Observations

Although field experiences are time and money consuming (thank goodness gas has gone down) they normally very informative and fun. I'm working to accept the fact that when I am a teacher my students will not be quite as excited about my being there, since that will be daily.

This semesters field experiences have been amazing. I absolutely loved the first grade class I worked with. I loved them so much that I agreed to chaperon on their field trip, if it ever gets planned.

I had three field experiences with that class and they were all so great. The first two times I went to observe multiple students asked me if I was one girls mother. This girl, who had brown hair for the record, was amazingly adorable and I really would not have minded if she was my daughter (in you know ten years). Fortunately, I understand that six year-old's have no concept of age past elementary school so I forgave them for what I assume was adding a decade or more onto my life. That first afternoon I informed my, brown hair, boyfriend that I had seen what our daughter would look like when she was six years old. Once he started breathing again it was clear he was not amused.

Once the students clarified I did not birth any of them, they were very happy to show me what they were working on, ask me for help, and try their hardest to use me as a dictionary/thesaurus. They were slightly bummed when I referred them to the multiple other resources in the room including their word wall and that outdated book that had the words in alphabetacial order followed by their definitions.

Thanks to these field experiences I got to see first hand what first grade curriculum is like and hear about the difficulties and joys of it from an established teacher. Because of these field experiences I think I would like to teach first grade. Although I will have to get used to reading inventive spelling (I spent three minutes trying to figure out what word a student meant by "psp" before I realized he has used the abbrivated term for "play station personal), I think teaching first grade would be incredibly rewarding. I really love reading and writing and I think that that love will really encourage my future students to get excited to learn those all important skills.

There is another plus to teaching first grade which is that the students will, more than likely, not be taller than me yet. I hope.