Anastasia Mercer – Education Internship

My name is Anastasia Mercer, I’m a senior at Garden Spot High School, and I am currently an intern at New Holland Elementary. Every day at 10:30, I leave school to go to New Holland Elementary to help Mrs. Karen Peters with her kindergarten students. I started interning when the second semester started on January 23, 2018. Ever since I was a little girl, I always knew that I wanted to be a teacher. I had considered other options as well, but I always found myself wanting to teach. For almost three years now, I have been working at a summer camp in Harrisburg with kids who are about to be in kindergarten. I have come to love being around kids and making even the smallest difference in their lives.

Since I’ve started this internship, I have made connections with all of the kids in Mrs. Peters’ classroom. The kids are so excited to see me every day when I walk into their classroom. I sit with them at their table during stations and have conversations with them about what they are supposed to be doing that day. After stations, we have books on the carpet and that’s when I have several kids come up to me with a book and ask me to read it to them. A group of them sit in front of me in a little semi-circle so they can all see the pictures when I read. Then, we have math time when we pick a number to start at and count the rest of the way to 100 as a class. Most of the time, after math instruction, we do some “moving and grooving”, as Mrs. Peters calls it. Finally, we have just enough time to hear their teacher read a book to the entire class right before they pack up to go home.

More recently, I have been doing a memory game activity with some of the students so they can go over some of the small words they already know. This internship has impacted me in many positive ways. I am excited every day to leave school to see my students and to do fun activities with them. There is a lot I have learned from doing this and I’m so happy that I know for sure what I will be doing after high school. I know now that I am going to Kutztown University to major in early childhood education to become an elementary school teacher.

I am so beyond grateful that Mrs. Hackman gave me this amazing opportunity to work with all these wonderful children every day. It makes me want to go out and get my degree as soon as I can so I can continue doing what I love. I’m so excited to get my life started and keep pursuing my career in education. I hope that one day I will be able to be as good of a teacher as Mrs. Peters and it means the world to me that she allows me to see what being a teacher is actually like. I thank God every day for letting me have this experience and I will be forever grateful.