Field Experience Reflection

1.   How many hours did you complete?

·         I completed 11 hours as field experience for REOL 536.

2.  In a short paragraph or bulleted list, how did you spend your time?

·         I was able to teach a KTIP lesson and reflect upon the instructional lesson with the observing teacher.

·         I was able to help kick off summer reading at the District Literacy Event which encourages student, parent, and community involvement. While there, I assisted in arranging and decorating our booth for the event and preparing ring toss games for children. During the event, I passed out free books to children who participated in the games.  

·         Along with first and second grade teachers, I helped finalize the Language Arts Pacing Guide and Curriculum Maps for the 2013-2014 school year. We worked to incorporate phonics, sight words, spelling, grammar, and writing for each grade level. In addition, we also aligned science and social studies topics with topics in the newly adopted reading series for cross-curricular activities.

·         While at the Kindergarten Round-Up Night, I read aloud “The Kiss Box” to students and presented a PowerPoint presentation to the parents and guardians. We discussed incentives for reading AR goals, Brigance screener, and ELA Common Core Standards for Kindergarten. I passed out brochures with student targets for Language Arts and websites for resources and additional help at home.

3.  How did the experience help you to strengthen at least one Kentucky Teacher Standard? (be sure to name the standard)

·         Many of the field experiences helped me to strengthen Kentucky Teacher Standard 8 in which I developed stronger and deeper collaboration with colleagues and parents to design, implement, and support learning programs that develop student abilities to use communication skills, apply core concepts, become self-sufficient individuals, become responsible team members, think and solve problems, and integrate knowledge. 

·         When collaborating with colleagues to develop the Language Arts Curriculum Maps, I also strengthened Kentucky Teacher Standard 2 in which I used Common Core Standards to develop and align objectives, instructional strategies for active engagement, and plan assessments that would certainly guide instruction.

4.  Talk a little about one thing you learned because of this field experience.

·         I learned the value of effective parent-teacher communication, especially when developing rapport at the beginning of a new school year.  So many parents are apprehensive about their child or children entering school for the very first time.  Establishing a night for only Kindergarten students and their parents to visit, discuss, and learn more about the school helped to establish clear goals and become more at ease for the transition from home to school. As a result, it also helped decrease some nervousness and anxiety for the students.