Field Experiences

I was lucky enough to be placed at Glenn Elm Community school for my first field experience. My first field experience was truly an amazing and eye-opening experience. This was an experience I’ll never forget and I took many valuable ideas and connections away from my experience. Glenn Elm School is perhaps not the ideal destination for everyone in the education field, but this is exactly the kind of school I want to teach in someday. Glenn Elm is one of the schools that’s located in a low income neighbourhood, so the students who attend generally come from low income families. This usually creates a whole host of issues and the students who go to these schools need extra supports. It makes for a much more complicated work environment, especially when a person gets multiple behavioural students. This being said, I loved my time at the school and it re-enforces my desire to teach in a school like Glenn Elm some day. I want to work with troubled youth in schools, so this was a good start for me. 

    I learned so much during my field experience. The main things I learned would be just how to interact with the students, the large difference in students educational abilities, and what it really looks like to be in the classroom. Actually being in the classroom and teaching is a lot different than being a student or being in university. It requires a level of involvement and dedication that you don’t see in to many other professions. I learned that teachers making connections with students is incredibly important. We discussed this fact in class many times, but a person doesn’t really understand until they see it and practice it first hand. Another thing I discovered was how students are at such different levels with their education. At first it shocked me that some of our grade sixes were at what would have been a grade 1 reading level, while others could read nearly as well as me. Some kids were obviously advanced and other kids were behind in their education. By the end of my field placement this no longer shocked me and I’ve become much more aware of this reality. I was helping grade sixes do minor addition, while some of the grade sixes could fly through complicated multiplication and division questions. Another very important thing that I learned during my field placement is how to interact with the students. Our grade sixes may have varied in educational levels, but they were all very smart. I found out quickly that children were smarter than I thought. All students just seem to want to be treated with respect, but they also need to be treated with compassion. This is something I already had as a part of my educational philosophy, but being in the classroom reenforced this idea for me. Students also need help, but I learned that they would take advantage of you when you help, so you can’t give them to much. Educators, I think, still have to force the students to learn how to learn on their own and problem solve by themselves. All these things that I learned really contributed to my future goals and really started my journey to becoming a teacher.

    I still hope to learn a lot more about being a teacher while I’m in school and I’m sure I will. I still don’t know how to make a lesson plan or plan for the year or anything. These are things that I will continue to further my education on. I do not know what to expect fully for my future education to become a teacher, but I’m very much looking forward to the journey. One of my new professional goals is to refuse to quit on any troubled kid. I do not want to be one of the teachers who says, “That kids a lost cause.”. I never want to say that about someone. I also want to have a decent class average when I do get to teaching. I’ll hope to accomplish that by doing everything I can like putting in one on one time and relating material to my students.