I have been lucky enough to have gone on many field trips throughout my time in school. I have so many fun memories of different field trips, however, when I think back on what my best field trip was from the perspective of a future teacher one trip stands out above the rest. Listen to my video where I explain why my field trip to Farwell Canyon with my high school environmental club was the best most impactful field trip ever!

(If prompted, use the password “Field Trip” to access the video)

While my lesson went fairly well overall, there were definitely a few things that prevented my lesson from being as smooth as it could have been. For example, my lesson consisted of me explaining approximately 30 cell structures and types of cells – which is a lot of big words and big definitions for students to learn for the first time – so I was really trying to concentrate on explaining everything right and remembering all my speakers notes (my extra little tid-bits) that I wanted to share with the students. Because of this, I got a bit nervous and went through the whole presentation without taking many breaks. And while my presentation wasn’t rushed at all, I never gave time for them to fill in the blank labels of their cell diagrams! In my mind, I thought filling in the blanks would be a really simple thing to do so I didn’t think to pause and wait for them to fill it in, but a lot of students ended up getting caught between trying to listen to what I was saying and trying to write down the labels. So, inevitably, many students had missing blanks on their sheets that I had to help them fill in later in the lesson when I walked throughout the room. In my feedback from Brandy, she said that was the biggest thing I should focus on for my next lesson, and so I did.

During my afternoon class (of the same lesson), when I went through the presentation and when I introduced a new term, I pointed to where it was located on the cell diagram and I paused, giving them time to fill it in. While this pause did feel a bit awkward/unnatural at first, I quickly became accustomed to it. I found that a good visual cue to watch for was students’ pencils! As I stood in the front of the room and waited, I would scan the students to see if they were still writing or if they were finished and waiting. Once I saw that everyone had finished, I began explaining the term and giving examples. Then, I would move on to the next term and repeat! Looking back now this seems very simple, but it was a super beneficial learning experience that I had to go through! Now the “wait time” seems very obvious and natural and I can see the positive effects it has for the students.

My second lesson, which took place the following day, went significantly better than my first lesson. I felt way more relaxed and I had no nerves at all! I think it helped that my lesson was a bit more conversational as opposed to just reading out definitions. Some students actually brought up some great questions and it was cool to see some “light bulb” moments when I helped explain the answer. While the lesson went well, I think the hit was my “Reproduction Jeopardy”. In both classes the students really were engaged and excited to try to answer the jeopardy questions. I loved how much students interacted and applied their new knowledge in the game. Obviously I can’t do it all the time, and it will also depend on my students’ enthusiasm (as that will change from class to class), but I would like to do Jeopardy games again in my future classrooms!