Communication and self advocacy go hand in hand with my internship. I have to be able to speak in front of a room and I have to be able to tell my mentor if I can’t do something or if I don’t know how to do something. My internship is all communication because I have to help these fourth graders learn new things and understand them. If they don’t then I’m not doing my internship correctly. Self advocacy is important for me as an intern because if I don’t know how to handle a situation then I definitely have to tell my mentor and ask for help or advice; especially when dealing with problem students. Being able to communicate with the teachers and just asking questions has been a huge help because no teacher does the exact same thing and I enjoy hearing the stories from the teachers that are higher or lower grade levels because it really shows how students can be more or less mature. Working here I’ve realized that all the teachers who eat lunch together are very close with each other and that when new people are added to the mix they are very open and friendly. The teachers don’t get a lot of time to talk except at lunch or sometimes during recess or PE. All the fourth grade classes have PE at the same time and the teachers chose to do that so they could have a prep period during the school time. Unfortunately they only have it once a week instead of every day. They all realized this was something they needed when there was a lot of complaining that there wasn’t enough time to prep for the week unless they did it while at home which was something they did not want to do. Self-advocacy and communication made the time they have for prep possible because if they hadn’t said anything then they wouldn’t have the small amount of prep they have. Even though all the teachers are friends they do have to keep up a sense of professionalism because this is a place of work not a place to just hang out.
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