Entering the world of teaching and learning

The following week we met our second graders at Bishop Dunn Memorial School, an elementary school located right on campus. I consider our school very lucky because most colleges do not have primary schools located on campuses, and having one makes it convenient when it comes to fieldwork and getting fieldwork hours completed. So far we have only had two fieldwork sessions, and it is still Group 1's week to teach. The first fieldwork session was when we met the second grade students and Ms. Birnbryer. From meeting the students and talking to the teacher, there is a range of academic, social, and mental ability among members of the class. Two of the students, a girl and a boy have autism, there are members of the class with learning disabilities, there are members of the class with behavioral issues, there are members of the class who are not diagnosed, and there are members of the class who are typical in development. As a teacher it is crucial to make sure all of my planning and lesson plans are adapted in order to meet the needs of all of my students, and I know that it will be difficult to do, especially considering I have never had to plan for three days of full-class teaching before. I just hope that when it is my group's turn to teach I can get all of my students involved, no matter what disability or developmental level they are on. I am working with three other students and our social studies topic is thirteen colonies, one country. Luckily, I am working with three other people who are hard working and passionate about teaching, so planning these three lesson plans, direct, inquiry, and cooperative should (hopefully) not be that difficult, and I have two groups before me to look as a reference. 

So far we only had fieldwork session where the first group, Sara and Shannon,  taught their lesson, and they taught using the direct lesson plan model. The characteristics of a direct lesson plan include reading a book, displaying diagrams, and using real-life examples of the subject matter by using props or other material. For the first time teaching a direct lesson plan, I thought that they did a great job and followed the format of a direct lesson plan accurately. Their topic was on Native Americans and they presented a PowerPoint on the different tribes, shelters, and traditions. They had students use a thumbs up sign in order to clarify if something is a shelter or something is a tradition. Shannon and Sara also had students draw their own examples of traditions and shelters in order to help them connect the words to their daily lives. In addition to the presentations and the activities, Shannon and Sara also had students pronounce the Indian tribes and reinforced and retaught everything to make them understand the material better. As mentioned before, for the first time teaching a direct lesson plan they did very well. Of course there are improvements that they could have made which I have mentioned in my feedback, but I like to focus on the positive. In order to be a teacher, one must be positive and that is what I strive to be, a positive teacher, a positive role model, and a positive person! I am looking forward to seeing how their inquiry and cooperative lesson plans turn out next week.