HOME > PREPARATION & REFLECTION > ALTERNATE FIELD EXPERIENCES

If you currently work in a school setting you may be able to receive alternative credit for some of your field experience assignments. Each field experience requires that you work within the pedagogical focus at each grade level.

If you are taking:

• 3201: your alternative field experience must be in a pre-k setting (PK, K, 1st grade)
• 3317: your alternative field experience must be in an elementary setting (2nd or 3rd grade)
• 4318: your alternative field experience must be in an upper elementary school or middle school setting (4th, 5th, and 6th grade)

In order to qualify to receive alternative QUEST 1 field experience assignment approval:

• Complete ALL criminal background forms by 8/30/2010
• Submit an email to QUEST1field@uh.edu no later than 8/30/2010 Please put “Alternative Field Experience” in the subject line
• In the body of the email state:
  • Your name
  • Your course number/professor
  • Brief description of your current position. Include the name of the school, ages/grade of children, the hours per week you work and your job duties.

You will receive a return email no later than one week afterwards. Please note that depending on the extent of your involvement, some positions may satisfy only a partial amount of the assignment, meaning you may still be required to complete some field experience hours in other schools.

Four Field Experiences are Required.
After completing your alternative field experience assignment, you MUST:

• Submit an observation log showing eight hours of observation time.
• Submit a teaching log describing eight hours of direct student teaching time.
• Submit four reflections of your observation and/or teaching experiences for the semester using the reflection response page.
• Complete four extended reflection questions, as appropriate to your course.

3201: 

• Choose one of the competencies you have discussed in CUIN 3201. Give examples that support the competency from something you observed/experienced during your field experience. Include a discussion that translates how the knowledge of this competency can strengthen your teaching abilities. You must choose a different competency after each field experience.

3317: 

• Question 1: While observing your class did you notice any students who seemed to have difficulty keeping up with the instruction in the class? Describe one of these students and explain what you might have done as a teacher to make sure that this student understood the curriculum, assignment or requirements for being successful in this activity.
• Question 2: Did you notice a student in this class who appeared to have a disability? If so, describe the parameters of the disability or individual difference. Was it physical, mental or emotional, or a combination? Do you think that it was a disability or an individual difference? What aspects of your observation led you to this conclusion?
• Question 3: Describe one lesson that you observed your teacher teach (or the lesson that you taught). How might you modify this lesson to meet the individual learning needs of a heterogeneous group of students? What might you do to enrich the assignment for gifted learners? What might you do to reteach (or add concrete examples) for students who did not initially grasp the concepts? What might you do to compensate for sensory losses such as deafness or blindness?

4318: 

• Question 1. What model (from 4375 if you have had the class) or classroom management approach is being used in your observed classroom? How effective is its implementation and what approach would you use?
• Question 2. On a scale from "completely positive" to "completely negative" how would you describe the teaching and learning environment?
• Question 3. How often are student on and off task and what approach/model or system would you use to increase student engagement and connectedness.
• Question 4. What is the management philosophy used in the observed classroom and how does it compare to your philosophy of classroom management?

A hard copy of the logs,the experience reflections, and the extended reflections should be submitted to Amber Meuth (in-box) in Farish Hall office 256.

Due NO LATER THAN 11/30/2010– NO EXCEPTIONS!
You can turn it in sooner; this is recommended.