Field Experience Reflection

Emily Miles
Curriculum Design and Assessment
University of Saint Mary
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Field Experience Reflection: Amanda Adee-2nd Grade Teacher

Amanda Adee is a 2nd grade teacher at Mill Brooke Elementary in Olathe Kansas. She

runs her classroom in a gentle and purposeful manner. When I first walked into her room I

noticed that the students were quietly working at their desks, while classical music played softly

in the background. During this time, Mrs. Adee was circulating throughout the room in order to

check for student understanding and to encourage the wondering students to keep on task. After

observing for a couple of days, I noticed that Amanda never raised her voice and she was always

gentle but direct when interacting with her students. This amazed me! The more I learned about

Amanda, the more I realized that how much her teaching style reflected her gentle, calm, and

sincerely compassionate nature.

Over the course of my time in Mrs. Adees room I was able to see that regardless of who

she was talking to, Amanda always showed a genuine level of interest and empathy. In fact,

empathy for one another plays a major role in the learning process. Students need to learn how to

connect with each other so that they can build healthy relationships and develop social skills.

Mrs. Adee proved her self to be a wonderful example of modeling empathy and other social

skills to her students! Additionally, Amanda was intentional in setting healthy boundaries so that

her students wouldnt grow dependent upon her for everything. Amanda and I discussed, early on

in my observations, that 2nd graders still need to learn and practice social skills and this is why

boundaries and clear communication paired with trust and compassion are very important to the

success of a 2nd graders relationship with their peers and their teacher. I used to think that

constantly repeating directions was the normal best way for students to learn. Thankfully, I now

know that is not the case. In the future, I will establish borders that are healthy for the whole
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classroom family. I hope that my students will feel academically challenged, cared for, and safe

to take risks as they develop into life long learners and deep thinkers.

Classroom Management

Along with keeping a calm and gentle demeanor, Amanda always uses gentle reminders

like If you have a humming voice on please save it for recess. I loved that she didnt single out

a single child but made a general statement that most of the kids heard and addressed in

themselves. Even before seeing this technique, I have been correcting students by making

general statements. For example, if a student is sitting on their knees during carpet time, I would

say Thank you to those friends who are sitting on their pockets. It is neat to see the kids double

check themselves when I remind them of a certain desired behavior. Variety is also essential to

decreasing behavior problems. During my student teaching experience with middle school choir,

I was unable to get control of the rehearsal and felt completely worn out after each class period.

This was largely due to poor pacing, which was caused by a lack of content knowledge. Once I

started to become more self-assured and more knowledgeable about choral rehearsal techniques,

the behavior problems dramatically decreased and the students became more engaged in the

rehearsals. In Amandas classroom, she has subject specific routines, daily routines, and a weekly

routine that the class follows. One of my favorite daily routines is done after the class takes a

brain break. The lights are dimmed and a student leads the rest of the class in a series of deep

inhales and exhales. Amanda mentioned that this period of time gives her a few minutes to take

care of some house keeping before jumping into another lesson. I loved watching the students

during their brain break and calm down time, and I plan on using this combination to give the

students and myself a little break from academics.

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Another part of Amandas classroom management strategy is the way she arranges her

students in their desks and on the floor. Like stated before, students move from their desks down

to the carpet and to other spots in the room. When they are at the carpet, Amanda has them

placed very purposefully. The students who need more redirects and have trouble focusing are

stationed closest to her rocking chair. The students who may need a little extra help academically

but have no behavior concerns are placed in the middle and the students who are able to learn

quickly and have no behavior related issues are farthest away from Mrs. Adee. I remember

having classroom where the students dont have assigned spots on the floor. The lessons on the

carpet were always interrupted with accusations of an unwanted comment, too much touching,

and many other things. Without a doubt, I am going to implement spots on the rug and a line

order. I want the classroom to be peaceful, and this will help everyone get along and enjoy him

or herself.

Implementing Instruction

In Mrs. Adees room, the goal is to equip students to be problem solvers and classroom

leaders. One day, I was walking around the room, answering students questions, Amanda

noticed that I was not given the students a chance to discover the answer. She pulled me aside

and said that she likes to ask the students questions rather than giving them the answer so that

they will develop problem-solving skills and learn to ask their peers for help. I was amazed by

this common sense solution! So, after she mentioned this to me, I decided to be watch how her

questions were delivered to questioning students. After watching for a period of time, I learned a

new rule called the ask 3 before me rule. By following this rule, students will learn to search

for answers among their friends, textbooks, word walls, or even the iPad. This cuts back on the

work the teacher has to do when giving directions. In addition, Amanda uses word walls (which
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she calls word ponds because of the classs frog theme), in which the students write down new

words that they have learned during a lesson. The students became explorers in search of

knowledge and I think because of the curiosity modeled by Mrs. Adee, that the students will

grow into curious people who are on the road to becoming life long learners. Once again, I hope

to encourage my students to explore and learn on their own, I am blessed to have observed this

from Mrs. Adee.

To check for understanding, Mrs. Adee directs the students to use hand signs that will tell

her if they got it or nee to think again. I have always used the thumbs up or down idea, but I

think I will use the new hands signs because they effectively provide quick feedback for the

students and for the teacher. Another way that Amanda was able to get feedback was through the

turn and talk strategy. The students turn to their neighbor and discuss a question posed in the

activity. Mrs. Adee listens to see how students respond to the question. Depending on how the

students respond to the question, Amanda will either review the idea or dig deeper to move

students understanding to a greater depth.

Organizing for Instruction

Each lesson was organized with a clearly framed goal that had the students as the primary

focus. Amanda had a great way of timing each lesson so that it was just long enough to hold the

students attention. When students were finished with their work, they were encouraged to take a

look at the Im done now what? board for ideas on what they can do until the class is ready to

move on. This was a great tool that I hope to use in the future. Unfortunately, as I have been in

many situations where the students are constantly asking me what they can do when they are

finished. In the past, I always answered questions repeatedly, but now I want to work on asking
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well-crafted questions to get my students thinking and also have a series of tasks they could do

while the rest of the class is finishing a project.

So after observing Amanda Adee and her wonderful second grade class, I can now see

how important it is to be intentional in every area of teaching. I learned that students need to

know the big idea, whether in an anchor chart, or as a simple statement, and that empathy for

others is a key player in students academic and social learning. There are many more ideas that I

learned from Mrs. Adee, but the two mentioned above are the most important. I hope to build on

the basic ideas mentioned above and to become a teacher who inspires her students and colleges

alike.