Field Experience

 To start off I will summarize my experience in general and then talk about technology in this classroom. 

  

Going into this field experience I was very nervous because the teacher I was assigned was very laid back and didn’t give much direction as to what I should really teach. I was also very nervous because out of 28 students 8 of them had special needs which was very overwhelming to me. After all was said and done though I thoroughly enjoyed this first field experience because of the fun and energetic students and amazing teacher.

  

The students I had the chance to work with were pretty great people. On the very first day they were energetic and excited to meet me. The energy in the room was electric and completely infectious, I couldn’t help but be happy and have a renewed energy for life. I soon learned that these students had a sense of humor and were very social talking non-stop most of the day. This took some adjusting to and I worked really hard to get them to listen and be respectful when necessary. Varying socioeconomic statuses existed within this classroom but to many students this didn’t matter. They were all very loving to one another and all friends which taught me a great deal about the genuine hearts of children. Their teacher taught me most of all how to accept and love all children regardless of the situation.

  

Miss S was such an amazing lady to work with for the past 3 weeks. I don’t know that I have ever known someone so outwardly appreciative of the students around her. I also haven’t known anyone quite as positive as her and loving towards her students. She was incredible with handling tough situations and stayed cool under pressure. I really admired this teacher for the way she taught her students important life lessons with firmness and love. Every student in her room knows that she loves them because she shows them every single day. This teacher is also very great with being flexible and very easy going which was refreshing. I learned so many life lessons about being a teacher and a better person. 

I really was on my own a bit as I was creating and teaching lessons. Miss S didn’t give me much to work with and I just went for it full force on my own. I learned some lessons the hard way and learned some other lessons in a great way. I came to know myself even better and what I need to improve to be the kind of teacher I want to be. Most of all I learned about how I can be a great teacher in many more ways than I knew before. Overall this was a wonderful experience that I will take with me throughout my teaching career.
   
As far as technology is concerned there was quite a bit of technology in this classroom. They had a smart board, an elmo, and projector. Miss Skinner was very involved with technology and was always trying to find out more about how she could make her room more technology rich was kind of cool. She is working to try and get a grant so all of her students can have an iPod touch to use for various assignments throughout the day and the week. I also saw Miss Skinner utilize technology in one of her lessons to help not only her students learn but to help herself learn. Students were talking about the Declaration of Independence and didn't know where the original copy was housed or what condition it was in. Using her laptop and projector she did a Google search and found a website that had all the information we needed including a digital field trip. This turned into a mini web-quest that the whole class got to do together. She also had students with special needs using school iPad's to learn shapes, colors, reading, writing, social skills etc. This was a pretty cool application of technology integration that really helped me see it's usefulness and how it could really make a difference in students' lives.

I had the opportunity to use all of her technology tools and become a little more familiar with them which was cool. I loved the smart board capabilities and the endless possibilities for instruction using it. I loved the elmo tool and thought it was so helpful especially for students with visual needs. I used my digital story in my very last lesson and the students loved it, they even applauded at the end (mostly because they knew I made it!) I also used different video clips to enhance other lessons and used the elmo many times to show pictures and various text during lessons. 

After this experience I learned I should be more open to technology use in the classroom and that it really can be used to enhance the learning process. I thought technology would be just used for fun and not really useful to students but I was mistaken. I also learned how web-quests could be very do-able even with just 1 computer. I think I will be much more open about learning how technology  can be integrated and used in my classroom in the future. This field experience really was amazing and I'm so glad I was exposed to such great teaching with technology.