Internship #13

Choice 1:
Post three pictures that show a specific "perspective" of your internship.

The two pictures above show the perspective from customers who are looking to buy merchandise and clothing from the Student Store at Warren-Walker Elementary School. These pictures I took will be posted to the Student Store website, and were a part of a project I am doing to help advertise the school's merchandise. Ms. Frans, the second grade teacher, and I took her students down to the cliffs today to take a photo-shoot of them wearing Warren-Walker customized clothing. We all had a lot of fun and the children loved modeling all the clothes!

This photo shows the perspective of the students I help out, along with the employees and teachers I work for. They have seen me every school day for the last couple weeks and this is what they see. I am usually always smiling anyways, but being surrounded by adorable children and people I grew up with, I can't help but to smile big for them everyday. Also, they see me dressed in professional attire, which shows students and teachers that I am serious about my internship!

This picture shows a unique perspective from the people who attended Warren-Walker Elementary in the 1930's. This picture is a picture of a photograph and shows what the school used to look like way back when it was first developed. As you can see they is just one big dirt patch that went straight to the ocean, but if you look at it now, that area is covered with houses and buildings. My mentor actually gave me the idea to take a picture of this because it shows such a unique perspective.

Internship #12

Collaboration
Part 1: Documenting collaboration



The photos above represent collaboration because these two students from different grades are working together to read a book. The littler girl is a preschooler from one of the classes I worked in, and the older one is a second grader in one of the classes I am working in now. They pair up every week to read.


Part 2: Writing about collaboration

-In the course of one typical workday, how many different people do you directly work with?
In one typical workday I directly work with multiple different people from different departments. At the beginning I only worked with two different teachers, all their students, and my mentor, but now I work with a new pair of teachers, their students, my mentor, the admissions/community relations employee, and the advertising employee.

-How many people are indirectly affected by your work?
I would say that a great amount of indirect people are also affected by my work, like the Warren-Walker alumni, maybe the parents of the students, or even other teachers

-Describe your direct collaboration with others—how does it go & how does it influence the work?
I collaborate with the teachers I work for, and their students the most. I collaborate with the teachers when I help teach lessons because I do not know the expectations they have for their students, or how they are regularly taught a certain concept. In order to teach lessons to the students, and plan when I can teach my own lessons, I have to collaborate with both the teachers and students. I collaborated with the other employees I work for a lot too, when planning the party, Mrs. Fisk and I would put our heads together to come up with great ideas like what music and if there should be bands. This influenced the brainstorming because I would have never thought to actually get real bands from past years at Warren-Walker, and I think it's a cool idea. I hope my ideas influence the work a lot too because I know the age group and what they would want for a party.

Describe your indirect impact on others through your work—there are probably many people you never actually see who are affected by your work. How does this happen? How does this influence your work?

My indurect impact on other would be with planning the teen party, everyone that participates in that event with be affected by my hard party planning. Also, other teachers and maybe even parents of the children I work with will be affected by my work too, because when I teach the lesson on Wednesday they will learn a new way of learning. It will be hands-on learning and hopefully they will learn a little more than before. This could happen if everyone sees the scores improve after learning a lesson NOT from a textbook, they coud start to take on the project based learning experience. This influences my work because I want to do a really great job on Wednesday and prove that project based learning can teach a lot, and hopefully even more.

Internship #11

Week Summary
Randy

My week was filled with new experiences, highlights, challenges, and memories, being that I had switched teachers, and started new projects. Although it started off with a sad day of leaving Mrs. Songer, Mrs. Thein, and their adorable students behind, I experience something extremely memorable. The first grade kids made me a book saying all kinds of nice things about me, with pictures and everything, kind of like a good-bye gift. It was adorable and this was definitely one of the highlights of my week because I felt like I actually touched the lives of these kids. One girl, Sabrina, wrote "You are the best helper you are also the best teacher's assistant. Thank you for visiting out classroom." This book made me feel extremely accomplished. The next day I switched over to Ms. Frans' second grade class, and Mrs. Huff's fourth grade class. I also began to work for Mrs. Fisk, the community relations employee, and Mrs. Wambaugh, the advertising employee. I divided up time to be with each evenly, which was a big challenge. I had to fit the schedules of four different people, so it ended up being that I had more time in the classrooms which I like a little more. Another challenge I had with helping out four different people is that now I have three different projects going on at the same time and I'm struggling to do them all, but now have a lot planned out. I am just scared for how crazy next week will be, but I'll get a lot of work done this weekend. Anyways, the rest of my week was me observing the students and coming up with a project for the fourth graders, while also planning out and working on my other two projects. Some highlights from this are that I think I can up with a really cool project for the 4th graders and am excited to see how it goes. I then ended the week with my mentor interview which was memorable and a highlight because I learned so much that I didn't know about her. The interview made me realize that if you know what you want, you can achieve it. Overall, my week had some challenges but I'm happy with the outcome of events.

Internship #10

Picture/Caption/Questions
Randy

Picture:



Caption:

This picture summed up my day because all day I carefully observed the student's work by walking through the isles and looking at what they were doing. I realized that their way of learning is standard and completely opposite from the way of High Tech High, they learn a lot of their material through textbooks. This inspired me to ask the world if textbooks are really made to benifit the education of students. Comparing and contrasting the learning habits of my old school to those of my new, made me wonder if there really is a difference in the education of a child based on the way its taught. Basically, I began to wonder if one of the students learns more from a hands on lesson, or a text book lesson. To learn more about this I have decided today to do an "experiment" with the kids from the 4th grade class I'm helping out in. This experiment will be on Wednesday of next week and what I will do is divide the class into two, based on averaged out grades, and then teach one half a lesson from the usual book and teach the other half with a more hands on lesson. I will plan the whole lesson this weekend and run it by the teacher on Monday.

Questions:

I did not post the blog from last night but I have found some information on my mentor. She grew up in Kansas and went to school there until she was ten. Later on she had to move to California for her family and ended up going to college at USD. She began working at my internship site when she got married to the head master, Ray Volker. Some questions I would like to ask her for our interview tomorrow would be:

1. Did you have any aspirations for your career when you moved to California? What were they and did you achieve them?

2. Did your aspirations and dreams change with time? How and why do you think?

3.How was the experience of moving from Kansas to California?

4. Any advice for success?

5. Overall, are you happy and living the career life you want?

Internship #8

Choice B Prompt
Randy

Choice B:

What new appreciations (for who? of what?) have you gained through internship that you did not have before? How did you develop these appreciations?

Through my internship I have gained a new appreciation for teachers as a whole. I never realized how much effort they truly put in to all their work, like planning lesson plans every day, making projects and then preparing for those projects, while also keeping organized and handling 20 kids. The main reason I have a new appreciation for teachers is because I learned how difficult it is to teach a lower education than yourself. For example, when I was teaching Math I didn't realize that the students had difficulty putting the numbers from least to greatest. I then told taught them how but it was hard to explain something that you know so well. I respect teachers more than I ever have because of my internship and now know how hard they really work.

Internship #7

Project & Summary
Randy

Before I begin my blog, I would like to point out that at my internship site I will be completing multiple small projects instead of doing one main project. These projects are going to be in three different categories: community relations, education, and advertising. I wanted to do explore all of these subjects because it will help me view my site from different aspects, in order to get the full experience out of my internship. The project I will be describing will be the largest of them all and will take the most time. I am really excited for this one as well, but I have yet to meet with the employee in charge of community relations, so i do not have all the details yet but I have a meeting with her tomorrow at 2:30 where we will figure out all the small details.

Project description:

Internship site: Warren-Walker Elementary School

Department: Community Relations

Project Title: Warren-Walker Alumni "Teen Party"

General Description: For this particular project, I will use my social skills to reconnect with old Warren-Walker students from years before and after myself in order to put together a "Teen Party". A couple years ago Warren-Walker hosted an event to celebrate their 75th anniversary, and this party I assume will be extremely similar to that. I will have to figure out where this event will be held, how much it will cost, when the best time will be for everyone, getting food, music and plan anything else that is needed.

Learning Objectives: Through this experience I expect to learn how to finance and plan an entire event. I plan to improve my "people" and networking skills by calling around and finding the best deals with different organizations.

Organization/Company Objectives & Benefits: This event will benefit the school through donations that will be asked to made through it. Also the event will cost money so if we keep our budget low we can gain money through the teens attending this event.

Schedule: For the first half of the day I will be working with two new teachers starting on Wednesday, Mrs. Frans the second grade teacher, and Mrs. Huff the fourth grade teacher. Then after lunch at around 12:30 I plan to work with the community relations employee Mrs. Fisk, and the Student Store advertiser Mrs. Wamba.

Academic Skills: The academic skills I will be using for this project will be my skills with financing that I learned through my latest Math project, This American Life. I will use my skills on how to budget well in order to better benefit the school.

Technical Skills: The technical skills I will be using for this project will be my social skills, my design skills with Adobe Photoshop, and my organization skills.

Collaboration—Skills and Opportunities: I will be reconnecting with as many Warren-Walker alumni as I can through Facebook, old school directories, and any other way I can. I will also be collaborating a lot with Mrs. Fisk to get everything organized according to their plans.

Exhibition Plans: Hopefully by the end of internship the entire party will be up and running, with signs and advertisements made by myself for this event. I can exhibit all my work on how I planned the party, with the people I needed to call and how I reached them, along with the advertisements I made for this event.

Schedule & Timelines: I will most likely be working on this project (along with other smaller ones) until the end of internship on January 28th, being that I have to plan an entire party. Everyday I will meet with the community relations employee most likely after lunch at around 12:30. Like I said earlier I have yet to have a meeting with her and figure out the exact times, but coordinating with the two teachers I am interning for, after lunch would make the most sense.

Summary of my Week

What were the highlights?
There were so many highlights of my first week working at my internship, especially because I am constantly surrounded by people I love. The teachers I am currently helping out I have known all my life, and I love children, so being in my old elementary school environment is amazing. The main highlights of my week were making a project for the preschoolers, teaching the second graders Math, and everyday when the kids see me: they run up to give me a giant group hug.

What challenges did you face and how did you manage them?
I didn't face many challenges this week except for sometimes not knowing what to do while the kids were at their electives, like music, computers, or library. I ended up following them to their electives to see what went on there too, and so far my favorite has been drama. They have such a great drama teacher and she makes it a lot of fun. That was the main challenge I faces, and it was not even a tough one.

How did you work with others?
I worked with both the teachers I am helping out, and the students of those teachers. I would work with the teachers by teaching lessons with them, while they helped out. For example, I taught the second graders Math this week with some help from Mrs. Thein when they would not give me their full attention, or understand a concept. I worked with the students when I walked through the tables answering questions and helping them out with their work.

What did you see and/or experience that you did not expect?
Something I experienced that I did not expect was being able to actually create a project for the kids in the short time of a day. I was able to create a project for the preschoolers that was relevant to the letter "n". Every week these kids learn a new letter and this weeks letter was "n", so I made them a project called "noodle names." In this project they were to choose from multiple different types of uncooked noodles and then paste those noodles onto a piece of paper to make their names. Along with that I also cooked some noodles for the kids snack time. I did not expect to be able to do this because I felt I had a lot of freedom with the project, which I loved.

How would you describe your first week to someone who has never had an internship?

I would describe my first week as amazing. To someone who has never had and internship I would highly recommend getting one because this experience is something that you don't often get the opportunity to have. I would describe my experience so far as almost eye-opening. I had no clue about all the background work that goes into being a teacher, or running a school. You learn so much about the place you intern and I feel it is an amazing experience.

Internship #6

Mentor Interview

Randy

What I would like to learn out of the interview:

-Through my interview with either my mentor or one of the teachers I work for, I would like to learn about these four main topics: their childhood/life long dreams, how they ended up where they are now, the challenges they had to overcome to be satisfied, and if they are happy with their whereabouts today. I would love to hear about what their hopes and dreams were when they were my age, and if they actually succeeded in achieving those goals, because hopefully it will give me motivation to chase my dreams and not settle for less. I'm curious to hear whether or not their lives went according to their plan, or went out of control. Also, I would love to know if at my age they knew what they wanted to do or not, and their college experience. Im interested in all of this because I want to know what to expect for my future, whether you can control it or you just got with the flow. If they did end up achieving their dreams I would love to hear about the challenges, if any, they had to overcome to get where they wanted to be, and if they ended up giving up on their dreams i would like to know why and if they regretted it. Knowing this information is important to me because I want to know my dreams now will be the same in a few years, and if they are worth breaking your back over. The last thing I would like to learn out of this interview is if they are happy to this day. If they are happy with where they are now, it will give me relief that everything happens for a reason, or that it was worth fighting for your dreams.

Scheduled Time and Place:

If I interview my mentor I would probably have to figure out some time with her ahead of time because she is very busy, but if I were to interview an important co-worker, I could get the interview in while the kids are at recess. It would be especially easy to schedule interviewing the first grade teacher that I am working for, Ms. Thein, because she stays in the classroom with free time during the children's recess and elective classes. I will most likely interview her, and I can do this anytime next week, so hopefully Monday in her classroom! As for a recording, I could bring my MacBook to internship that day just to record it.