Since my academic internship is a continued internship, I had reasonable expectations for what it would be like. However, as I started this course in January, I was also starting the new year with a new supervisor. I looked at this as a fresh start in a way. I still really enjoy my position, but I feel the combination of taking this class and interacting with a new supervisor, gave me a chance to improve my teaching skills. I used my reflections to approach the way I teach in a different way. This in turn, allowed me to help more students reach understanding about the concepts. When more students understood the concepts, I found that magical things happened. Over the course of this semester I have seen very shy students open up to me. I have seen students that didn’t know much about Lego at the beginning of class, building their own complex projects without my help. I’ve seen these and many other things happen in my classes that have helped me grow as well. I’ve realized that I really enjoy that “ah-ha” moment that my students have. I have also realized that I feel confident and knowledgeable when I teach. Because of this I have decided to explore the possibility of becoming a teacher as a career.

One of the most meaningful connections I have made between my learning and my internship is the importance of organizational culture and how much I personally value it. I learned from Bolman and Deal’s four organizational frames that are referenced in Sweitzer and King’s “Navigating the Internship Site”, that there are types of organizational frames that I prefer. My main preferred frame of leadership is the Human Resources frame. Play-Well TEKnologies’ organizational culture is mainly framed around Human Resources as well. Doing the Organizational Analysis helped me pinpoint both and give myself a better explanation of why I love this job so much. Before, I could explain to people that I really enjoy my job and give a general reason why. Now, I can give specific details and examples on why myself and my company are such a great fit for each other.

Another meaningful connection I made between my learning and internship is the importance of feedback. I have always considered my ability to receive feedback as a work in progress. The selection from Thanks for the Feedback by Stone and Heen really impacted me. It helped me realize that I cannot control how people give me feedback, but I can control how I receive it. Stone and Heen mention that if a person can effectively receive feedback, they will also learn how to effectively give feedback along the way. Part of my job as a teacher is to give feedback to students and parents. I have a hard time giving feedback that isn’t entirely positive, such as behavioral issues, simply because I don’t like telling people “bad news”. However, this type of feedback is important. When I started focusing on my ability to receive feedback, I realized that I was in fact learning strategies on how to give feedback too. I realized that I must be mindful of how I would receive specific feedback and that allowed me to frame things in more digestible ways. For example, if I need to speak to a parent about a student’s behavior, I may tell them about the behavior but then tell them how the behavior improved after the student and I spoke about it.

My internship is closely aligned with my declared major and minor. Because of this I have noticed that a cycle has started to develop between how I approach my position and how I approach school. I apply the strategies I use to help my students learn on my own learning. If I learn something new in my classes, I try to figure out how I can translate it into something my students will understand. It’s really cool for me to see how my learning and teaching are so closely related. Moving forward I’d like to continue to use both my academic and professional experiences to help propel myself and my students forward. I think continuing to use my education to evolve what and how I teach will help enrich myself, my students, and my company.

One of my favorite projects to teach my students is catapults. I use this project to teach them concepts like 1st class levers and velocity. These are concepts that I have learned in my Physics classes. I use that knowledge to translate it into understandable material for my students.

This is the only picture of me teaching that I have. Due to privacy reasons it is difficult to take pictures in my classes. However, I am really proud of this picture because it's a glimpse of me in my element. It is obvious that I am very invested in what I am teaching at the moment and I even have a captive audience.