Blog #1: My workplace
My workplace is called Searles Elementary School. It is a elementary school for grades first through fifth grade. It is a medium sized business since it has a staff that teaches about thirty kids a day.It is located on 15th St, Union City California, it is a medium sized sight with a field and a playground and it is an overall a nice place beautiful. Searles employs all sorts of people such as teachers, custodians, principles, and vice principles. All of the people that work have a four year degree. My work space serves children in first to fifth grade. Some of the strengths of my workspace is that since the school is not so big the classes are small so once I’m done grading work I can help the kids with their work on a one on one mini conference. I think that one weakness about my work place is the differences in my schools .
Blog #2: My Mentor
My mentor name is Mr. Rosato and he is one of the few fifth grade teachers. His typical day is in the morning he watches kids out in on the black top and when the bell rings he makes the kids line up and lets them go in by the straight line. After that he has them take out their homework before going to prep once they go to prep I grade their homework I give it back. Then they come back and they do class work and once there done if they did not finish there homework and turn it in. Mr. Rosato became interested in teaching when he found out that he was good at it after his first two profession which a youth minister and a financial securities broker adviser he realized he wanted to be a teacher because he was good at teaching adults and teenagers new things.
Blog #3: My role
My main responsibility is to grade homework or classwork and to help the kids when they are confused with anything like the classwork or homework and projects my job title is teacher's aid. Somethings complete is a stack of work a day and I also help allot of the kids with there work and homework or projects. A regular day is me signing into the office getting a visitor pass then going and waiting for the teacher to get to his classroom. While I wait for the teacher I have mini conversation with the student and my old 4th and 5th teacher about how I am doing in school and about how my family is now a days. After that the teacher comes to class and lets them in then he collects the homework and I correct it when they are in prep once they are back I pass back the work and they start there classwork if anyone is confused i will help but not give any answers. Then during lunch I help out in the yard by watching the kids then when lunch is over I go back to class to grade more papers and help students with works and that is my day.
Blog #4: Project Brainstorm
I'm thinking for my project I will make a lesson plan and teach it to a group of 5th graders on a subject the that they are struggling with like long division or any other area they are struggling with. I came up with my idea because I am good at math and naturally help kids by working to my strengths and not to my weaknesses. I am excited because I get to make a poster and teach the class a lesson on long division. In the next few weeks I will be asking my teacher how to make a lesson plan and make one then try to teach it to my mom who is a teacher. Then make a mock poster at home to try and see how I will organize my poster to make it appealing to the fifth graders. Then during my WLE day I will make my poster then ask a few kids what they think so if I need to fix any thing on it I can.
Blog #5: progress on my WLE project
Today at my WLE I graded paper and made a poster helped kids on any work they need to catchup on like projects or homework and class work they do not understand. My mentor and I talk about possible things that I can do for my WLE and about how to make a lesson plan so I can make one on my own time and not at my internship so can focus on the more important things like helping the students with there work. I have so far accomplished what I am going to do for my WLE project I am going to do a lesson on long division and make a poster on it and I think it will be recorded to show future class he has.
Blog #6: Leadership Skills
The leadership I am going to use for my project is Collaborate Productively, Thinking Critically because I will need to be able to collaborate with my mentor a time I can teach my lesson to the class with the teacher. Then for Thinking Critically I will have to think of a fun and creative way to keep the kids attention and still be able to teach the kids something new. These skills will help me with my work because if I am writing an essay I will have to do some Critical thinking when writing essays or on projects. Then collaborating productively could help when I work in groups for projects and have to communicate with me group members. The leadership my mentor shows the most is collaborate productively because he has to communicate with all the teachers and the people in the office if a student in his class gets in trouble.
Blog #7: What I learned, Reflection
I have learned about myself is that I can do a lot of paperwork and filing a lot of work to also that I am good at making posters and helping little kids with projects. What I like to do is help kids learn something new and something that they will remember for a while and be able to use it in the future. A life lesion I got for this s that it is not as easy as I thought to be a teacher with all the homework grading and with the filing of lots of paperwork. Also a passion I have for teaching the kids and the joy they bring the teacher when they learn something new for the first time. My creativity was put to use by making poster for lesson or previous lesson the kids. The time I spent at my internship gave me an idea that being a professional is some one who is not
Blog #8:Professionalism
To start off we had to make our own resume, also we had to look on the internet for possible work sites that we can work at. Then we had to call and make a meeting with your possible mentor. After that I meet with the principle of the elementary school I when to intern at and I had to wait a few days when I got the call I could intern there. The most effective way of looking for a job and getting hired there is to dress for success and talk professionally and do not use slang. Also another way to look for a job is to look for a lot of possible places that you can intern at and look for places that you would like and look forward to interning at. A responsible adult in the work world means to be a good worker by never letting your colleagues down, always being on time, and being a hard working person.
Blog #9: Life at my WLE
Today I presented my WLE project and graded the two problems I gave the students to do then I showed them the answer if they got any of the problems wrong so they could see what they did wrong. Then when I was done with my lesson I graded the last of all the paper work I had for the day then I helped any of the kids with late work they needed help with. I improve as an intern since I was always playing around and never taking things serious until I was told that when I am at my internship I am suppose to act my age because when I am there I am like a teacher. My workplace is great because it's great foundation to start thinking about which careers I might want to take on. I always wanted to have a profession that involved working with kids, but after experiencing it at my WLE, I might want to take on something more challenging than teaching. Also, since my workplace has kids with certain disabilities, it's a great place to really see how the different methods teachers use to communicate and really teach students who don't have the same abilities as an average child would.
Blog #10: The End
My final thought about WLE is that it is really stressful and fun. I say that because during the time I was there I graded over 350 paper and made 10 posters then filled over 200 papers all together a stressful time. There was also fun time like when it was my first day there the kids and I was joking around with them and getting to know them to it was quite fun. The experience opened my eyes to what my real interests were and helped me understand what I might and might not be interested in taking on as a career. This WLE will definitely affect the internship I choose next year, because now that I have experienced what it's like to work with children this young, I might not really want to teach children of their age group, but I'd definitely be willing to work with older kids and not so much elementary students but I will miss the funny memories I had with the school.
