field work reflections 

Throughout my term teaching in this program I have learned about what it takes to be an effective teacher, and how I can improve my own teaching style. I have been working with three fourth grade classrooms, facilitating lessons for one class and supporting in the other two, implementing interdisciplinary and bilingual lessons about the migratory birds that travel between Oregon and Guanajuato. Together our team of 8 of us worked to create a total of 18 lesson plans, we taught 40 classes among 3 grades, led 3 field trips and served 8 teachers. We spent 30 hours with our 188 students, and the class which I facilitated had 22 students. There are many teaching skills I learned about winter term that seemed incredibly simple, such as moving around the classroom, using attention getters, asking one question at a time, and having students talk more than you talk at them. However I have learned that implementing these skills takes practice. One of the biggest takeaways I have from participating in this program is the importance of sparking the interest of students. Learning should be fun, especially when the topic is something as fascinating, beautiful and important as environmental education. Our lessons were guided by the awareness to action framework, which states that before we call students to take action to address the issues in the world, we first must make them aware of the things we wish to protect. Developing an ethic of care and a sense of stewardship in students is important, but it begins with allowing them to experience and enjoy nature. 

Overall I think our lessons went very well. In the beginning we had some issues with the timing of our lessons and finding the level that our classes were at, but thanks to our experiences and the feedback we received we were able to improve throughout the course. Students seemed to really enjoy the time we spent with them, they were very engaged and seemed genuinely interested in learning more about migratory birds and animals in general. If I were to do this project again, I would put much more focus on the use of Spanish and emphasis on cross cultural connections with our partnered schools in Guanajuato.

evaluations

One of the most valuable aspects of this experience working with Aves Compartidas was the feedback I received, as it helped me improve every week by getting valuable opinions about what went well and what could be improved. I received feedback from my fellow facilitators, our community partners, as well as our professor Katie Lynch and our graduate educator (GE) Helena Virga. 

From my fellow facilitators, some of the most consistent feedback I received was that the students seemed to really enjoy the lessons, but would sometimes get off track and talk over me, so they encouraged me to use a more authoritative voice. I feel I did improve in this regard as I later received positive feedback from Maestra Mojica, the fourth grade teacher, who said I did well at using a “loud teacher voice”. Another helpful piece of feedback I received was that I was standing at the front of the classroom too much, so in subsequent lessons I made an effort to move around the classroom more, something I assumed would be easy but actually required some practice to get used to doing. Another recurring theme in the feedback I received and gave to myself was my use of Spanish. In the first three lessons I think I did a good job of incorporating Spanish and trying to find the right level of Spanish for the class, however with the outdoor lessons and field trip my use of Spanish could be improved. 

Another way we could have improved our program this year is by providing parents with an opportunity to provide feedback, On the day we taught lesson five, one of the parents who saw me outside between lessons asked me if we were the bird people, and said her son always came home excited after we taught our lessons and told her what they had learned about. We also received some positive feedback from chaperones on our field trips, and future years would benefit from having feedback forms not only for teachers but for parents and chaperones as well. As far as feedback from teachers, Maestra Mojica said she liked that we included a slide with our agenda for the lesson so students knew what to expect. She also liked that I would check in with students and assert the pace by letting students know when it is time to move on. She said we did well by reminding students to raise their hands, using attention getters and giving clear instructions. For areas we could improve upon she suggested thanking students for raising their hands to remind those who forget of expectations. We were able to meet with our community partner coordinator with the Willamette-Laja Twinning Partnership after she attended our fourth grade field trip at Mt. Pisgah Arboretum to discuss how we could improve in the future. Unfortunately we did not have much coordination with the partnership beyond our initial meeting in Spring, which is something that could be improved for future years in order to increase the connections students are able to make across cultures. However she seemed very pleased overall with how the program had turned out and gave us some helpful advice to improve the framing of our field trip for future years. 

My professor and GE gave me the feedback of needing to work on commanding the room and keeping the entire class on the same page. I learned a lot about community based and student centered learning winter term and applied those concepts to my teaching this spring, however by letting students lead too much I allowed the classroom to at times stray into multiple conversations. By commanding the room and requiring a quiet hand for students to speak I can more effectively center students while keeping the whole classroom on the same page. Helena said I was good with timing, flexibility, used Spanish well by having students repeat or guess vocabulary, but noted that I would sometimes ask more than one question at a time which could confuse or distract students. She also noted that I would sometimes ask a question before I had everyone's attention and suggested giving instructions before passing out materials rather than doing it at the same time. Katie appreciated that I encouraged critical thinking and empathy building and that we incorporated kinesthetic movement into lessons through activities such as migration tag. She suggested increasing my use of Spanish and having students repeat vocabulary as well as cutting students off who are starting to let their thoughts turn into a ramble. Another helpful suggestion was to notice who is speaking and who is not and to try to encourage participation from those who tend to speak less. 

All the feedback I have received has been invaluable and while I still have much to improve upon as a new educator I feel I have improved exponentially thanks to this experience.