Junior Field Experience!

My Junior Field finished about a week ago. I must say, it was an experience to remember! I will give you a little info on the type of school I was placed in. My content area is Spanish and I was place to complete my Junior Field in an Elizabeth middle school, with prodominately African American and Hispanic students. A tough bunch of kids I must say, but I survived!

I was surprised to learn that even though this school is one of the toughest middle schools in Elizabeth, many students were eager to learn. I had a wonderful co-operating teacher who helped me with everything that she could.

While doing my Field experience, I also learned that a teacher should not act fake with his or her students because students can always sense when a teacher is being sincere or not. I got to experience first hand what students really think about some of their teachers. A teacher shouldn't only see his/her students as students, but also as human beings. Even though students have their own issues, we as teachers must understand where they are coming from and have patience.

I also had the experience to observe a special education classroom of six students. I must say, this was an experience that I will never forget. Even though these were a tough bunch of kids, most of them had respect for my co-operating teacher, and me as well. They were very curious to know who I was and if I would be working at the school next school year. One of the kids was in a foster home and really craved attention and love. He will be graduating the eighth grade now, but he acted as though he was still in the fourth. It was sad to hear about some of these cases.

Furthermore, I had many intelligent students who were anxious to know what activites I had prepared for them. They enjoy working in co-operative groups, and using the computer to complete their assignments.

In conlusion, my experience overall was a great one and I look forward to completing my Senior Intership. My Senior intership will be completely different because I got placed in a Gifted and Talented school. That will be a completely different experience.