Russell Turner
Field Experience Reflection
The field experience placement I had was phenomenal. Mr. Nevil is an amazing teacher who really has a passion for the content area and the children in his classroom. There was not a day that I did not see a smile on his face. His planning was very efficient and it kept the students involved in what was happening within the classroom. Being with him and his fifth and sixth grade classes has been an absolutely amazing learning experience for me and has given me more inspiration to continue with my schooling in the field of education.
I discovered that my weaknesses are that I am somewhat lax in my discipline, and that I don’t prepare my lessons as well as I should. I know that with the completion of education psychology and other education courses that I have to take that this will come almost second nature to me, meaning that I will know how to assess and handle situations when they arise and know how to adequately prepare a lesson for my students. I also know that with practice writing lesson plans and mock teaching I will get familiarized with how to prepare a lesson and how to word certain subjects as to not offend my students and to keep the lesson comprehendible.
As I got the opportunity to teach I noticed that one of my students had an anger issue when it came to me disciplining him, also it seemed to me that he had what parents call selective hearing. I noticed this after having to ask him several times to please stop disrupting the learning environment. I know that as a sixth grade student that this is hard to comprehend sometimes when you have multiple things running through your mind at any one given time. Based off of Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral reasoning I know that this child is exiting the Preconventional Morality level (level one). I could see that he still had thoughts like that of stage two, which states: “An action is judged to be right if it is instrumental in satisfying one’s own needs or involves an even exchange.” (Ed. Psyc. Text p 57) Just that sentence tell me where this child is when it comes to moral development. According to Erikson this student is in the identity verses role confusion stage. I believe this to be true of this student. He does not seem to know how he “fits-in” among his peers or his teachers. To address this I would have to be strict in my discipline, but understanding at the same time. I would have to hint at how the child should act, talk to him after class to see if there is something wrong. If I were to do this I would ask him “Is there something wrong? I am concerned because you are not performing as well as I know you can. Is there anything I can do to help you?” I would let him know that he does not have to tell me, but I am here to listen and give advice if needed.
In my field experience I had two times opportunities to teach the fifth and sixth grade classes. The first time I stepped in front of the classroom I was nervous but the students were able to relax me as they adjusted to my style of teaching rather than the one they were used to. I also didn’t plan like I should have. I had to weeks to prepare a lesson but did not, but the class took to my teaching very well and I feel that the lesson was effective as I got into it more. My second opportunity I realized the “honeymoon” was over. I had more discipline problems and got less done in my allotted time because of this. I do feel that because I had a lesson that was better prepared I was able to still effectively teach the lesson. This was the case for both classes: however, the fifth grade class had fewer problems and was able to accomplish more in the allotted time. The most difficult part was showing a smile throughout the whole lesson. As I am still a college student I usually have late nights of studying, writing papers, etc. I feel that when I get this opportunity again I will plan better, get more sleep, and arrive earlier to set up the classroom in the fashion that I want it. Having the students get involved in the lessons went the smoothest of all that happened. Almost every student was willing to volunteer to write on the board and talk in front of the class. I found this to be the most rewarding factor of my teaching experience. Knowing that I was able to get the students motivated enough to be willing to volunteer as much as they were put a smile on my face every single time I called on the students. I feel that because of all that happened the next time I teach I will be adequately prepared to handle roudy students and I will know how to motivate the students into volunteering.