POST #1 I had more trouble than some of the other people in my class while finding an internship. I sent emails to 4 places and none of them worked. I sent an email to a dentist, a plastic surgeon, a law office, and a medi-spa. None of the people I emailed responded to me besides the law office. I had an over the phone interview with the law office, but they decided to accept another applicant over me. Although the rejection of internship made me lose some motivation, I kept asking my teachers for advice. I wanted to intern with kids and I decided that an internship at Explorer Elementary right below my school might be a good fit. I received the principals email and within a day I got a very promising response. |
POST #2 I decided to reach out to Explorer Elementary school for an internship opportunity. I received a response from the principle but I decided that I should still speak to them in person. I wanted to speak to the principle in person because of how urgent and last minute my internship application was. While speaking in person, the principal told me that an internship at the elementary school was a good fit but that she didn't know which position would be best for me and her staff. The principal, Melissa set up an interview with me for the next day. After the interview, my new mentor Melissa told me that I could have the internship. She told me that I would create a recycling project with one of her students, as well as helping students in the classroom. I worked with one 1st grader named Shrater. I read Pete The Cat and played Jenga with him until he had to go back to class. I am very relived and exited to start this internship and I hope to bring joy to students day. |
POST #3 During the majority of this day, I worked with a special needs class. I watched over a student who was in the 4th grade to make sure that he was staying on task. I had to be patient with him because he kept getting very off task while he was supposed to be working on a learning website. At the end of the day, I interned at a science class. I watched over the students and cleaned up after a 2nd grade class and a 4th grade class. I had many conversations with many different students in this science class. I spoke to a 2nd grade girl about her interests in Demon Slayer, and Japan. I spoke to another 4th grader about her interests in Hello Kitty. I enjoy working with kids and how easy it is to conversate with them. I specifically enjoy speaking to kids who I see are by themselves because I remember how I would feel without friends at school when I was younger. |
POST #4 During internship, one of the requirements is to complete a project. My mentor and I decided that a recycling project would be perfect. It is important to educate students on their recycling habits as early as possible. A 4th grade student named Emma came up with the idea of a recycling club in order to make recycling more fun and voluntary. I spoke to her in the morning to hear a little bit more about what she was thinking. It is exiting that a student from an elementary school would be starting her own club for something she is passionint about. I am exited to be able to help her and support her with anything she needs. |
POST #5 I worked with one kinder class the whole entire week. I was able to create relationships with students in this class and I am very grateful. I noticed there was one child in the class who was acting very differently than the other students. He was misbehaving and constantly getting in trouble. I wanted to help and understand him as much as I possibly could. We took a field trip to a dance class in liberty, and the teacher asked to hold the child's hand so that he didn't run away from the rest of the class. The kid wanted to hold my hand instead, I felt very honored and exited to learn about this student. We held hands the entire trip and I had some conversations with him about cars and police. I noticed that he would cuss sometimes, but other than that he didn't really misbehave. When we got to the dance class he threw a big tantrum because he got in trouble for leaving the circle when he wasn't instructed to. I held the child's hand all the way back to school after the field trip and The next day I saw this child crying at the play structure and it was because his friends didn't want to play with him. He started sobbing and I hugged him and told him everything was going to be okay and that I was sorry for him. The teachers told me his home life was really hard and I realized that he was acting up in class for attention that he doesn't get at home. I also realized that this tantrum for his friends not wanting to play with him was deeper than that. He felt like more people where leaving him alone. I've been trying to give this child so much attention so that maybe he can feel a little more loved than he does at home. |
POST #6 I think that something really interesting about working with young kids is all the different learning levels, talking levels, comprehension levels, and social skill levels. Some kinder students can write and read full sentences while others struggle to count higher than 10. This is interesting to me because all of the kids are the same age but at extremely different levels. I think this is something that happens all throughout life but is most obvious in younger ages because of how simple what they're learning is. The kinder students are learning how to count, read sight words, writing uppercase and lowercase words, drawing, and other basic tools. |
POST #7 On Monday of this week I tested positive for covid. Obviously this meant that I could not go into the school and risk getting any of the students sick. I was feeling very worried about getting my hours in and being able to complete the project. Luckily, my mentor and cohort teacher where very helpful in helping me with instructions of what to do. My cohort teacher told me that my hours would be excused for my quarantine. I had to quarantine till the end of the week until I didn't have any symptoms. My mentor told me to ask one of my peers that is interning at the same elementary school if there was anything he needed help with regarding the project that I could do remotely, but he couldn't think of anything. |
POST #8
I have seen my roll at internship change a lot. When I first started interning at the elementary school, I was basically a floater teacher and I would pop into random classes and hang out with kids that liked me. Then I was mostly working with the 4th grade special education which I enjoyed. Something that I didn't enjoy about that was how I wasn't able to really work with the kids and build relationships with them because they needed very close attention from trained teachers. Now, I am working with a kinder class and I really enjoy working with the younger grades. I like to see their behaviors and think about why they may act the way they do instead of immediently getting them in trouble. The younger grades have so much to learn but they're so fun to talk to and interact with. |
POST #9 I am most grateful for my experience of being able to create connections with kids at the school. I am grateful that the kids wanted to be friends with me and where kind to me. Im grateful that this internship opened my eyes to new career options. I have realized that I feel very passionate about helping kids on an emotional level and I feel like this internship helped me explore my passions and possible future careers. I think that it is important to try a lot of different things to see if you like them and I am very grateful that my internship gave me that experience. |
POST #10 Advice I would give to future interns is to be very positive and take everything negative as a lesson. This is a new experience that you haven't had yet and you should get the best out of it by staying positive. Creating good relationships with your mentors and employees is another good tip I would give to future interns. Creating good relationships with mentors and employees with help you to learn more and get more out of your internship. It will also make your time at the place more enjoyable because you will have people to talk to. Lastly, creating good relationships with your mentors will allow you to have connections for possible future opportunities. |