My First Field Observation for Block One!

Last Thursday I gathered my paperwork, grabbed my coat and headed for my placement in a third grade classroom. As soon as I walked out of the office and through the halls of my host school, I was overwhelmed by the differences it had from the elementary school I attended. There was more than one floor, it was small, and the gym had a stage at the front of it! I continued into my classroom to find it different as well. It was smaller, there was a white board instead of a chalkboard, and desks were in two large groups instead of rows.

As I went through my day at the school I felt rushed immediately from one thing to the next. There was no time to even take a sip of water. My feet were killing me from my heels and my throat was parched. The students were only in the classroom for a math lesson and then were off in other places until I left. I worked with many students who needed help with their math work and then had no interaction with them the rest of my time. When they were away I was grading their classwork, sharpening pencils, and making copies of pages to put together packets. I hope this goes differently the next time I go in.

I felt like more of a "Teacher's Pet" instead of my own emerging teacher. I want to lead a lesson for students and I want to get to see and know the students better. I hope that the reason they were gone half of the time was because it was the morning. Perhaps their afternoon schedule is mostly in the classroom. I am hoping to lead both a history and a ELA lesson that I plan. I spoke to the teacher about this but did not get a concrete answer yet.

Overall, I would say my first day participating in the third grade classroom was a bit overwhelming but a positive experience. Things did not exactly go as I planned, there were problems with kids who temporarily had problems staying focused. However, I did work with many students and made that initial impression that I wanted to make. I connected with the students quite well considering the minimal amount of time I had with them. Hopefully this week I will be able to make that same connection to more of the staff and the rest of the class that I was unable to work with.

I am so excited to be in a classroom again doing what I want to do!