Field Experience #1 /Patience and Flexiblility

It is so fun to go to Mount Mahagony Elementary school each day. After only three days I have already grown to care about every fourth grader in the class. I am amazed how quickly the students warmed up to me and my partner. In a few short days I can pick out most the personalities, the soft hearted, the tough, the independent, the ones that need extra help. Because of their individuality I was able to learn their names in a short time even though I struggle with names. It is exciting as the kids ask the teacher, "When do they get to teach?" and exclaim to my partner and I, "We want you to stay all day!" We asked our cooperative teacher if he enjoys teaching? He said that it is hard work but each day has a reward. We can see why he loves teaching.

Each day I learn something new about the day and life of a teacher. One day the students were doing math. One boy got out of his seat and abruptly told the student sitting next to him to move so he could get through. The teacher noticed and stopped right in the middle of math to teach a kindness lesson and how to be polite. I was impressed that he would take the time out of math to teach character education. It is hard for teachers to see everything. One day while the teacher was reading there was a whole drama going on in the back of the room unnoticed. It would be nice if teachers could have multiple eyes like spiders, two to read the story, and two to look around the room while reading.

There are many things I already want to take with me to my future classroom that I have learned from my field experience. I want to remember to be flexible. My cooperative teacher said that being flexible is very important. He was being flexible when he saw a problem in the classroom and stopped in the middle of math to take care of it. I want to take that attribute with me. I have seen him flexible with his scheduling. He even moved Social Studies to the morning so we could teach our lessons. Patience is also an attribute I want to take with me. One day one of the kids told the teacher that his hair was sticking up. I wondered what the teacher was going to say. He handled it very well asking the student if it was bothering him and maybe at recess he could fix it. Wow, what patience! I look forward to the coming weeks to see what other lessons I can take with me.