• Grace

     

    This semester, I had the privilege of working with Ms. Smith who is a fifth grade teacher at Oakdale Elementary School. I have always had a passion for teaching and working with Ms. Smith and her students allowed me to gain valuable experience. I had previously worked with Ms. Smith last year during my internship for Intro to Teaching 3 for Mrs. Freeman’s class. When I decided to do another internship I knew that I wanted to go back to Ms. Smith.

    There are many things I learned during my internship. Between learning how to make anchor charts to finding my “teacher voice”. There is so much value in my experiences and lessons learned during my internship but learning that teachers aren’t perfect has to be the biggest lesson I learned. Knowing that it’s okay to make mistakes and show your students that you’re human too. Now that we are virtually learning, I am realizing how much I take being in the classroom for granted. When I found out we would be out of school for a couple of weeks, I asked my mentor teacher if there was anything I could do to help during this time. It’s tough not being able to have control and teaching students and work with the ones who struggle but this will only make us appreciate the moments we have with our students even more.

    As of now, I plan to go back to my internship as soon as we can. I know when we go back it’ll be tough so I look forward to helping out as much as I can. I am so lucky to have had this opportunity to gain field experience so early on. It is because of ATC and my teachers that I have been able to have this opportunity.

    Like I mentioned before, teaching has always been my passion. For the longest time I thought I wanted to teach Theatre or Spanish at the high school level but after Mrs. Freeman’s class and having an internship through WBL, I have learned that upper elementary is where I am passionate. That is why I will be attending Anderson University in the fall where I will be majoring in Elementary Education with an add-on in Middle School Education and a minor in theatre.

    I have attached a silly photo of Ms. Smith and me that accurately depicts both our personalities. This was during our Valentine’s Day party where I made a backdrop so the students could have a photoshoot.