Flexibility - Reflection on Fieldwork
This field work experience was definitely an eye opening experience. I learned that rarely things go according to plan and being flexible is a huge asset as a teacher. From the very first week it was apparent that attendance of students to the after school session was going to fluctuate from week to week since there wasn't a core group of students signed up for our fieldwork. I think each MSMC group did a great job of prepping for the unknown head count as well as making adjustments when the time came to present to the class. Personally, I think it was helpful to create a lesson that could be done both in small groups or individually, which needed to be planned ahead when thinking about the inquiry lesson. I found it frustrating not knowing who was going to be in the after school session or how many students were going to have because I had several ideas that needed a larger group participation than just 2 students. However, the inquiry lesson we presented was able to be tailored to so few students.
Another eye opening aspect of this field work experience was starting with 6 students and ending with 1 because students were being picked up. While this wouldn't happen traditionally in a classroom setting it again speaks to the teachers ability to be flexible in the moment. I think every MSMC group did a great job of tailoring their lessons towards the end for the few students that were left. I do think it was unfortunate and frustrating that we couldn't have a certain number of students signed up for the 5 weeks with the intention of staying for the whole session. I appreciate that the after school group that had signed up to play games switched their plans to be taught about climate change.
Another challenging part of this field work experience was working in groups on such a large task. I myself work 3 jobs on top of my course work and my schedule isn't the traditional Monday through Friday 8-4 or 9-5. My hours fluctuate and I'm never 100% sure of the windows of time I can dedicate to working on school. This lesson required time to collaborate that I just didn't have. For personal reasons my group couldn't present on our originally assigned week so we were bumped up a week. I expressed my concerns about rushing our lesson and I think our unpreparedness was shown in what we created and presented at Bishop Dunn. While we did collaborate on the over arching lesson topic we split the lesson in half just for the sake of getting it done and so that it worked for our individual schedules. I was frustrated when we found out later, after we presented, that we weren't going to be at Bishop Dunn our intended night anyways due to a scheduled conference day. There were a lot of factors that played into my frustration with the result of our lesson, and I don't necessarily agree that at the graduate level we should be expected to create such a robust lesson as group work.
At the same time I sympathize with the group that had to go first because they essentially had a week to throw together both lesson plans with unknown expectations and many unanswered questions about the the direct lesson and inquiry lesson. I think many of the questions or problems each group ran into could have been addressed by having Dr. Smirnova do an example of the direct instruction and inquiry lessons the first week with the Bishop Dunn students. I also think having Dr. Smirnova present an example would have echoed what we have learned in many of our classes so far about providing explicit models to our students. After the first group went and we sat giving feedback for an hour it was apparent that the expectations we had in mind going into the unit plan design differed from what was really expected. Each week though I think we slowly learned from one another's mistakes and used some of the feedback in our own lessons. By the last week the 4th group presented an awesome lesson that hit many of the marks Dr. Smirnova was looking for. While it was great to see this transition in lessons get better I think it was unfortunate and frustrating for the other groups to feel like they had presented a failing lesson and to sit and get negative feedback. I think the field work experience could have been more meaningful and more successful for all groups if the expectations had been modeled at Bishop Dunn.
For the future if this assignment is to be done as a group assignment I think its parts should be sectioned off for groups to start on from the beginning of the course. That way each group would be prepared to teach their lesson when fieldwork starts making minor adjustments based on what is learned from groups as they present. If groups were asked to submit the lesson piece by piece in the beginning of the course then feedback could be given on each section and could be fixed in a timely manner.
Another take away from creating and presenting our lesson was time management. Our inquiry lesson needed another additional hour, if not a whole unit to complete. While we were able to get through most of the aspects of our lesson it was rushed and I wanted to give the students more time. In thinking about lessons for the future I need to start accounting for more time in general, allowing more times for questions, clarifications, checks for understanding, distractions, etc. I think this was a valuable lesson to learn because we only had 4 students to teach and felt rushed for time, I can only imagine what teaching 20-30 students would be like and the time needed outside of the lesson plan.
Lastly, I had fun creating an inquiry lesson. When I think about being a teacher I wish I could just teach inquiry lessons. When I was in school, still am, I found it very difficult to sit through lectures and pay attention. I hated school because that was most of my experience up until my undergraduate which was hands-on, self-exploring, and engaging. While I now understand the need for direct instruction I hope it will only be used in my future classroom when necessary.
Another challenging part of this field work experience was working in groups on such a large task. I myself work 3 jobs on top of my course work and my schedule isn't the traditional Monday through Friday 8-4 or 9-5. My hours fluctuate and I'm never 100% sure of the windows of time I can dedicate to working on school. This lesson required time to collaborate that I just didn't have. For personal reasons my group couldn't present on our originally assigned week so we were bumped up a week. I expressed my concerns about rushing our lesson and I think our unpreparedness was shown in what we created and presented at Bishop Dunn. While we did collaborate on the over arching lesson topic we split the lesson in half just for the sake of getting it done and so that it worked for our individual schedules. I was frustrated when we found out later, after we presented, that we weren't going to be at Bishop Dunn our intended night anyways due to a scheduled conference day. There were a lot of factors that played into my frustration with the result of our lesson, and I don't necessarily agree that at the graduate level we should be expected to create such a robust lesson as group work.
At the same time I sympathize with the group that had to go first because they essentially had a week to throw together both lesson plans with unknown expectations and many unanswered questions about the the direct lesson and inquiry lesson. I think many of the questions or problems each group ran into could have been addressed by having Dr. Smirnova do an example of the direct instruction and inquiry lessons the first week with the Bishop Dunn students. I also think having Dr. Smirnova present an example would have echoed what we have learned in many of our classes so far about providing explicit models to our students. After the first group went and we sat giving feedback for an hour it was apparent that the expectations we had in mind going into the unit plan design differed from what was really expected. Each week though I think we slowly learned from one another's mistakes and used some of the feedback in our own lessons. By the last week the 4th group presented an awesome lesson that hit many of the marks Dr. Smirnova was looking for. While it was great to see this transition in lessons get better I think it was unfortunate and frustrating for the other groups to feel like they had presented a failing lesson and to sit and get negative feedback. I think the field work experience could have been more meaningful and more successful for all groups if the expectations had been modeled at Bishop Dunn.
For the future if this assignment is to be done as a group assignment I think its parts should be sectioned off for groups to start on from the beginning of the course. That way each group would be prepared to teach their lesson when fieldwork starts making minor adjustments based on what is learned from groups as they present. If groups were asked to submit the lesson piece by piece in the beginning of the course then feedback could be given on each section and could be fixed in a timely manner.
Another take away from creating and presenting our lesson was time management. Our inquiry lesson needed another additional hour, if not a whole unit to complete. While we were able to get through most of the aspects of our lesson it was rushed and I wanted to give the students more time. In thinking about lessons for the future I need to start accounting for more time in general, allowing more times for questions, clarifications, checks for understanding, distractions, etc. I think this was a valuable lesson to learn because we only had 4 students to teach and felt rushed for time, I can only imagine what teaching 20-30 students would be like and the time needed outside of the lesson plan.
Lastly, I had fun creating an inquiry lesson. When I think about being a teacher I wish I could just teach inquiry lessons. When I was in school, still am, I found it very difficult to sit through lectures and pay attention. I hated school because that was most of my experience up until my undergraduate which was hands-on, self-exploring, and engaging. While I now understand the need for direct instruction I hope it will only be used in my future classroom when necessary.
Comments
Post a Comment