Lots of work!

Since my placement was later than the rest of the class this Thanksgiving week has been a push to get all the information needed for the class complete.  As I look back at the 15 hours of classroom experience, I do feel that versus breaking it into 2 hour sessions as suggested by the school, 8 hour sessions are much better.  It is much like 1st date versus 3rd date.  By the end of the day, the students were acting like I had been there always.  The students in the classroom are much more likely to allow you to be involved.  Colleges need to do the placement of all students within a 2 week time frame.  Other college students have had 1 1/2 months to complete the assignment where I have a week.  You could not work ahead since you needed to be in the classroom and what age you were working with needed to be determined.  Aside from these items, this requirement of being in the classroom was very rewarding.

Busy life!  We have been working hard in class to get lesson plans complete and to actually do field experience.  My field experience was awesome!  I worked with 1st graders who were so eager to learn and just a joy to be around.  I actually had the opportunity to teach for 2 1/2 hours for my first time.  The student were sad that I would not be back the next day.  We worked with grinding corn between stones, made head dresses, made a tipi and understood what all the poles in a tipi mean,

15 Tipi Poles Meanings

1)      Obedience

2)      Respect

3)      Humility

4)      Happiness

5)      Love

6)      Faith

7)      Kinship

8)      Cleanliness

9)      Thankfulness

10)   Sharing

11)   Strength

12)   Good Child Rearing

13)   Hope

14)   Ultimate Protection

15)   Control Flaps

We learn by listening to traditional stories; by listening to our parents or guardians, our fellow students and our teachers.

We also got to touch arrowheards and see animal furs.  

We loved watching a POW WOW from our state being performed. 

As a class we ate corn bread and buffalo jerky.  We all really liked the jerky.

This experience was very positive.