My Experience at

Johnson Elementary
Jeffrey Bienasz

For my 20 required hours of field experience for Education 1100, I have had the pleasure
of being an assistant for the gifted section of 3rd and 4th graders at Johnson Elementary. Working
through Project Care I was assigned to Ms. Bs class starting February and ending May of the
2017 spring semester, over which I completed over 25 hours on site.

My time there was fantastic to say the least, after the first day I already asked if I could
come more than once a week. The children took to me right off the bat too, nicknaming me after
a cheese like they did for themselves (I chose Big Cheese since I am taller than all of them),
and were instantly comfortable with my advice and my help.

For the first few weeks I observed and helped the teacher and the students when I could,
assisting with work problems or ensuring students stayed on task. The classroom had an
admirable amount of respect for everyone there, while still being relaxed and fun. The children
were all remarkable students, hardworking and smart. Left to work independently most of the
time, the kids worked on assignments with often little to no prompting from the teacher or
myself, and many did extra projects in their free time when their weekly assignments were
done. Some of which were presentations and plays, which I was more than happy to be a part of!

After my first few weeks it was clear two of the boys had advanced in math past the rest
of the class, and Ms B offered for me to take some of the math workbooks home, to make little
lesson plans to challenge and progress them forward in preperation of the upcoming PARCC
test. Using her books and the Engage NY website we covered 5th and 6th grade math (some
middle school level stuff too), the skills including algebra, triginometry, and operations. I
planned questions, examples, and some instruction for them for 6 weeks, which they handled
incredibly well! They learned faster than I anticipated and would constantly ask for harder
questions. Their enthusiasim and affinity for math was inspiring, and we continued our math
sessions well past the PARCC tests. The experience was great, the boys progress was nearly
palpable, and I got to learn more about teaching in itself, seeing how some explanations and
methods worked better and how others didnt.

Overall I absolutely loved my time at Johnson, the class and the enviroment being
incredibly fun and friendly, the teacher and the children all sweethearts. Seeing the structure of
how Ms B worked, along with my own attempt at instruction was an invaluable experience, that I
certainly never thought I would get in my first semester of education class. Part of me really
wishes that this semester didnt have to end.