As I look back on this semester in Fieldwork, I can certainly see different instances of academic development through the course of the class. In the first half of the semester, my development was based primarily around the fantastic experience of getting to teach in a classroom. Teaching a lesson in a Fifth-grade classroom opened up areas of development for me especially with regard to the use of rhetorical strategies to captivate the classroom. I found myself reflecting while I was in the classroom on some of my first classes at VMI, in which I learned basic rhetorical strategies. I employed those strategies, unwittingly at first, to aid in keeping the attention and engagement of the class. For example, using the “Think Aloud” method of teaching strengthens the ethos of the teacher by allowing the class to think that they are witnessing authentic invention of ideas. That authenticity engages the class and pushes them to think on their own.

In the second half of the semester, after the transition to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I saw another kind of academic development. I struggled to remain on top of the class in an environment in which I was no longer subject to a disciplined schedule or lifestyle. Academics in an unstructured environment were difficult for me, especially because I am used to the structure of VMI and the structure that I had in high school at an all-male military boarding school. However, being forced to maintain a disciplined academic schedule on my own became an enormous developmental experience for me. I realized that this is how most college students and all graduate-level students are compelled to conduct their work. Being able to maintain the discipline of VMI by my own means is a skill that I will have to learn if I am going to pursue education after VMI, which I would like to do.

So, my academic development this semester was both in (a) realizing and implementing knowledge from other classes within the English major at VMI and (b) developing my ability to conduct academic work outside of a regimented lifestyle.

From the Outside:

Rockbridge County, nestled into the breadbasket of the Shenandoah in mid-western Virginia, is the home of a particularly inspired and forward-thinking public educational program. This program is, of course, driven by passionate and informed educators such as Coleen Cosgriff, a fifth-grade teacher at Central Elementary School in Lexington, Virginia. 

Cosgriff, the subject of this article, has the opportunity to teach a very special group of students. The location of Central Elementary School, just within the limits of quiet Lexington, draws an eclectic crowd of students. These students might be called “city kids,” though Lexington is not exactly a bustling metropolis, but these small-town residents commingle in the classrooms with a few students from the rural surrounding areas of Rockbridge. Consequently, the student body presents a mix of students with both rural and urban backgrounds (and resources), a combination found only in such tucked-away havens as the Shenandoah.

From the Inside:

“Project Based Learning” by Suzie Boss, a textbook for the Fieldwork class and an example of Cosgriff’s technique.

Cosgriff approaches this diverse and unique teaching opportunity often by adopting a teaching style known as “project-based learning,” in which the instructor steps back and acts as a facilitator for the students’ owncreative thinking. Cosgriff responded to questions we posed to her in an email, saying, “I hope that when it comes time to plan their project[s] that they have a sense that I am stepping back and becoming a facilitator. I won’t have all the answers, but I will have some “tools” to offer. I will give them some ideas, but each class is going to have to decide what they do with their time.” In this way, somewhat out of the norms of traditional, more dictatorial teaching styles, Cosgriff hopes to unleash creativity and learning potential of each student in order to allow for their unique situations, thoughts, resources, and experiences to come forth into the classroom in a beautiful way.

A snapshot of the classroom depicting the class pet, a bearded dragon

This form of project-based learning is becoming more relevant in the thought surrounding education in the United States today. Coleen Cosgriff is leading the charge into a “hands-off” teaching style which may very well become the prevalent method of 21st century educators, all from her quiet station in Shenandoah.

Through the classroom visits, teach-in development and expeditionary learning experience as a whole, I learned a lot about the difficulties of teaching and communicating academic material that may seem a bit complex to younger students. In addition to academic and personal lessons, I gained a better understanding of my purpose and impact on the greater community, with the students, through health.

Through my initial visits, I witnessed the short attention span of the kids and their lack of attention to the main purpose of their homeroom, which is to get work done. However, towards the end of my first visit, the students were given the chance to ask my partner and I questions about any topic they wanted. Through those exchanges, I witnessed two things, kids who enjoyed physical activities but also individuals who seemed to be fairly overweight. I concluded that the only explanation for their negative health attribute must be a poor diet. Nutrition is something that I have become very passionate about due to my own experiences with being overweight as a kid. And so I ventured into trying to explain to these kids, through my teach in, the health lessons I slowly figured out for myself. The main point I wanted to get across was to always critically thinking about your food choices, or as I like to call it your fuel, and that different fueled effects different individuals differently! That is a confusing topic and one that not many individuals want to come to terms with, however, I believe it to be one of the most important realization in my own health journey.

I also gained a better understanding of my own limitations through this expeditionary learning experience. Even though I already understood the difficulties of communication, I figured out even more so that trying to convey a message, or lesson, to young students who are not familiar with the concepts is quite difficult. Also, trying to teach a complex health philosophy from a remote location is even more difficult. Specifically, it took me a couple drafts and revision with my teach-in in order to formulate my points in a way that young students should hopefully understand while also being entertaining.

Lastly, in addition to simply offering students’ new knowledge and different perspectives, I wanted to offer students these health perspectives to enable them to influence their environment, both within the classroom and in the greater Rockbridge Community. Through the knowledge and perspectives that I provide, hopefully, each student would take what they acquired into their communities and be a positive source of change. And if they don’t fully comprehend the points I tried to get across, then I hopefully planted a seed to be foster by someone, or some other experience, later in their lives. Correspondingly, I saw my influence in the community and the school environment as attempting to encourage or normalize conversations about nutrition, health issues and different health philosophies. I believe teachers and community leaders typically shy away from discussing these issues, like childhood obesity, due to the fragile self-esteem of young people, especially when the young individual is overweight. However, I believe that we should make nutrient and a healthy lifestyle a daily and common topic of discussion in the classroom to both motivate and educate students constantly on issues that affect them for a lifetime.