My block for my internship ended last week. What a relief because of the long days those were— block early in morning, then classes in day, then work in evening followed by hw at night. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy creating and conducting lesson plans, and learning from students and teachers. I’ve learned SO much this semester with my cooperating teacher and school. Science is overlooked often for funding, and its a horrible thing. There are however GREAT resources online for explaining abstract concepts. When I was in 6th grade I remember either reading texts or doing hands on activities. The only difference now is the great technology resources. Now, about the hands on activities— its great when there are materials, tools, and resources available from your school. A few important things I learned from this block are :
- Repetition is important— saying aloud as a class and writing down
- let kids be kids— let them work in pairs, groups and get out of their desk
- procedure sets the standard for the school year
- students tend to turn into turtles— keep their backpack on the back all the time
- students need inspiration and positive attitudes so much more than you could ever image— you set the standard
- don’t try to recreate the wheel when making lesson plans— borrow, respectively, from other sources
- assessments don’t always have to be multiple choice— try making a short story or drawing a picture instead
- let students explore before giving all the answers— it makes class more interesting and eliminates memorizing “the right answer”
- allow exploration before revealing reasoning
The most memorable experiences have been when:
- the “trouble” student is the one who gets one of the highest grades because they repeated the information so much a loud, although seemed as disruptive
- when students exclaimed “duuuuude!” in engagement when looking at live organism cells underneath a microscope
- students explain the information in a better, creative way then what was in my lesson plan
- the day I figured out that I mastered “the look” aka “the parental look” when all you have to do is look at a classroom full of students and they realize to stop talking and pay attention to the instructor
All in all, I learned so much because of how much freedom my cooperating teacher gave me. I would literally walk in before classes and she would tell me the TEKS objective, the worksheet assignment, and then let me and my partner figure out how we would like to conduct the lesson for the day. We would work with students one-one-one, in groups, and as a class. We got to try different teaching methods and use the technology equipment. The reason I got a great internship is because of the freedom to try different teaching techniques, and make mistakes and learned from them. Great school, student, and teaching internship experience. So, I say to all you cooperating teachers— give your interns a little wiggle room. They are capable of more than you think.
Other than that, I’ve been learning Korean!
I don’t have a real reason except that I’m attracted to the culture and language. Perhaps I will teach in Korea in the future, or at least SE Asia.
[ayn nyung hae se yo. Jeu reum en Rhonda im ni da. Man na seo ban ga woe] = Hello. My name is Rhonda. It is nice to meet you.
I plan on learning Khmer over the summer since this relates to my thesis focus— Cambodia.
Finally, as my senior seminar (Thesis Prep) class comes to an end this means that I need to have the first portion of my thesis completed to prepare for next semester. Pressure, much?
