Field Experience: Week 2

I had my second field experience on Wednesday and it went well.

I arrived at 9:30am and Mrs. Hylla was in the middle of finishing reading part of a book to the children. Then, she excused the children to go to their proper math classes.

After all the children were in their seats; Mrs. Hylla had problems on the smart board for the children to work on in their notebooks. In green color was something that they had worked on before - division and multiplication,  in blue was something that they were currently working on - lines, segments and rays and in red was something they would be working on that day - angels and measuring angles.  If the children had questions they could ask any of the adults (including myself) questions. One boy raised his hand and wanted to be sure that 7 x 9  = 63. The other teacher, Mrs. Searles also joined the class. She was helping a girl use a calculator and had then asked me if I would be willing to show her how to use the calculator and go over a few practice problems with her on it.  After practicing a few problems, the girl got the hang of it and was eager to know how to use a calculator and have one of her very own. Mrs. Searles told me that the school she had transferred from had only had her in 2nd grade level math and she was much more advanced then that - she only struggles she had was with multiplying and dividing and was unsure of how to use a calculator. Other than that, she was a very bright young girl and caught on quickly with a little help.

 After the students worked on the problems on the smart board each of them went to the carpet and Mrs. Searles then went over angles and how to use a protractor. The students were then given a sheet and were split up into six different groups which were lead by an adult (myself included). I lead a group with three girls. The assignment was to label whether the angle was obtuse, acute, straight or right. Then, the students had to draw the angle with the protractor and label it accordingly. After the students finished the sheet the teachers asked for the children to do extra angles on the back. I had each girl come up with an angle degree for the rest of the group to work on and then I gave them an angel measurement to work on as well.  The group went well and the girls did a great job on their sheet.

Next, Mrs. Hylla went over some review about perimeters and areas. She then handed out a homework sheet and split the children up into groups once again and had an adult be in charge of each group (myself included, once again). She also gave each adult an answer key so we could check the children's work. The kids did a great job and most of them finished their homework sheet so they did not have to worry about finishing it the next day in class and have 'homework'.  

At the end of the day Mrs. Hylla thanked me and said I did a good job. I was about being able to help lead a small group and be seen as a 'teacher' in a way.  I look forward to next week and the weeks ahead and being able to know the 5th graders and teachers better.  I also feel certain that education is the right field for me and I'm glad that I am in it. :)