My Fieldwork Experience at Hillcroft Day Camp: A New Inspiration

My Fieldwork Experience at Hillcroft Day Camp: 

A New Inspiration

     I have absolutely without a doubt have found a new found passion at the Hillcroft Day Camp. It's way more than just any camp than you could ever expect. The people there are a family and they take care of each other. What else is really interesting about this camp is that most of their staff members are certified teachers from around the world. They have faculty members that are from other states, Germany, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. The work that they do with the students is truly remarkable and if I knew that camp was like this as a child, I would of wanted to actually go. I used to be afraid of going to a camp, but now I wish that I would have. I am considering to go and apply for a job here next summer.

     While at the camp, I observed a teacher who was in charge of Folk Art here at the camp who gave me a tour and taught 3rd and 4th graders for the time frame that I was there. She is from an older school house out in Massachusetts that was built in 1923 and according to her, I quote, "We are lucky if we have light in our classroom, let alone internet access." I thought that this was interesting, but she did mention that they were hopefully trying to get a new building created. Below are my tasks that I engaged in while observing: 

Task #1:  Interview a teacher on: What effective teaching principles s/he follows to reach every child in his/her classroom. What latest research s/he is referring to in his/her teaching design. In what ways the research on effective teaching empowers teachers' continued learning process? Record the answers and interpret the results from the point of view of the reading materials about effective teaching and the research methods. 

• The effective teaching principles that the teacher that I interviewed follows to reach every child in her classroom are incorporating a lot of visual aids, differentiating instruction all around the classroom, and taking breaks between lessons such as lecturing for only ten minutes before introducing a structured activity revolving the lecture to give the children a break. She believes that these are the three top effective principles of teaching that she uses in her classroom. These principles that the teacher mentioned relate directly to the course text in chapter 14 with regards to the characteristics of an effective teaching. According to Anitia Woolfolk, the characteristics of an effective teacher revolve around clarity, organization, and warmth and enthusiasm. Just by spending those few moments observing the teacher, I was able to conclude that she retained all of these characteristics. 
• She mentioned that the latest research that she refers to in her teaching design and style are the aspects of technology and how it can be integrated into the classroom. She noticed how technology is constantly growing and it is not going to go anywhere, so she is hoping to get one to one ipads for her classroom or for her school district. She also brought up the good fact that technology is expensive and with the socioeconomic diversity intensity at her school, it is difficult for the students to use and have access to the wonderful concepts of technology. 
• She stated that "Research helps to a degree, but I don't think that some are the best or useful." She expressed the dislike for research because the school follows the research in order to make themselves look good, but she emphasized that the importance should be based on the children's learning. 

Task #2: Interview 3 to 5 (or more) people asking them to name three characteristics of intelligent people. Summarize their responses and present the findings digitally. Summarize and publish the results in your blogs.

 

    To the right are the three responses from three different view points from three different people. I found it interesting that the teacher's responses were more in depth with understanding the intelligence level that a teacher should have. The parent's responses relied on how they would see an intelligent person to be when they think of an inspiring person and someone who is ready to engage. The child's response relied on what they see in the environment around them such as getting good grades in school or like the president being an intelligent leader.

Task #3:  Observe a classroom and discuss with the teacher how s/he is using the child development characteristics in her/his lesson planning and teaching.

• From what I was observing in the classroom, the teacher relied on the children's fine motor skills and their ability to comprehend and follow directions. The teacher also emphasized the importance of always having more than just one media to show to the students. For example, during the art project, the teacher modeled every step, showed pictures, and used language in which the students were able to simply comprehend because they were familiar with it. The teacher also emphasized the importance of being organized when engaging into child development aspects because the teacher should know exactly what is being done at what time or if they need to accommodate their lesson to suit the other students' needs. 

Task #4: Observe the teacher paying attention to the individual need of students and blog about your observations.

• During my observation, I noticed how the teacher focused on all of the students evenly. She walked around the tables and constantly asked the students how they were doing or complimenting on their work. The teacher also made herself available whenever the students requested her attention or assistance. She was up and ready to help. The teacher also made sure that all of the students had access to all of the materials needed for this lesson at any given time. 

Task #5: Observe and record your findings about the children's cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development. Does the teacher develop lessons based on their cognitive, etc. needs and characteristics?

• By observing the 3rd and 4th graders, I could observe their cognitive, social, and physical development. The students were all at their given age level. They were able to understand the directions, socially interact with their peers and caregivers, and their fine motor skills were age appropriate. The teacher develops lessons plans, but not to what they can and can't do. The teacher does lesson plans according to their ages. The youngest group she teaches at the day camp is 3rd graders. 

Task #6: Observe the classroom and record/note: Each time an incident of learning occurs (when and how). Provide specific examples/evidence. May be you will prefer keeping a journal for 24 hours and note every time an incident of your own learning happens. Be ready to  blog about and share in your blog. If in class, ask how the teacher uses reinforcement (positive/negative) and if s/he uses punishment. Record, blog, and share.

• Every time that an incident of learning occurs the teacher congratulated the student on their accomplishment. An example of an incident of learning was when the student was able to visually show that learning had occurred was when the student shouted "Look! The mod podge makes the paper look smooth as long as I move my finger smoothly." This was when the teacher reassured the student and said "Yes! Good Observation! That's what the mod podge is meant to do." 
• When asking the teacher about positive and negative reinforcement, the teacher explained that for positive reinforcement, she directs the praise to the class as a whole. She doesn't usually praise individuals for their success, but she would rather present to the class about something that they did together successfully. When it comes to negative reinforcement, the teacher mentioned how she follows a 3 strike policy based on class rules that is decided at the beginning of the year through class voting methods. 

Task #7: Interview your teacher and students:

• Ask both your teacher and students, what helps them remember the concepts, new material.
• In what subject students quickly remember the material and why. 
• What they would advise you as a beginning teacher to learn to do to help them remember the information better. 

Compare the answers of the students to those of the teacher. Provide your insights in the blog and be ready to share in your blog. 

• When interviewing the teacher, the teacher stated that the way that she believes that students remember new concepts or new materials are by music or song, formative assessments, do now/exit tickets, and using multimedia approaches when teaching new material. The teacher mentioned that she believes that science is the subject that the students quickly remember because they build real world experience through application and experiments. A piece of advice that the teacher told me to learn to do as a new beginning teacher is to incorporate multimedia purposes and examples of applications for all subjects. She also mentioned to use a variety of assessment and instruction reinforcement.
• When interviewing one of the students, the student said is taking notes and seeing visuals. The student said that the subject that they quickly remember the material and concepts is Social Studies because they make connections to their real life experience and because they are learning about the countries' past experiences. The student exclaimed that I should not give too much information at the same time as a new teacher so that other students can actually remember the information. 

Task #8: Observe your FW classroom (or give examples from the previous visits) and determine what elements/principles of constructivist practice you observed. Jot down your observations and reflect on the findings in your blogs providing supporting evidence from the textbook. 

• The main element that I noticed for constructivism was that throughout the experience, the teacher enforced the use of hands on activities. The students were always actively creating something. The students were able to focus on their individual projects and how they were able to construct the final product.