My Fieldwork Experience Reflection

Last week, we finished up our final hours of our fieldwork experience at Bishop Dunn Memorial School. This was such a rewarding experience to see not just myself grow, but my classmates as well. We were to reflect on our group's teaching and the other group's teaching. I have learned so much from this experience.

Creating our Lesson Plans

Our class was split up into four groups and we had to design a direct lesson and an inquiry lesson on ecosystems. I worked with two classmates, Kelly and Alyssa. Our topic was the changes in ecosystems. Before writing the lesson plans, we were taught many aspects of teaching science and designing lessons but what contributed to my learning the best was learning how to write goals and objectives, what the different types of lessons are and how to use them, and how to create an inquiry lesson plan. After we were taught these aspects, we got a chance to create a direct lesson plan and an inquiry lesson plan for fieldwork. We were given a format for both types of lessons, direct and inquiry, and what I didn't know before but do know now is that they have different formats. They are similar formats but the inquiry lesson plan uses the 5E Instructional Model and the direct lesson plan uses introduction, development, guided practice, closure, and assessment. Here is the link to my blog on the 5E Instructional Model. Dr. Smirnova corrected our mistakes and explained to us what we did wrong and how we can fix it. After creating both lesson plans, I got more familiar with the format and am now able to create direct and inquiry lesson plans on my own. 

After we finished creating the lesson plans, we focused on how we will implement the lesson plan. We split up the information so we each had equal amounts of teaching time. To see if our lesson plan was a success and was sufficient to use in the classroom, we met up many times and practiced. When we practiced, we tried different ways to engage students and we thought about what would work and what wouldn't work. We put a lot of time and effort into our lesson plans and into learning the material to be able to teach it.

Our Time in Fieldwork

In fieldwork, we not only got to teach to a class but we got to watch our classmates teach and we reflected on their lessons and teaching. 

Group one, which was Danielle, Dorian, Keilani, and Aimee, went first. Their direct lesson was on ecosystems and biomes. They explained what ecosystems and biomes were and the different types of biomes. Here is my reflection for group one's direct lesson. In their inquiry lesson, they had the students discover a new animal and study biomes to figure out which biome would be best for it's survival. The students then created posters of their biomes. Here is my reflection of group One's inquiry lesson. 

Group two, which was Erin, Stephanie, and Daniela, taught their direct lesson on how ecosystems interact. Here is my reflection for group two's direct lesson. In group 2's inquiry lesson, the students were given different scenarios and articles online and they had to use the scientific method to complete the investigation of their scenario. Here is my reflection for group two's inquiry lesson. I enjoyed this inquiry lesson because it integrates technology into a science lesson and gets the students more familiar with it. I will use this type of lesson in my own classroom.

I was in group three with Kelly and Alyssa. We taught our direct lesson on the changes in ecosystems. I was satisfied with our teaching because the timing for our lesson was successful, which was a result from practicing many times. Here is my reflection on our direct lesson. In our inquiry lesson, students were given different biomes and adaptations. Students had to figure out the best adaptations for their given biomes. Then, they could create a animal species based on their biomes and adaptations. Here is my reflection for our inquiry lesson. My group and I provided many ways to engage the students that worked and I will use in my own classroom. We learned how to manage a classroom and got to experience which attention signals are a success and are not. We also gave a variety of assessments to give students practice in the material and to check for understanding and to see what the students learned. We provided review questions, exit tickets, and independent practices. Here are some samples of the students' independent practices for our inquiry lesson. 

We only got to observe group 4, which was Melissa, Veronica, John, and Sarah, teach their inquiry lesson. In their inquiry lesson, students were given different aspects of the Hudson River, had to research it using the scientific method, and then had to design slides of a powerpoint explaining their findings. Here is my reflection for group four's inquiry lesson.

Observing our classmates teach to a class was a great way to improve ourselves as future teachers. It is important to watch as many lessons as possible to see what works in a classroom and what doesn't work in a classroom. We also got to see a variety of different ways in which our classmates teach that can gave me new ideas. We learned a lot from each other. Many classmates and I made mistakes along the way that many of us might have made in the future. It is important to see these mistakes in action and learn how to handle them. Many of my classmates provided me with new ideas and approaches to teaching science and how to handle students when they are talking and not listening to the teacher. 

What Did I Learn from Fieldwork?

This experience was very beneficial to my learning to becoming an effective teacher. Before starting fieldwork, the subject that I was most nervous to teach was science. After teaching two lessons to a class, I feel more confident in myself as I now aware of the ways to engage students in science lessons. We learned how to engage the students in activities that encouraged students to use the scientific method. Now, I have a better understanding of how to have students apply the scientific method relating to the material learned. I also learned that students remember things easier when they have a lot of practice in the content. Ways we achieved this was check for understanding questions after a few slides of content was taught and many guided practices after the material has been learned.

The students that we taught were excellent but sometimes struggled focusing as a class. We learned a variety of attention signals, including echo clapping, call and response, silent hand raising, and others, and we got to experience which ones were effective and which ones weren't. The most effective one, in my opinion, was the silent hand raising because it really got the students to pay attention and quiet down. I have written a blog post that goes in depth of attention signals. Here is the link. 

We also learned that we have to try to engage every student when answering questions. It isn't effective when a teacher asks a question and only one student answers. It is important to make sure that every student is engaged and to do this, we can have the students put their thumbs up if they agree or put their thumbs down if they disagree when a student answers a question. We can also try different variations of that by having the students stand up if they agree or stay in their chair if the disagree or put their hands on their heads if they agree or put their hands on their shoulders if they disagree. 

Dr. Smirnova also suggested that our group try the "Numbered Heads Together" method to involve every student. Here is a video that explains the process. This method lets every student answer a question at least once so every student is engaged and has a chance to answer. 

Overall, this was a wonderful learning experience. It was very rewarding to watch the students succeed from our own lessons. Together, as a class, we have learned so much from teaching in front of a class and from observing each other teach. This experience increased my confidence as a future teacher and got me excited for student teaching next semester!