My Workplace: Tuesday, October 11th
My internship is at Longwood Elementary school. It is a public school that teaches 702 students grades Kindergarden through 6th. Longwood is located in Hayward and it is a fairly small school with a nice campus. My mentor, and the teachers I have met have been extrememly kind and welcoming. Since I work at an elementaty school, most of the people who work here have a 4-year college degree. My workplace serves all kinds of students but it is not very diverse since according to their website, 78 percent are hispanic. So far, I have noticed that the school teaches a lot differently then I remember when I was in elementary. They use a lot of learning techniques that I am still learning or just recently learned. For example, I was surprised to see that many 5th and 6th graders are already learning to "talk to the text" when I was not taught to till my freshman year of high school. They are also learning about things like prepositional phrases which I just recently learned about this year. I think the fact that they are challenging the students and have found creative an useful ways of teaching is a really big strength of the school. I haven't nocticed any weaknesses of my workplace, they seem to be very organized and focused on teaching and challenging students as much as they can.
My Mentor: Tuesday Oct 18th
My Mentor's name is Mrs.Garcia and she is a teacher at longwood
elementary school. Mrs.Garcia's typical day is teaching fifth and sixth
graders from 8 in the morning to 2:50 in the afternoon. She teaches them
many different subjects including reading comprehension skills,
vocabulary, writing, math and social studies. Since first grade, she
pretty much always knew she wanted to be a teacher. She is not sure why
she always knew, but she did. She loves kids and teaching, even though
it is a lot of work. She told me that in order to be a teacher, a skill
you really need to have is patience. You also need to love working with
kids, because if you don't it will show through your teaching and the
kids will not learn as best they can. Lastly she said that you need to
have knowelge. In order to teach something, you really need to
understand that thing yourself so that you know your giving kids the
right information and at their age that is really important.
I have a
few different responsibilities at my workplace. One thing I do is help
the kids who need one on one attention. Some kids have a more difficult
time understanding things than others and some just move at a different
pace. I also help my teacher stress the importance of certain things by
describing how I use the things they are learning in high school. I think
this helps them a lot because they are often surprised that they will
be using these things past elementary school and into middle school,
high school and even college. I am basically my mentors assistant, so I
help her whenever she needs it. So far my typical day just consists
of being in the classroom and helping the students and my mentor. She
teaches most of the time I am here and is usually really busy so I often
have some time to just observe the classroom and her teaching and it's
really interesting because it makes me think about what kind of things I
would like to do if i decide to become a teacher. I also observe the
students and what kinds of teaching techniques they respond well
to. What I do differs from day to day since it really depends on who
needs help and when.
Project Brainstorm: Tuesday Nov 1st
For my WLE project, I am thinking of teaching the student a lesson about
the "NACIREMA" tribe. Nacirema is American spelled backwords. The purpose of teaching the kids about the Nacirema is to get them to look at cultures and their own culture from an outside point of view. I came up with this idea because I was actually taught this lesson earlier this year. I wanted to teach it to these kids because I found it very interesting and it really helped me see my culture differently and it gave me a more open mind. According to Ms. Garcia, my mentor, her students have not been introduced to many different cultures and they have a hard time understanding ones outside there own. I am really excited about this project because I am hoping that it will affect the students in a positive way and if I can teach them something that will help shape how excepting they are of other people in their lives I will be really happy. In the next 3-4 weeks I need to create a lesson plan about the Nacirema that is appropriate for their grade level. This might be difficult because many of them are at different levels, and I need to make sure that it is not too difficult or confusing.
the "NACIREMA" tribe. Nacirema is American spelled backwords. The purpose of teaching the kids about the Nacirema is to get them to look at cultures and their own culture from an outside point of view. I came up with this idea because I was actually taught this lesson earlier this year. I wanted to teach it to these kids because I found it very interesting and it really helped me see my culture differently and it gave me a more open mind. According to Ms. Garcia, my mentor, her students have not been introduced to many different cultures and they have a hard time understanding ones outside there own. I am really excited about this project because I am hoping that it will affect the students in a positive way and if I can teach them something that will help shape how excepting they are of other people in their lives I will be really happy. In the next 3-4 weeks I need to create a lesson plan about the Nacirema that is appropriate for their grade level. This might be difficult because many of them are at different levels, and I need to make sure that it is not too difficult or confusing.
Progress on my WLE project part 1: Tuesday Nov 8th
The first part of my day at my internship today I watched an assembly where students gave speeches for the student body. Then we went back to class and I got to work on my project for a while because my mentor didn't have anything for me to do. I researched information about the Nacirema and activities that I could do with the students about other cultures. So far, I have gotten a lot of information and I have written down all of the points I'm going to talk about in the lesson, and I have found a few multicultural activities I'm considering doing. I now need to put the information together in an effective and understandable way. My mentor and I decided that I am going to do my project in December during school. I'm going to do the lesson on my own but she will be there and help me if I need it.
Leadership Skills: Tuesday Nov 15th
When I'm working with students at my WLE the leadership skill that I use the most is collaborating productively. Some times it's difficult to explain things to them and if I dont collaborate well I can't be sure if they are understanding what I am saying. I think that I use this skill effectively because I try to be clear and I try to make sure they aren't confused. For my project I have been thinking critically because I really want to make sure that the students are going to understand the lesson, and that it will be interesting. I have had to use this skill when I'm figuring out what exactly I'm going to say to the students because I have to take very advanced writing and turn it into terms that they will understand. I could improve on this by reading some things that are at their grade level so that I have an idea of how my lesson should be. My mentor communicates powerfully a lot. She is really good at talking to the students and they really look up to her and I think that is because of greatly she communitcates with them.
What I learned, Reflection: Tuesday Nov 22nd
One thing i have learned because of this WLE experience is that I shouldn't get too stressed out about things. I started off really behind on my hours and my blogs and everything became really stressful. I also was not very happy with my internship at first because I hadn't wanted to intern at a school. I felt that I wouldn't be challenging myself at a school and I wanted to do something more unique and interesting. However I caught up on my hours and my blogs, and grew to really like my internship. I learned a lot more than I thought, including the fact that teaching is much more difficult than I had assumed. I'm still undecided when it comes to whether or not I'd like to pursue teaching as a profession, but interning at a school has made me see more clearly what the profession requires and involves.
Professionalism: Tuesday Nov 29th
In order to find my WLE and get hired, I first had to figure out what kind of thing I was interested in doing. This was really hard for me because I don't really have any idea what kind of job I'd like to get when I'm older, and yet I wanted to do something that could end up benefiting my career choices in the future. After finally deciding on interning at a school, another thing I had to do was get over my shyness. I needed to be outgoing because I feel like if I was going to hire someone, that's something I would look for. I also had to be professional, but i don't think this was much of a challenge for me. I've gotten use to speaking and acting professionally throughout my years in high school and now it comes easily. When it comes to getting a job I think persistence is definitely something you need. It can be really stressful and discouraging when you don't get the job you wanted or the workplace doesn't respond right away. However with persistence you will eventually get there. As a result of my WLE, I think that being a professional means working hard and being responsible about your work.
Life at my WLE: Tuesday Dec 6th
Today at my internship I worked on my project all morning. Lately my mentor has not had a lot for me to do, so she is really nice about just letting me work on it. Later I tested some kids on their reading skills, and I the end of the day I supervised while they took a test. It was weird being in charge and it was kind of hard because I had to be strict about them talking. I don't really think I have improved as an intern because there wasn't really a lot for me to improve on. Although I do think I've improved in other areas like keeping myself organized and on task. Since we have had to work on our projects completely on our own and outside of school it has been a lot different from usual projects. I have had to create my own due dates and structure everything on my own. I think this is has been really helpful to me because I often think about how much more difficult it is going to be in college with so much less help on everything, and so much independence, but now I feel more confident that I will be able to do it. I think something that makes my workplace a good place to work is if you like kids, it can be a lot of fun. However something that makes my workplace not so great is that being a teacher requires tons of work and teaching kids all day seems really difficult.
The End: Tuesday Dec 13th
My final thoughts about my WLE are that it was a really good learning experience. I learned about the challenge of getting a job and the skills, like professionalism and good communication, that is required to get one. I also learned about a teaching profession, and the challenges that go with it. I always knew that teaching must be difficult, but I now understand the patience and dedication that it needs. My experience with my WLE this year will effect what WLE I look for next year because I am going to look for something that will make more of a difference. I feel like, even though I hopefully was able to teach the students something with my project, and even though I did learn about what it's like to be a teacher, I didn't make a very big difference in their lives or mine. Another thing I will do differently is look for a job way ahead of time. It will help me avoid falling behind and getting stressed out like I did this year.
