At my internship I haven't seen myself facing a whole lot of challenges as all of the work I do is pretty self-explanatory. Even though I am not the teacher I believe that the challenge that I've faced he most is getting the kids to stay on task or understanding the work that they are doing. As work on the project continues I am getting more and more willing students to help out once they finish their required work, but I also have kids who only want to work on the project and think that's all they have to do which isn't right. Working on this project for them is a privilege and I don't want them squandering this chance because they only want to help on the project, it is important yes but it shouldn't take priority over their actual school work. Along with that, when I walk around to help, some of the student just don't understand the material they are learning. I am always glad and able to help but sometimes the kids just don't ask and when they do, after I explain the work in the simplest way I could think of, they still aren't getting the material, like it isn't really sticking to them. I really wish I could do more about that but sometimes they have to struggle in order to succeed. Other than those issues there haven't been any real big problems, which I find very refreshing.
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I had commented on my friends blogs: D'lano, Jennifer, and Laisa. D'lano because I couldn't remember what he was doing for an internship so I wanted to find out, Jennifer because she and I are doing similar internships and I wanted to see her experience against mine, and Laisa because I knew a little bit about what she was doing and wanted to learn more. Compared against my experience during this internship I can see that all my friends are enjoying what they are doing and they all seem to be learning lots. The contrasts that I see come from D'lano and Laisa because D'lano works with a lot with computers and such and Laisa is very organized with what she has to do with each day. Jennifer works at a school, as like me, and it is interesting to see how our experiences compare to one another in what we are doing. Any questions that I had about my friends' internships were answered when I checked out their blogs.
My Internship so far has been a wonderful experience and I'm glad to have this chance to do something like this, furthermore I do see it shaping me and what I want to do later in the future. I haven't really thought too much about what I want to study in college or do for a job but during this internship it has given me time to, one, think about what I want and, two, whether I want to do something that is related to what I;m doing for an Internship. Going into the field of education, now, has become an open possibility for me as well as some other choices that I have thought about. Along with education, and possibly becoming a teacher, I have also thought about going into the medical field/studying criminal justices which all three of these choices are very different. As of right now I'm trying to focus on things that make me happy as well as stuff that I'm interested in so I still have a few things to think about but this internship has helped in the aspect of figuring out what I want to do later on.
Interaction at Juarez-Lincoln Elementary is as what you would expect with an elementary school. For the adults there they all seem very friendly and kind to each other as well as the children, the students on the other hand are a different story. There's not much of a maturity gap difference between the fourth Graders and the fifth Graders, but when it come to their personalities as a class that's where it gets interesting. Mr. Estrada's fourth Graders like to try to loop you into conversations that diverge from the topic at hand, an example of that today was when they were supposed to be working on math and they tried to loop me into a conversation about tortillas. I had guided them back on track but still. They are a bit noisy at times but not to an obnoxious level plus they are all very kind and aren't to ask for help when they need it.
Mrs. Estrada's fifth Graders were quieter slightly but since they are getting closer to middle school I could tell how sometimes they didn't seem to want to be there, not all but a few. The interactions between them and me are very limited as I want them to focus on their work and they don't as often come up to me when they have questions. They are a bit more distracting, getting off track of what they are supposed to me learning/doing and that does cause some problems. Though, even with these small negative problems, the students in both grades talk and help each other quite often as far as I could tell, there isn't a lot of people having to "fend for themselves". Their conversations with each other while working were very healthy, as an example today a met with the group of kids that were going to begin research on the revolutionary war and write the lyrics they communicated with each other, without my help surprisingly, and divided up the work amongst themselves of who was researching what and I was very impressed. I don't really know how much the student interacting with each other reflects the school but what I am sure about is that whatever the teachers are doing it is a step in the right direction and I sincerely respect that. As I have talked about in previous blog posts, my Internship project is going to be an adaptation of the book rap battles that I had done in Sophomore year. Both Mr. and Mrs. Estrada, as well as me when I met them, were spittballing ideas of what I could do for a project, as they had noticed on my resume that I had done many creative/artsy stuff as well as many things involving technology. They had settled onto my rap battle and after I explained everything about it, the process and the end result, both teachers found it interesting snd something that we should try to do. We had settled on an adaptation of my previous project because the students were beginning work on the revolutionary war, between Great Britian and the American Colonies, and thought a song like battle between George Washington and King George III was a wonderful idea.
As the head of the project, and being the intern, I was in charge of settling down the legistics of what we were going to do, as I did research to familarized myself with the topic and began creating plans for the entire thing. Since the first time I did this project I was more focused on the art aspect of it, now I am able to braoden my horizens and delving into more of the other departments of the battle. I will be able to strengthen my directing and recording skills as I will be filming as well as directing the studnets in what they need to do. In the editing and music department I am going to be learning semi-new skills as I, with the help of some more experienced students in the class, will be working to create a beat in GarageBand and edit said video in iMovie. I haven;t used either of those programs in a while so it will be nice to get a refresher on them and able to draw help from the students. The project itself gives me an opportunity to actually teach kids in a "High Tech High" sort of way while not having them do everything but not have it completely be controlled 100% by me. As a class together we will all try to work on gathering supplies and items for us to use in the project, such as costume materials and props to supplies to create the background for both Washington and King George. As I have been wuth the chuldern for only a few days I an already tell that they are all very bright and that this hands on experience can really do wonders in helping them in different ways. This can teach them better vocabulary, improved communication/listening skills, improved work ehtic as well as better, hopefully, understanding of some school material. That might sound a bit hopeful but I beileve that this project and experience will be very benefilual to the students both in fourth and fifth Grade respectively. Benefiting from my project is kind of a two way street for both the teachers and me. Both Mr. and Mrs. Estrada went over my resume and found the rap battle project that I did intriguing and wanted to do something similar with the revolutionary war, i.e. George Washington against King George III. This actually gives me a chance to, one, show off what I did in the project and, two, it gives me an opportunity to guide the students in a project. The parents and such that might see the project benefit from it cause they can see how, even though I am also still in school, that even a student can work hard in directing young minds in hopefully creating something great.
At my internship, in a way, I feel like a partial student teacher, even though I am doiung my own work while there I am always available for helping out the teachers, obviously, and the students. I can tell that having an extra set of hands really goes a long way in the classroom. Work ethic is very important when it comes to a job and it applies here too at internship. With me helping out, and partially showing how a student from our school works, people can also see that high school interns, especially from our school, can be bery reliable depending on the person. As this also help in the long run this also migh give future juniors a bit of an easier access to internships, one can only hope. As there weren't many people available to interview at school today I had decided to interview one of the teachers that I am working with, Mrs. Estrada, a fifth Grade teacher, in order to get to know her better. She had went to SDSU and was a psycology major and was going for becoming a school psycologist. If she were to be a school psycologist, as she said, she should at least understand the classroom so Mrs. Estrada took some teaching courses but was still set on becoming a psycologist. However, Mrs. Estrada noticed that she enjoyed teaching a lot more, additionally she saw the being a psycologist was more information gathering, working with the kids one on one, and to her just felt very impersonal in a way, she had stuck with teaching since and has been a teacher at Juarez-Lincoln for a little over 17 years.
Other than her finishing up a semester of student teaching at a school called Chesterton she has been at Juarez-Lincoln her entire career. As a refresher, since Mrs. Estrada is a teacher in a self contained classrooom, as she put it, she teaches a little of everything: writing, reading, math, and history. She does enjoy her job, which is a good thing for a teacher, and does like seeing how her students grow throughout the year and seeing how far they've come. Even with the staff at the school, she said, everyone is fairly nice to each other and get along, with those few odd moments, but nothing to bad. It seems that being a teacher, for her at least, has been a positive experience throughout her career. What surprised me during my first week of internship was how nice everybody was including also the history of the school itself. The teachers and staff kind of remind me of my school and I thought that was actually really refreshing. Now it's surprising about The history of the school is that at first it actually didn't have walls and was pretty small. The school was built during a time where the classes were created in a circular fashion and didn’t actually have any walls. Later on they said the school put in small dividers between the classes, but it didn't really block anything out like one of the teachers I'm working with, Mr. Estrada, said that you could peek around the corner and see the other classes. The reason that both Mr. and Mrs. Estrada know about this was because they were around when they didn't really have any walls.
When they finally actually decided to install walls and doors and such for the school as well as expanded the school was treated more as a circular base so none of the classrooms actually have flat for side walls. When they finally actually decided to install walls and doors and such for the school as well as expanded the school was treated more as a circular base so none of the classrooms actually have flat four walls, as an example I counted Mr. Estrada's classroom of how many walls that it had and instead of having the normal four that a classroom should have it had nine walls, and I believe that Mrs. Estrada's room had seven, it was really weird. Another thing they had pointed out was that even though school hasn't started up just yet for them both the teachers have told me how mature the students are in that also surprise me since it is fourth and fifth grade and children around that is using aren't all that nature so that's very good on their part and for me. The mission at Juarez-Lincoln Elementary is to enable all students to become critical thinkers and effective communicators in the area of reading, writing, and mathmatics and take their palce as leaders and full participants in our global society. As the teachers, Mr. and Mrs. Estrada, try to do is to get the student to in a way question some things. As an example during something they called "genius hour" Mr. Estrada had his students do a free research projects where the kids chose what topic they wanted and focused a question around the topic. You never want to just abandon work so he always helped guide them so that they don't give up entirely but instead refocus their question.
These projects were something that they wanted the kids to take something they like and were interested in and focus on whatever they wanted to do. They had the students take initiative when their work so they, as the teachers, weren't hand holding them through the process. They always try to have them keep themselves busy, never have nothing to do, so with some assignments they ask them to do little things with them, create little animations and whatnot, and the kids are always interested and having fun. Even though the kids are only in fourth and fifth grade they understand a small value of work ethic that can and will grow with time. My mentor for my internship is the principle of the school, Toni Faddis. She is a very kind and spirited person as she always wanted, for most of her life, to work in education. Toni had went to Fresno State to become a teacher since that's what she always wanted to be. As of right now she has worked as an professional educator for 24 years, half of those working as a Teacher and the other half working as a school principal.
As she told me in our interview, she wanted to work in a school where her skills in instructing wouldn't go to waste as well as help her improve her teaching skills. Even though she is the principle she tries to be out and about, in classrooms and helping students when she can. Toni Faddis wants school to be a fun place as well as a great place of education. |
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