Preparations

Preparing to teach a fourth grade class for fieldwork is one of the more intimidating aspects of this course. Working one on one or in a small group with students is a much different dynamic than being in control of an entire class. In the past for fieldwork, it was much easier to design lesson plans based on the needs and interests of one or two students. Having to account for the needs of each student is an intimidating task, although exciting. Teaching the class in a group will be the first experience I have being in front of an entire room of students, and hopefully will not be the last.




Not only are there three lesson plans to create, but classroom management strategies to consider. One student being temporarily off task is easier to bring back on task because you are right next to them and able to quickly remind them what you are working on together. With seventeen students, one or two off track students have the ability to derail the entire class if effective classroom management is not put in place. While the goal is to create engaging lessons for meaningful and active learning to take place and for students to be excited to take part in, it is important to consider how to ensure that the student's excitement is channeled back into the lesson in  a productive manner. If this energy and excitement is left alone, students may become off track and lose focus of the lesson of the day.

Another aspect of being in front of the class that I find myself preparing for is how to channel my own excited and nervous energy into excitement for the content I will be presenting. Especially because the lessons will be recorded, I want to be sure to try my best to control nervous fidgeting while teaching. There are so many small elements involved, from voice projection to making sure to use academic language, it is important to remember everything that needs to be done. It is difficult sometimes in the moment to realize when you are speaking too quickly, or not pronouncing words clearly enough for the class.

Auction for Information

The first day of fieldwork was incredibly exciting! In order to both get to know the students a little bit, and start to introduce the topic of economics to the class, my fieldwork group created an auction. The students each got a certain amount of monopoly money to start with, and then we "sold" questions. The more students wanted to answer the question, the higher the bidding price went. So, for example, if students were really excited to answer "If you could have any super power what would it be?" the bidding might go up to $100 before it was sold, whereas if less people wanted to answer "What is your favorite color?" the bidding might only go up to $25.

The activity we planned went really well. The students were engaged in the activity, and got more and more involved and enthusiastic about it the further we went along. Even students who seemed reserved and soft spoken found at least one or two questions that opened them up and had them involved in the process as well. Then, we would ask the students to make the connection between how many people wanted to answer a question and the price, and used that as the basis for explaining supply and demand.

I was very happy with how well the students responded to the activity, as it can sometimes be difficult to have students volunteer information and answers the first day meeting new people. The students seemed very eager and excited to have us in the class and to learn from us, just as we all were very excited to have the chance to teach them. Overall, I think it was a great start to our fieldwork journey this semester.

Learning Together

Cooperative learning can be extremely useful in classroom instruction. It was interesting to be taking part in a cooperative group while also learning about the different pieces of it. It was easy to see how useful cooperative learning can be in a classroom after implementing it among ourselves. Especially when it came to not only our presentations to each other, but our exit tickets. Personally, it gave me a better sense of what I covered well in my presentation and what I could have worked on to clarify further. Additionally, with two of our exit tickets being done in the form of a Kahoot quiz, it made it fun to see how much of the material was mastered as well as have fun competing to see who would win each Kahoot. While presenting my slide show, I really understood the idea of positive interdependence when I realized that many of the terms I used on my slides were already explained in my other group members' presentations, which really showed how linked together the presentations and information were.

The video above, I thought, was a good representation of cooperative learning in the classroom. It explains how each student has an independent role, and how they all come together to help increase each other's understanding of whatever they happen to be working on. It was interesting to hear students saying they enjoyed disagreeing with each other, because as teachers, there are many class discussions where it is beneficial for students to have opposing viewpoints. The back and forth discussion of students is what helps them hear other people's thoughts, as well as learn to be able to explain their own reasoning and thinking.

Assessing Assessment

Assessment seems to have become a large part of a student's academic career, and so it is important to understand the different ways to use assessment, as well as its place in the classroom. With high stakes testing gaining more and more importance in the classroom, it is often difficult to remember that testing is not the only part of educating students.

The quote above, I believe, is important. Just as we as teachers should not be teaching for a test, students should not be learning simply to receive a good grade. It is when all the focus of both learning and teaching are on test scores that students are more likely to lose their natural curiosity and desire to learn. Students spend about 8 hours, five days a week in their classrooms; their experiences should be positive, as well as encourage them to want to learn more. However, with assessment being as essential as it is for a teacher to properly pace their class or develop teaching methods, it is important to use assessment appropriately. A test should be something used to gauge how a class is progressing and what concepts need to worked on further, rather than something that is constantly worked toward. The problem, in my opinion, on high stakes testing, is the amount of pressure placed on students and teachers alike. Were assessment used appropriately, student progress could be monitored without all the pressure of current Common Core tests.

First Chance at Teaching

For my first presentation, I was to create a Pintrest board that contained pins I thought described myself. I included pins about the beach and boat knots, to show my love for the water. I added different pins of activities that could be used in a classroom, as well as a list of books to show my desire to teach and love of reading. I also included pins about Jeeps, plants, as well as how to manage anxiety. Giving presentations with anxiety is always a difficult task, and speaking about my anxiety is both frightening and empowering.
It was interesting to learn about the multiple tools available to create presentations, or to share information with students and their parents at home. Pintrest, I found, was a very useful tool in finding ideas for activities for students, or finding blogs on teaching for everything from handouts to how to arrange a classroom. The presentations also served to allow myself and everyone else to learn a little about each other. Being that we will be working in groups, it was nice to know even a little bit about everyone. Having our first presentation be an "About Me" presentation was, to me, a good idea because it was content we were already familiar with. It can be difficult enough to stand in front of a class and present, and would've been much harder if we needed to have memorized all new information on top of that. By presenting on ourselves, we already knew everything we needed to say. It enabled us to focus on remembering what media tool we used, as well as remembering to make eye contact, project our voices, and engage the class.