Field Experience Interview

Jessica Fancy

Professor Patti Sullivan

Field Experience Interview

Third Grade Classroom

            Mr. Smith’s classroom is located in Bradford, New Hampshire at Bradford Elementary School. This school is located about 30 minutes away from Concord. I have been doing my work study and internship/field experience at this school since freshmen year in my undergraduate degree. When I first started going to this school I started in the fourth grade, and it turned out to be very rewarding. I got a sense of how they used technology in that moment. All the teachers at the school have their own individual websites in which the parents can go to and see what their child’s classroom is like and you can even get to know the teacher a little more. Most teachers will keep with their websites on a daily bases, so if there are any announcements the parent can check the website and the announcement will be there. That means that we are saving trees and instead of sending paper home with announcements, parents can see it right on the computer screen and not have to worry about if their child forgot the paper at school or not. At one point I was in charge of keeping up with the website for one of the teachers.

            When I first walked into Mr. Smith’s third grade classroom I immediately saw two flat screen computers, a projector screen, a smart board, and a computer cart that holds 30 lap top computers. When I was in third grade myself we never had all this technology and never used computers in our classroom. So when I walked into this classroom I was surprised to see all the students using technology. There were a few things that I observed and talked about with the teacher that really had me surprised.

            First, as part of their math lessons some days they use iPod touches. There is enough for each student in the classroom so no one has to share. The teacher will choose what game they want the students to play. Some may think that it is a game to play for fun, but it is both it is fun, but it also helps them practice their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. The cool thing about the games is the teacher can go and set it to either easy, medium, or hard depending what level they are on. Another cool thing they have on the computers is type to learn. And the students will start when they go into first grade and it will go all the way through until they are done with fifth grade. The students go through different levels and it will help them get better and better with their typing. At the end, they will basically be a pro at typing on the computer and it teaches them to type without looking at the keyboard. They also have study island and khan academy. These two are basically for math. It is almost like Study Island where they will be going through levels, and each level is a little more difficult as they go up. The math will test there addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. But will also test money counting, word problems, basic algebra and basic geometry.

            After talking to the teacher about these different programs, he has told me that he likes all of them. He says it is very helpful to all the students, because it helps all the students depending on what level they are on. Another good thing about these programs is it can be very confidential. No student will know what level another student is on. So if a student feels embarrassed that they are still on a lower level, they really don’t have to worry because no one will ever know besides the teacher.