Internship

My regular class was very diversified with the type of students enrolled. I was provided opportunities to incorporate modifications for ESE and ESOL students to encourage them to feel part of class even when they were at resource. As I learned how to teach, the evidence of my work showed in my students' learning.

By using my knowledge of technology in my teaching, I was able to gain the students' interest in what we were doing. While reading one book that was a historical fiction, I was able to research the Web, find information and pictures related to the book and copy them to overheads. This provided the class with visual support of what they were reading. At the end of the book, I incorporated the idea of the story into a message-in-a-bottle writing assignment that included using a secure email program for the "finders" to email a mock rescue group to save the survivors. In a science lesson, I linked the television to the classroom computer and took the students to the Harcourt-Brace experiment site, where we did a virtual experiment as a whole class. They became so involved, the lesson went over thirty minutes past it's scheduled time, with the students making predictions and observations beyond the requirements of the lesson. I used an upcoming field trip to Sea World as an opportunity for the students to do Internet research. They were provided handouts to go to Sea World's Web site and research five animals. They then selected one that they were most interested in and created KWL charts on it. On the field trip, their only course requirement was to locate their selected animal and find out additional facts about it to complete their chart. The students spent the following two weeks working on writing a persuasive fictional paper to a fictional organization either in favor of identifying their animal as endangered and needing to be saved, or requesting population control for an overabundant population. They then had to present their papers to the class to gain support for their views.

I found my internship to be an exciting time. I was fortunate to have the most encouraging and open-minded supervising teacher possible, with whom I was able to develop a great working relationship. I was also very fortunate to be in a school that encourages studying hard and made me feel a part of the team throughout my experience.