Field Work Day 1 January 8, 2013

I chose to start my field work at Pony Express Elementary in Eagle Mountain. The reason I chose Pony Express is purely selfish, 3 of my 4 children (along with 3 cute nephews) are students there and I love to be with my kids! I was able to observe in my nephew's 4th grade classroom.

When I got to the school I went into the office to sign in. I was surprised to find that the office was locked. In all of my 6 years of having children at the school, this has never happened. The halls were empty as well. Another mother was waiting outside with me to check out her child and she said that they were in the middle of a lock down drill. I was very impressed with the way the teachers and students handled the situation. I just wish that there wasn't a need for a drill like this. A police officer, the principal, and the drill administrator (?) were walking the halls and trying to force open the classroom doors to see how easily someone could get in. The children were instructed to keep as quiet as possible so that those doing the drill would not even know they were there. Some of the teachers read a book to the students very quietly to try and keep the kids as silent as possible. The drill lasted about 25 minutes after which I was able to sign in at the office and head down to Mrs. Carpenter's 4th grade classroom. When I arrived, the class was just getting started on a new unit about Greek Mythology. Within the first 10 minutes of being in the classroom, I was able to see Mrs. Carpenter put into action the 3 types of learning modalities I just learned about; auditory, kinesthetic, and visual. She read the story of Pandora's Box to the students and then re-told it in her own words (auditory). She asked the students questions and wrote the important points of the story on the whiteboard (visual). Then to wrap it all up and further their understanding, the kids colored pictures of Pandora's Box and created a file folder for the papers they would receive throughout the unit (sort of a stretch but still would fall under kinesthetic learning).

I absolutely loved every second I was in this classroom! The kids were so fun and even though they were forced to be so quiet during the lock down, along with the fact that the subfreezing temperatures caused them to have indoor recess, they were still able to focus and learn. I was very impressed and can't wait for my next time in this classroom!