I had no idea how much work you had to put in as a teacher until now. It's a stressful career but at the same time it's amazing having to teach the students and build a connection with them just like I did throughout internship. I'm glad that I know that teaching isn't for me before I leave to college so that's off the list. I felt like it wasn't for me because of all the work load you need to deal with and also having to connect with the students which I thought was pretty tuff at first especially with this age group. I also don't feel the connection in my heart with teaching since there's more lows than highs. Although this internship made me realize that I would want to go towards a career that involves communication, helping others and working with a similar age group as me which will help me a lot with my upcoming senior year internship. It will also help me figure out what I want to major in by connecting everything together. In the very beginning of internship, I had a feeling that my mentor didn't like me already but after spending very weekday with her for a whole month, we connected a lot and also prepared me for an interview I had and thanks to her, I got the job. She also graduated from UCSD which is my dream school that I'll be applying to and even offered to look over my UC prompts. The staff there are also very friendly especially when I needed help and treated me just like I'm another staff there. Now it's time to close the book and say thanks for everything especially to my mentor who helped me through this.
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Throughout internship, I noticed that the students normally learn as a whole class or independently. Since I come from a project based school then I wanted to create a project where I would put them in groups to see if their age group could work well with this. Since there's some students that can't work with each other than I made a whole list of them and I put them in a whole different group away from each other. Also since it's the ending of this school year then I didn't want to teach them a whole new topic since their exhibition was alright around the corner so they were really busy finishing their work thats going to be presented. At that time, their whole project was about the Garibaldi fish so I decided to have each student create a Garibaldi fish with clay and each one of them help each other label the body parts in a group of 3. They started off making the labels together and made sure their was enough for each one of them. At first there was many mistakes made since there were times when they would do the labeling wrong although I explained myself many times. When it came to the clay part, my first group was a mistake that I made since I let them create whatever they wanted and basically let them do it their own way until my mentor told me something about it. I had to do the first group all over again and make the Garibaldi fish step by step with them and they turned out way better than the ones before so I sticked to that throughout the project. Overall this project was an experience to see if this age group could work in a group project but turns out I believe it's better for them to work as a whole class since they all need attention from the teacher. Although I did separate them from their friends, it was still challenging since I had to repeat myself every every sec and they also could get distracted with anyone or anything. Turns out the Garibaldi fishes came out prefect just like I wanted them to turn out and I'm excited for them to be shown and taught about at their upcoming exhibition! Click down if you want to see my POL presentation slides. Throughout my project, I knew I wanted this to be a group project since my main focus was to see how the kids who need that extra would work with other group members. It was also a project where I had to think outside the box as well since I knew there was some kids who can't stand each other. I was inspired to do this as a group project because I realized that working in small groups was something very new to them and I knew it would be pretty hard for them to listen especially with their age group. Knowing that, I made a list of students who could work with each other and another list of students who can't be in a group together. It was something I had to think about since I was only there for 2 weeks and don't know them well enough although there was students that stood out to me. I put them in groups of 3, separated the friendships and put them in groups with kids who they normally don't talk to. That was part of my project and the topic is about the Garibaldi fish since I wanted my project to connect with what they're learning already. They're also going to exhibit this at exhibition which gave me an idea where I had each student create a Garibaldi fish and the group part is having them make labels for each other and labeling them together. Over all, my mentor thought it was a great idea because you're learning while making something which catches their attention more. What I realized with this age group is although you separate them from their friends, they still could get distracted with anything or anyone and that made me feel like they're better off working as a whole class. At this moment they still need someone to explain things more than once which is completely fine. This project was pretty stressful and took about 3 days to get it all together since there was ups and downs I had to think about. The students did an amazing job and I'm excited for them to share their learning about the Garibaldi fish out to the world.
During internship, I did everything I could possibly do. I did a lot of paperwork for my mentor but I also did work for the entire school which was pretty stressful but I enjoyed that feeling. My mentor wouldn't only assign me one thing, she would stack papers for me to print and put away. Another thing is I had to put all students from K-5th grade to interview and after that I had to pull out groups of students who were in different grades just to take pictures of them together which took a lot of time since some were either testing or not here. That was the side work I had to do but then there was work that had to be done for my mentor so there was times were work would stack up on me since I had to work on my project as well. Over all, I feel like I've done great job at collaborating with my mentor and all the staff there. Being an intern at a school made me realize that teaching isn't for me. I wanted to try something new since I don't know exactly what I want to do in life. I know the medical field is one of the top interest but at the same time I know my mind is going to change so I decided to try teaching. This internship helped me a lot since I know majoring in education is out of my list which is pretty helpful to know before college since it's saving me time and money. During this internship, I mostly did paperwork which made me realize that I actually enjoy busy work that and I believe that really helped me with my organization skill which will help me throughout life. Over all this internship really influence the direction to my life since it helped me a lot with my organization skill and also realizing that teaching isn't for me. Throughout these 3 weeks, I feel like I have developed so many appreciations and skills. I have gained so much patients since the students wouldn't treat me as another teacher and deal with the crying and yelling. This internship has taught me so much that will be very useful throughout my life and I also gaining a relationship with my mentor, the staff and of course all the students who attend there. The first week I already felt appreciated with my mentor and the staff since they treated me like another them. I also did my best to keep myself busy and helpful with everyone there which I found very new since I personally don't normally do that offend. All though I really appreciate my mentor for having me there for an entire month and trust me around her students. Throughout internship, I do everything she assigns me to do but I also do things that she didn't ask me to do. For example, she would always tell me how she never has time to clean and move things around her classroom so sometimes after school, I would stay for an extra hour or two just to organize her classroom. There's times when I feel overwhelmed with all the work she assigns to me to because most of it is back and forth. Half of the work is for her classroom and the other half is for the whole school or the principal. I'm in charge of a lot things in my internship and most of it I have to do it in my own time, she doesn't tell me when or when not to do it. For example, one of the assignments she assigned me was having to pull students from K-5th grade to interview them and also gather up their groups which were mixed grades so I had to walk back and forth most of the time just to get their picture taken. I had to do that in my own time while I had other work to do on the side. So far this internship is going pretty well since I get treated just like I'm another staff there and I'm also in good terms with my mentor and everyone there is really friendly and helpful.
Since I'm working with a first grade class, it took me a while to create a project that can't be too hard or too easy, just perfect. I decided to create a project that connects with their own project that they're currently doing for their upcoming exhibition by having them work with groups which they're not normally used to. This project will be about having them create a "Juvenile Garibaldi" fish with clay and having them label the basic body parts in a group of 3. The propose for this project is having to see how they work together especially in a project where they have to build something together. Throughout internship I noticed that some students have more trouble on focusing than others and give up easily. Another thing that I noticed is that the students would pay attention more if you're showing them something or making them build something creative since they won't listen if you're just throwing information at them. Which I know I have to work on being patient with the kids by not flipping out on them when they fight over something or refuse to do something which they do a lot. Another thing is having to take responsibility for all the materials that I will use for this project. Overall, this project piece will be shown at their exhibition and hopefully they get to manage to build a piece together which will be pretty tough with this age group but I'm still getting it a try.
I interviewed my mentor Ms. Jones about her career and she came up with one of the best answers that helped me learn more about this. career. The following questions I asked were; What are your main duties and responsibilities? * "The main duties and responsibilities in this career is making sure the kids are safe, thats the top one because their life is basically on my hands. Another one is making sure they're ready to learn which is making sure they ate well and had enough sleep. And the last one is seeing if they're actually learning what I'm teaching them" How did you end up doing the job that you do? * "When I entered first grade, I really enjoyed the my teacher dressed like and that's when I knew I wanted to become someone like her. When I was growing up, I used to make these fake permission slips and have my brothers and sisters pretend like they were my own students, now look I'm in a classroom full of wonderful students and making real permission slips. " How important is getting along with other people in your career? * Very important. The kids watch everything, I'm a remodel for them and if they see that type of behavior then their minds are going to switch out and think it's a good thing to do." Is there anything you wish you'd realized about the world of work when you were my age? *" Being a minority means you have to work harder. Although you think you're balanced, you're not. You should be way more than balanced to get to the top because you're going to get dropped down many times throughout your life." What questions did I not ask yet that I should have ? *" If there's something wrong with their personal life, how would you deal with it when y0u're at your work place? " I have to push my personal problems to the side whenever I'm at my work space because the kids watch everything and I don't want them wondering why but when it comes to them, I try to connect with them to make them feel better and make them feel like it's a normal thing that happens in life. " I could connect this internship with my school because I noticed that in their classroom, they do individual work so they don't do any work projects just like we do in class. Since project work is really rare to them, I'm hoping for my project to be project based and will have them work together to see how well they could spilt the work since I know I still deal with that in high school. I'm really interested in this because during class, it's really hard for them to work together especially when they all have different ideas and don't know how to stick to one. For their age group, I don't really expect that much from them because I know people my age still struggle with this and it's also something really new to them. Overall internship has been pretty interesting because my mentor is actually giving to work to grade, organize, interviews students and gave me my own reading group. She's also letting me teach the students but the only problem is, most of them don't take me as serious and one of them already told me " you can't tell me what to do you're not my teacher" which I thought was pretty funny but at the same time that made me think on how can I actually make them treat me like another teacher. There's times when I find it pretty exhausting because it's really hard to catch their attention and have them stay still for a good 3 mins. Although they don't teach me the same as a teacher, they still scream 'NO" at my mentor whenever they get asked to do something which surprises me the most. Even though I have to deal with all that, I have been developing more skills especially being patient because it's hard to get the students to listen to you. Another big one is being organized and time management because she would give me work to grade and put together and also I had to interview Kindergarten to 5th grade students at a certain time without being reminded by my mentor which gave me more responsibility.
These past two days, internship has taught me so much already. I realized that some students are different to handle because some need more attention then others but I've been told by my mentor that sometimes it better not to give them that extra attention. I didn't know how much patience I need to have because some of the students are hard to handle especially when I don't know them as well. One other thing that strikes me the most is when the teacher notice that the students can't focus, she makes them play a game together to calm their energy to be able to focus in class better. I personally find it hard to get their attention because the last time I did they ignored me and I feel like they don't take me as serious and I know that's something I need to work on throughout these weeks. The first day, I didn't really do much but introduce myself to the students and then talked to my mentor about the project I'm going to be creating. The second day wasn't as exciting since she kept me busy with paper work for hours and that's something I'm afraid that is going to happen a lot since I'm interning there for a reason which is helping the students who need extra help and also seeing how they work in groups which is the main part of my project. I'm hoping to build a connection with the students because I actually want to get to know them better and gain their trust since I want them to be able to come to be whenever they feel stuck and are too afraid to ask their own teacher but I know I have to give it some time since it only has been two days so far.
Tuesday May 1st, was my first day working with young kids in a second grade classroom. It was just another regular school day but the only difference was that I was there to introduce myself. They started off their morning but gathering in a circle and got introduced to a worded math problem. After that, they got handed a sheet a paper and started working through the problem while I walked around helping the kids who needed extra help. I noticed some kids are way more confident than the others because I remember I was working with this one student who was too shy to ask for my help and told me she doesn't know how to do anything. I knew there was a difference there since there was this other student who said it was the easiest problem they had to do. I noticed that there's students in that class that are in different levels and I'm glad I was there to give them that extra push. I. believe the work policies when you're tardiness or absence they would normally get a substitute until they get covered up. This work space dress code isn't as different as other schools, just wear something casual since you are working with kids. Today was an average day since I just had to introduce myself and get to know the kids I'm going to be working with for a whole month which I'm pretty excited about because they're one of the sweetest kids I've met so far. In my high school classes and skills I have to get used to is being patience since there's kids who would talk over you and try to take control. For example, I had a student who kept on doing her own thing by walking out and not paying attention to any of their teachers. Since they are 2nd graders then I felt like it was harder for me to try to tell them what to do since I didn’t want them to dislike me or think I'm commanding. Another skill that I need to learn is how to teach topics that I need to teach differently. I already do this in my own math class but it's something I need more practice on especially when it's to 2nd graders.
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