Over this past semester I had the pleasure of interning in St.Theresa Elementary School’s Kindergarten classroom with the wonderful Mrs. Holle-Meyers, and I am honestly forever grateful for this amazing experience, since the time I spent in this classroom truly made me realize that this is what I want to do for my career someday!
Mrs. Holle-Meyers and the students were such an amazing group to work with, as well as my partner Madison, and the experience of being in a school, in control of and teaching these children who look up to you just as they do their true teacher was a very different feeling for me, since my only field experience before this semester was my classroom experiences at my dance studio, where I am not in control as I was in the Kindergarten room, but as more of a demonstrator for the children. The thing that truly made me feel so happy and accomplished is the amount of students who I got to witness grow in their grammar and vocabulary skills these past few months, which all related back to my ELNG 200 class, where we are currently learning about language acquisition and development, so it was really amazing to see it all happening right in front of my eyes, and truly put the struggles of immigrant children into perspective for me!
As the weeks went by in Mrs. Holle-Meyers room, which now concluded today, I found myself becoming more and more accustomed to the ways of this school community as well as the social norms and expectations that were known in this school, as it was a very different community than my own Elementary school, since it is a Catholic school. Teachers came to know who I was, and I came to know them as well. By the end of today, I truly felt like I was accepted as a St.Theresa Tiger, and I’ll truly miss this first field experience of mine.