Learning a Lesson While Teaching One

Although fieldwork is ending, the many tools I have learned from the experience are just beginning. The past 5 weeks teaching the second grade class at BDMS have taught me many aspects of teaching I never knew until standing in front of a class. I enjoyed fieldwork this semester because it was different than the fieldwork I have done in my previous classes. You don't feel like a real teacher until you teach to an entire class, front and center. One thing I gained throughout my fieldwork experience was confidence. I learned that every student is different and it is my job as a teacher to accommodate these differences. 

I learned how to create three different lesson plans and the necessary elements required for each. The direct instruction lesson plan requires much more detail and step by step instruction for what is going to be said by the teacher than the other two lesson plans. After teaching the direct instruction lesson plan I was able to go back and make minor changes to make it even better. There was not much that needed to be changed because my group members and I worked very hard on this first lesson plan. The next lesson we taught as a group was the inquiry lesson. The inquiry lesson plan requires students to go through the inquiry process on their own to solve a problem. Before this class I never saw an inquiry lesson implemented in a classroom. I was very excited to carryout our inquiry lesson because it was engaging and technology based. My group created a Webquest for the students to explore in order to solve the problem given to them. I think this lesson went very smoothly and the students were excited and engaged the entire time. When I looked back at the lesson plan to make changes, there were only a few minor things that needed tweaking. One thing I wish my group had done was physically modeled the process using a tablet instead of showing them on the SmartBoard.  I would have verbalized my thought process throughout the exploration. Other than that I think the lesson plan was written great and the lesson was taught phenomenally by my fellow group members and myself. The last and final lesson my group taught was the cooperative learning lesson. A cooperative lesson requires students to work together to create a common goal. Our students were required to make a poster portraying the explorer they discovered in the inquiry lesson. The students had a really great time having roles and working amongst their classmates. This lesson plan only needed simple changes like the inquiry. I needed to change the lesson objectives because I did not provide a performance goal required for the students. 

Here are my final lesson plans:

Direct Instruction

Inquiry

Cooperative Learning 

Overall teaching in front of a class was an amazing experience. I need to thank my colleagues for the great group effort and collaboration that made this fieldwork experience possible. We all worked really hard this first half of the semester. I look forward to teaching my own classroom in the future because of the experiences I've had so far.