Field Experience Summary

Date Location Grade Summary

Spring 2021 Medary Elementary 2nd grade This was the final field experience
(Brookings, SD) I had before coming a licensed
teacher. I spent 40 hours a week in
the classroom for over 4 months.
During that time, I was able to
build relationships with each of
the students in my classroom, my
cooperating teacher, as well as
other teachers and faculty in the
building. Throughout the
experience, I was able to work
with children of diverse cultures as
well as children with varying
abilities. I was able to sit in on
parent teacher conferences as well
as some IEP meetings. I spent the
first part of the semester observing
my cooperating teacher, her
classroom management
techniques, as well as her
delivering and planning lessons.
As the semester went on, I began
to take over more classroom
responsibilities. By midterm, I had
nearly all classroom
responsibilities. I was solely in
charge of planning, preparation,
and delivery of content in the
classroom for approximately a
month. I loved this experience
because I was able to see how a
typical day school runs, new
techniques on how to manage
classroom behavior, and most
importantly, build relationships
with the learners in the classroom.
This experience has helped well
prepare me for my future
classroom.
Fall 2020 Medary Elementary 2nd grade During this pre-student teaching
(Brookings, SD) placement, I spent 40 hours in a
local classroom. Over the course
of the week that I was in the
classroom, I spent much of my
 time observing my cooperating
teacher, watching routines and
procedures, seeing what a typical
week their classroom looked like,
and building relationships with the
learners in the room. This
classroom had 17 learners, which
included children on IEPs,
children with speech and language
delays, and children who spoke
English as a second language. I
was able to work one-on-one with
learners as well as lead small
groups. I was also able to teach
two lessons during the week in
different content areas. It was
during this placement that I
discovered my love for working
with 2nd graders.
Spring 2020 Dakota Prairie Kindergarten During this placement, I got to
Elementary help and observe what happened
(Brookings, SD) during their reading rotation. The
students were very excited to have
me in their class and they did an
excellent job explaining what they
were doing at each of their reading
centers. As an outsider, I was
impressed at how well the children
were able to move from one center
to another with little teacher
assistance. This class was a good
mix of girls and boys and included
many different races and children
with exceptionalities. One thing
that I found interesting about this
class was that the teacher had
developed a system so that if there
was a child that needed a break,
they were easily able to take
something out of the room, then
come back and refocus their
attention.
Spring 2020 Brookings Middle School 6th-8th grade For this placement, I was in a
(Brookings, SD) science classroom as well as a
social studies classroom working
with students that had a variety of
 backgrounds and abilities. The
biggest takeaway I got from this
semester was the importance of
getting to know the students. One
of the teachers was continually
stressing the importance of this.
He knew his students so well and
had built an incredible relationship
with each of them. This teacher
stressed that no learning can occur
without first having a relationship
with the student. The student
needs to feel safe in the classroom
before they are going to branch out
and start learning. I truly saw the
importance of this throughout this
placement.
Fall 2019 Fishback Center for 15 months-3 This was by far my favorite field
Early Childhood years experience as I spent the most time
Education in this placement, and as a result,
(Brookings, SD) got to know these children the
best. These children came from all
different backgrounds and had a
wide range of abilities. As one of
the teachers, I was assigned three
students that I was in charge of. I
was responsible for
communicating with their families,
tracking changes and progress, and
the overall wellbeing of these
children while they were at school.
Over the course of the semester, I
was able to build significant
relationships with these children.
At the beginning of the year, I had
a child who would come into the
classroom screaming and sit in the
corner the whole time they were at
school. This child eventually
warmed up to me, and by then end
of the semester they were crying
because they didn’t want to leave
the classroom to go home. I loved
being able to play a small part in
each of these children’s
development. This experience
 helped me to better understand the
different components of a
classroom as well as what happens
day to day.
Spring 2019 Hillcrest Elementary 1st grade This classroom had students of all
(Brookings, SD) different races and abilities. There
were additional aides in the
classroom to assist with a few
students. About halfway through
my placement there, a set of twins
from Turkey were placed in the
classroom. I showed up one day
and the teacher introduced me to
them saying they just moved to
Brookings and she didn’t know
anything more about them. The
teacher asked me to work with
them and to try to assess what they
already knew. This was quite the
challenge as we faced a significant
language barrier. I quickly learned
to adapt and realized that I needed
to find other ways to connect with
these students. I vividly remember
working on math with them and
realizing that I needed to do
something more than explain the
worksheet as I could tell from the
looks on their faces that they
weren’t understanding what I was
saying. After a little thought, I
looked around the classroom and
decided I would try and
incorporate manipulatives into the
lesson. We gradually began to
build trust and eventually the
language barrier became much
less. On my last day with the class,
the children from Turkey had their
mom come into the classroom.
They shared with us that in Turkey
they have a National Children’s
Day, similar to Mother’s or
Father’s Day. They told us all
about what they did to celebrate
the day. After telling us about it,
 we got to celebrate in the
classroom. It was so rewarding to
see how far these children had
come over the course of the
semester. They started off very
reserved and by the time I left,
they were sharing their culture and
traditions with their classmates.
This experience taught me the
importance of flexibility and the
ability to think on my feet. It was a
great reminder that relationships
take time to build.
Spring 2019 Fishback Center for 3-4 years old During this placement, I was an
Early Childhood assistant teacher. I gained a better
Education feel of the classroom, as well as
(Brookings, SD) how the Fishback Center operates.
I got to spend a lot of time getting
to know the students in the class.
Over the course of the semester, I
was able to plan and implement a
few activities for the class. I was
able to learn some of the
classroom management policies
that the center used. Along with
this, I was able to sit in on some of
the student teacher meetings and
go on a few home visits.