Field Experience 4/20/12

Our third teaching round of the day. This time we were back at Cortland Christian Academy and we were teaching and post-assessing the 2nd and 3rd graders in balancing.

Today walking in went a lot more smoother then last time. We were definitely more prepared to teach and as soon as they kids saw us walking in with hula-hoops, jump ropes, and a poster they got really excited. It really solidifies the fact that I want to work with elementary students.

Our lesson went really really well. We played a game called dragons and princesses for our instant activity and the kids loved it. They got really into the game and they got to work on balancing. It is so much easier to teach students how to do a skill when you can incorporate it into a game instead of just saying "here, lets practice balancing!". The kids don't get bored, and they most likely do not even realize that they are being taught something.

When we got to our main lesson, it was kind of hard to get them to settle down. I kept having to say hands on your head to get them to quiet down. Looking back on it I would have sat down and told them once that I cannot teach them about the game if they keep talking over me. Especially when I brought out my poster, which had the balancing cues on it. My main cue was to refer to balancing as the Flamingo, and the kids really loved it, but they got a little too excited. Classroom management is something that comes with practice and this was just another learning experience. I also did not realize the time constraint that we were under. We originally planned on having the kids play an instant activity, the main game, and then a small tag game where when they were tagged they had to freeze and assume the "Flamingo!" and we would post-assess them that way. Since we did not have time, we post-assessed them in the main game.

Assessing went so much better then it did when we pre-assessed. The students were playing and have a great time and did not even realize they were being assessed, which is want NASPE wants us to do. Over-all teaching this class was probably the highlight of my EDU 355 experience. I loved working with the younger kids and it just made me want to teach elementary students even more.