Field Experience

My field experience has been in Mrs. O’niell's 4th grade class at Geneva Elementary. Geneva Elementary School is located in Orem, Utah at 665 West 400 North. It opened in 1948 and is one of 48 existing Elementary Schools in Alpine District. It is also the oldest Elementary School in the Alpine district, but is clean and has been recently updated. It is a one-story building with exciting, colorful paintings on the wall the second you walk in the entrance.

                Mrs. O'niell's class is made up of 22 fourth graders – 14 boys and 8 girls. The students range in age from 9 to 11 years old. 8 students are Hispanic, one is Tongan, one is Native American, one is Brazillian, one is from El Salvador, and 10 are Caucasian. There are a number of special needs in the classroom. 12 students work with ESL specialists, 3 students have severe ADHD, and 3 have emotional disorders. The students as a whole are very well behaved and listened to me when I would ask them to do something, whether it be working on an assignment or being quiet. They seemed to be very intelligent and bright students. I really enjoyed working with them and it was difficult to say goodbye.  When someone did misbehave, there was a time when a student wrote a very inappropriate note, the teacher handled it quickly and responsibly and made sure the other students knew why it was wrong and she expects more out of them.

               
Mrs. O’s 4^th grade classroom has a bright and happy setting. Mrs. O’ works very hard to implement classroom management techniques, as well as keep the students on task at all times. The students stick to a very strict schedule and are well behaved. Mrs. O’ said that at the first of the school year she spends a great deal of time focusing on classroom management.

Now that the students know what is expected of them they are able to get the most out of their educational experience. While I was in the classroom I became an active participant in grading, assisting as well as in teaching the students. It was an exciting experience to work with students and help them gain a deeper understanding for math, science, reading and writing. Mrs. O’s main goal, as a teacher, is to help foster a positive learning experience for each student, so that they can have the best educational experience possible. Mrs. O’ believes in open communication with her students and their parents. Parental involvement, in the educational process of Mrs. O’s students, is strongly encouraged. She was a great teacher to work with. She has been teaching for 8 years and knows and understands how to teach the students. One of her biggest strengths was that I noticed was her great classroom management skills. The students listen and respect her. You could also tell that the students trusted her which I feel is crucial in being able to be a great teacher. She was good to work with and before every lesson we would teach, she would go over the lesson with us and tell us what she thought would be good to change or make sure we do. Also, at the end of the 3 weeks when she evaluated us, she went over it with us to make sure we understood why she put what she did and some tips on how to make us better teachers. 

I worked with Mrs. Jennifer Baldwin and we worked very well together. We split the lesson plans so that we would teach together 4 times and each of us would have one time where we taught by ourselves. I think that it ended up being a nice way to ease us into teaching on our own.

We also showed the students our digital story that we created. It went over how dinosaurs turned into fossils and how they could have become extinct and then talked about fossils. The students seemed to really like the movie and after said they wanted to watch it again. 

Overall I felt like this experience really helped me solidify my decision to become an Elementary Education teacher, and helped identify what my strengths and weaknesses are so I can improve my teaching skills before I go out and do it on my own.