I have spent a lot of time with my many field work students and teachers and I learn so much from them everyday. This class, and others, has given me many tools for assessment, observation, methods of instruction and direction, and other teaching tools. All of this is preparing me more and more for my future as a teacher.
I have realized that my goal isn't just to succeed in school and graduate to become a teacher, my goal is to use the knowledge I have gained and apply it in my own classroom and my own students. My education is only as good as I use it. I can learn as much as I can from books and websites and quizes and exams and I can recieve all of these grades but in the end the only real 'grade' is the real life application of all of this.
I created a lesson plan based on the direct instruction method and presented my idea to my cooperating fieldwork teacher. She loved it and allowed me to use my LP one day in her class. I spent about two and a half weeks creating, revising, adding, thinking, revising, writing, typing, and revising this 45 minute direct instruction lesson plan. The fact that a teacher enjoyed my LP and allowed me to use it with her class was one of the best feelings ever!
I was a bit nervous actually using MY ideas and MY lesson with real children. I have presented material to my classmates, teachers, and peers but never actually put it into effect with the intended audience. The class was very well behaved, as I had observed for the last two weeks, which made me feel confident in front of them. My biggest concern was them not cooperating and me not being able to get the lesson across to them. Although it was a direct instruction LP, the students really enjoyed the material, types of matter, and the work that I had given them. It was a good thing that Dr. S had us create our modification section on our LP where we can add or change parts of the LP for indivduals with disabilities or advanced students because there was one boy who was a very quick learner and I gave him extra information for his independant practice. Being prepared for this situation made me feel organized and together which boosted my confidence as well. I hope that he had more of a challange when I gave him extra work. He seemed to enjoy it I just wonder if it was enough of a challenge for him. Next time I go to that class I should ask the teacher what she does to modify her LPs to fit his learning ability. I wonder if she has to make major changes depending on his learning level? I'm glad that this situation came up, that way I can see it first hand that everyone learns differently and at different speeds. I learned in my psych class that it is important to be able to teach many different ways in order to reach out to every child. Every child has different ways of perceiving information, processing that information, and using that information.
The same thing applies for students with disabilities. I learned that it is important to be able to modify you lessons so that every student is able to gain as much knowledge as they can. It is my job as future teacher to learn how to do this with my lesson plans and be able to make it a comfortable and productive learning environment for ALL of my students! 
I really enjoyed teaching my LP, but my favorite experience was when the teacher was giving a lesson on writing stories. This was a second grade special education class that I was observing and participating in. The teacher was explaining how to write and label stories. She was showing them that you can draw your picture, label it, and then write your story. She then explained that you could go back and write more and add to your pictures. It was amazing to see how excited they were to draw their own pictures for their own stories. She had asked me to walk around and see if any of the students needed help and to see how they were doing. Three of her students cannot write so they were allowed to just draw pictures and then tell their story to the class at circle time. So i was asking the one girl to tell me what she was drawing her story about and she told me it was about her family at the beach and she was describing her picture to me. Although I was told she wansnt able to write, I decided to prompt her to write the word 'mom' near the picture she had drawn of her mother. Instead of doing a basic inquiry, "Can you write the word mom? How do you spell the word mom? What is this letter?", I decided to just have a conversation with her about her mom and what she was doing in the picture. I could see by her expressions and enthusiasm that I had made her happy by asking for the information rather than just asking her to spell it. The teacher was happy that I sat down and was speaking to her.Students don't just need to learn whats in the books, they need to learn about life skills and friendship along with receiving a good education.
One of the things I learned along with creating a lesson plan is how to create and use a webquest. I had learned how to use a webquest prior to this assignment but I learned a lot more the second time around. I learned how to navigate the pages much easier, add images, backgrounds, sounds, colors, change the links, where and how to put in the information i wanted and how to actually make it a successful webquest activity. My webquest is on the rainforest. When I become a teacher I will be using webquests with my students. We are living in the digital age. Everything is electronic and online. Although I personally dont care too much for the need for so much technology all of the time, I do think that it sometimes has its benefits. Webquests are a good way for students to interact with each other and get a more hands on feel for the topic. Having the students go on an adventure or a mission will engage them further into the topic and they will be more excited to learn and discover new things.
