Field Experience Week 4

My week 4 field experience at Lawrence Central went a lot better than the previous week. Kasie and I were tasked with teaching the first two sections of a Government Unit over the legislative branch of Congress. I felt more prepared for this day even though we were tweaking parts of our presentation in our plan period before class began. Kasie put together a great powerpoint. It was formatted like our teacher usually teaches, with answers on each slide that correspond directly to their packet, however it seemed to work well because it is what the class is used to on a daily basis. I was happy with how Kasie and I both took some time on each question to give a more in-depth explanation and try to provide some sort of class participation through discussion or answering a question. I felt that the class stay behaved the entire time, was engaged for the most part in our lesson, and most importantly learned a lot from what we had to say.

Another great aspect of our teaching this week was going over a part of the Presidential Debate. For classes that usually do not like participating or taking it seriously there was a ton of kids who wanted to voice their opinion. We watch a four and a half minute video where Obama and Romney both talked about the role of government. From that video clip we had an awesome discussion with the class on all sorts of issues and I think it set the tone for the rest of the class period. I would have liked to go into more detail with the presidential debate and even incorporate some type of activity, but the class discussion was a great way to start the class. The ranging opinions really surprised me and I was taken back by some of the insight students shed on the topic.

These exercises further expanded the idea of being able to tie in content to students everyday lives. Teaching a government class in the middle of a presidential campaign gives a lot of opportunities. The only thing I wonder is what other types of activities or topics could be covered in off election years that would spur such an engaging class discussion? The only drawback of the entire Government classes was that the teacher wanted the students to watch a black and white film from the 1950s, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". The class was not enthused and showed little care for the film, and I must say neither did I. I find that I am really enjoying teaching Government class and it seems easier, as of right now, to find those connections to make with students and get them more interested in what is going on.

The last class was U.S. History and it went pretty well all elements considered. Our teacher was gone, but he gave us directions on what to do. We talked a lot about Channel One, current events video, and the classes always seem to enjoy and want to talk about those videos. We then went over an excerpt from Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" which shocked a lot of students. However, the Jigsaw reading and question answering activity did not go well. The teacher laid it out for us, but the students were hard pressed to move around the room and get into groups and upon reading the material he gave us to give to the class, even I was bored and unimpressed. That was a bit of a struggle, but Kasie and I did a great job in my opinion of controlling the class, moving the activity along, and finally recognizing when it was time to quit and move on. All in all the classes went well and I am looking forward to doing better with the three U.S. History classes next week.