Stefanie Flory
May 1st, 2021
Two strengths that I felt going into FE was building a relationship with the students. I always look forward to engaging and getting to know new students. I felt that going into this field experience was going to be challenging while being remote, but I also think that it helped having the experience of being remote for FE1 and 2 so going into this field experience, I felt more confident. Another strength I had was use of technology in the classroom, with the methods courses and last semester, it gave me opportunity to work with technology tools and methods on how to implement technology into the classroom. This helped me with teaching students remotely. Two strengths I feel I have now are asking higher order thinking questions and lesson planning. In the beginning, the area I struggled with most of my lesson was asking higher order thinking questions, so as I taught more lessons, I implemented more questioning as I learned how the students learn and their own knowledge. It helped me to effectively teach intentionally and use their knowledge to build on critical thinking. Another strength I have now, is with lesson planning. I loved being able to use the children’s interests and ideas with the methods course and my cohorts to use fun,interactive and engaging introductions to a lesson and closure activities. From previous field experiences, those were two areas of the lesson that I tend to have trouble with but over the semester, I learned such cool and fun ways to get the students interested :) The two areas I need to improve on is having an engaging introduction to the lesson and knowing how to answer questions from the students when they arise throughout the lessons.The most fun experience in the classroom was the first day of in person students. This was the most fun experience because I have expected and thought that most of the school year, the students would be remote. However, that did not happen because we finally got the OK to go into a school, yay! This was exciting and getting to see the students and talk to them face to face made me so happy and excited for my future as a teacher!
The most challenging experience was teaching for the first day with remote and in person learners. This was such a huge learning experience because to be quite honest, I had little to no experience with working with smartboards and technology using it! From what I can recall, most of FE was remote for me as a student! Having to manage, and learn how to use new technology tools as well as managing a classroom of learners from multiple settings!My best lesson, I would say, was my retelling literacy lesson. I chose this as my best lesson taught because I enjoy teaching literacy! I felt this was my strongest lesson taught in the classroom. This lesson involved a read aloud, which I find to be something I strive in. I love reading to students and listening/talking about the stories as we explore and read it. This was really fun too because the students had to retell the story and I told them to pretend like they were telling the story to someone who has never heard it before. I think this really interested my students and they did such a great job at completing the activity! I think that my worst lesson taught was my math lesson. For math, I had to teach the students about currency in other countries. Not only was it my first lesson, but it was content I really was not familiar with. Due to lack of knowledge with the given country, I had to teach myself a lot before implementing it into the lesson. This along with the nerves I had, and it being my first lesson it was a hard lesson for me and for that I would say that was my worst one that I taught.
One thing I learned from my CT is how to strive to accommodate for all learners. My CT does a phenomenal job at helping her students in the classroom as much as she can. I love that she worked one on one with students in person, both supporting and challenging them in areas that she knows intentionally helps them.Another thing I learned from my CT is classroom management for remote teaching. Wow! She amazed me at how well she handled her students at home. She made sure she was talking with each and every students, providing opportunities for students to share with their classmates, setting clear expectations in the beginning and allowing the students Lastly, I learned from my MT how important collaboration with other teachers is in the field of education. My MT worked as a partner with another teacher and the communication and collaboration they had was amazing! They worked well together, were close and effectively worked together to ensure that the children were getting the most effective learning, remote and in person. One thing I learned about myself was that I definitely need to give myself more confidence in terms of teaching, and stop doubting it, I am very good at managing both in person and remote teaching, and that I have the love and patience for teaching. Some things I learned about students and education is that children can easily adapt to changes, they are always watching and learning new things and that including their own knowledge can really help success in a lesson.
In terms of student teaching, I am so excited! I have been placed in a kindergarten classroom and that is the grade I really wanted and want to teach after student teaching. This upcoming week, I get to meet with my MT and talk about the upcoming Fall. She is also going to show me around the school! I am looking forward to meeting a new group of students as well! I know it’s going to be such a fun and good experience! I am anxious of course, because I don’t know what to expect until we get started but I am hoping that my MT and I will work well together and she will help me grow as much as this past MT has for Field 3 & 4.
Hello Stef! it was so nice co- teaching with you in this FE lol. It is so sweet that they got you a cup with your name on it, I am sure you will cherish it for always. I agree it was hard to say good bye. The students and our MTs were great!
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