Bobbi Jo Halladay

Education 1010
Field Experience Reflection
While doing my field experience hours I noticed several correlations between our
readings and the actual classroom. I did my field experience in a 3rd grade class and some of the
things I noticed and talked to my host teacher about were government regulation, core
curriculum, managing a classroom, student diversity, disabled students, socio-economics and its
effects on learning, and parental involvement.
Government regulation seems to have impact on just about every aspect of teaching.
From the core curriculum that they believe should be taught all the way to teacher evaluation and
pay. One thing that directly impacted me was that Tooele County has its own background check
that must be dome to even do volunteer hours. Even though I had already done the state
background check I also had to do theirs. They never notified me that I had passed the
background and when I finally called them they said well if you dont hear from us than assume
you passed. Well I was never told that, never told how long it would take, and assumed they
would send out some kind of communication. It all worked out in the end, but sometimes there
are definitely too many cooks in the kitchen. This is especially true when you have federal
regulations, state regulations, district regulations, and sometimes school specific regulations. It
also has a huge impact on what and how you communicate with parents, especially the parents of
students in the Special Education Department. Every aspect of teaching seems to have some sort
of regulation behind it.
The infamous Core Curriculum, a curse? Or a kindness? Before doing my observation I
had only heard horror stories about the new Common Core. However my host teacher felt like

there were some good things about it. She liked that due to the Common Core she had a set
curriculum with specific areas to be covered. In the teacher handbooks they give an outline and
sample lesson which if in a crunch you could just go with and read directly from the book,
definitely helpful for substitute teachers. While she had to teach the assigned material she is also
given the freedom to add and be creative to include other forms of teaching, like group activities,
videos, nature walks (on campus) and games and puzzles to make it more interactive. The bad? It
did seem to me that some of the curriculum is a little ahead of what I think a 3rd grader is capable
of learning. The high kids usually can wrap their heads around it, but the average and low kids
seemed to struggle. The main problem with this is because of the amount of material that must be
covered they cant really master the material.
One of the things I am most worried about going into teaching is classroom management.
It seems like everyone has an opinion on how a classroom should be organized. After being in
my field experience classroom I realized there are a lot of variables that can impact your
management in the classroom. My field teacher happened to have a lot of busy bodies, chatty
Cathys, behavior kids, and a lot of slower learners. She realized early on that should would not
be able to rule with an iron fist, that she would have to be flexible with bathroom breaks (one
child would repeatedly pee his pants), allow kids to get up and get the wiggles out, lots of
whole class lectures and learning activities that involved movement. You do need to have things
set for organizing. She had designated areas for turning in current assignments, homework, day
planners, past due work, and assignments based on subject. The classroom itself was organized
in a way to cater to her particular teaching style. Designated areas for desks, computers, reading
center, teacher area, coats and backpacks, her smart board, and other learning centers that can be

changed based on subject. You have to find what works for you and what works for your
students, and the student factor will change very year.
Finally student diversity, I am going to group socio-economics, disabilities, and parental
involvement into this category. Her class was diverse in that she had a couple high kids, some
average, quite a few slow, and two disabled students. The class was fairly balance by sex, about
50/50 boys and girls. I talked to my field teacher at length about the effects of socio-economics.
She said that was one of the more challenging things about teaching. It is clear which children
come from a more privileged household and which come from poverty stricken households. It
seemed that those coming from poverty struggled more academically, didnt have very much
parental involvement, and struggle emotionally. She had two students who throughout the year
would talk about suicide. I was blown away, when I was 8 years old that thought never would
have crossed my mind. Another student who was in foster care was found searching for food
outside a dumpster before being found and placed in foster care. It is unimaginable some of the
struggle these young children have already been exposed to and had to deal with. These factors
have a major impact on learning.
It was so much fun to be able to get into the classroom and being able to correlate what
we had read to how it really is. I cannot wait to get into the classroom again. I had never really
considered Elementary but the kids were fun and my field teacher was awesome. She did say that
there have been days that she just doesnt want to go back, but her students and knowing she
makes a difference is what keeps her going. I am so excited to see where this journey takes me.