Reflections on Teaching Experience
The Environmental Leadership Program’s Restoring Connections Team was a 6-month long commitment split up in halves. This first 3 months we partnered up to create our curriculum. This creative process was long and at times frustrating, but overall the endless editing and hard work made me proud of the final product. The second 3 months were spent out in the field with students. Throughout the spring we went out to Mount Pisgah Arboretum to implement our curriculum with kindergarteners and first graders. This 3-month long implementation was amazingly valuable. The main lessons I have taken away from this experience are adaptability, confidence, and compassion.
In the field, things didn’t always go according to plan. For example, on our very first field trip the weather was so stormy and cold that at lunch, which is only halfway through the field trip, the class’ teacher decided to cancel the rest of the day and return to school. The team and I were unsure as to what we should do, and since we’d promised these young students a full day of environmental education and fun, we returned to their classroom with them to continue teaching. The team and I had to be adaptable and improvise the rest of our lesson, but in the end it was worth it because it meant a lot to the students. |
This experience has also helped me learn how to be more confident. My first couple field trips and classroom visits felt very foreign and uncomfortable. I had never taught young students before and had never had a whole class to lead. However, I learned that confidence is key to keep control of the situation and create a positive experience for the students. There were times, like my first classroom visit, that I was not as confident. I would sometimes not know how to transition between activities or show that I was a little lost, and as soon as I did, the students would start to get antsy and loud. It took me little while to become more confident, but I’m glad I now understand that even if I don’t feel confident, I need to fake it until I make it.
Another lesson learned was compassion. In particular, I mean compassion for the students. On almost every field trip, there was a student who was harder to manage. For instance, there was a student in my group who would run too far ahead of the group, yell, talk over others, and ask about snacks and lunch consistently. This student would often derail me while I taught, which was frustrating because it got our entire group off track. It wasn’t until lunch, when I had some time to reflect, did I remember to be compassionate to this student. I realized that I had no idea who he was or what his life was like outside of that day. Maybe he never got to explore outside, or maybe he didn’t eat breakfast, or maybe he didn’t get enough attention at home. Whatever the case, this situation taught me to be kind and compassionate towards all the students who were a little harder to handle.
Another lesson learned was compassion. In particular, I mean compassion for the students. On almost every field trip, there was a student who was harder to manage. For instance, there was a student in my group who would run too far ahead of the group, yell, talk over others, and ask about snacks and lunch consistently. This student would often derail me while I taught, which was frustrating because it got our entire group off track. It wasn’t until lunch, when I had some time to reflect, did I remember to be compassionate to this student. I realized that I had no idea who he was or what his life was like outside of that day. Maybe he never got to explore outside, or maybe he didn’t eat breakfast, or maybe he didn’t get enough attention at home. Whatever the case, this situation taught me to be kind and compassionate towards all the students who were a little harder to handle.
Reflections on Collaborating with Community Partners
A huge indicator of how I was doing on these trips was how the students reacted and responded to me. First, I noticed that if I introduced an activity the way I would with adults, the young students were not inclined to do it. After some thought, I realized that this is because I wasn’t changing the tone of my voice or using my hands and body to show enthusiasm. In other words, I couldn’t try to sell an activity the same way to both young children and adults. From then on, I showed more enthusiasm by changing the way I talked and how I moved my hands, and the students immediately fed off my enthusiasm and had energy and motivation to continue. Second, the students had a tendency to run ahead of me on the trail. This was an issue because I didn’t want to lose any of them and there were also patches of poison oak all around the trail. The first few field trips I would just yell after them to come back. Students were less inclined to do as I said, and when they did, they seemed to think that I was scolding them. I asked my fellow teammates for tips on how to not scold them, and was given the tip to make staying behind me a game. From then on, the students would stay behind me because together, we made up a sandwich. I told them that I was the bread, the chaperone at the back was the other piece of bread, and they were all filling. Of course, I would tell them, if you go in front of me then it won’t a sandwich anymore, it’ll be a messy salad! The students loved this game and happily stayed behind me in a single file line from then on.
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Other sources to indicate the quality of my teaching were our community partners. Our partners were Adams Elementary School and Mount Pisgah Arboretum. After the first few field trips, teachers at Adams gave the input that our team should take on more leadership once we came into the classroom the morning of the trip. Before that, our team let the classroom teacher break students up into groups and prepare them to leave, so we decided to take their feedback and make a new plan. We developed roles for each week: who would talk to chaperones, who would make name tags, who would monitor the bathrooms, etc. This put each team member into a leadership role in the class and let the teacher aid as needed. Our other community partner was Mount Pisgah Arboretum. Two employees of Mount Pisgah worked with us throughout our 6-month project. Jenny Laxton and August Jackson were an integral part of our restoration project with first graders. During a pilot of the field trip, Jenny went through the restoration process with me and how to lead the students in this. She emphasized that invasive plants and not inherently evil or bad, but that they were hindering the growth of native species. This seemed like an important distinction, so I made sure to teach restoration to the students in the same format.
Reflections on Evaluations
The team’s project director and project manager, Katie Lynch and Kassandra Hishida, were also good indicators of how I was doing and what I could improve upon. During the first three months of the project, I had many family and health issues. For the most part, I kept this to myself. I didn’t want to inconvenience any team members or Katie, so I struggled alone for most of the term. By the end of the term I was a mess, so I decided to tell Katie this. Her response was compassionate and supportive, not judgmental or frustrated. Upon reflecting on that interaction, I realized that if I had communicated what I was going through with my team, Katie, and Kassandra earlier, I would have gotten the support I needed. For the rest of the project I tried to check in and communicate every week, which helped me and the team dynamics.
Something that Kassandra brought to my attention once we started our field trip pilots was my need to have everything under control. The day the team and I ran our first grade pilot was messy and overwhelming. Our team worked through issues with the curriculum we had created and realized we had to make many edits, but at the end of the day I was so frazzled by what hadn’t worked that I felt very concerned about taking the students out later that week. Every time something didn’t work in the field on our pilot, I became more and more anxious. After voicing my concerns about this to Kassandra and the rest of the team, she comforted me by letting me know we could edit the curriculum and that we could improvise on the real field trips. Though that was not comforting at the time, it did sink in along the course of our project. I reflected on that day and how when I hadn’t felt in control, I reacted negatively. This taught me to be more adaptable with field trip activities and conversations, as well as to try and let go of my need to be in control of every situation, because when teaching that is not going to happen.
Something that Kassandra brought to my attention once we started our field trip pilots was my need to have everything under control. The day the team and I ran our first grade pilot was messy and overwhelming. Our team worked through issues with the curriculum we had created and realized we had to make many edits, but at the end of the day I was so frazzled by what hadn’t worked that I felt very concerned about taking the students out later that week. Every time something didn’t work in the field on our pilot, I became more and more anxious. After voicing my concerns about this to Kassandra and the rest of the team, she comforted me by letting me know we could edit the curriculum and that we could improvise on the real field trips. Though that was not comforting at the time, it did sink in along the course of our project. I reflected on that day and how when I hadn’t felt in control, I reacted negatively. This taught me to be more adaptable with field trip activities and conversations, as well as to try and let go of my need to be in control of every situation, because when teaching that is not going to happen.