Field Experience Reflection

1. What have you added to your knowledge base as a result of this experience?
As a result of this field experience, I have added one important piece of information to my knowledge base. I
added what not to do as a teacher. While visiting with my cooperating teacher, I witnessed not only my teacher, but other
teachers in the building were quite fond of giving the students busy work to complete. After much consideration, I had to
figure out my own definition of busy work and when such an occasion could be necessary. In my opinion busy work is not
just the assignments a teacher hands out for the students to work on in class, I also believe that busy work can be extra
practice after a lesson so that the students do not have any homework to take with them, or even a packet that the students
will work on for practice if there is a substitute teacher. Busy work should never be handed out to a class in order for the
teacher to have a stress free day, which was the excuse of many of the teachers I encountered at the school. As for the
students in my classroom, all the teacher did was pass out a worksheet, or give them the page number in the book and tell
them to work quietly while she worked on her laptop. I am not quite sure what she was doing, but in my opinion, for the
students to be doing this every single day, she was not being an effective teacher. While this was a negative aspect to my
field experience, I saw firsthand the effect such teaching practices have on students. I now have an understanding of how
necessary it is to use different methods for teaching so that the students are not experiencing a repetitive form of learning.
2. What skills have you refined or developed?
Skills that I have refined or developed include: organization, communication, and student engagement. I have
always tried to be a fairly organized person. During my field experience, I made sure that every day before leaving my
house; I had the necessary resources for the day. This would include our student teaching packet, paper for notes, pens,
and the lesson plans given to me by my cooperating teacher. I also worked on my communication skills during the
experience. My cooperating teacher was not upfront with the topics of the day. I had to make sure that I inquired about the
plan and what she needed me to do in order to help her throughout the day. When working with the students I made sure
that I communicated the instructions clearly in a manner that they would understand. Student engagement was in my
opinion, a very important skill that I developed during my experience. I did not feel that my cooperating teacher used student
engagement as much as is necessary for the students. I had to work on ways to get the students involved during the time I
worked with them and during the lesson plan that I presented to the class.
3. What dispositions have been affirmed or changed as a result of this experience?
Over the course of my time spent in the classroom there were many positive dispositions that I found affirmed and
a few negative dispositions that I have found myself improving. The first positive disposition was punctuality. My philosophy
has always been, if you are not early, than you are late. I try to show up to everything at least fifteen minutes early. When I
first met with my cooperating teacher, I was told the school day started at 8:15am, so I should be there by 8:00am. I decided
then to show up by 7:45am every morning, so that I would have time to talk with her about the plans for the day. I maintained
arriving at 7:45am or earlier for every day that I was visiting the school. Another positive disposition that I have affirmed was
maintaining a professional appearance and demeanor. I felt like a teacher in the way that I dressed and interacted with the
students. The students recognized this. I believe that it is important for a teacher to get to know their students, but it is also
necessary for them to still recognize the fact that you are a teacher and they need to act accordingly. A negative disposition,
that I have found myself showing improvement on during the experience, was fairness or lack of bias. I have had very few
classroom experiences in which I was working with students from urban areas. I have always had a bias towards students
from rural areas, but during my field experience, there were no students of rural or even suburban areas. I did not feel as
uncomfortable working with the students as I had imagined I would. The only difficulty I had was trying to help some of the
students on topics that I did not understand or agree with their view given my rural background. I did not let this bias affect
the way that I treated my students, or the help I gave them with their research papers, it only made my job more challenging.
4. Based on this experience, what have you learned about yourself personally? Professionally?
When it comes to what I have learned about myself during this experience, both personally and professionally,
there is much to be said. I have learned that I am positive and happy with my future career choice. I believe that I have the
drive and background necessary to become an effective teacher one day. Teaching can be stressful and complicated and I
learned that in order to perform to the best of my ability I need to put my stress into check and understand that it is all part of
the job. I have learned that working with students falling in the younger grades of my degree is amazing. I do not feel
intimidated by working with older students, and I believe that they possess such an eagerness to learn, something older
students sometimes lose during the course of their high school years. I enjoyed working in a private school. Being able to
express and share my faith in the classroom has been a wonderful experience. I understand the necessity for a separation

of church and state and the limitations of a teacher in a public classroom in regards to religion, but religion has been such a
large part of my life and my teaching experience this far. I would love to one day work with students in one of the schools of
the Catholic Diocese.
5. What additional professional development/course work do you feel you most need in order to be a caring, competent,
qualified educator?
Additional professional development that I feel I most need in order to be a caring, competent, qualified educator
falls under the areas of working with students from urban backgrounds and students with learning disabilities. There have
been courses at Lourdes that I have taken that cover these topics, but I feel that more course work would be beneficial in
giving me the experience to feel comfortable working with students from these different backgrounds. I also believe that
more experience in working with students from these backgrounds would be beneficial.