Final Field Experience Blog

What? The past three weeks I have had the most amazing time student teaching at Willow Springs Elementary in Draper, Utah. We were assigned to a fourth grade class with 30 students. It was a very exciting experience and I learned so much. We had a wonderful time teaching and being able to see our university lessons played out in classroom experiences. Great to see how the students responded to us and how we could create lessons which they could understand and enjoy. In looking back the most important areas that I noticed affecting our lessons were classroom management, lesson direction, expectation of students, and computer technology incorporated into our lessons. When I learn to master these areas I will know I am ready to go out into the world and teach. Our students loved the technology we used in the classroom, especially the YouTube digital stories we used to supplement our lessons. They thought it was great, and it held their attention so well. Also with the problem of teaching about geography without a map in the classroom (our class maps were broken during our visit), that was interesting. Thank goodness for technology, and being able to modify and think of other methods to teach. We were able to pull up examples of maps and different slides relating to our lesson so we were still able to teach the students about Utah Geography.

So What? Now we are starting to work on our Student Teacher Sample and the other various assignments relating to our teaching experience. This is a long process and it is such a blessing to be able to understand computer technology—so I am able to work more efficiently with my partner, and also I am able to create interesting projects with all of the tools I have learned from Doc Waters during the past two semesters. It’s a long process, but I’m not worried, I feel very confident in my knowledge of computer skills and I feel so lucky I was able to take this course. I loved my teaching experience and am so excited to start teaching and get out into the field and work. I have worked in many fields over the course of my life, and at 43 it is so nice to be back in school training to do something I love, and that will make the difference in the lives of children and in our community and world.

Then What? I am now thinking of all of the fun I am going to have this summer. I will be taking a million pictures and videos of every experience my family has in camping, traveling around the state—so I will be able to create some neat digital stories and virtual field trips for my future classes. In working with the students I can see how they enjoy seeing these digital stories and its fun to put in some of my own pictures and my own children so they can relate to the stories better. Plus we go to a lot of different interesting places I want my future students to see and experience. I am going to use my technology skills to start working on building an amazing site, which my future students and their parents will be able to easily use. As I worked in this class I could see all of the different areas which could have been improved by including more technology into the teaching and into the administration of the classroom. The possibilities are endless and I am so excited to jump in—Thanks Doc Waters for giving me the knowledge and the “spirit of discovery” to be able to learn and love computer technology in the classroom.