Ellie Loose – Elementary Education Internship

My name is Ellie Loose, and I have been interning at Blue Ball Elementary. I work in a sixth-grade classroom with my mentor, Mr. Lewis. I spend just over two hours a day in the classroom with the children until the end of the elementary school day. Throughout my internship, I have slowly become more and more involved with the children, so that they can become more comfortable with me over time. I started the year with a lot of observation time, then began monitoring and teaching the kids math games, and finally, I have been working with the students individually and in small groups to help track their progress.

At the beginning of the year, I focused a lot on the rules of the classroom and learning the children’s names. I also spent a lot of time with the copier. As a student is was very eye-opening how much paper teachers use on a daily basis. While observing I learned Mr. Lewis’s teaching style and how the kids responded to it. It helps me now as I work with the kids on a more personal level.

A couple weeks into school Mr. Lewis asked me to start working with the children in the collaborative station. In Blue Ball Elementary they use the hybrid model and split the class into three parts: Direct, Independent and Collaborative. The names are rather self-explanatory. As I worked with the kids in the collaborative station I got to know each of their individual personalities. I got to understand the different ways each child grew day-to-day and it really made me fall in love with this experience.

Most recently, I have been working in small groups and individually with the children to make sure they have the prior knowledge they need to be successful. So far it has been beneficial for me because I get to have a closer relationship with the children and I get to critique my teaching style to benefit the kids. This has, in some ways, been challenging because when a child is having a rough day it is sometimes hard to stay calm and focused on the task at hand.

As a career, I was never quite sure I could handle the weight of being a teacher, but this internship has shown me that I have a firm foundation and I would do well in this field.