Kelly Martin – Internship

This year I am a student intern for Mr. Miller, a high school math teacher at Garden Spot High School. I am a senior at Garden Spot and had Mr. Miller as a teacher when I was in 9th grade. I loved the way that he taught and I loved his class. When I decided that I wanted to go to college and get a degree in education; I felt that an internship with Mr. Miller would be beneficial to helping me learn how he does his job so well. Now I get to be an intern in his Algebra 2.0 class, which is the class that I took in 9th grade with him. I get to learn firsthand what he does when he teaches, and why so many people love his classes.

My internship is first block from 7:45 to 9:05 every school day. I do whatever Mr. Miller needs me to do that day. Often, I will make an answer key to tests, quizzes or homework that the students do. Then I will usually grade the assignment and put the grades in the grade book. Sometimes I will make the opening warm up and go over that with the students before Mr. Miller teaches his lesson. I will also do other small jobs that Mr. Miller needs to have done. Some days I get to watch and observe how he teaches. I get to think about the little things he does to get and keep the student’s attention. One thing I have noticed is Mr. Miller is very good about asking his students questions in order to get them to think for themselves instead of just telling them the answers. He questions their answers even if they are right to make sure that they understand the why and not just the how. I learn a lot by working with Mr. Miller every day.

The first time Mr. Miller told me he wanted me to teach the warm-up I was a little uneasy about it, but when I did it in front of the students I realized there was no need to be nervous at all. The students I get to work with every day are amazing. It is a small class and they make class easy. They are all relatively well behaved in class and are attentive. Some of the challenges I have seen in a teaching career are what you do when your students are not understanding what you are teaching. One of the lessons that Mr. Miller taught recently was planned to only take a few days but as a result of the quiz data, the lesson was changed and extended to assure the students achieved mastery. Also, I have learned that when you are grading math tests it is a lot more of a complex grading system than one point per problem. Mr. Miller taught me how to break the problem down into every part that the student needs to solve and then assign a point value to each question, which is helpful to know when to give partial credit.

Over the past few months of interning with Mr. Miller, I have learned a lot about teaching. I continue to want to be a teacher in the future and am excited to see how this experience will continue to help me make decisions on about what I want to teach. I am also excited to see how this experience will help shape the teaching style that I take on when I become a teacher. I love to interact with the students and I am eager to see what the rest of the semester will look like as I continue to work with Mr. Miller and the 9th-grade algebra students. I am glad that I made this choice as kind of a test drive to teach. I believe that experiencing and observing something is the best way to learn. I am so glad to have Mr. Miller as my mentor.