Zoey Nolt – Math Education Internship

Hi, my name is Zoey Nolt, and I am a secondary math education intern at Garden Spot High School in Mr. Brandt’s Geometry Class. Through this internship, I am learning about the work that goes into guiding students through the material that is being given to them daily. Each day in my internship looks different, one day I may be grading papers all period and the next I may be teaching a mini-lesson to the students. One thing that does happen every single day is that I walk around the classroom and help the students with work that they might not understand because sometimes learning one-on-one is better for the student to comprehend what they are learning.

The one project I am working on currently in my internship is to teach a whole unit on quadrilaterals. I have been working with my mentor daily on the way I should teach the students, so they clearly understand what I am teaching. I am working on the lesson plans and the order of the classwork that I can assign the students, so it lines up with the material that I am teaching. This project is very nerve-racking considering I’ve never taught a whole class period before, so I am working hard to make sure it goes smoothly for me and the students. But the students in my class are great and they are willing to work with me through it.

Through this internship, I really have grown as a person because I realized how many things go into being a teacher and it really gives me more respect for all the teachers I’ve ever had. I also have grown in the sense of being more confident to talk to larger groups of people and not being nervous. This internship has really been able to help me grow to be a better mentor to the students that I have every single day and they help me guide myself to be a better teacher towards them and help them in a way that suits them.

Lastly, this experience has influenced my future career goals because it has shown me that I do want to be a teacher. I love working with and guiding students to learn the amazing material that they are being taught. I love seeing kids succeed through their work and being able to understand the sometimes-difficult problems that they are given. This internship has influenced me to work toward my goal of being a Secondary Education Mathematics Teacher.