My Life As a Teacher

There’s no better way to see through the eyes of a professional than to immerse yourself into their job itself. This is exactly what I did my senior year of highschool. My high school gives all of their seniors an opportunity to take the last month off of school to pursue an interest in an internship or an individual project. Throughout the whole course of the year there is an extensive application process to whether or not you will be allowed to go on Senior Project. For my project, a friend and I decided to go back to where we attended kindergarten and teach under a young teacher.

We worked in the classroom every morning from 8-12. Kindergarten is only held for half days at this elementary school, so my friend Olivia and I worked with the morning class and then went back to school to go to our AP classes. In these 4 hours we spent in the classroom 5 days a week, so much occurred. For the short amount of time the students had to be there, there was a lot accomplished. Every minute of the day was meticulously calculated to satisfy their learning needs and even more importantly their needs for breaks.

Each one of the students learned at a different speed so having multiple adults in the room was very helpful and it quickened the pace of the lessons. In the short month Olivia and I spent in the classroom we made very close bonds with each of the 20 students. We did everything from help them do school work, to teach lessons, to eat snacks with them, to play tag out on the playground. When the month was over, we were extremely sad to go, but not as sad as the kids. Some of them cried but most of them just pouted.

Overall, the entire classroom experience was amazing. I learned so much from just being in a kindergarten classroom then I ever would have researching on the internet. This experience showed me that if I am interested in something then I needed to go out and pursue it. Senior Project opened my eyes to a potential future profession of mine that I still hold to a very high regard today.

-Jenna