Junior unified childhood/special education major (with a concentration in communications) Katy Northrup doesn’t student teach until next year, but she garnered plenty of teaching experience during her January Field Period.

Northrup conducted the month-long internship with Ryann Hughes’ fifth grade class at Homer Brink Elementary in Endwell.

“The elementary school I was at was one of two elementary schools (pre-K through grade 5) in the district,” said Northrup. “[The district] is more rural than the district I attended, so it was a change for me.”

Hughes’ class was comprised of 21 students, three of them special needs students “with IEPs (individual education plans),” and two students classified as needing remedial services. In addition to the teacher, there were two classroom aides to assist the students with IEPs.  

“This was my structured Field Period,” said Northrup. “Education students are required to complete a structured Field Period after they’ve taken their methods courses. The structured Field Period involves teaching three lessons in different subject/content areas.”

Northrup set out to teach a math, science and English-language arts (ELA) lesson.

The math lesson she devised and taught involved “simplifying fractions” and introduced the students to the “greatest common factor” concept.

“The first thing I did was show them some pictures and ask what they had in common,” said Northrup. “I then explained that numbers also have things in common. I put pairs of numbers up on the board and we went through the steps used to reduce fractions together. They then had to complete four problems on a worksheet. One of the problems seemed to give quite a few of them some trouble, so I put it up on the board and we went through how it could be reduced further.”

Northrup’s science lesson focused on “constellations in the night sky.” She began by asking the students to look under their desks. There, Northrup had placed colored stars that she used to divide the class into small groups “to get them used to working with different people.”

Northrup laid out six constellations seen in the night sky on an 11 x 17 foot piece of blue paper. Most of the stars were yellow, but she used different colors to point out “special stars.”

She then asked the students to go back to their seats and draw their favorite constellation. She asked for volunteers to tell the class which constellation was their favorite and why.  

“I used the lesson as a precursor to our trip to the star lab (a giant dome with stars projected all around it), which was held at the other elementary school in the district,” said Northrup.

In ELA, Northrup led a Bunnicula unit in which she described the elements of the mystery genre (and constructed “cubes” with the elements on them) and how to make predictions when reading a mystery novel (story mapping was also done). In addition, she incorporated vocabulary words in the lesson and reading comprehension as she and the students in her group took turns reading aloud together.  

But, Northrup didn’t just teach her lessons. She participated in all of the goings-on of Hughes’ class. One of the highlights was a writer’s conference that brought a judge, television and newspaper reporters, an Emergency Medical Service (EMS) worker, an author, and police officer—to name a few—together to talk to the students about the importance of good writing skills in their careers.

Her proudest moment was when one of the students who had been classified as needing remedial services when she began the Field Period was “declassified” while she was there.

“Because he was declassified and no longer receiving services, I spent more one-on-one time working with him to help him improve his writing and math skills,” said Northrup.

Having students with special needs in the classroom showed Northrup “how I’ll need to modify my teaching so that they can stay on track with everyone else and not feel like outsiders.”

Northrup liked the small school atmosphere, which seemed to attribute to the students’ “respectfulness, mindfulness, and genuine concern for others.”

Her post-graduation plan is to move back home and substitute teach while she pursues a master’s degree.

Substitute teaching will seem like old habit after the experience in Endwell.

“Many times, when Ryann was out, I got to lead the class because I knew what was going on,” said Northrup, who gained exposure to substitute plans.

If her ability to lead the classroom is anything like her Field Period presentation skills (Northrup created a PowerPoint presentation and photo slideshow set to music as well as a photo scrapbook), which wowed Assistant Professor of Education Colleen Ribble (who taught Northrup’s Integrated Methods course), Northrup will find success in her field.

-- Tanya Cornell-Kestler