My Internship (A year in the Lee County schools)
Part 1
My internship began in late July of 2013; I was placed in a Title one school. I was asked by the principal to attend the many in-services they were having before most teachers returned to school. I gained lots of invaluable experience such as moving furniture, books and supplies from one classroom to another. My mentor teacher was starting a new grade level and was as unfamiliar with the materials and textbooks as I. I also learned that labeling is a teacher’s best friend. Before the open house, I was running sheets and sheets of labels with the students’ names on them for folders, pockets, file folders and supplies. I also learned that bulletin boards are a lot of work.
My mentor teacher and I wore polo shirts at the Open House the Saturday before the first day of class. We passed out forms, had parents sign in and gave out supply lists. I noticed not every student attended this event. I was told that this is typical at a Title one school. One of the students came with his father and brother, would not smile and told me that they lived in a car.
From July to November, I spent my days in this class observing my mentor teacher and teaching some lessons. I did not get to use the many resources that were available to the teachers and had trouble planning lessons. I spent many evenings frustrated while trying to write lesson plans. In hindsight, I see where I could have changed the outcome of my internship. I know I should have communicated my concerns to my mentor and supervising professor. I also know that a teacher cannot be "friends" with the students. I should not have been sitting on the carpet with the students during lessons. I realized that I was known as a soft touch with these children. Many mornings, quite a few of the students would tell me they were sick or had a skin rash and knew I would write them a clinic pass. I learned firsthand how important it is to be consistent and firm with the students. When you say something, stick to it. My classroom management was not very good and it showed when I tried to teach a lesson. My mentor teacher and I had a bit of a personality conflict, she had never mentored anyone, I had never been in an internship program and it was not working out for either of us.
I was given an F by the mentor teacher. I was shocked. I had done everything she asked, and tried to do whatever she thought was expected of me. I was not going to quit! My desire to be a teacher was very important of me. I spent the last 3 or 4 weeks at this school in various classrooms, observing other teachers in other grade levels. I was not going to give up. Being a teacher was what I wanted to do; I had sold insulation to refineries, managed a grocery store, sold personalized goods on line and never felt that any of those jobs was what I was destined to do. Teaching was what I had always wanted to do, even as a child. I had worked so hard the last four years to get to this point and I was not going to give up. I spent the break between fall and spring semester reading books about classroom management, observing a teacher friend in Collier County and talking with a principal who was the mother of a friend of mine.
I was devastated, for many reasons. Being a single parent, it was a financial hardship on us; I had not been able to work and was concerned about how I was going to feed my son. Not to mention, we had been living in my aunt’s winter home and we had to leave it before season. I was faced with homelessness on top of the F. I knew that I was not ready to have a class of my own, though. I did not feel I had enough experience teaching or taking over a class. I was going to have to redo the entire internship and my professor made sure I was placed with a teacher at a different school, which would begin in January.