Record of Field Experiences

Course

ECE 150

ECE
328/361/
362/363

Hours

15 hours

Location

Medary
Elementary,
Brookings, SD
and The
Childrens
Museum,
Brookings SD

Brief Description of Experience

I was with a kindergarten class for a full day at
Medary. I worked one on one with the students,
observed group work, ate lunch with the students and
even observed them during music class. There was
one boy in this class with autism that had a teacher
assistant with him at all times.
I also spent a full day at the Childrens Museum. I got
to interact with children playing in all different parts
of the museum and had the opportunity to help with
a cooking class that they held that day where we
cooked Halloween themed food. I then was in charge
of a small group of students who had to solve a
mystery that involved them going around the
museum and finding clues. I worked with all different
ages of children at the museum and lead a small
group of children for a while.

For this experience, I spent Tuesday and Thursday

mornings for 3.5 hours in a classroom of 3 and 4 year
olds. Other than working with toddlers, I have never
been around this young of children before. I was able
to work one on one with children, plan lessons for
them, assess and observe them and learn from them
too. I spent 5 specific times working one on one with
one girl on her alphabet. I also helped at small group
time where I have 4 children to explore with. In my
Fishback Center
30 days X
small group there was an ELL student, so I worked on
for Early
3.5 hours =
listening to him speak and improved on being able to
Childhood
approx.
understand him. I planned several lessons ranging
Education,
105 hours
from comprehension to science to a puppet show for
Brookings, SD
this group of children. I also learned how to problem
solve with the children and how to properly ask them
questions. I truly enjoyed my time in this field
experience because I got to interact with the children
and watch them grow, learn and explore. They taught
me not only about myself as a teacher but also about
myself as a person.

EDFN 475

16 hours

Medary
Elementary,
Brookings, SD

I spent 2 hours on Tuesday mornings with a

kindergarten class at Medary. It was a class of about
25, with one autistic child. I worked one on one with
the students, working on their abcs and writing their
names. I also did a calendar project with the students
that required me to paint their hands and make a
different hand print for each month of the year. It was
interesting to see how the autistic boy functioned in
the classroom with all the other students. I had a little
difficulty when trying to paint his hand, but after a
little practice, his hand prints were looking just like
the rest of the students.
At Peace Lutheran, I observed and interacted with a
classroom of toddlers. Out of the three weeks I was at
Peace Lutheran I would say there was an average of
15 children each time I went. While at Peace Lutheran
I was watching and playing with the toddlers, helping
them during breakfast, and watching them outside.
This was most definitely diverse for me since I have
never been with this young of children before. There
was a couple of times that I read books to small
groups of toddlers during free play or played with
them outside one-on-one while they tried to ride mini
tricycles.

ECE 371

20 hours

Peace Lutheran
Church &
Pugsley,
Brookings, SD

I spent another 10 hours observing the older toddlers

(2-3 year olds) at Pugsley. Here I just watched from
the booth and watched as the children interacted
with one another during free play and if they were
willing to do the activities the student teachers had
provided for them. This was an excellent opportunity
to observe how children and parents handle drop off
in the morning. I observed the toddlers play outside
and in the classroom as well, playing with all sorts of
interesting toys and activities. I focused more on the
times when the student teachers would be one-onone with the toddlers just so I could learn how to talk
to toddlers and understand what they want or need
when they respond to an adult.

For my early childhood student teaching I was placed

in the kindergarten classroom in the Fishback Center
for Early Childhood Education. I was in the classroom
Monday-Thursday from 7:45 am to 11:45 am. We had
a small class of only 11 students. The first thing I did in
the classroom was go on home visit to 4 of the
students homes within the first two weeks of school
so I could get to know them better, learn about their
families and what goals their parents had for them.
Next, I began planning one area of the classroom such
60 days x 4 Fishback Center as the sensory table or dramatic play, then I moved
hours =
for Early
into planning math centers or literacy centers, and
ECE 488
240
Childhood
finally into a span of 3 weeks when I was completely
(Preschool)
approx.
Education,
in charge of the entire classroom from planning, to
hours
Brookings, SD management, to instruction. Within my time in this
classroom, I also had the opportunity to work with
small groups of students focused on increasing their
creativity in their storytelling through using
movement. Through these small groups, the other
student teacher and I did action research and wrote
our findings in a professional research paper. Our
classroom had diversity from one student being
originally from Turkey and speaking Turkish at home,
to another student being born in Russia and speaking
Russian at home as well.

ECE 495

45 hours

Dakota Prairie
Elementary
School,
Brookings, SD

I spent these 45 hours in a kindergarten classroom at

Dakota Prairie Elementary school with a 1st year
teacher. It was a class of 20 students. My first few
days there I helped the teacher with 2nd quarter
assessments. I worked individual with children on
recognizing their letters and the sounds letters make
as well as their basic math skills. As I got further into
my hours, I began leading sections of the morning
instruction from morning meeting, to the reading of
the weekly big book, poetry and literacy rounds. For
the small group lesson I had to perform I chose to do
a small guided reading lesson with the high level
students in the class. I gave them a challenging 1st
grade book to see how they would do. For my large
group lesson, I taught a math lesson on one to one
correspondence. In this particular class, there was one
student who had many behavioral issues. While I was
there observing, the teacher and the schools special

education teacher tried several things. Transitions

were hard for this student as well as staying focused
on the task asked of them.

ELED 396

ELED 495

30 hours

35 hours

Camelot
Intermediate
School,
Brookings, SD

I spent these 30 hours in a 4th grade math classroom

at Camelot Intermediate in Brookings, SD. Camelot is
set up in more of a middle school style where they
rotate from classroom to classroom for different
subjects. Therefore, I got to see the same math
lesson, taught to 4 different groups of students. I got
to see how you need to adapt a lesson based on
different style of learners and different groups of
students. A few days during these 30 hours I also
rotated with one group of students so I could see
their reading classroom, science classroom and their
technology classroom. During this experience I had to
teach an introductory lesson and I chose to do it on
decimals. I gave the students a pre-assessment,
taught the lesson, and then gave them a postassessment as well to measure for growth. This
experience not only opened my eyes to my love of
this age group, but also my love of math.

Dakota Prairie
Elementary
School,
Brookings, SD

I spent these 35 hours in a 3rd grade classroom at

Dakota Prairie Elementary in Brookings, SD. Many of
these 3rd graders remembered me from being in their
2nd grade classroom during my reading methods class.
I taught them two lessons, both in the
reading/language arts area, as well as a science unit
involving three lessons about kinds of animals. I also
worked one on one with a student to improve his
independent reading, performing three guided
reading lessons with him and several running records
to check for progress. Since I would like to teach 3rd
grade one day, I took special interest in how my
cooperative teacher set up her classroom rules,
routines and conducted behavior management. I did
spend one full day in this classroom so I could see
every subject and how a full day of school progresses.