USE

Attached are my first field notes from the semester. Because I got started late, I have gone twice this week. 

What Happened? 

When I arrived at my field placement last Friday, the class was just finishing a math lesson on solving two-step stroy problems involving subtraction and addition. As is their routine, after the class was finished with the lesson, they played a math game independently. Today's game was called "Spin-and-Add"-Each student was given a spinner with a series of three-digit numbers, and they were supposed to spin the needle and add the first two numbers that it landed on. My cooperating teacher, Mrs. Dolly, asked me to work with two stundents, Wendy and Joel, both of whom do not have the "number sense" that their peers do. Their spinners were only numbered 1 through 9. For Wendy and Joel the goal of "Spin-and-Add" was to practice "counting on" using their fingers. 

Although I was working with both students, I found myself having to focus primarily on Wendy. Although Joel occasionally had trouble understanding that each finger he put up corresponded to one number, it seemed that he began to realize the process the more that he practiced. In contrast, Wendy did not seem to be understanding at all. She could add numbers that totaled less than 10, but struggled with anything that required more than two hands to visualize. For instance, on one of her spins, Wendy got a 4 and a 7. Our conversation was as follows,

Me: "So what two numbers are we adding?"

Wendy: "4 and 7."

Me: "What is 4+7?"

West Philadelphia Elementary School, Kindergarten

*Pseudonyms were used in this entry.

Guided Individual Reflection Protocol (McEntee, et al., p. 52):

Step 1. Collect Stories: During my lunch break today I jotted down some notes about events/situations that had occurred.  This was so that I could my full attention to my students while they were in the room, and so that I wouldn’t forget any event, even ordinary events, that had occurred. 

Step 2. What happened? During the journaling activity today Samuel decided that he wasn’t pleased with the situation.  Instead of voicing this clearly, the crumpled up his piece of paper that he was supposed to write on.  He blatantly crumpled up the piece of paper in front of me, while I was directing him not to, because he would have to use it anyway.  He continued to crumple up the piece of paper, and then asked for a new one.  I stated that I had clearly told him that that was his only piece of paper, and that he still had to use it to write his journal entry.

Relfective Protocol (an incident from last week)

Date: Feb. 12, 2013

Time: 9:30am-3:30pm (6 hours)

First Day;

My first visit to my placement was a simple meet and greet with the teacher that I could have possibly been doing it with. Before arriving, I knew that I would be placed in a special education classroom with high school aged students. The school, Charming High, is a school that I had heard a lot about precious to my visit. Many of my peers had worked at it before and I knew that Bryn Mawr has a strong connection with it.

To get to Charming High, I rode the el into the city and got off in a brand new area. Not knowing what the school looked like, I followed directions given to me. As I walked through the neighborhood, the first thing I noticed was a huge vacant building, with a chain link fence filled with dead shrubbery, and boarded up windows. It was really a sight to see. On the walk to the school, I noticed a number of schools o n the way, and multiple housing complexes. Once I turned the corner toward Charming High, the first thing I noticed was a large stone building, a factory looking smoke stack and a small wall filled with colorful murals. I couldn’t help but notice the contrast between the two. Unfortunately, the school’s architecture reminded me of a prison. Grey walls, generic windows and stone walls.

....

I am not in my placement yet, but I thought I would write up some placement-like fieldnotes from my job at a kindergarten in order to participate. Here are some excepts: (as you can see, I adopted a fellow group member's style)

School: Elementary school (Pre-K – 5th grade) in West Philadelphia

Class: Kindergarten

Class size: 23 students

Teacher: Ms. Lowe

Aide: Ms. Monay

**Pseudonyms are used in these notes.