Eighth Grade Internship

During my senior year, I got the opportunity to student teach in an 8th grade American History class. I was helping out in the classroom 4 days a week for 8 weeks. The teacher I was with was Ms. Epping and she was a second year teacher.

Teaching Strategies

Going into the internship, I was a bit nervous because I didn't know if our teaching styles and philosophies would be similar, but after only a few days I knew she was the kind of teacher I wanted to be. I always knew I wanted to avoid lecturing to give students notes, and she rarely did that. Most of the time the students had independent work time to get their own notes through analyzing primary documents, reading the textbook, and conducting their own research. I also liked how she has the seating arrangement because as seen in the pictures, they were in pods. I will definitely incorporate that in my future classroom because I believe it promotes collaboration which also will strengthen the relationships within the class.

Classroom Management and How It Affects Environment

I also liked the classroom management style. My teacher was the perfect mix of strict and relaxed. She made the kids know when it was time to listen and stay silent compared to the times where they could talk to one another. She was never mean to any student, she was only ever kind. Even though she was a nice teacher, she still remained professional and the students knew they had to respect her. Since they treated her with respect, the treated me the same. When I gave them behavioral warning, they would listen and not talk back. The respect among the teachers and students gave the classroom a nice and supportive atmosphere.

My Strength and My Weakness

I was so excited to be with 8th graders because I want to teach high school so I was able to teach older students. The main reason I want to teach secondary education is because I really enjoy having in-depth discussions about the topics we are learning, and I was able to do that in my internship. We learned about the Civil War for the entire length of my internship. The Civil War brings up many sensitive topics so a lot of questions were often asked and discussed. I liked having discussions because the Civil War has many topics that are still a societal influence today, so giving my students opportunities to ask questions and reflect on how/why this happened could help them grow and mature as an individual. When it came to building relationships, I came into my internship optimistic that I would build great relationships with all my students, but in reality that did not happen. I think that is mainly due to the fact I was not here at the beginning of the year, which is when more relationships are formed. I was unable to do any kind of get to know you activities and I was not able to tell them anything about me either. Having a good relationships with students is one of my biggest goals in teaching so I now know the importance of the first days in a classroom.