This field experience has been very eye-opening to me. There is a huge difference between being a student and being a teacher that I had never realized before. This difference is something that you do not even consider before you are in the classroom. The students expect so much from their teacher because there is a trusting relationship that gets built. This relationship is built upon the fact that the children trust the teacher to have all the answers to their questions or to help guide them to the correct answer. As a student I always got frustrated when the teacher was unorganized and did not have a lesson planned. Now though from a teacher’s perspective, it is all very overwhelming at times. The amount of planning it takes to confidently stand in front of a class and teach is crazy and it goes unrealized all the time. This organization and planning that happens with the teacher is all time that they spend on their own that does not get acknowledged. I know now that the time spent with the children is precious, and that the things they are learning hold so much more importance than they will ever know until they are older. With this time being so precious the planning of the lessons becomes so much more important.

I was placed at the Regina Huda School for my placement for this first semester of University. Before going I was very nervous because I did not know what to expect. When I got there, I quickly realized that I had to become comfortable with being uncomfortable because the Kindergartens in that classroom would see right into my nervousness. Throughout my experience here I got to learn the children’s names and their learning styles, as well as got to know the daily routines and the content they were learning and how they were evaluated. They weekly focus questions from the blog allowed me to narrow my vision in the classroom because with twenty-four kindergartners it can get overwhelming with everything happening. I found it easy to relate what we were covering in ECS100 and the assignments we were doing. The course content helped me to narrow in on the classroom and really focus on who these students were and what their needs included. This experience has changed my view of teaching. This profession is not as easy as my younger self had thought. Although, this experience has made me more passionate about the teaching profession. I am now left with questions about what I will continue to learn from the students I encounter in the future. My goal is to stay open-minded and try and absorb as much as possible in whatever situation I encounter.

Quotes From My Blog

• Week 1: “I learned that they value friendship, kindness and sharing.”
• Week 2: “My cooperating teacher was explaining that kindergarten is sometimes difficult because it is when most of the student’s learning problems are first seen and she is often the first one to tell the student’s parents that their child has a learning disability.”
• Week 3: “I am quickly realizing that it is the teacher’s responsibility to learn from the children about each of their learning abilities so the teacher can provide them with the best possible education.”
• Week 4: “This is where they are allowed to wear a traditional outfit from the culture they are a part of instead of wearing the school uniform.”
• Week 5: “Everything I have asked about the community and observed is that they are all very kind and open to differences.”
• Week 6: “In this classroom the students are learning about many things and basic skills that they see every day in their life.”
• Week 7: “In the kindergarten classroom they often have playtime on the iPads, on the SmartBoard, and the parents are all connected to the school and the classroom through the SeeSaw app.”