Internship - Blog #7

5.  What advice would you pass on to future interns? What are the most important skills for a student to be successful at his/her internship? How could another student develop these skills prior to beginning internship? 

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If I can pass on one piece of advice to future interns, it would be to choose an internship that you think will be interesting and fun, not just any random one. If you choose something that doesn't really seem interesting, it may not be. However, if you spend some time looking for an internship site that suits you, you'll most likely have a better time at it. Additionally, it could be helpful to use previously-made connections to find your internship. For example, I ended up interning at an elementary school, and my mentor is a previous teacher of mine. You might have an easier time finding a mentor/internship if you talk to people you have previously worked with or been in contact with. I think that, in order to be successful at your internship, you just need to be on task and professional. Other skills may be needed, depending on the internship site, but as long as you act professionally, like would be expected at a work place, and stay focused and get everything accomplished, you'll be fine. These two skills could easily be developed prior to internship at school, simply by trying your best to get your work done and be professional during times such as Exhibition and POLs. 

Internship - Blog #6

5. Who benefits from the work that you do at internship? How and/or why?
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I think that the work I am doing at Alpine Elementary is beneficial to many, especially my mentor, Ms. Piper. Quite a bit of what I do, such as filing papers, or preparing homework packets, would normally be done by her, and so I am somewhat relieving her work load. Additionally, I help answer students' questions, or help them with their work, which they would normally be looking to Ms. Piper for. I also believe that my internship has been beneficial to the students, especially those who I am able to spend one-on-one time with. A few students who normally struggle with their work are now able to work in a separate, quieter  room, in which they are able to focus on their work and get help should they need it. Since I began working with them, one of them got their first 100% on a spelling test, which may be a result of the work I am doing with him. The last person who benefits from this work is me. By coming in everyday to a work environment, I am getting work experience which is definitely beneficial. 

Internship - Blog #5

3. You are half-way through your project. How is it going? What challenges have you faced? What have you learned? What are you doing to ensure a successful completion of your internship project.

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During my internship, I've worked on multiple smaller projects instead of one large one, and, so far, each one is going smoothly. One such project is working with a few of the lower level kids with their work, and spending additional time reading and playing games with them to ensure they are learning various vocabulary. One issue I faced in this project was that the bingo cards they played with were too small, and they completed the games far too quickly, and so a typed up a larger, 5x5 bingo card that would take them longer to finish. They seem to be benefiting from the help I am giving them, and, since the project is really open-ended, in order to ensure a successful completion of this project, I'm just going to keep working with them on a daily basis and watch the quality of their work improve.

Another project that I am working on is photographing the class throughout my stay, and, in the end, putting the images onto a CD for the kids to take home with them. I have finished taking the pictures at this point, and will begin sorting them into folders for each kid, and burn them onto the CDs. There haven't been many challenges in this project, except for making sure I get enough photos of each student. Because the little girls were so eager to be photographed and always had me taking pictures of them, I barely had any of the boys in the beginning. Eventually, I got more of the male students, and enough of them all to make a nice collection. I will know I have successfully completed this project when all of the CDs have been burned and labeled correctly.

A final project that I am working on is teaching the first graders how to use an iPod Touch. The school that I am interning at, Alpine Elementary, will soon be getting in a shipment of iPods that all of the classrooms will have access to, and so my mentor wants to make sure that her students understand how to properly use them. I have been teaching the students on my iPod Touch, and they have treated it very carefully and gently, which is better than I expected of them. They seem eager to get a chance to use it, and quickly learn what to do with it. The main challenge of this project has been finding free, grade-level-appropriate applications, that are both educational and easy to understand. I've gone through online databases trying to find apps that fall in that category, but still haven't been able to find many. Another challenge is choosing which apps for the students to use when I work with them, because they are all at different levels, and what's easy for one kid might me difficult for another. Like my first project, this is somewhat open-ended, but I feel that as long as I keep working with the students and make sure that they are understanding what I am teaching them, this will have been a successful project. 

Internship - Blog #4

4. How has or do you see your internship changing the way you consider that paths your future will take?

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Before this internship process, I had never really considered a future as a teacher, but, after just a few days at Alpine Elementary, it is actually something I could picture myself doing. Although it's not necessarily something I'mm planning on pursuing, it's definitely an option worth considering. So far, I have enjoyed the different aspects of working in a classroom, especially working with the kids. The class I'm in is made up of first graders, which seems to be a good age group to teach and work with. I knew I liked working with kids, but, had I not chosen an elementary school as my internship site, I may not have realized that I don't mind teaching.

Internship - Blog #3

7. What lessons or experiences at you internship will you bring back to school to help you to further improve in your academics?
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One thing that I believe I will be able to take away from my internship and apply to the work I complete in school is patience. Working with six-year-olds all day requires a lot of patience, just simply to make sure they understand everything and complete the tasks necessary. If I use this patience during school assignments, I think that I'd be able to do a better job, because I'd be less inclined to become frustrated if something were to go wrong. Additionally, I feel that, so far, my internship experience will have made me better at explaining things, and helping others with their work, which could definitely be of use during projects and such. Lastly, since one aspect of the project I am completing at Alpine Elementary is photographing the class, I will hopefully become better at that, as well as in Photoshop, which may come in handy for assignments later in the year.

First Week of Internship - Blog Two

7. What are you most surprised by during your first week of internship and why?

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I think that what I am most surprised by during my first week of internship is how much I am enjoying it. While I somewhat expected this experience to be boring, I find myself engaged throughout the day and the time seems to fly by. I have the freedom to choose what I want to do during the day, which keeps my tasks from becoming tedious. I have a friendly, helpful mentor, and am starting to make connections with the first graders she teaches. I figured in the beginning that I wouldn't mind this internship, but I am definitely surprised at just how satisfied I am with it.

First Week of Internship - Blog One

3. Describe the project you'll do at internship, including the skills and technology you need to do it and what you hope your project looks like as a final product.

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One project that I'm going to be working on during my internship at Alpine Elementary School is photographing the first grade class that I am working with. In addition to just helping out around the classroom, and working with small groups of children, I'll be taking pictures throughout my next three weeks. Towards the end of this process, I'll put these images onto discs for the students to take home, as well as one for the teacher, so that she has access to the images for when she puts together the children's' end-of-year books. In order to make the pictures I take look the best, I may have to use programs such as Photoshop, and I may end up putting them together with a program such as Windows Movie Maker. I hope that the final product of my work is a polished collection of photographs that capture the time I spent at my internship.