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Chynoweth 1 Melinda Chynoweth Carol Billings EDUC 202-001W April 25, 2013 Field Experience Summary For the

last two months I have been working at East Canyon Elementary in Nampa with Ms. Wilkins in her kindergarten classes. Unlike other teachers in the school, the kindergarten teachers have two separate classes that are rotate based on the days of the week with 25 students in each class. During my observation time, I did spend time with both ends of the week at the request of Ms. Wilkins to see how each class functioned. Did you observe that the teacher had favorite students? I do not think that there were any favorite students but it was obvious towards the end of my observation time, that the second class of the week was favored over the first class of the week. My

observation time started with me observing with the first class of the week from eight oclock until they went to lunch at eleven forty. The students from the first class attend school on Monday and Tuesdays and every other Wednesday while the second class took the remaining days of the week. The students were assigned to a table group with most activities done in these groups including lining up. There were days were the students would line up for recess only to be asked to sit back down because someone was chatting or not following the rules for lining up. Sometimes it would take three or four tries for them to get it right so we could leave the classroom. Other times it was students just not behaving themselves. Ms. Wilkins would warn them several times before their name appeared on the board signaling they had lost part of their recess. Unfortunately there was never a lesson or workshop where someone did not interrupt the lesson with their behavior issues that needed to be corrected.

Chynoweth 2 The sad part is that there were those students who never misbehaved, always followed the rules but faced the consequences because of the actions of their classmates. I spent one month with the first class before switching in March to the second class. The difference in the classes was beyond noticeable that first morning when the students from the second filed into the class. There was minimal talking, the students put their coats away and went to work on their morning task without question. Lessons were done with very minimal interruptions, work was done quietly and I could honestly see why the second class was her favorite. The whole atmosphere was more laid back and easy going where you had more flexibility when teaching lessons to add in fun elements without the students getting out of control. These extra activities were not possible with the first class because the students would not stay within the boundaries set. Did you enjoy the grade level you observed? Is it a grade level you would want to teach? I did enjoy the kindergarten class I was in and the children were great but I would eventually like to work as a middle school math teacher. Starting out as a teacher I do not feel that limiting myself to a specific age group would be the smartest thing to do. I can honestly say that working as a kindergarten teacher would not be my first choice for teaching but I would do it just for the things that I could learn from working with this age group. In order to grow as a teacher, you need to work in different age groups not for what you may be able to teach them but for what they can teach you about being a teacher. How did the teacher support and teach different levels of learners? Part of the daily routine for the children is moving to various workshop groups either within the class or to other classrooms. The children from both kindergartens were placed in these groups based on skill level so the leader of the group can work with them on their letter sounds when another group is working on their reading skills. Part of my responsibility was to process homework folders and put the new weekly assignments in them so the children could take them home. The homework packets for

Chynoweth 3 those who were more advanced contained concepts to challenge them while the rest of the class got the standard packet of homework. One thing that did bother me is that there were was a student in the second class that never did his homework nor was he able to read his site word or remember his letter sounds. I did ask questions related to his progress and it was explained that they have done everything possible to help the student. While he attended the second class for kindergarten, the teacher recommended that he be placed in the extended kindergarten class which means that he attends kindergarten on his off days with another teacher when it was noticed he was not progressing. When the classes break for workshop, he is given one on one instruction in hopes of helping him grasp the basics of what he needs to know. The teacher explained that they suspect that there are several factors that have played into the lack of progress from an underlying special education need to the fact there is no one at home who can speak or read English that is able to help him with his reading or homework. The teacher said at this point they will continue doing what they can to help him but have also documented the issues related to his learning so that when he reaches second grade they can place him in a class that will meet his learning needs. Do you recall the math or reading curriculum? Were there advantages or disadvantages you noticed with it? The reading curriculum was broken down into what the letter sounds like, how to write the letter and then simple vocabulary words that include the letter in it. The next day the letters and vocabulary words were a part of a sentence that was written on the board. The children had to rewrite the sentence in their workbook fixing various mistakes including capitalization of proper nouns, spacing and punctuation. The same lesson of the week was also carried over to their workshop groups where they practiced the sounds, listening for the sounds in a story, rhyming and writing the letters. One thing I did like, is that the reading lessons not only covered something new, they also reviewed what the children had learned previously by having a story where they narrator ask questions to make the

Chynoweth 4 children think about the lessons and come to a reasonable expectation of what would come next in the story. Did this observation time change your mind about going into teaching? Did it make you decision more concrete or are you looking at changing degrees? If so, what were some of the things that influenced you either way?? For 20 years I have worked the same job and I know what I am doing. By stepping out of my comfort zone and into a classroom, I was beyond intimidated not only by the teacher and students the day I stepped into the classroom, but also with the overall lack of knowledge on how a classroom is ran. While teaching was something I wanted to do twenty years ago, after the first couple of observation periods, I was questioning if I was doing the right thing for my future. Now that we are done, I have realized that while my dream is an old dream, it is where I want to be. There was no one thing that changed my mind, but as I became more familiar with the routine in the class and with the students, it became easier each time I went to class to enjoy my time with them. My teacher was great at giving me new things to try and shoving me out of my comfort zone so I could get an idea of what being a teacher entailed. Overall the observation time we have spent working in the classroom has been a great learning experience. Not every profession allows those thinking about entering into a career to participate in various aspects to see if the job is something they want to do.

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