- Please look back at your "Expectations" post. Were they met? Were they exceeded? If they were not met, what would have helped to meet them?
- Next year, there will be a new cadre of interns. If you could impart one piece of advice to them, what would it be?
Thank you for your commitment, energy and dedication!
My main focus from day 1 at camp was helping the children as much as I possibly could and maturing a bond with the SKC staff. I believe both of my expectations were absolutely met in such little time. Over this last week I've been talking to my class daily about the last day coming close and if they would be coming back next year. All of them said they wanted to come back and that they really liked the camp. When going over the surveys some of them commented on how they love their classroom and learning with me. That made me feel like I definitely did something right. Knowing that they all enjoyed themselves and felt comfortable in our classroom makes me feel good. Over these couple of weeks I have grown a strong bond with Emma and Magic and would love if we kept in touch and hung out.
ReplyDeleteIf I could give the new interns next year any advice it would be to have fun. Sometimes it can be hard to balance learning and fun but I believe making the environment fun and enjoyable will easily make most of the kids more willing to learn.
What an amazing discussion that you had with them! You made a difference in each of their lives. I hope they come back next summer...and you too :) Thank you for your commitment!
DeleteMy only expectation that was truly met was being able to experience and enjoy everything that Baltimore has to offer. I thoroughly enjoyed all the enrichment activities, even if they were extremely strenuous (i.e. Project Blue). The museums we visited for the Heritage Walk, I had never been too except for the Reginald F. Lewis Museum and that was back in middle school. My favorite enrichment was sailing. Being out on the water on such a lovely day was refreshing. The scenery was breathtaking as well.
ReplyDeleteI leave this internship realizing I have a long ways to go in terms of crafting my classroom/behavior management skills. I was presented with thee toughest group of kids this summer and their behavior affected my teaching and hindered the other students learning. Many of my students did not enjoy themselves because I had so many students that were constantly off task, disruptive, and completely disrespectful. I still need to work on getting that strong teacher voice. although I felt like nothing worked with these kids. I still have no idea what type of reward system/behavior management strategies would have worked because I tried a lot of different things throughout the program. I think if we were able to take away more things from them, then it could have motivated them to correct their behavior. I know in teaching one should use very little negative reinforcement, but it needed to be implemented with these students. It was just very hard to do because many things we could not threaten to take away such as enrichment activities. Overall, working with this demographic of students has truly prepared me for my fall internship at Armistead Gardens in Baltimore City. I appreciate everything SuperKids offered me, regardless of the horrific class I had for 6 weeks.
My advice for next year's interns would be to truly embrace teaching and evoke an authentic sense of compassion for the students. It is also important that they learn to not take everything personal (I had trouble with this) and use each day as a restart button. They should definitely use their free time to decompress and get to know the other interns and just share their experiences. It will help them cope once they realize that there are others who are experiencing the exact same things.
Magic, I am glad that you learned a lot about yourself this summer and through it all survived and still are looking towards education. I wish that all education majors were able to take advantage of this opportunity for the reasons that you outlined above. I am proud of you and your accomplishments this summer. It is the mark of true educator to be able to self-assess and improve. You are why I teach.
DeleteMy expectations were that these students would have the time of their lives. Many students expressed boredom, and because of that, my expectations were not met.
ReplyDeleteFor next year, I would let the interns know that they should really look deeply into themselves if they want to take on the challenge of teaching these children respect, manners, and patience.
I am sorry that your expectations were not met. You are a phenomenal educator. Continue to look to your resources available to you. You will do wonderful things in this city! I can't wait!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLooking back at my expectations, I am not sure they were met. I really expected to connect with my students and while I did love them, I am not sure that I deeply connected with my students. We had great time together though! I did enjoy using all of the fun teaching techniques we learned. My kids responded to most of them!
ReplyDeleteAs far as advice for next year, I encourage the interns to take some time to learn about themselves and try to anticipate how they might react to certain situations prior to their first days with the kids. Like Kasie said, you need to be ready and know whether this experience is right for you. It is super important to understand what the children perceive you to be a teacher that truly enjoys spending time with them, so that you can begin to teach them important life lessons that will guide them everyday for the rest of their lives. They deserve that from you.
Love the advice! It takes time to connect. I still question how connected I was to kids that I spent 4 years with. You were AMAZING!
DeleteMy expectations were to have fun and learn new things about myself, as well as teach new things to my students. My expectations were definitely meet. This experience has taught me that everything I thought I knew about myself was wrong. I thought I was really flexible and super stern and after the first week I realized that was not the case.I quickly had to learn to practice the very things I thought I already mastered.In addition to the curriculum I taught life lessons such as its OK to make mistakes and respect others. The kids also taught me so many things whether they realized it or not. The advice I would give the new interns is to relax, have fun, be stern and flexible. Also do not be afraid to seek advice from your reading mentors and site coordinators. This experience was more challenging than I expected but far more insightful and rewarding than I could ever imagine.
ReplyDeleteSo glad that you had a great experience. I know your students are grateful for ALL of the life lessons you taught them.
DeleteI had no idea what to expect when I began this internship. I tried to keep an open mind since I didn't have any previous teaching experience. Mainly, I was just excited to teach in my own classroom and attend the enrichments. This experience gave me so much more than I expected! I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did, but I also didn't expect it to be so challenging and stressful. Classroom management was tough for me, and I learned a lot about myself and my teaching style. Through trial and error, I learned what works and what doesn't. I still have so much learning to do, but this was a great start. I also didn't expect to bond so well with my students and coworkers. I really got to know my class, and they loved having me as their teacher. In addition, the atmosphere between the staff at my site was wonderful. We had a great support system. Overall, my expectations were definitely exceeded. Super Kids Camp was an amazing summer experience, and I'm so glad to have been given this opportunity.
ReplyDeleteOne important piece of advice that I'd like to share is to make sure that you establish your authority from day one. I realized that kids will take advantage of your niceness. They will walk all over you if they think they can control you. While my class loved me, they didn't respect me. I am a very relaxed person, so I had a lot of difficulty controlling the kids. Some days, it seemed like my class was completely chaotic no matter how hard I tried to control them. Things definitely improved in the final weeks, but if I had been tougher on my class from the start, I may have received more respect from them.
I am sure you did. Your experience is also a testament to the cohesiveness and supportive atmosphere at your site. You had a lot of support and assistance to help you with your classroom management.
DeleteMy expectations were to positively effect the lives of my students. When I first walked into my classroom with a room full of campers it suddenly hit me today this is all me. It is not an easy task to teach especially when someone has very little experience. I thought that it would not be difficult for me to grab the attention of my campers, and they would just love me. My strategies for teaching had changed several times over the summer. I feel like this experience has allowed me to learn so much in such little time and I am forever grateful for the opportunity.
ReplyDeleteIf I could offer any advice to next years interns it would be to not get discouraged. As a future teachers we have to understand that most of us will not be able to walk in and know exactly how to teach. It's not all about knowing the information and being able to feed it back to the children. Some of it is being able to multitask, and keeping them interested. There were times when I was having a hard time with the kids and I felt discouraged and it was clear top my students and my site coordinator. I learned that I will only get better.
Dorlene, so true! I remember days I went home and cried. (I never cried at school for fear someone would see, lol). But it made me better and stronger. The same will happen for you. Thank you for your dedication.
DeleteOverall, I was disappointed with Superkids Camp. I was hoping that the camp would have a much stronger focus on academics. I completely saw this focus during training, but not during execution. Although we had well thought out lesson plans, I had wished they were catered to a summer program (ie. spelling words that were fun and relevant) and that the reward system was done better. The entire point of the reward system was to incentivize children to read more, however prizes were given out sporadically and frequently to every child, regardless of whether or not they had reached the reading benchmark.
ReplyDeleteComing from a background in educational policy, I would argue next year's interns to think beyond their classroom and try to look at the reasons why so many of our students are years behind in their education. I also think that preliminary readings on the "Summer Slump" would help put concrete evidence as to how important focusing on both academics and enrichments is to our students.
Maggie I am sorry that you did not have a positive experience. We have had conversations so I understand also your site circumstances. I would welcome you to return and perhaps teach at a different site. I like your challenge for next year's interns.
Delete