222 SFL assignment reveiw write up

My overall positive impressions from this experience was realistic expectations create active learning. Allow me to explain. When I originally planned to visit the dairy farm I just wanted a “fun” time, and thought that the new environment would be enough to create active learning. Then I realized that just putting “for fun” on my learning objectives was not going to fly. I needed to think of something that involved learning. I looked through children’s books about farms and tried to imagine a learning concept that I could pull out from the story book. Once I had chosen a book I typed up a work sheet and called it good. I felt like as soon as a worksheet was introduced learning would be involved. My expectation of what learning was unrealistic. Not to mention my expectation of the three-year-olds and four-year-olds I would be working with.
After turning in my rough draft I watched the children I was working with in my center. Even when I felt like I was being engaging and active at my center the children I was working with did not have a longer attention span than two possibly three minutes. I realized that trying to drag clipboard and worksheets around a dairy farm was an unrealistic assumption about the student’s attention span. Then I watched the two students in our class with hearing aids. I watched as they talked with their peers and I watched how they listened to their peers. My expectations of what the students wanted to learn about were obscure. These students were interested in sounds, and not in labeling outside and inside. I felt like learning how to alter lesson plans left a really positive impression on me, because I could clearly see how a better developed lesson plan leads to better experiences.
When I readjusted my expectations I not only had a positive experience but it also helped me to better teach to enhance the children’s learning and development. I felt like as I changed my curriculum the activity changed from “just fun” to “to much” to “an active learning experience” as I made my expectations more realistic and specific. By me changing the environment and objectives to a more solid lesson plan I felt not only more confident in the lesson plan, but I felt like it applied to the children better.
I learned that it is important to use all the teachers, adults, visitors and even children in order to effectively manage the children. This related to the nurturing relationships area of the triangle, because the children did develop relationships during our trip. In all honesty I was a little stressed while we were on the dairy farm. It was the first time that I had ever taken preschooler to the dairy farm. I have given the tour before, and I have taken elementary students before. Preschoolers were an entirely different experience though. I was immensely grateful for all of the teacher assistants, and the two visiting elementary aged children who were holding hands and directing students so genuinely. I thought to myself that managing the children would have been impossible without all of this help. By surrounding myself with trusting and supportive assistants I was able to manage the students and I know that when I have my own classroom both the students and I will have a more positive experience if I ask trusting parents and visitors to come on the trip and help manage the class.
I realized that the nurturing relationship area of the developmental triangle was being developed when Miss Chelsea laughed with me in the van because Jackson had put a sticker on her when he heard her talk. I felt like the children were able to develop relationships with each other as they shared in new experiences, with the teachers as they asked questions and explored, and with my dad as the listened and watched him give the tour.
When I changed the lesson from inside/outside worksheet to recognizing new sounds I was using the “unique” center circle of the Child Development Model. I had to kind-a go back to the drawing board when I thought of how truly boring a worksheet would be, and when I reevaluated I changed the lesson to noises because two of the student’s in our class have hearing aids. Originally I thought that pulling a lesson plan from the story book would be effective, but I realize that pulling my lesson plan from what is going on directly in the classroom does not only create a more effective lesson plan but it was a whole lot easier.
I felt like the entire interactive lit. was a meaningful experience for the children because after reading the story I asked a few of the students to tell me an animal sound. Eliza W. was sitting in the front row, and she put her arm up so high I was surprised to see that she was still sitting on the rug. I called on her and asked her what animal sounds she had heard from the story worried that she would have forgotten her animal sound after I called on her. I cannot remember what animal sound she made, but I do remember that she smiled at me and made one. This was meaningful to me personally I guess because I do not think I have ever seen Eliza W. completely answer a question at group rug time. I was so happy for her.
Based on the entire experience I would have done a few things differently. For starters I would have asked the students if they needed to go to the bathroom before we got into the vans. I think this would have helped with the management. I was trying to think of a proper time to ask them that would not be distracting, and would not create a long line out the restroom. I think that I would have asked the teachers to ask the students while we were doing center time, and maybe that would have helped to have had the children go during that time. I don’t know though because sometime when you have to go you just have to go.
Another thing that I would have done would be to tell the teachers to talk about the different sounds they heard while they were on the farm when they were driving back to the preschool. I think that this would have helped to enhance their learning and development because it would have completed the circle of the lesson plan. It would have been really easy to just ask the teachers to talk about a few sounds on the farm, and we did a supper short one in our van. I feel like that would have been a better way to sum up the entire learning experience.
When I took the three students to the bathroom I forgot to get them their stickers. One of them asked me for a sticker later, but they just wanted a sticker because everyone else had a sticker. So I wished that I would have remembered to give them their stickers before or after we went to the bathroom. I feel like this would have helped them to be engaged in the learning process , and made the lesson more active learning for these particular students by giving them a subject to think about while they explored.
In theory I feel like the stickers were a good idea, but I don’t know how effective it really was. The first noise the children heard was the train, and that would have been terrible if they had run up to the train and tried to put a sticker on the train. I still like how simple the stickers were though. I liked that it related to my objective. I liked that we did not have to have clipboards and paper. I think next time though I would ask the children to put the stickers on themselves every time they hear a new noise. That plan would still help me to know if the children were grasping the objective, and it seems simple enough. I feel like this simple adjustment would have made the learning process more active because the children could actually do the activity, and not simply think about doing the activity.
In an ideal world I would have a better grasp of timing, and how to time out my reading, the drive, and the tour so perfectly that we got back to the school with lots of time for Savanna’s dad to read. I felt bad that he was reading kind-a rushed, and I feel like there should have been something I could have done to adjust the time management. I think that Miss Dorie had a lot of realistic expectations when she set up snack in the car, baby whips in the car, and all of the directions. Next time I would have just told Miss Chelsea that I was ready ASAP, because I really was and I feel like I was just walking around in the back of the classroom waiting for her to start and she was sitting in the front of the classroom waiting for me to start. I feel like this would have enhanced their learning because it would not have only allowed for better classroom management but it also would have given Savanna’s dad more time to enjoy reading to the children.