass any materials until I have fully and completely finished instructions and explaining because that is my downfall and where I loose the students. I hope my next teaching will be even more successful and I would have better classroom management skills and have better transitions. Till next time!

Hey there, and welcome back! So last week was my spring break, so I did not attend field, but I was excited to return! This week was a bit different since my MT was out sick, and I had a substitute in the classroom. I also taught my Math lesson plan! I felt a bit nervous because my teacher hasn’t been in the class for 2 days, and I was anxious that the students did not learn the vocabulary they needed for the lesson. Luckily, the students did learn the vocabulary, and I did a quick recap on what they learned and moved on to the actual lesson I was teaching them.

After I taught the students the lesson, they could quickly grasp the content. I felt that was a pro because that showed me that I taught the content effectively.

As I was teaching the students, I noticed they were moving ahead and completing the next page in their workbooks. While I enjoyed that the students understood the lesson, I did not like how they went ahead to the next page and complete it because I never told them to complete the other pages; that made it hectic because they were asking me questions about the next page, but I wasn’t on that page to answer that question. I did not like that because I told them we were on a specific page, but they did whatever they wanted to do, so I will work on that for future lesson plans.

A goal that I will make sure I achieve is being clear as to what they will be doing as the assignment or activity and not letting anyone interrupt me and do what they want to do because that’s where chaos forms.

Here are some pictures of the lesson I taught and the worksheet the students worked on.

Hello friends! So this week was a big day because I taught my first lesson, which was a science lesson about the colors sequence in the rainbow. For my lesson, I incorporated two science experiments so that the students can have a more science feel to the lesson and that it is not only coloring and making rainbows. Before conducting the experiment, I read a book to the students and asked them questions to see how much they knew about the topic. It was interesting to hear some responses that I heard because many of the students skipped the color indigo and went straight to violet. I clarified to the students what indigo is and where it is located in the rainbow so that when it comes to the other activities, they won’t miss that color in the rainbow since my objective is to have the students assessmble the colors in the correct color order in the rainbow. After that, I conducted the experiment, had the students create hypotheses, and recorded their data of what they observed when I conducted it. The students were very engaged and loved the activity, but I lost them because they became loud and weren’t listening to the directions. Once that started to happen, I tried to roll them in and redirect them, but the students weren’t listening until my MT stepped in.

I feel my classroom management skills need more work because I couldn’t control the classroom. I assessed myself and realized that in order for me to be able to control the classroom better, I feel that I need to speak a lot more in the classroom and give more directions during instruction time, so that the students can get used to me redirecting them during learning time.

Another thing that I felt that the students were struggling with and I shouldn’t have used was my science worksheet because they weren’t writing on it. Some kept asking me how to spell words and where to write the information in which section, which made it chaotic. Looking back and reflecting, I think I should’ve used that type of science experiment and the data-collecting process for older students because I had a lot of students being confused.

Now that I got to experience my first teaching, I would better prepare myself for the next lesson and prevent what happened in this lesson from happening in the next one. The next lesson plan is a math lesson where students learn more about 3D shapes.

Here are some pictures of what I’ve read and what the students created!

Hello, For this week, the students are learning a new math lesson using the tape diagram. I observed the teacher for this lesson because I will teach a math lesson in a couple of weeks. So, the MT thought it would be a better option today for me to observe so I could understand and see her ways of teaching math to the students.

In the classroom, the students have been working on opinion writing this week due to the conference held two weeks ago. A great way to incorporate the student’s thoughts and perspectives on the topic they will learn is because it allows them to speak their minds through writing and helps them in the older grades.

As the semester is getting closer to the middle, my MT has added a new type of writing into the student’s curriculum which is opinion writing. How my MT incorporated this type of writing was during the science lesson. The students were learning about nonfiction and fiction, which genre type they prefer to read, and why. I sat out this week to teach Social Studies or Science because my MT had to bring this up in their new unit of the trimester, but I had the chance to review the rubric and the objectives that the teacher uses to grade the students on their writing.

I able to take a picture of the article that students read in order for them to complete their writing activity about which type of genre they enjoy the most.

The MT has been working on graphic organizers during their writing process. I was able to have a picture to show what the students use when they are writing.

My goal for next week, which I have to work on, is to ensure I have my materials ready and prepped. I also need to feel more confident in what I teach the students because if I show that I am unsure about my lesson, how will the students learn more efficiently? I feel a bit hesitant just because this is my first teaching where I will be observed, and I feel that I haven’t gotten the classroom management part settled where the students are able to focus and listen, so that makes me a bit nervous about not being able to handle the class.

Hi folks, and welcome back to this week’s reflection; today was a smooth day in the classroom. I was able to assist my MT during the 95% test. The students were taking the assessment before the trimester ended to see their growth in that subject and if they were meeting the standards and objectives based on the assessment.
For this week, I taught Social Studies, and the lesson was about Harriet Tubman. It went well; however, there are some changes that I would incorporate into next week’s lesson, so I wouldn’t encounter similar mistakes in the future. I felt that I lost the class’s interest during the instructions for the activity.

As I was giving the students the instructions on what they were supposed to do, they began the cutting process before I could explain what the activity was supposed to look like.

They became confused about the next step because they weren’t paying attention and didn’t hear it. Afterward, I tried to go back and explain the directions again so the students would understand. Since the lesson was about an important historical figure, I felt anxious because I didn’t want to give out false information and give the students the wrong idea about who she was, since this is something the students will continue to learn about later throughout their academic lives.

For next week, my goal is to make sure I am more prepared and feel less tense and anxious when teaching so that I will be more apparent when speaking. I will practice several times to make my speech and content more evident to the students. I will make sure that when it comes to my teaching on March 9th, I have everything under control, especially how to handle the classroom when they start to become rowdy.

Here is an image of the book I read about Harriet Tubman, along with the handout the students completed after the book was read.

Hi folks, and welcome back to my weekly reflections. This week was great; I got to do many this in the classroom. My goal was being achieved every time I stepped into the classroom, which benefits me in the long run, especially when it comes to me teaching in two weeks! I genuinely believe that when I do teach my actual lesson, it will be very engaging and smooth because I’ve been teaching Science and Social Studies for weeks now!! I couldn’t believe that I would be this involved in the classroom that soon, but I do not regret it not one bit!! For this week’s social studies lesson, I read a book about presidents and the presidential election because President’s Day is coming up. I did a fun activity where the students wrote and analyzed why they chose one of the candidates as President. I had two reasons why I did that type of activity. The first one was to work on their opinion writing because my MT told me the students would work on that in the next few weeks, so this was a great way to integrate that. The Second was to read and hear why they chose that candidate. I also did an activity where I printed out slips of paper where they can vote for who they want as President by placing a checkmark next to their name and placing it in a ballot box I created. I then counted the votes, represented them through tallies, and integrated what they are currently learning in math. The lesson was a success, and the students had a blast. I was very impressed because I did not know I could engage students in an activity that well. My goal next week is to have a better and more successful lesson for my Science section. I want to have students learn more about Science. Since the weather is changing, having the students learn more about the different seasons and create journals to record what they observe is a great way to incorporate natural Science into their lives.

Since my first lesson of teaching and being observed is coming up in March. So I figured out what my Science topic will be: rainbows. Therefore, I found a great way to conduct science experiments for the students to learn more about rainbows. The students will love the lesson that will be taught because it will go along with the previous science lesson about seasons.

A few things I would change about what I am doing so far in the classroom is trying to teach more solid subjects such as English or Math. I am very grateful that I have the opportunity to take over Science/SS. Still, because I also have to teach Math and ELA, I would like to take over one of two lessons before I teach mine to the class.

Overall, I think I am being very hands-on and very engaging with the students. In addition, I now know how the classrooms run and picked up the system of how my MT runs the class.

Here are a few images of my activity for the Social Studies lesson. There’s an image that I thought was important to represent because it shows how my MT tries to teach students writing hooks for their papers.

Hello, and welcome! This week was a nice and smooth day in the field. I was able to teach another subject in the classroom. I got the chance to conduct social studies, and the lesson topic was kindness. I read a book about kindness, and afterward, we created an activity about what we think kindness is and different ways to spread kindness, whether at home or school. This opportunity to teach the subject has enabled me to interact more with the students and find other strategies to approach different situations. Looking back on the first field day, I strongly see a difference in myself in the classroom. My MT has been beneficial and allowed me to continue teaching either Science/ Social Studies lessons until it is my time to teach fully. My goal for next week is that when I teach Social Studies, I will feel calmer and less anxious when reading the book. I’ve noticed that I miss a few words on the page because I’m nervous, so my goal is to slow down, breathe, and go with the flow. Some of my strengths are that I can communicate with the students without hesitation and that it is easy for me to build those relationships with most of them. What helped me achieve that was due to the interest inventory questions. That was the door to knowing the students more, not only their names but also their interests.

Till next time!!

Here are some images of what we did in class!