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Description
Doing field work at In-Tech Academy was a very beneficial experience for me. I worked in a 6th grade class. The class was very small, and the students needed a lot of extra help and attention. The students in the class needed help understanding the assignments they had to do. The teacher spent a lot of time explaining instructions and I helped the students follow them correctly. Language was a problem a lot of the students in this class had. All of them were behind in reading and writing which made it harder for them to complete their work even if they had all the other knowledge they needed to complete it. Also a lot of the kids in this class just were not interested in completing their work.
Doing field work at In-Tech Academy was a very beneficial experience for me. I worked in a 6th grade class. The class was very small, and the students needed a lot of extra help and attention. The students in the class needed help understanding the assignments they had to do. The teacher spent a lot of time explaining instructions and I helped the students follow them correctly. Language was a problem a lot of the students in this class had. All of them were behind in reading and writing which made it harder for them to complete their work even if they had all the other knowledge they needed to complete it. Also a lot of the kids in this class just were not interested in completing their work.
Skills gained
Most of the time I worked with a student named Carlos. Carlos was a bright kid, but he had a lot of trouble focusing on his work and had no motivation to complete it. I worked with Carlos and tried to motivate him to complete his work and get him interested in it. I encouraged Carlos to work and learned some good ways to do this. One that worked well was praising Carlos when he did his work. The praise encouraged him to keep working. I would give him feedback always starting with something positive and then helping him fix a mistake when needed. Once Carlos started working, if I kept encouraging him and giving him praise and feedback, he would keep working because he liked the attention and praise he was receiving. Also I learned that when students this age are given choice, and can choose things they are interested in, they will be more motivated to do it. This really helped me to get Carlos to complete his work. An example of this was when there was an assignment the students had to complete where they had to look at an article and talk about the authors purpose of writing it. Carlos was given one article cut from a magazine about furniture, and one college catalog. At first, we tried to look at the furniture article, but Carlos refused to do his work. Then I told him that he can flip through the catalog and choose any page he wants to work with. This is when Carlos picked his head up and started to work. He found a page about basketball which is an interest of his and completed the assignment.
Most of the time I worked with a student named Carlos. Carlos was a bright kid, but he had a lot of trouble focusing on his work and had no motivation to complete it. I worked with Carlos and tried to motivate him to complete his work and get him interested in it. I encouraged Carlos to work and learned some good ways to do this. One that worked well was praising Carlos when he did his work. The praise encouraged him to keep working. I would give him feedback always starting with something positive and then helping him fix a mistake when needed. Once Carlos started working, if I kept encouraging him and giving him praise and feedback, he would keep working because he liked the attention and praise he was receiving. Also I learned that when students this age are given choice, and can choose things they are interested in, they will be more motivated to do it. This really helped me to get Carlos to complete his work. An example of this was when there was an assignment the students had to complete where they had to look at an article and talk about the authors purpose of writing it. Carlos was given one article cut from a magazine about furniture, and one college catalog. At first, we tried to look at the furniture article, but Carlos refused to do his work. Then I told him that he can flip through the catalog and choose any page he wants to work with. This is when Carlos picked his head up and started to work. He found a page about basketball which is an interest of his and completed the assignment.
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Lessons Learned
I have gained a lot of knowledge from this field experience that I am using now and that I will use in the future. I help out a 5th grade classroom at PS 37. Some of the students in this classroom, especially one specific table have a hard time being motivated to complete their work. Sometimes, they get off track and start chatting instead of getting their work done. If I walk over there when they start to become distracted, give them feedback and praise their work like I did with Carlos, it gives them motivation to keep working. I also plan to teach middle school math in the future. I am sure I will have students who do not want to do their work, but by using some of the knowledge I gained during this experience, I will be able to help motivate my students. I will make sure I give them timely feedback and praise them to encourage them. I will also let them have choice in what they are learning and give them work they are interested in completing.
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Impact/Importance
My work with this class was very important to the class and the teachers. I know the teacher had a hard time getting all of the students to complete their work and that I helped her do this. These students needed a lot of attention and it is hard for her to give it to all of them. With me being there, I helped give the students, especially Carlos the attention they needed to get work done and learn what she was teaching. The students seemed to really appreciate me being there as well. They were excited to work with me when they could and thanked me for my help. I know I helped the class run more smoothly when I was there and this makes me feel good and encourages to keep working hard to become a successful teacher, just like I encouraged these students to keep up their good work.
My work with this class was very important to the class and the teachers. I know the teacher had a hard time getting all of the students to complete their work and that I helped her do this. These students needed a lot of attention and it is hard for her to give it to all of them. With me being there, I helped give the students, especially Carlos the attention they needed to get work done and learn what she was teaching. The students seemed to really appreciate me being there as well. They were excited to work with me when they could and thanked me for my help. I know I helped the class run more smoothly when I was there and this makes me feel good and encourages to keep working hard to become a successful teacher, just like I encouraged these students to keep up their good work.