Fieldwork Feedback for the Future

The month of October was used for fieldwork in my social studies methods class.  The class was divided into four groups.  Within our groups we created three different types of lessons.  The first lesson  was a direct instruction lesson.  The second was an inquiry lesson, and the last lesson that we taught was a cooperative lesson.
The lesson planning process was different for this experience than past lesson planning because I was not creating the lessons alone.  I was working with three other classmates to create the lessons that we performed for the fifth grade class.  This was my first time creating a group lesson plan.  One of the biggest surprises to me was how hard it was to find time to meet with my group members.  Two of us lived on campus and two commuted.   Between work, class, and extracurricular activities we all were very busy.  Another difficulty during the lesson planning process was making sure that everyone was included in the process.  Since there were four of us, it was important to make sure that each of us contributed ideas to the lessons.  When there are several people working on one document simultaneously, it can be hard for everyone to get their ideas across and have the rest of the group understand.  However, we managed to come up with creative and engaging lessons for the fifth grade class!
Performing the lessons was also a very different experience compared to what I was used to.  I had never taught a lesson with my peers.  this was difficult for me because normally when I teach I am only trying to remember what I have to say.  In this case I still have to be familiar with the material I am teaching, but also with what my peers are teaching as well and how to transition from a topic I was teaching to what they were going to talk about next or before me.  This was an area in fieldwork that could be improved.  The transitions were somewhat unorganized.  I now see that we should have paid more attention to this during the planning and practicing sessions we had.  This was mainly a concern with the direct instruction, when the lessons were teacher based.  However, my group did a good job with supporting each other during the inquiry and cooperative lessons.  As one would speak, the others would stand around the room or scan the room to see if there were questions or students who did not understand.  Also, during the cooperative lesson, there was one teacher candidate at each table working with and overseeing how each group was doing.  There were a few groups that had trouble working together, but i feel that we managed to diffuse these situations in a quick and appropriate manner,