Final Reflection

First, I would like to say that I have had an amazing experience with the school that I was at. My mentor was the sweetest teacher in the world. Everyday I was there, her and I ate lunch together and that was my favorite time of the day. Her and I were really able to bond and I realized how great it would be to be a teacher. When I started this internship, I was still debating if I should become a teacher or get my Masters in Business. I have loved every minute of teaching and I think that I want to be a teacher now. I know that I would be a great teacher, and Mrs. Pagels has taught me so many things to be a great teacher this semester. I have learned that teachers can really make an impact on young children. It has been so amazing to watch some of the children grow throughout the semester. One girl in the class had Asberger’s disease and I grew such a soft spot for the children. Even after being done with the internship, I am still going to visit them the rest of this semester. I am moving at the end of the month, but if I wasn’t, I would continue to go back as often as I could. I learned that teaching can be one of the most difficult occupations there are. At times, they are very unappreciated and it is not okay. I am glad that I was able to experience being a teacher, if I don’t become a teacher myself. I think it’s good to experience it, so when my children are in school, I am not of those parents who upset the teacher. The main way in which I have grown through this experience is to enjoy children more. I have always liked kids, but I never knew how to talk to them. Frankly, kids used to make me nervous. Now, I am very comfortable around them and I enjoy being with them. There were many skills that I gained also. One of the skills I gained was my communication skill with children. Also, teaching social studies, and certain topics that I knew before, made me work hard. Teaching is very different than learning. I had to apply the things that I have learned and put them to use. I realized that teaching is a good learning tool because you have to really understand it. I was always nervous if the children had a question and I would not know the answer. With that fear, I was very prepared before doing a lesson. Throughout the semester, my lessons grew stronger and I was able to create a fairly good one by the end of the year. My teacher put a lot of trust in me, and I was creating worksheets and tasks for the children to do. And I enjoyed every minute of it, and felt so accomplished. I know this was a positive experience. I am happy to know that I want to be a teacher now. Due to this experience, I am looking into Teach For America, and that was something that I would have never considered before this.

Change For My Organization

I think that while my organization is working quite well, one of the things that I would like to change is the chaos around the way in which the children switch around classrooms. The kids move around for science, social studies, and reading, but have their particular place for their homeroom. Every day when they are to leave for the subject of topic, they are supposed to grab that book, go and get their binder for that class and then go. But, they all grab things so fast, make a huge mess around the room and some even forget certain things that they are supposed to grab. So, while the children are learning social studies, a kid will come into the classroom, interrupting, to grab their binder or book that they forgot for their other class. In my mind, I think it would be so much easier if things were better organized. Perhaps, the teacher that has science, leaves all the science books in her classroom. Also, the science binders that the kids need should just stay in the science class that they need to be in. There could be a binder that the children bring for their homework binder only. If they need anything to take home that night, put it in that one binder. This binder applies to all classroom activities though, and all your homework from every subject would go in that binder. The information and books that they need for social studies, science and reading all just stay in the classroom where these things are taught for each child. Things get too chaotic and the children interrupt class time and I have always just thought this was not the most productive way of doing things.

Interview

I enjoyed conducting an interview with my sponsor of this internship. Over this whole experience her and I have become close, however this helped me know her on an even more personal level. Not only did we discuss her struggles with the job but also how it plays into her personal life.
First, she loves her job more than anything. She teaches fifth grade, with most all subjects. However, her passion is teaching social studies. She is lucky enough to be able to teach all of the fifth graders this subject. She finds that teaching fifth grade students is the perfect fit for her. She started as being a teacher’s assistant to disabled children in the same school where she is a teacher now. For a personal reason, she decided to go back to school and get her teaching certificate. She has now been a teacher for the past eleven years and she has loved almost every minute of it. The fifth grade students are the perfect age for her. She explained how they are young, are still at the age where they enjoy their teacher and yet are on their way to being adults.
Some of the difficult parts of her job are things that I had sort of assumed. One main one is the pay. She says it is often a struggle, especially at times now when the economy is poor. She is working more, doing more extracurricular activities for the district, but with no extra pay. Also, the pay has always been something that she struggles with. Although, it is worth it to her. Also, what it hard is having to take pounds of grading home every night and every weekend. She says often, people do not realize how much work a teacher does outside of the class room. Another thing she struggles with are aggressive parents. My sponsor is such a sweet, soft spoken person. While she gets the job done beautifully, being soft spoken people often believe that they can take advantage of her. She says that gets difficult. Another struggle is attempting to reach out and make a difference to all the kids, and having some not reciprocate that back to her. It is hard for her when she tries and she sees that what she is doing is just not working for a kid. One of her favorite things about the job is that she makes a difference in their lives and they remember her always as their fifth grade teacher. Yet it is difficult if by the end of the year she hasn’t made that impact on a child. There are three teachers in the fifth grade. She says that one difficulty is that there is not enough students this year to have four teachers, but the classrooms are pretty full with three of them. She has thirty two in her homeroom class, and the others have twenty eight and thirty. This is the first year that one of her colleagues is at the school, teaching fifth grade. My sponsor told me that the transition has been an easy one and that all three of them get along better than she ever expected. One challenge that may arise is they may bring on another teacher, having four fifth grade teachers next year, due to the size in the fourth grade. My teacher worries that she may lose being able to teach all the students social studies, which is her passion. But, she will see when the time comes.

Shadowing The Teacher

The individual that I chose to shadow was the main teacher that I work with on a regular basis. I shadowed her for the entire school day. Normally, I arrive around the time the children arrive and I leave when the children leave as well. But this day, I went earlier and was there when she arrived. The first thing she does when she gets there is to organize the class room and set it up for the day. She writes the daily schedule on the chalk board and arranges everything in a way that will be useful for the day. She then meets with the other two fifth grade teachers and discusses the plan for the day. In this school, the fifth grade children rotate around between the three teachers. While they have their home room teacher, where they learn math and writing, they move around to the different teachers for reading, social studies and science. So, they teachers met this morning to discuss what the children would be learning in the different subjects. They also discussed certain problems with particular children and how to change things for this child. I think that the way they rotate around and work with one another is a great way for the children to feel a sense of being an adult and to learn responsibilities. Anyways, after the meeting was over, the children were almost to arrive. She went down to the office to check her mail box and then went back to the room, waiting for the kids to arrive and begin teaching. Once this occurred, it looked like a normal day in the class room for us. However, during lunch I typically stay in the class and allow her to go to the office and do the things that she needs to do. This time, I went with her. She had to go talk to the principle and then we went to the Teacher’s Lounge to eat lunch and visit with a few of the other teachers. I realized how quick the lunch break was and she came back to the class to do some grading for the rest of the lunch. She also had to look over emails and respond. One thing I learned and had not thought of before was that all the fifth grade parents can contact her through email. She did not complain about this, however I can only imagine. When I was in school, my parents were not able to email the teacher on a regular basis. Today, parents can email the teacher about a homework situation, or any other problem. While that could be helpful, it could also be some sort of a nuisance. After lunch, we went back to teaching, watching what I normally do. I then learned that after school is over, she has to leave quickly; She grabbed a lot of papers to grade, and had to go. She is also a tutor three times a week and goes to meet her students right after class. I enjoyed shadowing and learning even more about the day in the life of this particular fifth grade teacher.

Annotated Resume

SHELBY WILLIAMS
1128 Ocean Park Blvd. #212 (520) 270-1800
Santa Monica, CA 90405 shelbyw9@yahoo.com

OBJECTIVE
To obtain a position that utilizes my skills in the marketing field and enables me to make a contribution to the company through the broad and developed knowledge that I have.

EDUCATION
Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Arizona State University, Dec. 16, 2009
GPA 3.8 Major GPA 3.7 Magna Cum Laude

EMPLOYMENT
Dirtbag’s Bar and Grill; Tucson, AZ 12/2004-Current
Manager
Head waitress, Waitress Manager
One of four managers. First woman manager within the past ten years. Bookkeeping, schedule creator, balancing drawers, opening and closing the bar, keeping all the customers satisfied. Ability to serve over three hundred customers at a time, maintaining everyone’s satisfaction. Managing nine waitresses.
Experience with accounts payable and receivable. Write checks, take invoices and receive orders from five distributors a week.

Starbucks; Tucson, AZ 1/2009- Current
Barista
Shift supervisor
Balance drawers, count money, and maintain customer satisfaction.



ORGANIZATIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

The National Society of Collegiate Scholars Tucson, Arizona 1/2009- Current
Recognized and awarded for being in the top twenty percent of my class at Arizona State University.

Arizona State University Dean’s List Spring 2009
Recognized for my outstanding academic achievements. Received a GPA of more than 3.5.


Golden Key International Honor Society Spring 2009
Recognized and awarded for being in the top fifteen percent of my class at Arizona State University.

This past week in my class room, the children learned about the Constitution and The Bill of Rights. These are both major concepts for the kids to learn and understand. They are both what are the foundation of our country. Actually, teaching these ideas is extremely exciting and something that I am passionate about. In an educational purpose, the Constitution was the work of many statesman, hugely cooperating to form the basis of our country. This concept is a great way to teach, to show the children how the people were able to compromise and create something together, that is still in tact today. The Constitution lays out the power that our government should have and the power that the people should have. Not only are the words of the Constitution important, but so are the principle ideas behind it. It shows the children how to come to a solution with more than just one person’s input, and how to lay a foundation of something that is worth keeping. Also, the Bill of Rights was another thing that they went over. The Bill of Rights is comprised of the first ten Amendments to the Constitution. These give the people more rights and more freedom. The Bill of Rights was the way in which they protected our individualism and our rights. Our founding father’s passion and determination are great things to show the kids at school. On Monday, the kids are going to be doing a scavenger hunt where they are seeking different parts of the Bill of Rights. I created different things that they are supposed to find in different people. For example, the founding father is known as George Mason, so they need to find a person whose first name is George. They also need to find a person who shares a birthday with the day the Bill of Rights were ratified.

Two other things that the children have been learning about are mathematical concepts. One being algebraic equations. They are learning how to divide and multiply decimals. This is a good thing for all of them to learn because they are able to apply it towards other things as well. Basic math is extremely important to teach children.

Finally, all the students are learning basic communication concepts. They are learning how to say hello and be polite to other people. Communication is another key concept that we need to teach children. Communication is a way in which all of us attempt to convey meaning in order to create a shared understanding of something. There is a little girl in my class who only speaks Spanish. I did not notice this until I tried to help her and she just gave me a blank look. However, we have together tried to form a basic understanding and attempted to convey meaning towards the same things and we have made several accomplishments. Her and I now share our own form of communication and I am able to help her work through things. All the students work on communication daily, and it is an important part of their learning progress at school.

Multi vs. Inter Disciplinary Studies

My applied study, of being a fifth grade teacher's assistant is definitely interdisciplinary studies site. Within an interdisciplinary study, you must draw on insights of different disciplines in order to produce new knowledge. As a teacher, this is a daily occurence. When teaching, you need to know many different disciplines to help the children fully grasp concepts. When teaching, children ask you questions all the time, and you need to have a broad knowledge in order to help them. Interdisciplinary studies integrate knowledge from several different modes of thinking. When teaching, you do not just focus on one discipline at a time. During social studies, political science, religion, economics and history all play a large factor.
My school does not operate on a multidisciplinary perspective. Within a multidisciplinary studies, you would place different disciplines side by side. You need to integrate different perpsectives and not just have them be near one another. To teach, one needs to integrate disciplines and fully appreciate several perspectives in order to be a great teacher, which is what every teacher strives for.