...of a Level III Field Experience Participant!

Hi Folks,
My name is Vanessa and I want to tell all of you about my level III field experience in a 2nd grade classroom at West Bend-Mallard Elementary School!  If you are studying to become a teacher at UNI, you will go through 4 levels of field experience.  There is level I, II, III and IV (student teaching)!  I am a senior so I am nearing the end of my program!

The classroom I was in all week! :)

Anyways, I'll proceed with my blog!  I traveled to Mallard, Iowa to be with the 2nd grade class there.  The welcome sign going into Mallard says, "We're a bunch of friendly ducks," and let me tell you, it's true!  The family I stayed with and the entire school faculty were so kind and welcoming!  Everyday I was in the morning announcements highlighting that I and another UNI student were there for the week! The 2nd grade class was tons of fun and I enjoyed getting to know them.  There were 19 students and 18 of them were boys!  My knowledge of superheroes and Star Wars proved to be very helpful!  My cooperating teacher taught me so much and she sent me back with a TON of resources and ideas!  What I enjoyed the most about my experience was that I gained the confidence that I needed to student teach.  I am thankful that UNI has given me the opportunities to be in many classrooms and working with an ample amount of students, however, I still had never experienced what a full day and week look like in a classroom.  I have been able to apply almost everything that I have learned in my classes and relate it back to my experience.

As well as having a wonderful experience in the classroom, I was fortunate enough to stay with a lovely family for the week!  My host family took me to pick pumpkins out to take back with me.  We also went to the Grotto in West Bend, Iowa, to the playoff volleyball game (which West Bend-Mallard won) and to see their puppet ministry practice at their church!  The ceilings were rather low in the gym so when the volleyball hit the ceiling, it was still in play! I have never seen that happen before but the four matches were rather exciting!  It was the best experience I have ever had!  Now I can look forward to my student teaching semester that still seems so far away from now!
~Vanessa, STAR

I just LOVED this calendar activity!  One of the many things I took away from the week I was there! :D