1. What new appreciations did you develop while working as an intern? Why?
Working as an intern in a school has given me so much more appreciation for teachers and all of the work that they put into making a school day run smoothly. Students don't typically realize all of the work teachers do for school each day; they have to design lesson plans/activities and prepare all of the necessary materials for those activities. Working with preschoolers, the teacher needs to have double the activities planned because three year olds have about a three second attention span and without an activity they will run around like chickens with their heads cut off. More specifically, my internship has made me more appreciative of what I would call my "basic necessities". Basic necessities to me includes food, water, a toothbrush, a roof over my head, a bed, a shower, and clean clothes. I am a million times more appreciative of these things now after working with kids who don't have these "basic necessities". I am also more appreciative of my supportive family and friends; many of these kids are coming from low-income indigenous families who can't support them financially and/or emotionally. So I am incredibly grateful to have good support systems from various places. 2. What qualities or characteristics did you see in the people around you that you want to develop in yourself? One quality I noticed that the head coordinator possesses is the ability to command respect when he walks into a room. In the mornings when he walks into the cafeteria while all of the kids are eating breakfast, it is obvious that he is in control. I think he has this quality because he is a good leader. I know he is a good leader because of the tight knit staff he has created to run the school. I consider myself a natural leader, but I would love to develop that highest sense of leadership - where I can walk into a room and people automatically have respect for me. Another quality that the teachers posses is the ability to be positive all the time. While I am clearly exhausted by the end of the day, the teachers at the school continue to have smiles on their faces and as much energy as they did in the beginning of the day. I strive to be as positive and happy as the teacher who had to strip all of the clothes off of one of the kids, rinse him off in the little shower in the bathroom, and run to get him new clothes - all with a smile on her face. She wasn't annoyed or angry that this kid had soiled all of his clothes and needed to be washed, but she was comforting and positive. I want to develop this immense sense of positivity because it will help me to deal with stressful situations without being stressed and/or making other people stressed. 3. How did your view of life beyond high school change or develop during your time as an intern? After working in a professional environment, I realized how truly important it is to go into a career you utterly enjoy. The career needs to be one that makes you excited to wake up early and go to work. If you don't fully enjoy your work, you will not only be unhappy, but also everyone working around you will feel your negative energy and their moods will go down as well. 4. How might internship influence the direction of your life? After working in my internship, I am definitely leaning towards going into a career where I can help kids. This internship has shown me that I really enjoy working with kids; I love their energy and positive attitudes. Even though I love watching kids learn and grow in a classroom setting, I don't see myself becoming a teacher. I know in the future I want to have a flexible schedule - which is something teachers don't have. I also don't have much interest in commanding a classroom full of twenty students all by myself. On top of this, I learned that I would prefer my work to "stay at work"; being a teacher, I would need to constantly be thinking of ideas to do with my students and buying and preparing those activities. All on my own time. I don't want to do that. But I am definitely open to a different form of teaching - I am looking into the speech therapy career, I think it would be enjoyable for me to do speech therapy with preschool age kids. 5. How did communication and/or collaboration at work influence your understanding of professional working environments? There was a lack of communication at my workplace for sure. For instance, I was told I had to create my main project (The Rincon de Salud) by the Wednesday of that week because the doctor was coming that day. I finished by the end of the day on Tuesday and was excited to see the doctor work in his or her new space. Wednesday came, and the doctor didn't show up. When I asked where the doctor was all of the teachers basically responded with "We don't know. We never know when he or she is coming." Just one example of the lack of communication between the doctor and the teachers, and ultimately me - I could have had more time to work on my project if I had known the doctor would not be coming until later in the month. As for collaboration, it was obvious that the teachers are all friends; they were incredibly kind and helpful to one another. During nap time on my first day of work, all of the teachers instantly gathered into the recreation room and started moving all of the furniture around and throwing away trash and supplies they no longer needed. My mom and I were incredibly confused about what they were doing but they all worked so well together and listened to each other's opinions. This interaction showed the value of having tight knit coworkers.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
About MeHi! My name is Ashley Price. I am in 11th grade at High Tech High International. I enjoy doing musical theater, being co-founder of my school's improv team, traveling, dancing, singing, and hanging out with my friends. I am looking to attend college in the Northeast, and major in psychology. I am currently interested in pursuing the career of either a speech therapist or a jury consultant. I am incredibly excited for my internship!
About My InternshipI am interning at a daycare center in the San Roque neighborhood in Quito, Ecuador. Below is a link to the webpage about my internship through Bolivar Education. http://www.ecuadorvolunteers.org/ecuador-volunteer-programs/children-youth-volunteering-ecuador/quito-san-roque-daycare.html#prettyPhoto ArchivesCategoriesPhoto Gallery |