The most challenging part of field experience for me was the sense that I was missing part of the day, every day. I think there are two things going on here. First, I just genuinely enjoyed being in the classroom with the kids and wanted to spend as much time as possible without seeming like a nutjob. This irrational fear of missing out has little to do with being a professional teacher. The second thing is that I felt like I never had an accurate, whole picture of how a student was doing in a day. We were scheduled to come in late morning right before lunch and stay through the end of the day, and I often found myself wishing I had been there first thing in the morning so I could see how a particular student seemed when he or she first got to school. I felt that my arrival later in the day, when so much had already happened, prevented me from accurately assessing how students were responding to my teaching and interactions with them. I felt like I lacked the background knowledge I would have gotten if I had been able to see their body language and facial expressions and the way they greeted me in the morning when they got to school.
Explain your greatest success during your field experience.
I felt my greatest success lay in the habits and learning culture I tried to establish within the small group of students I worked with daily during math reteach. Some of these students belonged in our cooperating teacher's class; other students came from some of the other sixth-grade classrooms. When I worked with our small group, I asked the students to follow the procedure of reading the math problem aloud, then stating their answer and how they got that answer. I had a group of 3-4 students, and we took turns answering the problems on the sheet every day. I took a turn myself; I felt that it was important for me to model what I was asking them to do. After the first or second day, when the students would gather in the classroom for reteach, I noticed that the same students were gravitating toward my area of the room. They smiled and seemed relaxed around me; they seemed happy to be there.
What recommendations would you make to others based on your field experience?
Don't hesitate--jump in with both feet! I was really nervous right before field started. I worried that I was going to bomb. I gave myself a pep talk the night before, and when I showed up the first day I smiled, volunteered to help the cooperating teacher whenever I could, and began establishing personal relationships with the students. I had most of their names learned by the start of the second day. I guess what I realized is that no one expects me to be perfect. Actually, no one expects me to have any idea what I'm doing because I have never done this before. I think what I'm trying to say is that the best tool to take into field is a good attitude and positive expectations for the experience.
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