FIELD WORK FOR EDUC 500 – Spring 2022
Field work, which is required by New York State for teacher certification, is also a great opportunity to network with schools, principals and teachers, which will benefit you as you search for student teaching placements and future employment. Represent Mercy well and be professional!
1. Locate a school at which you can conduct some observations. This can be your neighborhood school, your child’s school, or a school at which you or a family member works. You can find out about the school using the district website or any other webpages or social media from the school. This online research can amount toward your field work hours.
2. If you have access to the school, either in person, or on their virtual learning platform, you can ask permission from the Principal or Assistant Principal to observe in a classroom or online. If you do not have access to a school, you can complete the “virtual field work alternative” below. You should not use the same hours for other classes. Field work is tracked in an electronic system, which we will access later in the semester, and each course must have its own distinct hours.
3. Plan ahead for your observation and make a list of things you’ll look for. These should be connected to concepts or topics we are discussing in class. You should observe in 2 different schools or classrooms within the same school. A list of possible focus topics is in the syllabus on page 15.
4. On the day of your observation, show up dressed professionally. Observe and take notes with your list nearby to note connections. If an observation is not possible, or in addition to an observation, you may conduct a brief interview with a teacher, school administrator, parent, guardian, or school coordinator about the school’s approach. This can count toward field work hours too.
5. ALL observations (10 hours) should be completed by Week 12 at the latest. These 10 hours can be any combination of at least 2 of these options: actual in-person observations, the virtual observations using the videos, interviews
with school personnel and/or virtual research on the district/school.
I will ask for periodic updates. There will be a major paper based on these field work hours, so this is a major component of the course. I will provide details on the written assignments later this semester (but you can always get a sneak peek in the syllabus). At the end of the semester, you will be required to log your Field Work hours. Have fun with your adventure out in the real (or virtual) world!
In this course, you will be reading and learning a lot about the foundations of education, including theories, philosophies, and laws that have influenced how children are educated in the US. This foundational field work assignment gives you an opportunity to conduct an investigation of what really goes on in schools. You will begin by selecting a specific topic that interests you and that you can investigate by conducting your preliminary field work assignment, which includes observations and interviews. For example, you might choose a topic such as:
· Technology in the Classroom
· Student-Teacher Relationships
· Parent-Teacher Relationships
· Classroom Management and Discipline
· Diversity and/or Multicultural Education
· Gender Equity in the Classroom
· Single sex schools vs coed schools
· The Role of the Arts in the School
· School Environment (physical structure, facilities, school culture, etc.)
· Special Education
· After-School Programming (arts, athletics, academic support, etc.)
· School Management (role of the administration)
Next, you will select two schools where you will conduct your fieldwork observations. You may elect to compare two public schools, a private school and a public school, a public school and a charter school, etc. Once you identify a topic and select the schools, you will visit the schools and conduct observations and interviews with school staff (10 hours total). You will then analyze your observation and interview data. You will compare and contrast the two schools and relate what you found in “the real world” to what you read about in the textbook. You will discuss how what you leaned will inform your future work as an educator and a member of a school community.
Elements of the Assignment
Here’s what you’ll need to do to complete the assignment:
Visit two schools
· Use the Observation Permission Forms
· Conduct an observation study at each school
· Take objective field notes
Interview at least one adult at each school
· Do NOT interview a minor!
· In preparation for the interviews, you will want to write down a number of open-ended interview questions that you believe will help you get the information you need to investigate your topic. This will also ensure that you remember to ask the interviewees at both schools the same basic questions.
o Before conducting your interview, and after you have had a chance to observe the school for a little while, you may see things that prompt you to add a few questions to your list.
· If the person you interview is comfortable being recorded, you may want to record your interview. This will help you remember what was said as you write your report.
· Take notes while interviewing. Immediately after the interview write down any information you might have missed while doing the interview.