My Terrific Junior Field Experience

I feel that my junior field experience is not over because several of the children in my classes still come to visit me at my work, which is across the street from the school! Yesterday one boy told another that I usually have cookies for them. I laughed and told him that if I knew they were coming I would bake for them. They said without skipping a beat, "We'll be back next Monday, and chocolate chip is our favorite!" I had baked two kinds of cookies for them on my last day there so he wanted to put in his order. The students in my classes were mostly African-American and Hispanic. My cooperating teacher was fantastic - everything a teacher should be. She was open and giving of information, and she recently called to tell me she might be moved to the third grade and asked if I wanted to student teach with her. She was an alternate route teacher, and very sensitive to my fear of failure by saying that everyone makes mistakes in the beginning. She recommended starting with third, fourth or fifth grade as a teacher, because in many districts the subjects are taught by different teachers. Her class was language arts, but if she moves to third grade she will teach math and science. Her reason for suggesting these grades is that a new teacher, even though having 60 students, only has to write lesson plans for one subject. Although she had students at three different levels and had a number of ELL students who were out of the ESL program, she only had to modify her basic plans for each level. The administration and other teachers were warm and welcoming and I felt that I belonged, although a boy in the slowest class said during the first week that he thought I was too old to be a college student. I told him that since a 95 year old woman had just graduated from college, it was OK for me. He was a boy who had no parents and was staying with a classmate who lived with his grandmother. So many of these children have tough stories. I gravitated to the students who were yelled at for misbehaving, and tried to get through to them with humor and sensitivity. I paid attention to what they liked and tried to work with them. It was great. They embarrassed me as I was about to begin my second observation by asking my advisor in unison if I could stay another week and go with them on their class trip. It must have seemed that I had paid them off to say it! They are mostly wonderful children who need positive attention and encouragement. I did not delude myself into thinking that it would be as easy as it was if I were their primary teacher and responsible for their grades and behavior, but by treating them with respect I received respect in return. I also tried to introduce fun things into the lessons. When we were working on authors' point of view and how to write formal and informal directions, I had the students do origami and write informal directions from their experience. The higher level students also got to do a lesson where they were given origami directions with pictures but no writing, and had to decipher the directions and write formal directions and then try making their object by following their own interpretations. While doing this they also got a lesson in history and Japanese culture. Their fifth grade promotion will be next week, and I will be there to applaud their achievements, many of them continuing to overcome huge obstacles to succeed.