Learning the Ropes

What strikes me about my workplace is how when I first started, it didn't feel awkward at all. Everyone was very welcoming and the environment seemed like a place where I knew I wasn't going to be uncomfortable. As I walk through the office doors of my internship site, I am always greeted with a “Good Morning” from the school’s secretary. When I sign into the visitor’s log and make my way towards my assigned classroom, I always pass a room where students are eating breakfast and I can see them with their parents.

I am most likely waiting outside of my assigned classroom since I do not have a key and I have to wait for one of the teachers to open it for me, which I don’t mind. It’s nice looking at all of the artwork on the walls made by the students from different grade levels. Once I am able to get inside the classroom, it is empty since school doesn’t start for another 30 minutes. During this time, my teacher mentor tells me the rundown of the day. For my first week, she had me do little tasks such as filing, making copies, etc. Besides that, she wanted me to get a feel for the classroom and get to know the students that I will be working with for a whole month. Since my teacher is a Dual Immersion teacher, I see two classes everyday, meaning that I have around 40 different kids that I hope I get to know better. When the clock hits 8:30, I walk out with my teacher mentor as well as the student teacher to greet the kids on the blacktop as they are standing in line. We then walk back to class and we switch with the kids in the classroom next door. With my class, it is the same way that High Tech works. In the morning, we are with one teacher and them after lunch we switch and go to another teacher. I thought it was pretty interesting seeing another school do that same schedule because I  didn’t know if other schools even do it. A few people that I have encountered at my internship site would have to be my mentor (obviously) and 3 students from High Tech. The other 3 students that are interning at the same site are Valeria, Ethan, and Valdemar. All of them are on a different team than me so I don’t know them very well, except for Valeria since I have known her since 5th grade. Working with them has been fun, although we are all in different classrooms, I am always seeing them in the workroom and we have a few good laughs from here to there.