After one of my students referred to me as “teacher” I couldn’t help but smile. The way children ask for my help or give out free hugs gives me butterflies. Today during my field work for my EPS 100 class, Kyle Rask and I taught our first lesson to the children.
We were placed in Arcola Community School in a grade 2 classroom. The teacher we are working with, Mr. Bob Phillips, is absolutely great and encourages us to get involved where ever possible. He allowed us to spend a whole afternoon teaching the student.
At first I was nervous. What if the kids didn’t like our lesson idea? What if we had a hard time managing the class? Kyle and I decided to be as prepared as possible and just hope for the best. Mr. Philips suggested that we incorporate our artistic ability into the project because that is not his strong point. Kyle and I decided to combine a visual arts project with their on going novel study. The class is currently study books from the Dragon Slayers Academy series (kind of like Harry Potter but for younger children). In the books evil dragons are defeated by unexpected methods. For example, bad jokes killed one of the dragons. I really recommend these books for children because they keep them interested and excited. Anyways, Kyle and I had the students create their own dragons and then attach the dragon’s name and what it’s weakness was. Kyle’s dragon was called the Boogie dragon and it lived under children’s bed. The Boogie dragon’s weakness is stinky socks.
The project had a great response from all the children and it went over fantastically. The bulletin board looks great! With that being said Kyle and I felt great about our first teaching experience.
Kind of what our dragon craft looked like:
Much more fancy though!
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oops, I think that I just left half of a comment ,so here is the other half. What I was saying is that I actually am at the same school as you and Kyle but I’m working with a Pre-K class, so they’re obviously at a different level than your kids are, and I haven’t had the opportunity to teach them a lesson, and I can totally understand why you might have been nervous! I would have been totally nervous too, but it’s great that it turned out to be so rewarding for you!
I really like the activity you created. I think this activity works for both visual art and literature. I actually took eps 100 a year ago and I was placed in a new classroom every week. I had the opportunity to experience kindergarten to grade 8; however, I really enjoyed the grade 2 classroom out of all the classes I observed. It seemed to be the most positive classroom. I mostly observed each classroom instead of teaching lesson plans, but I think I would have enjoyed teaching a lesson.
Jessica Fulcher.
Wow Brianne that sounds like a fun experience! It’s great that you already got to teach your own lesson. This must have given you a good idea of what it is like to be in a teachers shoes.
I’m glad your first experience went well! I can still remember mine and how nervous I was. That project is such a great idea, I may have to use that in the future.
What an oppertunity! I’m glad eveything went so well. Most students do not get to teach a lesson in their first experience within a classroom. I know I didn’t, and wish I had an oppertunity to help out more in the class. I’m just glad to hear that it ended up being a fabulous experience.
Hey Brianne! It was so exciting to read about your first teaching experience! I took EPS 100 last year, and our experience wasn’t near that exciting. It is great that you got to get out there and experience being a real teacher, AND lesson planning. Putting an artistic spin on the lesson is both a step for you in the arts, and a step for you as a future teacher. Can’t get much better than that! The kids, I’m sure, love you guys. (You should dress up in your strawberry and tomatoe costumes haha!)
That’s awesome that you actually got to teach in your field experience. My teacher is so structured, I don’t think she’d go for letting me teach. She lets me help out, but her body language often hints that she thinks I’m imposing.
My sister is two years younger than me, and when she started reading the Dragon Slayer’s Acadamy, I would always read throught the books she brought home, even though they were way too easy for me. I loved the pig who speaks pig latin, and to this day, I can still speak pig latin fluently too! Maybe it isn’t something to be proud of, though…
For other future teachers, these books are hilarous, and will hold your student’s attention. Also, I just learned this year that the main character, Wiglaf, is named after a character in Beowulf; he was the only one of Beowulf’s thanes that didn’t run away when they faced the dragon!