Transitions Used to Get Students Ready
This activity involves children participating in the Zero Gravity Challenge and Ring Passing, which aims to set an ample space where kids work together to keep balloons floating and going through rings arranged in a line. The teacher grouped students with disabilities with others to help each other balance the balloons for one minute, and others held rings for their classmates to pass through. The other transition used was giving directions about the activities.
For example, teachers interchanged student groups to ensure everyone experienced different teamwork. When the transition was about to start, a teacher signaled the learners’ by having short breaks or grouping before starting the repeated exercise for different groupings (Asrial et al., 2019). At the same time the transition was undergoing, the tutors observed and redirected specific students according to their physical and behavioral natures, as seen in Figure 1.
Learning Objective
First, the activity ensured all students were exposed to a safe learning environment in fieldwork by balancing the balloons and going through the rings without injuries. The second objective was to enable learning through out-of-class interaction with paraprofessionals in place (Sciuchetti & Yssel, 2019). The other objective is to ensure the students participate actively by grouping them in teams for each challenge, with inclusion as a vital matter.
Assessment
Firstly, it was required to monitor if the learners experienced safe clinical field experience with easy accessibility while doing the challenges. Secondly, the learners were checked if they understood concepts fostered through experiments, such as critical thinking and speed in accomplishing the field tasks (Kirkpatrick et al., 2019). Lastly, the teacher assessed student learning by evaluating the level of professionalism that enables legal and ethical perspectives.
Strategies Used to Engage Students
Students were engaged in various ways to meet the required goals. Discussions were formed to help all learners conceptualize the fieldwork so that they may know the importance of those two challenges. Additional strategies were through question-and-answer sessions, quick writing assignments concerning the activities, and experimental learning through performance during the exercise. Lastly, brainstorming was necessary to ensure that they fully understood the activities’ measured competencies that would be applied academically.
Verbal and Non-Verbal Cues
Students bursting the balloons and folding the rings were told, ‘Please do not lean or stand on tables because you may fall or cause injury to others.’ Other verbal cues used included ‘Not that way, please, try again, you are almost there, thank you, excellent, quiet, please, stand up,’ among others. The non-verbal cues included eye contact, facial expression to communicate right or wrong moves, postures while teaching them an important task, pointing to a specific subject, shaking heads to disagree, and nodding to agree.
Collaboration
There were collaborations with paraprofessionals and volunteers in the classwork activities. For example, a licensed attorney and state-certified teachers served as assistants in the clinical field experience for the observation. The attorney directed teachers on areas they should avoid regarding observation and taking notes in the field experience to ensure adherence to legal factions in educational aspects. Collaboration was essential to ensure that ideas were compared to the activities.
What Went Well and Possible Changes
The students got first-hand experience in field work without struggles. Additionally, the learning succeeded since learners got the expertise and power to navigate class activities from the universal academic perspective (Gilmour & Wehby, 2020). For instance, learners were competent in assembling and arranging challenge materials independently and asking questions for conceptualization. What would be changed in the following field experience is a quorum for the students, where different groups would get involved in diverse activities meant for mind expansion and brainstorming.
Affirmation
The field experience affirmed the choice of grade level and setting that I may want to teach in the future. The reason is that during the field experience, I interacted with students by answering questions about their curiosity about learning. Giving the students explanations felt like a substantial satisfaction in building my passion. Additionally, the field experience enabled me to discover various concepts, such as state criteria for undertaking the same, whereby I learned the requirements for consideration. In the future, I will use my findings to advance my career by comparing the happenings with what will require coverage. For example, I will apply the strategies of engaging students to unite learners and foster knowledge power in them.
References
Asrial, A., Syahrial, S., Kurniawan, D. A., Subandiyo, M., & Amalina, N. (2019). Exploring obstacles in language learning among prospective primary school teachers. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, 8(2), 249-254. Web.
Gilmour, A. F., & Wehby, J. H. (2020). The association between teaching students with disabilities and teacher turnover. Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(5), 1042. Web.
Kirkpatrick, M., Akers, J., & Rivera, G. (2019). Use of behavioral skills training with teachers: A systematic review. Journal of Behavioral Education, 28, 344-361. Web.
Sciuchetti, M. B., & Yssel, N. (2019). The development of preservice teachers’ self-efficacy for classroom and behavior management across multiple field experiences. Australian Journal of Teacher Education (Online), 44(6), 19-34. Web.