Field Post 1: Noble Elementary School

   The trip to Noble Elementary School opened, and closed, my eyes to the different fields of education. The field I am perusing is a high school history position. Observing an elementary class further pushed me in the direction of high school. Throughout my time in a 4th grade science class, there are additional topics that need to be tough in order for the students to do well later on in there student lives.
   Developing basic skills, and teaching/refining problem solving skills are a big focus in the elementary school level. Repeated reminders are needed to keep the students focused. "Raise your hand," and "Look in the book" were two things that were repeated quite often. Having to remind children to speak in turn is not the area I am looking to improve with my future students. Along with having the same question from nearly every student when its typed out on the handouts is an area where I would not want to have to deal with every day. Constant micro-management is required for students to succeed and develop the problem solving skills needed in higher education, and real world problems.
   Lastly, a constant reward system is needed to keep the kids attention. While observing this 4th grade class, I realized that a lot of the kids enthusiasm toward the topics were forged by the reward they knew they would get if they reached 100 points. On the SmartBoard in the front of the room, each students name was listed, and had a number about the avatars head. This number represented the points earned by those students. A pizza party is the reward at the end of 2 weeks, and if the student hasn't reached their 100 points, they do not get to participate in the event. When the time comes for me to teach to kids, I do not want them to look at the work as a busy work to get a piece of pizza out of it, I want them to enjoy the topics being tough. This is something that can only be consistent with other age groups who do not need the reward system to get engaged.