Field Work Blog 1

What does a teacher do all day? 

For my field work, I am helping in Mrs. Wilson's 6th Grade class at Brockbank Elementary. My first visit for field work today was an interesting day. She warned me that because it was the end of the school year, a lot of things do not run as normally on a routine like the beginning and middle of the year. These 6th graders were practicing for their 6th Grade graduation and I helped herd all 90 or so of them from the three 6th grade classes into the gym to practice for their graduation program the next day. I noticed that sometimes there is chaos in teaching- organizing events like graduation takes flexibility, vision, and an extreme amount of patience.

It also took teamwork. All three 6th Grade teachers had to work together to figure out where the classes would sit, where they would stand for receiving their diploma, how to get the projector set up, etc etc. I was amazed with how detailed it all had to be. And although they all had a good idea of how it was supposed to run, sometimes you just have to get "down and dirty" to get the job done- by taking all the 6th graders down to the gym to figure out the kinks. It was amazing how they bounced ideas off of each other, made decisions, and communicated clearly with the students.

Following the graduation practice, I observed and followed along as Mrs. Wilson completed some benchmarks. She pulled students back individually, introduced a text, had them read a section to her as she followed along marking every word they read. She then had them finish reading the story on their own, and come back later to answer some comprehension questions. I was impressed not only with how well the students responded to Mrs. Wilson, but also to how meticulous it was for her to keep track of every single mistake and question answered from the student. Paperwork and recording progress is a huge part of teaching.

Although it may not be exciting to simply write down errors and corrections, it was exciting to see how well the kids read and understood their texts. Mrs. Wilson was 100% focused on the students and discerning how well they had "learned" and absorbed the text. She knows that students learn different ways- but the most important thing is that they LEARN. By doing the benchmarks, she was able to find out how much these students were actually improving and learning in their reading.