Heather Ames

EDU 1010
DR. Miller
29, April 2015

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Reflection
During my time this semester taking this course I had the opportunity to volunteer in a
preschool classroom. In that time I really enjoyed my time in the classroom and bonding with the
students over the little time I had with them. It also made me realize that there will be good days
and there will be bad days in a classroom. It also helped to watch the teachers and find out things
I would like to do in my future classroom and things that did not always seem to be effective
amongst the students. I feel field work is a really good thing for anyone thinking they would like
a career in something to do for a certain amount of hours to make sure that is something they will
want to do.

Since my field experience classroom was in a preschool I know that the philosophies that
are focused on the most would be essentialism and social reconstruction. At least once a week
one of the centers would focus on the alphabet, because that is essential to know. They also did
activities that focused on their fine motor skills. They also focused on the students working in
different groups everyday. Now I want to go into a younger classroom, preferably kindergarten. I
see that students need to learn somethings while they are young that are essential in life when
they are older. You need to know the alphabet so you can spell which will eventually lead to
reading and writing which everyone will most likely use on a daily basis. And of course you need
to include a positive learning environment and showing students you care is also very important.
Assessments also help to create a smooth running classroom and discover what your students are
learning and retaining.

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Throughout my teaching demonstration, I thought about when I was working with the
students in my field experience classroom during one of the centers, how I interacted with them
and didn't just answer the questions that I asked them. I wanted the students to show me what
they knew. So during my demonstration I introduced to my student what I wanted us to do and
asked questions while I helped if there would have been a struggle.

When I first started looking in to schools to start my volunteer hours I was trying to go to
the elementary school close to my house, but after contacting the school twice and never hearing
back I started looking into the head start preschool program that I did volunteer at. I decided to
go there because my aunt used to be a head specialist for head start and I would go to work with
her a lot when I was not working or doing anything in high school, and my cousin was in the
classroom I did my hours. I went into the classroom expecting to do a lot of work with my
cousin, but it turned out I did a lot with all of the students. When we would break off into
centers I would sometimes sit at one of the tables and work with every student that was there that
day.

Conflicting issues that pertained to licensure that were presented in this course really
opened my eyes to know what it takes to become a licensed teacher. I didn't realize that the state
evaluates your credentials and has the control to say if you have achieved satisfactory levels and
all the tests you have to pass to say you are a worthy of teaching. I can see why it is necessary for

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the state to have all of the requirements because I know I will want my kids in the future to have
a good teacher that has passed all the required test from the state.