Blog #1: My Workplace: Tuesday, Oct 11th
The school that I am interning at this year is called Franklin Elementary School, Home of the Tigers! Franklin Elementary focuses primarily on promoting the "pursuit of academic achievement" while providing diversity to their students through a multicultural environment. Though I didn't attend the school myself, I was thoroughly impressed by how 'at home' I felt by just sitting in their office. The children seem eager to learn and impress parents and family alike with their friendliness. I'm excited to get to know some of them better throughout the course of my WLE. The school is, luckily, only 4 blocks away from my house in Oakland. It's primarily surrounded by small markets and homes. The office secretaries are kind and hospitable, doing their best to make the office less hectic and more comfortable for whoever is waiting to be serviced. The school is about as small as Impact, with a staff probably just a few over. The teachers and faculty are usually required to have a 4 year college degree in order to be eligible to educate children. As soon as I walked through the entrance of the school I came across a man speaking in sing-language to a student, so I am assuming they have a special program for handicapped students. The greatest strength of my workplace is the selection of enrichment activities that is available to students. These activities offer the students a wider understanding of the world around them and how to better aid the development of their future society. Such activities include "Healthy Living...For Kids!" which teach kids how to improve their lifestyle habits, and "Recycle Rangers" (that's much like the recycle program at Impact!) which gets kids in the habit of recycling their recyclables, and separating them appropriately. So far, I have not recognized any weaknesses of my workplace - and I hope it stays that way.
Blog #2: My Mentor: Tuesday, October 18th
My mentor is a woman named Celia Paoli. Working with her today has been great, and her assuring me that I was helping her "sooo much" really made the day easier for me. She has been in the teaching profession for 3 years, all of those years being a kindergarten teacher at Franklin Elementary. As a kindergarten teacher, Ms. Paoli's job is to make sure that the kids in her classroom learn the basic structure of everything they will learn in the future. This is a very hard task because it is a lot of pressure to teach kids at this age something they will need and encounter for the rest of their lives. Elementary school is a tough time for everyone; kids, teachers, and parents alike can be easily frustrated and discouraged to continue progressive work. A lot of work falls on the teachers, especially, because they have to work beyond the limited attention span of young children and permeate their minds with useful knowledge. A typical day for Ms. Paoli exhibits these struggles. As some of her students fail to grasp simple ideas, Ms. Paoli remains hopeful and patient, yet with an authoritative demeanor. The classroom easily shifts from focused to chaotic with the assistance of minor interruptions, and it is Ms. Paoli's task to shift the energy back to a productive place. Overall, it is a very difficult task to run a class full of 4-6 year olds, and I am very grateful to be of any assistance to my mentor.
Blog #3: My Role: Tuesday, October 25th
Today, my main role was getting to know the students and make them comfortable with my supervision. I offered help to students who were stuck on their classwork and helped the teacher keep the class organized. During Ms. Paoli's lessons, I pulled individual students to have them practice their ABC's and basic reading skills with me to see who might need the most additional attention or help. So far my sessions have been successful, as I easily established trust amongst the children and have spotted out at least one student who will need additional assistance. Over the next few weeks I will be working to develop a new teaching system that will help the students practice their existing linguistic abilities while teaching them new and easier ways to help it stick. Today was a pretty chill day; I made progress but without being overwhelmed by burdens. I don't expect every day to be as simple as my first day on the job, but I am willing to face any challenges.
Blog #4: Project Brainstorm: November 1st
During my time in my WLE, I call the students out of regular class to a small table in the back of the room where I check in on what they've learned. I ask the students to recite the ABC's, read small books, and name letters that I show them at random. I've noticed a number of students who seem to have fallen behind or are less than average at meeting the criteria. For my project, I'm thinking of starting a little Learning Center, like the one at Impact, where I help the kids work on the skills they are lacking in order to help them catch up with the rest of the class. I would work with the kids in small groups based on what they need the most help with. The kids who are really struggling will work with me individually to provide them with the attention they probably need to succeed in kindergarten. I got this idea from Impact Academy's own Learning Center which pulls kids who need extra help on grasping the concepts taught in class. Instead of creating one general lesson plan, which obviously isn't benefiting these kids, I will create more personalized work for them to complete. I'm excited to start this project because I've seen the effects of children who neglected to learn things and how it, ultimately, led to even worse decisions. Seeing children falling behind as early as kindergarten, where they learn the basis of everything they will ever learn in the future, is both frightening and heartbreaking. I would hate for these kids to slip through the public school system unnoticed and unmotivated to learn. I don't think my project requires many resources outside of the ones already provided for me in the classroom e.g. alphabet cards, ABC stamps, small books, and other learning based games.
Blog #5: Progress on my WLE Project, Part I: Nov. 8th
Today at my WLE, I finished consulting with all of the students in the class to create a list of students that I will be working with during my project. I created a list of said students, and wrote down what area they need most help with and the priority level of my attention. For example, some students don't get as much priority from me because they know 24 letters of the alphabet and know how to read all of the selected books. However, I am also working with students who only know 3 letters of the alphabet (4 on a good day) and can't read at all near the average reading level of a 5 year old. These students will receive the majority of my attention and time in the classroom, and will also be working with me individually. I also created a rough draft of my schedule to chart how I will spend my time at my WLE. The students who know a considerable amount of what's going on will work with me at the beginning of the day because they are more likely to retain the information they learn from my sessions throughout the day. The children who lack such knowledge will work with me at the end of the day, so that I won't be at a loss of patience so early in the day. I also encourage the children to ask their parents to study with them, so learning something closer to the time that they're going to go home and study is more beneficial to them. My mentor and I have discussed the materials I will need, the students I will work with, and my schedule. She says she is very proud of how hard I worked today to create a system for my project. We're both very excited to see the results!
Blog #6: Leadership Skills: Tuesday Nov 15th
The leadership skills I am using the most at my internship are Completing Projects Effectively and Thinking Critically. I believe these two skills are exhibited by my organization throughout the project and how much the students have learned what I've taught. Throughout the project, I've kept a plain notebook to track the progress of the students. In the front of the book is a page where I list the students that I plan to work with and what they need the most help studying. The notebook also has one page per student (front and back) where i keep their tests and classwork. The structure of the notebook has kept me organized and helped me stay on track with the students' work. The other skill I have used throughout this project is Thinking Critically. Since it is true that you can't teach a student who doesn't want to learn, the first (and most important) task of my project was convincing the students how important it is to learn whatever knowledge is being presented to them. I gave them examples of how I still use it in the 11th grade, and how they will need it to be successful in their lives. After communicating to them the importance of their education, I had to find a way to translate the lessons into ways that they'll comprehend and remember. To make my teachings effective, I had to put myself in the shoes of a kindergartner. I tried to gauge how much information they could retain per lesson to avoid overwhelming their developing minds. My mentor mainly uses Collaborate Productively as she often has to work along with the children's short attention spans and high energy levels to run a productive classroom.
Blog #7: What I learned, Reflection: Tuesday Nov 22nd
I have learned quite a few things about myself during my WLE experience. For one, I am a lot more patient than I thought. I would have never imagined that it would be possible for me to sit down with a bunch of 5 year olds and try to get them to listen to me and do their work. I usually don't get along with children at all, so I am very proud that I was able to come out of my comfort zone and actually work with the children without getting upset. Though most of the kids were a charm, there was one kid who would have been nearly impossible to work with. During our one and only check-in, his attention was constantly redirected around the classroom. He knew very little about the alphabet, and thought I would have loved to help him learn more, there was only so much an untrained unprofessional can do. I spoke with my mentor about him and she agreed that I wouldn't have to work with him. I can't say that I learned any life lessons from my WLE, (beyond me never having kids, ever) but I did get a more hands-on experience of a lesson I knew. I have known for a long time about how easily kids can slip through the public school system unnoticed and without help. When kids fail to learn something in kindergarten, those same skills can and will transfer over into the rest of their life unless someone steps in to help them. The problem is that, in public schools, classrooms are too big and the attention is too divided to notice or help when a small amount of students fall through. Though it seems harmless for a young child to miss a few lessons in kindergarten, it's actually terribly lethal. Think about it this way: the kid never learns his alphabet in kindergarten, then s/he never learns to read in first grade, then s/he never learns to write in second, then s/he misses out on a lifetime of education until s/he is noticed, if they're lucky, by an inspired high school teacher who aims to help them learn everything they've missed. The problem is that those inspired high school teachers can't save everyone, if anyone, and by the time the uneducated kid reaches their grasp it's too late. You can't take a 16 year old back to square one before they graduate high school. It's a terrible tradition, but so many teachers in the system allow students like this to continue forward because they don't know where to start with them. How do you handle a fifth grader who doesn't know the difference between the letter 'g' and the letter 'q'? You don't; you just send them forward and hope their next teacher can figure it out. I hope that during my WLE I have inspired this group of students to take care of their education, to create a future of knowledge and opportunity. Though they are too young to fully grasp how dangerous it is to ignore knowledge, I hope I got them into the habit of learning everything possible so that by the time they are old enough to grasp that concept, they haven't missed out on anything. If someone was to ask my why my work at my WLE was important, I would respond by telling them that I helped increase the potential revolutionary's population by 11 kids.
Blog #8: Professionalism: November 29th
In order to find my WLE, I had to face several rejections. Almost every animal hospital within my range of location was not interested in hiring an intern, and if they were it wasn't work I was interested in. It seemed very hopeless as I approached my 3rd week still unemployed. One Tuesday as I was walking my dog around the neighborhood, I noticed a small school not too far from my house. I had never really noticed it before so it never occurred to me to apply there. I went in for an interview with the principal later that morning. I spoke with the secretary who told me that I would have to write the principal Mrs. MacDonald, a letter explaining the program. After reading the letter, she told me that I was hired and told me when she would expect me to come. I was very surprised, and incredibly relieved, at how easy it was to get hired there. The most effective way of finding a job is to broaden your comfort zone. It's really hard to find a job with blinders on. The same doesn't apply for finding a career, obviously, or you'd be stuck doing something you don't enjoy for years. As a result of my WLE, I think being a professional or a responsible adult in the work world means being able to take a few rejections. It also means to be able to get beyond comfort zones in order to help others achieve success.
Blog #9: Life at my WLE: Tuesday Dec 6th
Today at my WLE I did some behavior control with the children. If they were misbehaving or disrupting the class, my mentor sent them to the back to work with me a little until they calmed down. The kids really like me so it wasn't hard to get them to listen to me when I asked them to do something. I think they get tired of my mentor's consistent authority and have learned how little power she actually holds over them. I, on the other hand, vary my authoritative tone with a little bit of laughter along with some seriousness. I think they like that because it's more comforting than being yelled at all the time. I don't think I've improved as an intern at all because I've been really stressed and tired lately. If anything I would say that my quality of work has decreased, even after presenting my project. I think I'm getting tired of my workplace. Its a great school with great people, I just don't really care for being there anymore. I have no interest in being a teacher or ever professionally educating children, so the work and lessons are very irrelevant. I've also re-realized how annoying little children are, and how easily they can get on your nerves. Its great that they like and respect me, it makes my job 10x easier, but I sometimes feel crowded and overwhelmed by the amount of attention they desire. Even if I'm feeling rather unsocial that day, I have to interact with the students as part of my job. If there's anything I've learned from my WLE, its that professional teaching is a great skill. It takes a whole lot of power to come in every day, rain or shine, smile or frown, and teach kids who are no less eager to be there. I've also been able to completely rule being a teacher out of my list of career options.
Blog #10: The End: Tuesday Dec 13th
My days at my WLE have gone by so fast I've hardly had time to reflect. Though I'm grateful for the opportunity to work at WLE, and even more grateful to Franklin Elementary for offering this opportunity, I can say with ease that I will not be working at a school next year. My interactions with the people at my WLE have been mainly pleasant, but not pleasant enough to inspire a career in this direction. I will miss the convenience of working four blocks away from my house and sleeping in a little later. I will definitely miss working and playing with the children, who I have grown to like over this period of time. For next year, I still want to work around a lot of people to exercise my communication skills, and I will most likely try to stay close to home. Next year I'll start making calls and arrangements way earlier so that I won't be behind on any hours and have to worry about coming in to work on my off days. Interning at a school has helped me realize that I probably get along better with pets than I do with children. If, by some horrible twist of fate I do end up at a school next year, my project will be to provide counseling for the children. Kids, much like teenagers, have a really hard time handling their emotions and in a productive way. I would like to teach kids the skills they need to avoid being an emotional disaster for the rest of their lives.
