My Fieldwork Experience at BDMS

In the fall of 2018, I had the pleasure of completing fieldwork hours at Bishop Dunn Memorial School. My time here taught me a lot about different ways to implement direct instruction and inquiry lessons. Watching my peers implement their lessons, implementing my own lessons, and giving and receiving professional feedback was an excellent learning experience. My time at BDMS this semester has added to my understanding of student learning in several ways. Most importantly, I learned the significance of implementing whole-class direct instruction and inquiry lessons. For students to complete an inquiry lesson, it is necessary for them to first complete a direct instruction lesson. Direct instruction lessons are easier to implement than inquiry lessons, in my opinion. However, inquiry lessons are more enjoyable for students. Students often have a hard time following a direct instruction lesson because they are not really allowed to do anything besides pay close attention to the teacher. Kids love moving, talking, and being active, so this makes a long direct instruction lesson challenging for kids to follow. Students enjoy inquiry lessons because the lessons usually involve an activity that is fun for them. Students like to work with their classmates to figure something out. This being said, fourth graders like to learn by being active and involved. It was obvious that the students were the most engaged and motivated when they were working together to do something. This was also evident when we cleaned up the Sensory Garden. The students in this class had so much energy. This experience added to my understanding of teaching science because it taught me that science has no exact answer. Science is about discovery. Teaching science involves giving students enough knowledge and facts so that they can use these to inquire on their own.
Through this experience, I made several discoveries about teaching and discoveries about myself. I learned that teaching an entire class and having them maintain focus and stamina is much more challenging than I expected. Students need to be given a good motive to help them stay on track. I also felt that it was hard to teach in a group because the students were overwhelmed and not sure who they should be paying attention to. I think it might have been easier to conduct a lesson individually because the students would only have to focus on one person. I learned that I have a good speaking voice. I learned that I also need to work on creating lessons that better fit the criteria of direct instruction and inquiry. I also learned that managing time is so hard. When planning a lesson, I need to take in account for the time that might be lost when students go to the bathroom when they get distracted and lose stamina, and the time it takes to hand out materials and get students set up and ready. This experience will impact my teaching science in my own classroom because it taught me what kids enjoy, what teaching methods are effective, and different technological tools to use when teaching. This fieldwork experience provided me with knowledge that I will carry with me when teaching science in my own classroom, and I am thankful for it.