Discoveries and Learning in Fieldwork

Teaching with my classmates in fieldwork was a wonderful learning experience! 

A few things I learned....

• Planning lessons is hard work and very time consuming.
• Once teaching the lesson, expect the unexpected and be able to adapt.
• Seeing students engaged in learning is a beautiful sight. 
• Students will know more than you think they will.
• My group members and I work well together.

Planning took a lot longer than I thought it would. Many hours were spent with my classmates, working hard to create lesson plans for the students. I knew that planning was time consuming, but I wasn't prepared for exactly how time consuming this was.
Our lessons went smoothly, but one can never predict what will happen. We ended up not having enough time for one of our assessments during direct instruction.  



A few challenges...

I expected that the students in this classroom would be engaged in learning, and they were. Students were quick to raise their hands, answer questions, and participate in activities presented to them. Most students took on challenges with excitement. What I was not expecting was for some of the students to not participate at all. Often times, for every group, there were a few students in the class that put their heads down on their desk, or sat quietly, refusing to take part in group work. 

As much as I can say the students were engaged, there were many times when the students got off task, or were not listening to the groups teaching. I observed every group before me struggle with trying to get the students to focus again when they got off task. this was very difficult. Strategies to capture students attention would often have to be tried two or three times before it actually worked. This problem is one that I was not expecting.

Cooperative Learning

In class I have learned just how important cooperative learning is to student success. Not only does it encourage learning, but encourages social skills that students will need throughout their lives. Just remember PIGS. Positive Interdependence, Individual Accountability, Group Processing, and Social Skills. students will gain all of these things when involved in cooperative learning. There are many ways to incorporate cooperative learning into lessons.This can be:

-group/partner projects
-group/partner problem solving
-group/partner reading
-group/partner skits, songs, re-enactments

There are so many ways that group work can be done, and in any subject!
I am going to remember PIGS when I am a teacher, and be sure that I am incorporating cooperative learning frequently to benefit my students. The benefits will be long-term. Working well with others is not something you only have to do in school, but out of school also.

Fieldwork--Pre Teaching

Well, we have officially started fieldwork! I am nervous and excited at the same time. I am excited to teach these 5th grade students because they are clearly so engaged and ready to learn. This is refreshing to see. However, I am nervous to teach Social Studies. This was never my best, nor favorite subject while I was in school. I am worried that I will not be confident enough in the material by the time it is my turn to teach. Al i can do is study the material and become knowledgeable in my topic. This should help build my confidence when it comes my time to teach. The first group of teachers have already gone and I think they did a great job considering they were the first group to go. It was a lot of pressure being the first group! I am lucky to be in the last group that way I observe the other groups before me, and learn from the mistakes they have made. Making mistakes it not a bad thing in this case. This is a learning experience! we will only improve each time we do this. I can also listen to the constructive criticism that our teacher is providing, and keep it in mind for when I am developing my lesson plans. I really hope the students enjoy my groups lesson on the Thirteen Colonies and that everything goes smoothly. Update to follow!!