Reflection

Edel 3250 Field Experience Service Learning Project

Our cooperating teacher was Mrs. Peterson at Foothills Elementary School in Salem. There were 32 students in her class. The school community has students from Elk Ridge, Salem, and Woodland Hills. There are 608 total students; 590 of the 608 are classified as white students. 18 are classified as being a minority; 2 Asian, 4 Black, 8 Hispanic, 3 Indian, and 1 Islander.

We had a very good relationship with our teacher. She helped us in anyway that she could. She was very flexible with what we needed to do and made sure that we had time to fulfill our school requirements. We also helped her with grading, putting posters on the walls, and helping the students in her classroom. We would honestly consider her a friend at this point.

Mrs. Peterson said that she really liked our digital story that we created. She said that it looked like we took a lot of time to do it, and that it might also be a fun thing for her students to learn how to do.
She also thought we did a pretty good job on this lesson. She loved that one of us dressed up, and showed exactly how the Ancient Greeks used to pray and worship their Gods and Goddesses. She also like the added touch of the digital story that we created. She did have a few tips to help with classroom management, and to help the students stay engaged.

The training session went well. We had popcorn and dried apricots while we went through instructions on how to make a digital story using iMovie. Mrs. Peterson seemed to catch on pretty quickly to the process. She said that she thought it would be useful, and liked the different options that the iMovie program offered.
This assignment caused us some mixed emotions. We were worried about encroaching on our cooperating teacher’s personal time. It seemed like it could easily be viewed as an imposition rather than a help to her. It is kind of hard because it does not seem like there’s a way for the teacher to politely decline without leaving us in the lurch in terms of completing the assignment. It would be helpful if there was an alternative option in the event the teacher did not want the training.

As it turned out, our cooperating teacher was open to the idea and was very clear about what would be helpful to her. She had us write up instructions, so we could move quickly through the process while leaving a reference sheet for her to refer back to if she forgot how to do it. She was well acquainted with computers and caught on really quickly. She said she was glad to have gained the knowledge on a new possible teaching forum and would likely make a digital story of her own at some point.
In our particular situation, the experience seemed to be worth it to the teacher. She did mention that other teachers might not feel the same. She was happy for the 20 minute exposure we gave her but would have been frustrated if it had taken a lot of time.

Creating, sharing, and teaching the digital story had its benefits for us as students. It gave us a chance to gain a more thorough understanding of the topic we taught as well as giving us exposure to iMovie and all its fun possibilities. Through the experience we also gained an opportunity to give back to our cooperating teacher. The down side of the experience was the amount of time the assignment took. With teachers’ demanding schedule, it’s hard to imagine that this particular skill will be widely used.