Coming to a Close-Fieldwork Reflection

Over the past couple of weeks, I was given the opportunity to work with second grade students at Bishop Dunn Elementary School. Now that our experience has come to a close, I must say that this has been a truly rewarding opportunity. At first I was a bit hesitant and a little nervous because I had never conducted a unit plan before. However, I am glad that I was given the chance to teach three different lessons.

The topic for our unit plan was money and banking. It was broken down into three main lessons. The first lesson that we taught was a direct instruction lesson. The lesson was titled "A Trip to the Bank." It focused mainly on teacher based instruction. In this lesson, we introduced the main concepts related to banking such as income, credit, checking, savings, deposit, withdraw, etc. The focus of the lesson was for students to gain an understanding of how you earn money, where you keep your money, and why the bank is so important. After teaching the lesson, we guided the students through an activity in order to check for understanding.Take a look at this video about direction instruction that I watched prior to designing this lesson! 

 

The second lesson that we taught was an Inquiry based lesson. This lesson is student-centered which means the students directly contribute to their own learning. In this lesson, the students were given a problem and had to work together in small groups in order to solve that problem. It was obvious that the students were much more engaged in this lesson then the direct instruction lesson because they were able to directly participate and contribute to the learning process. I was able to see that some students learn better through interactive participation rather then simply having things explained to them. 

The third and final lesson we taught was a Collaborative Learning based lesson. Again this lesson was student-centered so the students were responsible for their own learning. In this lesson the students needed to work together in order to figure out how to get apples from a farmer who only traded for eggs. Each student took on a specific role and helped their group to come to a conclusion. This lesson differed from the first two lessons because each student had to contribute to the process in order to achieve the goal. 

I learned so much through my fieldwork experience over the last couple of weeks. I think that the most important thing that I learned is how important it is to teach different types of lessons in order to meet the needs of all of the students. Each student learns differently and sometimes you need several different types of lessons about one topic in order to effectively communicate the idea. I am so glad I was given the opportunity to design and implement this unit plan because I feel that I have a better understanding of all the careful planning and consideration that needs to go into creating an effective unit. Another thing that I learned is how important it is to design lesson that will help students to develop essential skills. Social Studies requires students to develop critical-thinking, problem solving, decision making, and social interaction skills. These skills do not come easily to all students so it is important to create lessons that will help to foster the development of these skills. Overall, I think this was an extremely rewarding experience and I am so glad that I got the opportunity to work with these students.

 

Group 1 + 2 Exploring Goods and Services

 

Last week, my class started teaching second graders at Bishop Dunn Elementary School. The first lesson was designed as a direct instruction lesson. In a direct instruction lesson, the teacher models for the students and guides them through the new ideas or concepts. Group one's lesson focused on goods and services. The goal was for students to have a strong understanding of goods/services and how they are connected to each other. The group did an excellent job of explaining goods and services to the students. The only suggestion that I have would be to hide the answers to the questions from the students prior to asking. This gives students the opportunity to activate prior knowledge and share what they already know. It also gives the teachers the chance to see how much the students know and what they may need to focus on throughout their remaining lessons. Overall, I thought that Group 1 did an excellent job and the students really seemed to learn a lot from this lesson. 

Group 2's lesson focused on from the factory to you. Their goal was to teach students how goods get from the factory to your home and how we can be both producers and consumers. I thought that Group 2 did an excellent job of activating the student's prior knowledge. They really got them thinking about how things get to the store and what steps are involved. They also helped the students make a strong connection between the factory and goods/services. I think the students now have a strong understanding of how things are made and what is involved in getting those things from the factory to a store where we as consumers can purchase them. Overall, I think that the first day of teaching went very well and I was really impressed with the lessons of both groups!

Teaching Current Events

While exploring current events, I came across this video about a teacher who created a current events newspaper for her students. As seen in this video, the students really like learning about what is happening in the world and are able to make strong connections to their own lives. I thought this teacher did a great thing for her students by providing them with the latest news and most important headlines without overwhelming them with unnecessary information. I hope that I could have something like this for my students so that they can experience and explore current events in a positive and rewarding way.

Exploring Current Events

 

Recently, my class was asked to explore several different resources regarding incorporating current events into classroom curriculum. I must admit, after reading about some of the activities that teachers use in the classroom, I can see that there are many fun and exciting ways for students to learn about current events. One of the activities that I read about seemed particularly interesting. In this activity, students would be asked to pick an ongoing story and keep track of that story while it develops. The students would share new information or bring in follow up articles and discuss how their thoughts and opinions have changed over time. I think this is a great way to keep students actively involved in their community and to encourage them to form opinions and take a stand on a particular topic.

When I was a student in elementary school, I can remember being asked to bring in a current event news article to share with the class. Each week the teacher would have us share our article with the class and she would ask us to explain why we chose the article. She would then put all of the articles on the bulletin board to display to the class. The reason that I remember this assignment so clearly is because I thoroughly enjoyed participating. I loved learning about what was going on around me and since I was never really able to watch the news, this was a great way for me to learn about the most important events that were happening. 

As a future teacher candidate, I am definitely going to incorporate current events into my classroom curriculum. I think it is extremely important to teach children about things that are happening in our country as well as other countries. It is important for students to understand what is going on around them because somehow, it will most likely impact their lives. I believe that children of all ages should be introduced to current events. Obviously, the activities would need to be adjusted based on the grade level but I believe that teaching students about current events is a great way to get them involved in their own learning. For example, if I was teaching a sixth grade class, I would give students a current news story and have them partake in a debate. The students would need to form an opinion and take a side. After carefully reading the story and understanding all of its components, the students would be able to take on certain roles and defend their position.

Letters to Daddy: The Musical Key to Bully Free

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a musical presentation called Letters to Daddy at Mount Saint Mary College. When I first heard that the presentation was being offered, I had no idea what to expect. I wondered how they were going to execute a musical performance about bullying.


When I arrived at the musical, I found out that the cast consisted solely of children. I thought this was incredible because children understand more than anybody how it feels to be bullied and why it is so important to get the message out. I was amazed at how incredibly talented each of the children were and even though it is a small cast, they are making such a huge impact on the fight against bullying. 


The main characters in the play were two young girls whose father is a fifth grade teacher at an elementary school. In the opening of the play, the younger sister explains through song that her dad had his class write letters telling him about something in their life that causes them the most pain. Caroline, who is the older sister, gets punished for standing up to a bully in school. While she is sitting in her dad's office, she finds the letters that the students had written. Caroline and her friends begin to read the letters out loud to each other. As they read about all of the pain and suffering that other children endure, they begin to realize that everyone has a secret and although people may appear tough on the outside, they could be dealing with a lot of hurt and anger on the inside. 

Throughout the musical, the children begin to grow and learn from each other. They realize that it is okay to be different and then you should not judge someone before you get to know them. They realize that they are all unique and special. The children discover that the continents of the Earth complete each other and fit together like a puzzle. The children put the puzzle together and it becomes a heart. This scene of the musical was especially important because it delivers one of the main messages, "Put the heart back in the Earth."
This is such a powerful and uplifting message and the children did an amazing job of portraying it. 


I learned so much from this musical and it even made me get a little bit emotional. I can remember what it feels like to be bullied in school and sometimes, the pain is unbearable. Even now as a perspective teacher, it is easy to see how mean children can be to one another. It is important to teach acceptance and to encourage children to love one another despite their differences. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to see this wonderful musical and even I feel like it forced me to look inside myself and reflect on what is important in life. It was a truly beautiful message and one that I will definitely share with my students in the future.