Fantastic Fieldwork Fun!

 Classroom Time!

This is the opening slide for my group's lesson on the Mexican-American War!

What Did We Do?

We practice cooperative learning by having our students work in small groups to complete a timeline of the events of the Mexican-American War! Each group was assigned an event to depict. 

In each group, each person was assigned a specific role, as seen above. Each group was going to make a slide that demonstrated their event and a physical drawing that would represent the event.

Once each group was finished, they were able to present their work to the class. After each group presented, each student filled our a group processing form so that they could give feedback to how they felt each person contributed and to how the group worked together overall. While the students were completing their forms, the teacher candidates were connecting the students' projects so that it made a physical timeline of the events of the Mexican-American War!

After the timeline was created, I explained that the students would become news reporters for their independent practice activity! This allowed students to apply what they learned to the modern concept of a news report or article that they're familiar with. Giving the students choices on how they'd like to deliver the information allows students to pick the medium they'd be more comfortable with s that they can focus on expressing what they've learned.

My Thoughts On My Fieldwork Experience

I think my group did an excellent job with this fieldwork experience! I was so happy that I was able to be in the classroom for this lesson because I got to interact with the students just as I would if I was the permanent teacher in the classroom. I enjoyed being able to walk around the room and assist students that were having difficulties. I learned that I'm really skilled at thinking on my feet. On a few occasions, technology wasn't working the way we hoped and I was able to redirect the class so that the students wouldn't get frustrated. I was also able to problem solve in small groups when students had disagreements. We were able to have productive discussions that ended in compromises each student was happy with. I was grateful to have the support of my group as we did this lesson together. 

Until Next Time!

That sums up my fieldwork experience! This experience made me so excited to have a classroom of my own!  I hope you learned as much as I did and I'll see you next time. Thank you for reading!