The Real 9 to 5

By: Emma Rayburn 

    I have never been more excited about becoming a teacher than this week. I have finally gotten to meet all the students in the school. I taught lessons to 4th graders all week. Also, I got a chance to participate in the first annual outdoors day with one of the 5th-grade classrooms. I finally felt like I was part of the school, fully immersed in the teaching experience, relationships with students and teacher, really lesson planning and teaching, the real 9 to 5. 

  

STEAM

Teaching a physical science lesson to every 4th-grade class in the school can be repetitive, but practice does make me close to perfect I guess. In a normal classroom, the lesson probably looks like boring powerpoints or textbook-like activities. But in my steam classroom, we get to do hands-on experiments and investigations that grasp the attention of the students. The first go of it wasn't as I expected because I thought I would be teaching to a classroom full of students, but no, it turned out to be a computer full of students. But, the next two went exceptionally. Students told me how much fun they had, and another said they wished I would come to teach at the school all the time. 

    Then, on one of my days in the school, I got to participate and teach a lesson for outdoors day, orienteering. Outdoors day was something that the 5th-grade teacher planned as a way to integrate the outdoors in the classroom, and also expose students to so many other subjects and activities. The student did knot tying, geology, tree data collection, nature poetry, and orienteering. So many subjects were integrated into it, and it was so hands-on and engaging. The students loved it, even with the crazy April snow flurries. 

        Some other incredible things I got to experience in this crazy internship are beekeeping, making bottle rockets, and building a homemade telescope. I know that is one jumbled list of things to do with a bunch of elementary school kids, but it was amazing. The kids are so excited and engaged in learning because they are having fun. Being one of those teachers involved in the fun learning that makes students want to come to school every day solidifies everything I already felt about becoming a teacher.

Bee Keeping Lesson