Teaching Reflection 1

The only teaching experience that I had the opportunity to serve this week was the Feathered Frenzy. I have always been excited about birds, so I was looking forward to this practicum day. The day went as many of the teaching days have, but it did seem that it was hard to keep the student's attention. There were many times at the stations where it seemed like they didn't care what I was saying, they only wanted to play with whatever was in front of them. I had the second grade age group (7 year olds). The hike was much different, in that they would be attentive to the lessons I was going through.

One of my favorite parts of the day happened near Onion Bottom. We were scouting a pileated woodpecker and I asked the kids if they remembered Woody Woodpecker. A few did. We started making a laughing noise, and the pileated responded. The kids really got a kick out of this, and it was hard to get them to move on. Around to the other side of Onion Bottom and we saw a huge water snake and several bull frogs and a blackbird singing above. It was a grand moment. All of this ended with a finale at the observation deck: three groups converged together to see dozens of water snakes and frogs swimming in the water below.

If I could change anything about the day it would be to talk about dinosaurs. Instead of ignoring science and history, I think it would have been incredible to talk about the history of birds, and how a majority consensus of paleontologists think that modern birds are living remnants of a line of theropods. How cool for young children, who are already excited about dinosaurs and birds, to find out that they are linked through evolution. There is no debate among credible scientists regarding evolution; it seems dishonest to ignore this, or worse, teach random myths in its stead. I do understand that the group specifically requested no talk of scientific fact evolution, and that our primary goal is to get kids excited about being outside, and excited about the natural world. And yet, how short-changed these children will be once they get out of their homeschool group and into the real world. As an educator, I respected their request; as a scholar, I can only shake my head.