field experience report joanna samar state university of...

Running Head: FIELD EXPERIENCE REPORT 1

Field Experience Report

Joanna Samar

State University of New York – College at Oneonta

FIELD EXPERIENCE REPORT 2

Table of Contents

Technology Operations and Concepts .............................................................................. 3

Student Enrichment Project. .............................................................................................. 3

Planning and Designing Learning Environments and Experiences................................ 4

Lesson Planning. ................................................................................................................. 4

Teaching, Learning, and the Curriculum.......................................................................... 5

Lesson Implementation. ..................................................................................................... 5

Productivity and Professional Practice .............................................................................. 6

Reflection ............................................................................................................................. 8

Leadership and Vision ......................................................................................................... 9

Summation............................................................................................................................ 7

References ............................................................................................................................. 8

Appendices............................................................................................................................ 9

Appendix A: Student Packet .................................................................................. 9

Appendix B: Supplemental Packet ........................................................................ 10

Appendix C: Screenshot of Website ....................................................................... 11

Appendix D: Field Experience Timesheet ............................................................ 12


Field Experience Report

To meet the Technology Facilitation Standards (International Society for Technology in

Education, 2001) I created a website and recorded videos to aid in partially flipping my classroom for the

Immigration Unit for our daily Listening and Learning time.

Technology Operations and Concepts

Standard 2 of the Technology Facilitation Standards states that educational technology facilitators

design and implement technology-enhanced learning experiences using a variety of research-based,

learner-centered instructional strategies and assessment tools to address the diverse needs and interests of

all students (International Society for Technology in Education, 2001). My second-grade classroom is

expected to sit and listen to a lesson for fifteen to twenty minutes. There are comprehension questions

integrated throughout but the stopping to ask or clarify causes the students to lose the flow. It is a

difficult balance to achieve. For one of our units, I chose to build a website to partially flip the unit.

Student Enrichment Project

Flipping the elementary classroom has many benefits. Using videos as part of the presentation of

content allows students to re-watch the videos as often as they need to (Acedo, 2013). The videos can be

watched at home or at another part of the day which allows for classroom time to become more

applicational. By creating a website to flip the classroom, the students had access to the content at home

in and organized and safe way for them to access.

With these considerations in mind, I created a website providing links to pre-recorded lectures

that could be listened to in class and allow our Listening and Learning block of time to become a time

for student research and journal writing.

Planning and Designing Learning Environments and Experiences

As I created the website, my plan was to provide the students each day with an opportunity to use

the computers in an ELA setting. During their computer time, the students would visit the created

website and watch the prerecorded lecture during their time block. The next day, the students would


remain together whole group to use books, magazine articles, collaboration, additional computer time,

and school iPads to do additional research on new vocabulary or information to complete an assessment

packet. The assessment packet (Appendix A) includes a variety of pieces—journal writing, a Venn

diagram, a map, and a matching section

Lesson Planning

Using the EngageNY curriculum for the second-grade Listening and Learning module, I

expanded the unit to add an opportunity for the students to send interview questions to an immigrant,

create a poster, and give a presentation to the class. Benjamin Franklin once said, “Tell me and I forge.

Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” I wanted to expand the unit to involve the kids.

While our technology access is limited, I knew all the students could have a chance to explore on the

computers.

Teaching, Learning, and the Curriculum

The plan that worked so perfectly in my mind did not come together and flow as smoothly as I

would have preferred. Through this process I have learned many tips that will help me redo part of this

project for next year’s class.

Lesson Implementation

There were many unexpected complications that prevented the second-grade students from trying

this project as I planned it. Unexpected snow days caused my co-teacher and I to get behind in my co-

teacher’s teaching of the previous unit. When we sat down to work on a long-range plan, the flipped

immigration unit would have been interrupted halfway by our school’s spring break. With that in mind,

my co-teacher chose to extend the previous unit and add extra supplemental activities. We planned to

begin the Immigration unit after spring break. my co-teacher became unexpectedly sick and had to take a

brief leave of absence from school. With her unexpected absence, I had no choice but to make several

decisions independently for how to best implement the upcoming new unit. When the website was


completed, I tried it on the school website and found that it was blocked for students. The IT department

reviewed the website and although said it was safe for the students to use, the platform I created the

website with often allowed inappropriate content that the students should not have access to.

Instead, I bookmarked the links the students would need to access each day. The students viewed

the videos during their independent computer time. During our instructional block for Listening and

Learning, we looked at supplemental texts and activities through the curriculum. The students were able

to discuss and share ideas while they wrote journal entries about the character they began to create

through the unit.

Productivity and Professional Practice

Overall, this project had a successful start. Due to unexpected circumstances, we are only about

halfway through the project. The students seem to be enjoying the change in structure during our

Listening and Learning block.

Reflection

I chose to work with our school media specialist as my mentor because of how spread out my

district is. I teach in a rural area, and the elementary school, middle school, and high school are miles

from each other. Our district technology coordinator also only works part-time for the district. While

creating the website, I frequently checked the website on my teacher laptop to see its usability. It never

occurred to me to try it under a student login. Though the blocked website led to a change in my plan, it

did get me in touch with the district’s technology coordinator. Our follow-up email correspondence led

us to decide to wait on converting the website to google sites for next year’s class to use. I was also able

to find out about a pilot study the district would like to do with Chromebooks. I plan to apply as a

candidate for the pilot study. Had the website not been blocked, I would likely have missed the

opportunity to correspond with the district technology coordinator.


Flipping the unit was effective in some ways and not as effective as others. Because the video

images used still pictures, it was still difficult for the students to engage with even a ten-minute video.

For the future, it would be more effective to create a video that includes movement or additional pictures.

The students learned how to use bookmarks because the website was blocked.

Another bookmark I created was to the school library web pages. The students were familiar with

the pages from their library time and were excited to see that they could also access the links in our

classroom. I correlated our research writing unit to go along with the Immigration unit. We used our

writing block time to research countries in Europe.

Flipping the unit and allowing the students to have more movement, small group meetings, and

exposure to supplemental activities allowed my special education students to get involved in a way they

had not previously been able to do so. They enjoyed watching the videos on the computer. One student

independently completed his writing assignments with no adult support. Another student participated

seemed to grasp the content well as was evidenced in the way the student has responded to the journal

entries.

Leadership and Vision

Looking forward, I plan to apply for the Chromebook pilot study for next year. I also plan to get

in touch over the summer with our technology coordinator to convert the website to google sites.

Another alternative could be to create my own teacher website. I am changing grade levels next year, so

a conversion would need to be something all of the second-grade teachers would have access to. The

second-grade teachers have seen the website but expressed the most interest in using the videos. I would

like to explore redoing the videos by finding ones already made or adding more pictures or animations.

The videos could be even better if created as a PowerPoint presentation. Because the students were so

excited to try a different approach to Listening and Learning, I think that this could be effective for other

Listening and Learning units, as well.


Summary

After daily observing faces grow blank as students struggled to focus through instruction, I

determined change was necessary. Some teachers are beginning to try a flipped approach in their

elementary classroom. Due to a lack of technological access outside of school, I created a modified

flipped approach. I created videos of the content and uploaded them onto a website I created for students

to access. The students watched the videos during their independent computer time and looked at

supplementary texts, or researched their own topics. While there were difficulties with the technology,

overall it seemed to be a positive experience for the students. With some changes, this would become a

useful tool for next year’s class.


References

Acedo, M. (2013). 10 pros and cons of a flipped classroom. Retrieved from

http://www.teachthought.com/learning/blended-flipped-learning/10-pros-cons-flipped-classroom/

Bergmann, J. (2012). Flipped learning for elementary instruction. Retrieved from

http://www.jonbergmann.com/flipping-the-elementary-classroom/

EngageNY. (2013). Grade 2 ELA domain 11: Immigration. Retrieved from

https://www.engageny.org/resource/grade-2-ela-domain-11-immigration

Mihai, L. (2016). 8 flipped classroom benefits for students and teachers. Retrieved from

https://elearningindustry.com/8-flipped-classroom-benefits-students-teachers


Appendix A

Immigration Packet (double click to open the entire document)


Appendix B

Supplemental Packet (double click on the packet to open the entire packet)


Appendix C

Screen shot of the homepage of the website

http://immigrationcurriculumweb.weebly.com/


Appendix D

Copy of my time log

field experience report joanna samar state university of...

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