When we got into the classroom I was somewhat nervous because it was the first time we were teaching in front of an entire class. Our first lesson was a direct instruction and we made a Prezi for the class.
We started the lesson off by singing a song based off the children's song "Old McDonald." The students really seemed to enjoy it and sang along with us.
The students were well behaved for my group and listened intently. They were also eager to answer our questions. We did not have a worksheet for them to follow along with so we had them write definitions in their notebooks. Since our time was cut the students were rushed so I feel they were not able to write everything down to absorb the key concepts. Our wrap up to the lesson was very short, but I had prepared a Wordle for the students to look at and pick two words. The concept behind the Wordle was to have the students tell the class the definition of the word they chose.
I feel that in the short amount of time we had our lesson went very well. The Prezi was engaging and the students stayed on task. If I was to teach this lesson again I would make sure we have the right amount of time. I would also have a worksheet created for the students to follow along and fill in as we go.
Our second lesson I felt did not go well at all. The lesson was an inquiry based Artifact Bag, that was thought up by half of the members during a convention they went too. I felt the people who were not part of the planning (myself included) did not really understand what was going on when we were trying to get everything in order. I also felt that there was a lot of arguing online about what to do and what artifacts to use. Since the lesson was thought up the day before going to the classroom we were not able to use real artifacts. We only had print out versions of the artifacts, which would really not allow the students to get that hands on experience. When we got into the classroom we broke the class into groups of five or six giving each member an assigned job. This is where we lost control of the class. The teacher informed us that was the first time they were working and groups, which explained why the students were all over the place. Each of the teachers ended up working with a group to make sure they stayed on task by asking them questions and trying to engage them in their resources. In the group that I worked with the girl who was "time keeper" did not know how to read a face clock. She lost interest in the activity until a timer was put on the Smartboard. When the groups presented their findings they read off the sheet and did not explain how they determined what country their artifacts came from. If I were to do this lesson again I would get hands on artifacts so the students can actually see what they look like. I would break the class into smaller groups and try to form the lesson so I would not find the same problems
The final lesson went much better then the second lesson. It was a collaborative lesson on making a manor. The students task was to create a poster of their very own manor by drawing and placing stickers on a poster board. On the back of the poster they were to make a poem using the word "Manor." Before we started the lesson we asked the students what it meant to work in groups. We continued on by asking if anyone had ever been on a team. Most of the students had been on some sort of team before so we were able to ask them what characteristics made up a team. For this lesson we broke the class into much smaller groups and based it off where they sat. This avoided the class from getting up and moving around because that is what made everything so chaotic the last time. There were nine teachers so we made nine groups so each teacher could work with one group. The group I worked with worked very cooperatively with each other. They shared ideas and took turns drawing. The three girls kept telling me how much they loved this project. When it came to present they were very eager to show what they had drawn and what poem they came up with. When we were leaving my group members hugged me and said it was their favorite lesson. It made me feel good because this was the lesson I came up with so I felt accomplished.
Teaching these three lessons really opened my eyes to what teaching a full class is going to be like. I saw that things do not always go as planned but you can not have a mental break down you just need to keep going and improvise. I saw that it takes much planning to get lessons and materials together foe a class. Even though we only taught three out of six lessons I feel I would be able to go back and teach the entire unit being more prepared this time around. I truly enjoyed my field work experience and learned a lot from it.
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