Upon recognizing that a primary course requirement of Orientation to Education 206 would ensue an opportunity to conduct field experience — my heart swelled with delight. I am genuinely appreciative of the opportunity to have gained veritable experience of teacher-student interaction and teaching in an actual classroom. Expressly, I primarily conducted my research and experience at the newly opened Michael R. Hollis Innovation Academy in Ms. Brewer and paraprofessional, Ms. Byrd’s pre-kindergarten class. I attended the school with an open, yet full heart willing and ready to take on the issues of the world. With this in mind, my initial impression of the school was comprised of a layered but greatly optimistic analysis. To illustrate, the environmental climate of the school appeared to be refined, clean, spacious, caring and warm. Due to the fact that the mission and visions for the school were visibly shown with great emphasis — them being: “Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, Empathy, Self-discipline, & Perseverance” — indeed, I felt that I was in the right place. Furthermore, the overall culture of the educators can be characterized as inviting and friendly. Likewise, the students were open to communication, well behaved, and operated as if they had frequent visitors.
I realize that in order to gain an holistic and accurate depiction of the school’s environment, it is important that I understand its foundational background. Accordingly, Hollis
During the months of September and October this semester I spent time at two different schools in four different classrooms. Being able to observe different classes and teachers at Westside Junior High and South Live Oak Elementary was a very new and exciting experience for me since I can’t say I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. My experiences at these schools gave me a better insight into the differences between schools, classrooms, and teachers. The purpose of this field experience was to get 10 observation or tutoring hours in an elementary or junior high setting. I chose to observe a
A sit-down interview, in the interviewee’s classroom, on April 22, 2017, results in responses from Rachel, a female Elementary Education teacher at Deerfield Elementary School, in Deerfield, Wisconsin. Containing eight initial questions and two response follow-up inquiries, this interview represents a 4-year Kindergarten grade level perspective, and utilizes eleven years of teaching experience. As a University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate, Rachel began her career in Milwaukee before accepting her current position of nine years. With extensive knowledge of the field, Rachel qualifies as an excellent resource, both when actively pursuing plans to become an Elementary Education
Spending time in Ms. Gibson’s 1st grade class at Birney Elementary School in the Long Beach Unified School District presented many fascinating learning opportunities. Prior to my experience at this school, review of the STAR report and the School Accountability Report provided interesting background information on the school. While background information set a certain expectation at a school level, it did not offer any insight into my classroom experience. Consequently, I did not have any expectations on what I would learn by working with an experienced educator. Even though I did not have any specific expectations, I did learn a few tips on classroom management and teaching that I plan to take forward. Additionally, my early fieldwork experience assisted in helping me discover my weakest areas in respect to teaching, to focus on in my education.
Over the Fall Break vacation, I decided to conduct my field experience at CC Spaulding Elementary School. I had the opportunity to work with Ms. Sarah Ashley and Mrs. Williams’ Pre-K class. I had previously shadowed with Ms. Ashley, so she was eager to welcome me back. Over the days, I got myself acquainted with her students to make them comfortable with my presence. Luckily, they welcomed me in with no hesitation.
As I walked in the class, I was looking for positive examples of the environment, interactions by the teacher, classroom climate, and the teachers respect for diversity. I immediately felt a
Some people have asked to read the commencement address I delivered this morning to the 2013 graduates of Butler University. So here it is.
This paper explores the information presented to me in EDU 250 and it’s application toward my future endeavors as an educator. The purpose of this paper is to represent the material I have learned throughout the introductory course. Matthew Lynch’s, The Call to Teach (2014), helps guide my discussion and description of learned material. My goal is to discuss my reasoning for entering the teaching profession as well as to highlight upon learned strategies. These strategies include embracing student diversity, maintaining a positive culture and climate, engaging learners in analyzing their own progress and setting their own learning goals, integrating technology into instruction, and developing engaging lesson plans. In the process of reflecting upon learned material, I plan to set some professional goals to help direct my journey in becoming a certified Elementary school teacher.
An important portion of this final assessment will focus on an evaluation of the twenty plus hours spent inside the classroom of a local elementary school. Additionally, another primary concentration will be relating the teaching concepts, class dynamics, and classroom ideas that I witnessed during my observation hours back to the topics discussed during the course. A detailed explanation of my field experience site will be provided with the inclusion of the school’s programs and the purpose behind their beliefs, the relationship between what I learned inside the classroom and the subjects we covered in class, as well as an overall reflection of this Exploring Learning and Teaching education course.
The first day of kindergarten, we clung to our parents afraid of the new experiences that awaited us. We looked around at all of the other faces not sure what to think. Fear and doubt crippled us. Little did we know that this day was the beginning of a journey stock full of obstacles and rewards.
On October 13th, 2017, I went to observe Mr. R a science teacher at Governor Thomas Johnson High School, with an amazing personality and a well liked attitude. Walking into the classroom toke me back to my high school days regretting how I used to which its end everyday as I attended. The location of Thomas Johnson is in Frederick, Maryland. The city of Frederick is a well diverse town, which comes out in its schools. The students have a fifth period class day, with a connect period and thirty minute lunch that is sectioned into fourth period. Observing this school was very interesting experience. I am glad I had the chance to experience students personalities and attitudes towards school.
I am very fortunate to be employed with Columbia Public Schools in Columbia, Missouri. Our city is located in the middle of the state of Missouri about 2 hours away from Kansas City, Missouri and 1.5 hours away from St. Louis Missouri. I am currently on assignment at Battle High School (BHS) the newest of three high schools in our city. The building completed construction three years ago and only has academic data for one year. Our high school services 1,400 students from grade 9 to 12. Our staff have an average of 8 years of experience, with more than half with an advanced degree. The teacher – student ratio is 1:18, total teachers are approximately 78. The demographic of students include 5% Hispanic, 30% Black, and 56% White. The other 8% include Indian, Asian and those whom are bi-racial and choose not to identify with only one group. The overall attendance rate of our students is 76% and 48% of our students are eligible for Free or Reduced lunch.
Well guys, we've made it. We've made it through four years of one of the most highly involved times in our lives. We've seen all, we've done all, and at this point in the year, most of us have probably had enough of it all. If you think about it, four school years is really a long time. four years of high school is equal to 720 school days, 4,320 class periods, and if you're a busy guy like me and you tend to count things by the minute, then it might surprise you to know that we've been in class for about 237,600 minutes. Class of 2006- are you ready to graduate?
As I look back upon the past four years, in some ways it seems like my time at Kiper has been a lot like a day at the Magic Kingdom.
The tenors got together tonight for a conference call with the goal of setting deadlines for the memorization of competition music. In addition, we came up with a list of things we'll need to get before the season starts, both as a section and in order to get Celeste going with everything she needs. If any of these things need to be discussed in detail at the October double we're more than happy to do so.
English class seemed to be the most dreadful to take within school. Writing essays for most of my grade in a class is not what I was looking forward too. When I entered college I knew that it would be one of many challenging classes I would have to take. Starting from the lowest English class to moving on up, the writing assignments became longer and more thought out. The time came when I got into this class that I knew more work was going to have to be put into essays and thus brought out what I had not seen before in my work progress.