Third Grade, Hollywood Elementary School
Hollywood, Maryland * St. Mary's County Public Schools
Read Across America Day 2013
From November 2012 through March 2013, I interned in Mrs. Erin Goldsmith's third grade classroom at
Hollywood Elementary School. Included in our class were three students with Individualized Education Plans and one student designated as an English Language Learner. During my internship there, I designed and implemented several science and math units, including a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) unit during which students created an original design for a flower planter. In addition to my full-time teaching responsibilities, I worked closely with other staff members and parents to create the best learning experiences for my students.
Kindergarten, George Washington Carver Elementary School
Great Mills, Maryland * St. Mary's County Public Schools
From August through September 2012, I interned in Ms. Brandyn Carlson's kindergarten classroom at G. W. Carver Elementary School. The school serves a diverse population and the school qualifies as a Title I school, meaning a large percent of the student population qualifies for the Free and Reduced Meals program. In our class were five students designated as English Language Learners and several students who were in the process of being evaluated for special education services. During my internship there, I worked with small and large groups of students to encourage development in school readiness as well as content information. I worked closely with our English Language Learners to reinforce each day's content. I also worked collaboratively with the kindergarten team to plan instruction each week.
Third Grade, Bakau Newtown Lower Basic School
Bakau, The Gambia, West Africa
From March through May, 2013, I interned abroad in The Gambia, a small country in West Africa. I had the opportunity to work at Bakau Newtown Lower Basic School. I worked in the grade three classroom of Mrs. Victoria Janneh and her intern from Gambia College, Mrs. Isatou Jammeh. As an intern teacher at Bakau Newtown, I faced a new set of daunting challenges, not the least of which was the impoverished situation of a majority of my students. During this internship, I was granted the opportunity to exercise my creativity to the maximum; I typically only had a chalkboard, a piece of chalk, and the sand in the school yard as teaching tools, and I strove to create interactive and student-centered lessons, which are not the norm in most Gambian schools.