Reflection #6: Field Experience Summary

For my field experience I want into Mrs. Henderson’s 4^th grade classroom.  When I first found out that I was going to be in 4^th grade for field, I was disappointed because I had wanted to get an older grade, like 5^th or 6^th.  I ended up loving 4^th grade.  The students were awesome and really fun to be with.   The first week there was spent helping the teacher with tasks she needed done, observation, and helping individual students.  Learning all of the student’s names was easier than I thought it was going to be.  It was great being in a classroom and being able to see all the things we were learning applied with real students.  There were a lot of things that Mrs. Henderson did that I really liked.  I felt that she had excellent control over the class, and the students knew that she was in charge, but they still had fun as a class and with the teacher.

 I loved how Mrs. Henderson taught.  Each lesson was a little bit different, but she would ask the students and direct their thinking to the correct conclusion.  For example, when teaching about the water cycle, she would ask questions that made them think about why it would do that.  She would ask why it rained, to have the students think about what made it rain scientifically.  She would ask what they thought, and let the students answer until someone hit it, and then run with that idea.  She would never tell them their ideas were wrong, if they were a little bit off, but just say, “Ok.  What else do you guys think?”  I felt that this allowed the students to think about the process and come to their own conclusion. 

                Each day was structured almost the same, with minor variations depending on subject.  In the mornings the students would do reading.  There were reading groups, and each group would take turns going to the reading table to read with Mrs. Henderson.  The other students would finish reading assignments, work on spelling or on other assignments if they had extra time, or read.  After reading was math.  While I was there the students were working on fractions.  They started off doing basic fractions like figuring out what number was the denominator and which was the numerator, how to write them, etc., and then moved up to adding and subtracting fractions, and also to mixed numbers.  After math was lunch and recess.  After lunch, they had social studies.  When we first got there they were finishing up a unit on mountain men in Utah’s History.  The rest of the day was a little more flexible.  They would usually have a science rotation, and then have recess after that.  Then they might do spelling, art, computers, PE, or read aloud.

The lesson’s we taught were social studies, so the last week we were in charge of the content.  The teacher wanted us to focus on Standard 1 in the core.  We could pick anything we wanted to teach within that standard.  We taught lessons on longitude/latitude, archeology, erosion, and a tour of Utah showing different recreational spots in Utah.  I felt that we got a good response from the students on each of our lessons.  My favorites were longitude/latitude and the tour of Utah.  For the longitude/latitude we taught them what it was and how to find it on maps, and then let the students create their own map.  They loved it, and we got some really creative maps.  The tour involved a power point that allowed the students “to travel” to 6 different locations around Utah.  The title page had the name and picture of each destination and they could pick which one they wanted to go to.  They had little “passports” that they would take notes in after they had “traveled” to each destination.  The students loved it!  They would ask what we were going to do for social studies that day, and if we could go to more locations. 

                There were some funny/interesting experiences while I was there.  There was one girl in the class who had A.D.D.  You could tell she came from a family background that was not ideal.  She reeked of smoke every day, and you didn’t shower often.  She was a very happy girl who always had a smile on face.  One day she came up to me and said, “Miss Sands guess what I saw when I was walking to school today? There was a rat and it was dying in the gutter, so the only thing I could do was humanely kill it.” I really didn’t know how to respond to that.  I really wonder what she had seen at home to have learned about that.  There was another day she came up to me, and she looked a little different but I couldn’t put my finger on what was different.  Then she told me the story of how her sister had shaved her eyebrows off while she was sleeping.  Her grandma had tried to draw them on with a pencil, but it was really obvious they were gone.  I felt so bad for her!  On our last day in the class, the students wanted to surprise us by jumping out and yelling “We’ll miss you!” when we walked into the classroom.  The students were hiding in different spots around the classroom and they all jumped out.  One boy hid in the broom closet they had in the class, and he got locked in.  It was pretty funny. 

                I loved being able to go into Mrs. Henderson’s class and get to know these students.  It was nice to see what we were learning in class being applied in a classroom.  In class everything we learn is hypothetical and it’s a lot easier to hypothetically solve a problem, but this allowed us the opportunity to use this in real life situations.  I liked being able to watch the teacher and see how she interacted, taught, and disciplined her students.  I loved this experience, and wish it could have been longer.  Leaving was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

Reflection #5: Dance

What:  I'll be honest, dance is not my cup of tea.  I was not born with coordination at all, so doing dance is not something I really look forward to.  Doing this unit helped me see that dance isn't necessarily about coordination and looking good all the day.  Well, it does look good, but not in the way I always thought.  I learned that it is a lot more creative dance then it is dance moves, so it allows students to express themselves, rather then performing a movement someone else created.  I think this can be a really good way for students to express themselves, and incorporate movement.  It really teaches how you can depict emotion through movement.

So What: For me, incorporating dance is going to be a lot more work because it's not something that comes naturally to me.  Doing this unit has helped me see that even though it's not my cup of tea, it will help students, so it's something that I need to learn to incorporate.  In field, we are doing a unit on American Indians, and this would be a perfect opportunity to incorporate dance into our teaching in field.

Now What:  In order to incorporate this into practice, I'm going to need to make sure it's something I know. I can look up videos on line, or just try and incorporate what we learned in class about creative movement and applying it to books or poems.  I also liked that we learned the traditional dance in class, so it'd be cool to learn an Indian Dance that I could teach.


And:  For our group, we decided to divide up the pages and each come up with what we would do for the dance.  We then all met together and tied it together, and helped each other with any ideas we needed and put in our suggestions for other parts.  It was fun working with lots of different personalities in the group because some of the members were more outgoing, and that helped me be more outgoing while dancing.

Reflection #4: Music

Music is an important part of the world, and it can be a really helpful tool in education.  Music makes things fun, entertaining, and it can make it easier to learn difficult subjects or a good way to memorize something (like the states).  I really liked learning about how to incorporate music into the classroom, especially with how to teach the song using the 4 rules.  I thought it was so cool that we would take about 15 minutes in our presentations and yet at the end of the day, I knew 5 new songs.  I would probably need more practice with them, but it's so cool how fast they can be learned.  I learned, from the presentation, that the best songs are short and simple.  We tried to fit a lot of information into our songs, and that made it a little more complex to teach, and to understand.  I think the more simple the better.
Now that I have learned this technique I'm going to incorporate music into my curriculum as much as I can.  I'll try to find songs, or even write songs that I can use.  I also think it would be fun to have the students write their own songs about what they are learning.  I think this can be an even more effective tool because students will have to be coming up with the information and applying what they learned to a tune.  It's important to teach music in school because music can really help the brain.  I really think that other subjects can be improved if music is taught, or at least incorporated.
As a teacher, I will prepare to use this and incorporate this into my classroom by trying to incorporate songs into my lesson plans now.  Or if I come across a song that I will be able to use in the classroom I will get a copy.


I'm glad we got to do this group project, mostly just for the experience it brought.  As a group I wish we would've spent a little more time on it, but think that overall we came up with a really cool song.  I contributed to the team by coming up with things we could do to teach the song, and how to apply the different things like sing not say, or whole to part.  I've learned that working in groups can bring lots of good ideas to the table, things that sometimes can't be thought of on your own.  I personally don't like working in groups as much as we do in most of our classes, because life is busy and it's hard to find a time to meet when everyone can.  But I think group work is very useful in elementary school if it's something done in the classroom, or for a few projects through the year.  I think it can build communication skills and help students collaborate and work with others.

Reflection #3: Drama

I'll admit, when I first heard we were doing drama as a section I was a little taken back.  I am not the drama type at all, and because of that I wondered  how I was going to apply that to my classroom, or if I'd even want to apply it.  But I have to say, after this unit, I am converted, and will 100% use drama activities in my classroom for many different topics and as often as I can.  In class we learned lots of different activities, such as the mirroring activities, the Story as One, the Alphabet Story, and reading childrens books and adding activities like the Decision Alley.  I learned that drama can bring things to life.  It can help students connect with what they are learning so that it's not just about some people, somewhere, some time ago.  It also helps students remember things.  They are more likely to remember what they are learning if they are up and about doing something that helps them interacte with learning.  I feel that students need drama in the classroom.  As teachers we want to create the best students and future adults we can, and if we use drama in the classroom it will help them make connection and really learn what they are supposed to know.  With drama they are not just learning facts about a person, they are, for a moment, becoming that person.  They can feel what that person felt, think what that person thought, and experience what that person experienced.  It is such an important thing to have in the classroom.

I really liked this group project for drama.  I think it is a fun way to really incorporate drama activities and history into a classroom.  It really brings the story to life, and it makes it fun. Stories, especially picture books, already bring stories to life, but by applying what students know already from their lessons in class and having them do interactive lessons it can really bring it to life and connect it to the student.  I learned that it's not hard to incorporate this types of things into lessons.  I would think it would take a lot of time and thought, and while it did take some preparation, it was not nearly as extensive as I thought, and it was enjoyable.  I liked watching the other groups and seeing that there are so many different ideas out there.  They presented a lot of different things we can do that I hadn't even thought of.  I felt that our group worked very well together.  We divided the work and all did our part.  It was a little stressful because one of our group members didn't show up on the day of the presentation and we weren't aware, but she had put in her part as far as the handout and we were able to work around it in our presentation.  From doing the presentation I learned that drama and story reading can be fun and interactive and I'm excited to do it in my own class!

Reflection #2: Visual Arts

I have taken a lot of visual arts classes in my day, so as far as the principles and new knowledge, I knew most of the stuff already.  But what I didn't know was how to really apply all of that to an elementary classroom.  As a teacher, this will be very important to know and use.  I really believe that art can open a lot of doors for students, and that it is very important in the classroom.  Art is a way of expressing yourself, and students need something like that.  I loved when we did the activity where we discussed the different pieces of art hanging around the room and what elements and principles they included in them.  Doing this in a classroom can allow students the practice of being able to see that on their own.  They could be looking at a piece of art, or even something in nature and pick out those different elements and principles they see.  I want to prepare to effectively teach my students by learning as much as I can about it so that I can incorporate it in to my classroom.  I want to get as many idea's and different activities I could do.  I really liked doing the group project on the illustrator because it's something that can easily be applied in school.  It allows students to see that illustrators are artists and that they can copy their technique or use it to get ideas of things they can do on their own.  My group for the project all worked very well together.  We picked an artist and put our heads together to come up with our activity of cutting out the paper and layering it as did David Wisnieski.  I contributed by helping make the hand out, helping come up with the idea of what we could do, and by bringing some of the materials for our class activity.

Reflection #1: The Arts and Me

Art has always been a very important part of my life.  Before I switched my major to Elementary Education, I was going into Graphic Design.  I loved all the classes and the experience that I had majoring in art.  When I was little I always loved doing the art projects in elementary school.  It was my chance to be creative and make something.  I remember having art centers and learning to draw different things.  I also remember in 6th grade I had painted a sunflower and I had been lazy and painted the leaves all just plain yellow.  I showed my teacher and she said something to the effect of it being kinda boring because it was all one color and sunflowers really aren't like that.  It got me thinking and motivated me to do more, and I added some different shades and it turned out pretty dang cool when I was done, if I do say so myself.

I feel that art plays a huge role in education.  Schools today are making cuts to save money and art is usually the first thing to go.  I loved the clip we saw in class where art was being integrated into the classroom, because it really showed what a positive impact art can have on students and education.  There are many assignments and projects that can be done for science or history, or any other topic that can include art in them.  Art can be a part of the daily routine if the teacher puts forth a little bit of effort.  As a teacher I want to make sure I include art in my classroom.

This semester I hope to learn new techniques and ways of incorporating art in to the classroom.  I want to get as many ideas as I can so that I can use them when I am a teacher in my own classroom, and also use them during my field experience.