Field Eperience
On Monday, September 20th, 2010, I went into Leesa Ferris' 4th grade class in Homer Intermediate School. I was there from 12:40-3:10, giving me a good start to my 50 hours of observation. My first impression was overwhelming. When I walked into the classroom, I was briefly introduced to the few students who had returned from lunch early, then the math lesson started. The teacher called out six girls who had done poorly on their last homework assignment (counting money) and asked me to re-teach the lesson in the hall while using play-money. I was unprepared and confused because I have not been able to teach a lesson to students before, and I would have preferred some time to prepare and plan my technique. The girls would not stay in their seats and they would not listen to me. They kept getting up and playing with the money while I was trying to teach them the lesson and I felt like they were not learning anything. The class is a little crowded because there is a teacher, a student teacher, me, and when we get started there will be another student from our class in that classroom at the same time. I feel like this will be a little too much and the block I students in Ms. Farris' class will not get the chance to learn with the students because there are so many other adults in the classroom. At the end of the day, the students go to recess and are able to let out all of their energy that they built up throughout the day. Some students chose to stay inside to do some research on another project or to finish their classwork. During this last half hour, I was able to grade papers and see some of the students potential. I am looking forward to September 29th, when I will be able to go back into the classroom and learn more from the students.
-Melissa Santana
-Heidi, Shawn, Heather, and Melissa
