Fieldwork Site Exploration

September 9, 2014
My cooperating teachers name is Mrs. Mari Callahan of Cold Spring School. Mrs. Callahan is the teacher
of a wonderful third grade class filled with twenty-three students. My loosely established hours (subject to change),
which will be finalized shortly once they are completely approved by Mrs. Callahan are: Monday 8:15 to 10:00,
Tuesday 8:15 to 9:30, and Friday 8:15 to 11:15. The schools website is: http://www.coldspringschool.net/.
I am beyond excited to begin my pre-professional work in Mrs. Callahans classroom. I am glad! Since the
ripe age of eight, I have known that I have wanted to be a teacher. Therefore, I am confident that I will enjoy my
placement at the beautiful place of Cold Spring School. I also am overjoyed to be placed in a third grade class since
that was my favorite grade as an elementary school student. Like many of my other peers, I am buzzing with
nervous energy as well. The question: What if I realize I dont actually want to be a teacher? has made it into my
mind whenever I begin thinking about my pre-professional work. Thankfully, I feel (and hope) that I am not alone in
thinking about and reflecting on this question. That being said, my excitement still outweighs my anxiousness. And
wont it be great to find an answer to your question!
After exploring Cold Springs site to gain more information about the school, I became aware of many
interesting facts and factors about the school that I was not aware of beforehand! The school first opened its doors in
1894, which means it has been open for more than 100 years. I was also amazed to find out that the school is
relatively small in size. For example, there is only one kindergarten, one 1st grade, one 2nd grade, one 4th grade,
and one 6th grade class. This is very different from any other public school that I have been involved in. Also the
school promotes environmental health and sustainability via The Green Team. This program aids towards the
surrounding environment and community through education about good environmental practices. Ultimately, I am
overjoyed to be taking Explorations in Teaching and to be welcomed into Mrs. Callahans third grade class. I am so
happy you are in the class! Did you find any test score info or demographics info? I would love to know more! Good
luck as you start fieldwork! 90/100 A-

Log #1
I considered my first week of my pre-professional work as an adjustment period for myself. It was a time for me to
emotionally get used to being around a group of twenty-three students who are dwelling in the mystical land of
being eight years old students. I knew that I would always enjoy being immersed into an elementary student
classroom, but I didnt realize how much joy it would actually bring me. Even though my first hour on my first day
was only spent observing, I still found myself soaring above Cloud Nine on a teaching high. I love your
description! The feeling I got from being in the classroom reminded me of the topic of service from our first day of
class. I realized that serving others by partaking in their education is not only fulfilling for the student, but it is also
extremely rewarding for the teacher as well.
As mentioned above, I only observed in Mrs. Callahans class for the first part of my pre-professional
work. The students worked on several assignments, the one that I found most interesting was a grammatical review
worksheet. The worksheet had five questions that were meant to be refreshers from 2nd grade. While watching the
students answer each problem, I realized (embarrassedly) that I need to review some of my simple grammar facts. I
found it ironic that I can write a coherent eight page college level paper yet I could not remember what an abstract
noun was. This made me wonder, does every teacher know everything that they are teaching without any previous
review? Teaching is the best way to learn . . .thankfully, we can always refresh and discover new things!
Even though I was only watching, I did not shy away and sit in the back of the classroom staring at the
back of the students heads. Instead, I swerved in and out of the rows of students desks watching each of them tackle
the problems at hand. There was a student named Cole that seemed to be a daydreamer student who had a hard
time focusing and staying on task. Ultimately, it was my goal during the remainder of the class to keep him focused
and interested in what he was doing. I encouraged his desire to focus by walking past his desk frequently and
making him aware that I was indeed keeping a watchful eye on him. I also chose to compliment him on whatever
work he got done so that I could create an internal motivation for him to keep working. I asked myself for future
though: What are some other methods that can be used in motivating certain kids that are generally uninterested in
what they are learning? This week we will talk more about student connections --- hopefully the info will help!
The second time I visited the classroom I served the purpose of answering any questions that the students
had on a packet while the teacher worked in small groups outside. Even though this was a simple task, it was still
interesting and challenging to me. This is because the teacher really stressed to me how she is trying to make the

students more independent. She wanted the students to work independently by trying to solve things on their one.
Therefore, I found it challenging because I did not know what questions the students were asking were okay or not
okay to answer. I also thought the topic of independence was interesting because I never really realized that teachers
are an avid and frequent mechanism in the creating of future self-sufficient students. Ultimately, I had a wonderful
first week at Cold Springs and can not wait to continue my pre-professional work with this third grade class! I am
glad you are on cloud 10! Congrats - I chatted with Russell Smelley the other day - he mentioned he had heard about
your enthusiasm for teaching! 100/100 A

Log #2
My worries have eased about the infamous pre-professional question: What if I find out that I dont actually like
teaching? After I step out of Mrs. Callahans classroom on Mondays , Wednesdays, and Fridays, I am instantly
struck with the longing to go back it. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I very much look forward to the following
morning to come! I hope the sparkle of teaching will never fade, even when I am in my own future classroom and
experience the draining (tiredness of being around kids all day) feeling as a lot of teachers talk about. It is
important to keep yourself filled up so you can fill up and give to the kids!
As many teachers do, Mrs. Callahan implemented stations into her class schedule. She called them the
Daily 5 because each day there would be five different stations mostly centered around literature, grammar and
sometimes technology. The technology station is always interesting for me to witness because I am currently in the
class Computers for the Classroom. My professor of the class emphasizes of the importance of intentionality when
using technology in the classroom. Each time there is this particular station I compare my knowledge from my class
to the activities the children are doing and the ways in which it is beneficial.
Luckily, it happened to work out that my pre-professional schedule would fall on the classs station time.
For this week I was in charge of keeping the Read to Self station on task (aka: make sure they were sitting down
quietly and reading on their own) and to answer any questions that the Word Work station had while they were
working on a Back to School night project. The project was centered around making personal connections to a
particular book they were reading. They were coloring a book cover they made out of paper and writing on the
back there personal connections, which they called Self to Text Connections. When I was in school I remember
this particular practice being called, Inferences. I noticed that stations are really just a way to teach multiple

subjects, topics, activities at one time. Great observations! Noticing all of the talking that was going on during the
Daily 5 made me question how effective stations really are though. Is there a way to successfully conducted a
station system which keeps most students on task?
It was awesome that during that week I was awarded more responsibility in the classroom. I was able to
interact with students more and start to implement making personal connections with them. For example, there is a
blonde girl named Maci in the class. While she was working on her project I said to her, Maci is such a wonderful
name. Do you know that I actually have a dog named Maci? Her eyes immediately lit up and she said, Really!?
Thats probably because Maci is the best name ever. That was on Monday and on Wednesday she randomly said to
me, How old is your dog Maci? It was comforting to be that she remembered that we had had that conversation
days before. That demonstrated to me the power and importance of making connections between students and the
teachers. It was an extremely heart-warming moment for me and I can not wait to have more experiences like that. I
am excited you are diving in and enjoying getting to know students! 100/100 A

Log #3
These two days were probably the first times that I left field work feeling unsatisfied and a bit uneasy, and both
emotions stemmed from different things and instances on Friday and Monday. Friday was the first day that I was
given the task of teaching my own lesson to one of the five stations. My station was under the Word Work
category and dealt with a worksheet associated with identifying predicates and subjects. Sadly, I felt very
unprepared during this and felt as if I had to learn as I taught. This was because the teacher gave me no preinstructional guidelines, no answer key, and no background information associated with the topic. Oh no - but good
for you to jump in! Ironically, my first time reading the directions at the top of the worksheet was when I was with
my first group. Is that successful planning on my cooperating teachers part? I would have like to be given a little
more instructional guidelines so that I could have more accurately taught the kids with east and precision. Even
though this was a struggle for me internally, I realize that this was probably good practice for the future. Will you
enlist help from parents/preprofessionals differently?
As we discussed in class, anything that gives us an uneasy and unsure feeling is probably a good sign that
we will not want to implement that into our future classroom. On Monday I left the class with an uneasy feeling
because of a certain Classroom Tool that my cooperating teacher implemented. On Monday morning, she stood up

in front of the class and said how much they drained her energy the previous week. Personally, for me this is a
hard concept to grasp. For instance, she has only 23 students in the classroom, a constant Teacher Aid, as well as
various other helpers in the classroom (such as me). I have spent many hours observing in other classrooms that
contain twice as many students, no teacher aid and minimal to no outside help. Therefore, why is she complaining to
her class when her situation could be a lot more difficult? Also I found her complaints about her energy draining
to the students to be opposing to the teacher conduct. In order to save her energy she carried around a bucket
(called her energy) with thirty popsicle sticks inside. Every time she felt her energy draining, from a student
talking out of context, from directions not followed, and etc. she would remove one popsicle stick out of the bucket.
The class goal is to have at least one popsicle stick left in the bucket by the end of the class, and if that is the case,
they are awarded. This concept of energy draining goes against my developing philosophy of teaching. As
teachers and role models, per our discussions in class, we have to put a smile on our face and cast away our own
interior worries. Yes, teaching is draining and ultimately it is that way for every teacher out there but large amounts
of energy being drained is just part of the job description and is nothing to complain about. This activity is very
upsetting - I agree. Thanks for bringing it up in class a week ago! 100/100 A

Log #4
Compared to my previous two sessions, these past few days went a lot better than the couple before (as
explained in my previous log). Wednesday passed by pretty soundly without any problems. The Teachers Aid, Mrs.
Suzy, was absent and out for the day. As a result, I took Mrs. Suzys normal station among the Daily 5. Her station
usually involves grammar associated worksheets, therefore I was in charge of finishing a packet which the students
had started with her the previous day involving subjects and predicates. Yet again, I was left without any direction or
answer key involving the packet and had to act on the fly. That was not as much as a struggle when compared to
before since I had more knowledge on the topics involved with the worksheets. Even though I was more
comfortable, I was still semi-irritated that I was with being thrown into the dark without any guidance. Overall,
the stations went well and I enjoyed interacting with the students. I did find it difficult to find a correct and effective
pace for each group to work at since each student was unique. Are these issues you will have to tackle in your own
classroom? For example, some of the students had such a good grasp of the information from previous lessons that

they could probably figure out the answers in their sleep while others looked at me like I was a space alien who was
introducing a new topic that they had never heard about before (which on the contrary they had actually learned
about many times before). Therefore, how does a teacher work on pacing in group stations when there is such a wide
variety of student levels in the group? Grouping by ability? Getting to know your students? Finding creative ways to
assess might help . . .
On Friday, the students had a guest come in and teach them about poetry. The guest named Miss Kyli will
focus on an activity called Poetry Residency and she will come in once a week to do various poetry writing for
four weeks total. It was interesting to see someone else, who who not Mrs. Callahan, teach and lead the whole class.
In one instance I saw Miss Kyli use the complementing tool effectively in class. When a girl named Sammy was
chosen to share what she had written, she asked if she could stand in front of the classroom and share. Time was
limited, therefore Miss Kyli wanted the students to only share at their desks. Miss Kyli responded to Sammys
question by stating, No, just share at your desk please. But I love your enthusiasm. That was an ah-ha moment
for me in the classroom because I saw something that we learned in Explorations in Teaching being accurately used
in an actual classroom setting. Yahoo! 100/100 A

Log #5
Interestingly, Mrs. Callahan did not need my help during one day. The class was associated around a game of
jeopardy that involved sentence fragments, therefore she didnt need my assistance. The class split up into groups:
jeopardy group and violin group. During one day of the week the class divides up into groups of seven to ten and
head over to the music classroom to have violin lessons. Therefore, since she did not need my help in conducting
Jeopardy, she sent me over to the music teacher to aid towards anything she needed. A great chance to see how
things are done elsewhere?
Ultimately, I found several things frustrating during the conducting of the music lessons. The music teacher
wanted me to help out with certain violin practices. It was frustrating for me because I had never touched a violin in
my life and the most experience I had ever had in my life was learning how to play the recorder in Music for
Children. Ultimately, shouldnt she have asked me beforehand if I had any knowledge related to violins or even
music in general?

Secondly, the tone she used was very monotone and flat. If you want to get students excited about what they are
learning you have to portray the excitement in what you are teaching.
Thirdly, she had the students fill out cards to be put into a hat if they did something particularly card
worthy. For example, if a student was staying on task or if they did awesome in a certain exercise she would say,
for example, Jordan, go ahead and put your name in the hat. There was one instance where a girl named Maya was
persistently and continuously staying off task. I have had issues with keeping Maya on task before. She often calls
me Jordan instead of Mrs. McCall, which is what all the other students refer to me as. She also finds extreme
fascination with jewelry I wear. Even if its the smallest pair of earrings she will reach for my ears saying, Ohhh, I
love your earrings. Therefore, I have decided that Maya sees me more as a friend or a peer, instead of a teacher.
How can you change her perception? During the music class, I had to continuously remind Maya to focus on what
she was doing. During one of those times I got her to play something that she had just learned, and at that exact
moment the music teacher happened to look in our direction, noticing that Maya was practicing. She said, Excellent
Maya, you are staying on task, go ahead and put your name in the hat. I couldnt believe Maya was being rewarded
for being on task at that moment when she had been causing me great difficulty a majority of the session. Therefore,
it made me question how closely the music teacher pays attention to her students in the duration of the class. Would
she had awarded Maya if she saw that she was being very difficult a majority of the class and constantly having to
be reminded to stay on task and not goof around? I know that this probably should not have angered me as much as
it did, but it did cause some internal frustration. Also, do you have any suggestions in dealing with Maya and her
view of seeing me more as a friend and not a teacher? Can you chat with her about this? Remind her that you are
training to be a teacher? Hmm - lets chat in class! Thanks for your honest observations and reflections! 100/100 A

Log #6
For the first time during my pre-professional work in Mrs. Callahans class, I got to see how the students
acted and reacted during certain situations when a substitute teacher was in charge. The combination of the usual
Friday jitters and the absence of their normal teacher left the students hyper, reactive, and unattentive. Oh dear . . .
My main observation was that students stay focused mainly when a standard of discipline has been set as a
precedent in the classroom. They have had this substitute before and were familiar with her, but I wonder what she
was lacking in the standard and discipline area that made the students react in a negative and outbursting way.

Ultimately, I was able to reflect on the notion that we talked about in class associated around a classroom discipline
culture. From the moment that we walk into our future classrooms for the first time we have to take the presence of
the ultimate authority figure in the students lives from the start of the school day until the final bell. It also did not
help that the Teachers Aid continued to make negative side comments. For example, the substitute said to one
student who did not finish the assignment: Dont worry, just put it on the back table and you can finish it during
some extra spare time later in the day. To which the T.A. semi-rolled her eyes and said to herself: Psh--What extra
time? Thankfully the substitute teacher did not hear the T.As comment, but what if some of the nearby students
did? In no way did that help towards creating a better and more positive behavioral status of the students. This was
also my first time seeing an adult versus adult negative reaction and disagreement, which is something that we
discussed in class. I am glad that you had this experience and took it all in! I am pleased to see your course
connections!
It was interesting to compare and reflect on how the students would react when their teacher came back that
following Monday. I immediately noticed a difference in the students attitudes with their actual teacher. Also, I was
able to notice a confidence difference between Mrs. Callahan and the substitute teacher. Maybe that had a difference
in the way the students reacted to the tasks they were given and the behavior they responded with? On this particular
Monday, it was my job to pull students outside one-by-one and help them reasses an assignment in which they
struggled with. The assignment could be a homework page, in-class worksheet, and even a test or quiz. Once outside
with me, I would re-explain the directions, get feedback on the problems they missed, and help to explain concepts
on a one versus one basis. I saw how helpful this particular tool was and how beneficial it is for the student. This is
something that I would love to implement in my future classroom in order to make sure the students that struggled
on a particular assignment do not get left behind. I am glad that you got to experience individual time with
students related to assessment! 100/100 A

Log 7
I experienced the most rewarding part of pre-professional work: knowing that you are in the right place.
Based on an experience that I had, I once again received confirmation on my desires to be a future teacher. On
Fridays, my cooperating class usually splits up into two groups. One group usually stays in the classroom and works
on an activity and/or takes a spelling test. The other half of the class gets sent to violin lessons with the music

teacher. On Fridays, I usually get sent to the music room to help out the teacher since she has struggled with
behavioral management with this particular class.
On this particular Friday though, I was given the task of teaching a math worksheet in front of 11-13 kids
from the class. The teacher sent my to a classroom that was unoccupied and gave me directions on what I was
supposed to do, and then she left the classroom. I was left alone to teach a group of students for the first time. My
cooperating teacher also told me to send back any students that were misbehaving. At first, I was a little worried that
I would have issues with managing the behavior of the class. I also was nervous that I would not be able to teach a
concept and have the students understand. Much to my surprise, I jumped right in (despite my worries) and began
teaching the class a math lesson. I love your own teachable spirit! Way to go!
The first group ran very smoothly with positive behavior. I was overjoyed when the students were
understanding the concepts I was teaching! After the first group completed the lesson, they switched with the group
that had been in their violin lessons before. This group possessed a few of the usual misbehavioral suspects of the
classroom. The first half of the lesson with this group went extremely well! Shockingly, right in the middle of my
teaching Dr. Price, the Superintendent/Principal walked into the room to watch briefly. My nerves spiked slightly but
I was feeling confident in my showcasing of the lesson at that point and carried on right ahead.
Once she left, several of the troublemakers of the class began acting out inappropriately. One of the
students, named Cole, began walking around holding a pig that he drew making pig noises at his other classmates.
Instantly, I remembered what my cooperating teacher said about misbehaving students and sent him back to the
classroom. Besides that incident, everything else ran relatively very smoothly. The students went out to recess and I
was about to leave as well, since my time for the day was completed. As I was leaving, I was stopped by my
cooperating teacher. She said that Dr. Price told her that while she was observing my math lesson, she was very
pleased with how well I was handling the class. She also said that Dr. Price commented on the great teaching
presence that I had. I was beyond overjoyed with the feedback that I was getting--better yet, it was postive
feedback from a principal! Congrats! What a great experience with amazing feedback! Keep up the great work,
Jordan! I hope you will share this on Tuesday! 100/100 A

Log 8

During one of the recent activities that I was in charge of I was able to experience first hand the possible
issues of pacing. Ultimately, I was able to see that every student works at a different pace depending on the
assignment. During this particular activity, students had to write about a family tradition that they do once a year
and/or regularly during the month of December. They had to write the tradition down on an oval shaped cut out that
they would later attach to a penguin that they would create. The class was divided up into five groups. Therefore, I
had about four to five kids at a particular time working on writing their family tradition.
Whenever the class works on group based rotations, I realize each time that the teacher groups them
according to their similar abilities and class level. Ironically, I remember Michelle MacDonald did her pamphlet
project on the topic of grouping to certain abilities. Nice course connection. Therefore, I try and observe the groups
and see how effective they are. During this family tradition project, the first group that I had was the lower level
performance students. Initially, the group spent the first half of the time messing around joking despite my
persistence in trying to keep them on task. In this type of situation, I have found it best to separate the group so that
they can stay on task and focus. Therefore, I split the group up into three parts so that they could work and stay on
task more easily. This seemed to work for the rest of the group time! The other four groups worked pretty soundly
and smoothly the rest of the class. Nice work, Jordan!
One issue that I ran into during this project was that the students continuously asked me: I dont know
what to write about. Instead of giving them an easy answer, I began questioning them so that they could brain storm
themselves and answer their own question. An example of a sample question I would ask is: What is your favorite
part about the holidays? Usually, that would get them thinking and then they would get closer to finding something
to write about. This process ties into my personal teaching philosophy of having students develop their own
autonomy and independence. I personally do not want to just provide the answers for students. The Common Core
approach looks at student problem solving and strategizing - less prescriptive. Instead, I want them to be challenged
and search for their own answers if they can.
100/100 A

Log 9

During a week of sickness, I chose not to go to Fieldwork so that I could rest up and not get any of the
students sick as well. On my first day back, I arrived fifteen minutes earlier than usual in order to talk to my
cooperating teacher and apologize in person for not being able to help the week before. She was gracious and
responded: Dont even worry about it. Things happen! Since I was fifteen minutes early and there before class
officially started, I got to witness things that I had not seen before...Like a early morning Math Club. I had no clue
that my cooperating teacher hosted this event for her class in the morning. What a fun surprise! I was immediately
reminded about Rafe Esquith and his early mornings learning sessions. It was awesome to see that my cooperating
teacher (like Rafe) is willing to devote extra time out of her morning in order to help her students benefit from more
learning. In total there were nine students that took advantage of this opportunity. Even though the quantity of
students was quite amounting the Rafes early morning classroom opportunities, I was still extremely excited to see
that there are students that are willing to go in for extra learning time outside of the daily classroom schedule. Great
to connect back to Rafe and see the timeframe!
Sadly, I was also struck with a harsh teaching reality during this day as well. That is the fact that little kids
are a growing germ infestation. Unknown to my knowledge, Cold Springs has been suffering from a lice problem
and my cooperating classroom is no exception. During that day, I watched as every twenty-three students from Mrs.
Callahans class had their hair inspected by the school nurse. Sadly, the total amount of students was four. Instantly, I
was reminded of how challenging this vocation is. But, even when these challenges arise (like a lice infestation) I
still stay steady and steadfast on my desire to be a future teacher.
Despite the lice issue, the rest of the day ran pretty smoothly. It was my job to monitor students as they took
a math assessment test. I was not allowed to answer many of their questions since it was a test, but I made sure to
provide motivational support where it was needed and positive affirmations that they could in fact complete the
problems that they were struggling with on the test. The little things sure take energy and time, dont they? 100/100
A

Log 10
At the beginning of the day, my cooperating teacher came up to me and asked if Id be willing to perform a
Reading Comprehension assessment for the students individually. It was my job to have the students read to me
for one minute. I was supposed to time them and see how many words they could get through in the given time. If

they messed up on a word, I was to cross it out and rewrite it with the word that they actually pronounced. Also, the
word would be subtracted from their word subtotal at the end. Ultimately what I thought was going to be a standard
and un-exciting activity turned into a very rewarding experience for me.
This was not the first time that the class had taken this Reading Comprehension test. The first words per
minute assessment occurred at the beginning of the year. The year is coming to a close so it was time to assess them
again. What was so exciting for me was to see their immense improvement! After each student completed their
assessment for me I would send them back to the class and record their results. After I recorded it, I would look back
at their results from the beginning of the year. What I saw was that every single student in the class made significant
improvements in their reading speed! I am glad you saw how the assessments informed you as a professional! How
will the results affect the teaching? I was so proud of each and every one of them! Even the students who were
struggling during this assessment still showed that they were getting better when I compared their last score.
Personally, it was wonderful and reaffirming to see that teachers DO make a HUGE difference! In just a handful of
months, these students were reading almost 25-50% more faster than they were!
Also, I was not sure if this is apart of the curriculum and standards now. Is it? Personally,
I do not remember having to do a words per minutes assessment when I was younger so i was curious if they
added that to the school systems or if this tool is just something that my cooperating teacher implements into her
classroom. Even if this type of assessment is not a requirement, I will definitely be including this method in my
future classroom. I see this as a wonderful way to keep track of students and how quickly they are learning. In
comparison to what we talked about for testing in our previous class, I am aware that this tool is not one-hundred
percent accurate since one assessment can not be used to judge a students complete reading level. Despite that, it can
still be used to give an estimate of their actual reading level. 100/100 A Jordan, You embraced fieldwork and new
adventures this fall in fieldwork. I am so happy that you have found a professional niche to pursue! Congrats! Dr.
H