Life as an intern

I am in my third month as a teaching intern. It has been fascinating seeing different classes, different schools and different teachers and their various teaching styles. Between the schools assigned to me by the university and working with my own children's teachers, I feel I have been exposed to a wide variety of teaching styles.

My main placement is very similar to my children's school. It is very middle class, predominately white and pretty easy overall.

My dyad placement is a school outside of my comfort zone. It is 72% free and reduced lunch. It has a large minority population, as well as a large ELL population. They also have a big turnover because of the large rental population, so almost half the students who start the year, don’t finish the year there.

There are huge differences in the obstacles these kids must overcome, and some of the stories they tell are outside of my zone of experience. They tell stories of living in shelters, about another family moving out of the shelter and so they finally get a bed. They tell about sleeping in their van in the Grandma’s driveway, because there isn’t enough room in the house. They list the probability of their sister getting out of jail as likely during math exercises. They tell about CPS showing up and how this is probably the last chance, and if they aren’t in school tomorrow it is because their mom got her last chance and is drinking again. A little girl is matter of fact as she tells me about being taken away from her mom because she spilled hot coffee on her head. She calmly tells me that it was a bad situation, and she doesn’t live there anymore because it is for the best.

I have learned about homeless camps and shelters in a city I have lived in for 14 years and I never knew about their existence. I have found out about kids whose address is listed as Olympia because they are under state protection, whether for custody reasons, or something else, no one is really sure.


But the biggest thing I have learned is that these kids really aren’t any different than in any other school I have been in. They smile. They joke. They need attention. They want to learn. They have the ability to learn. They need someone to believe in them.

In one of our math groups, we worked on a probability line. One of the probabilities I mentioned was that I thought it unlikely that M would miss his high school graduation ceremony. I don’t think I will ever forget the look on his face when he looked at me and said “ You think I am going to graduate from high school?”

“ Of course”.

The other kids looked at me, and all asked – “ You really think M is going to graduate?” It seemed like such an odd thing for them to be questioning. And yet, I think it may have been the first time that someone told him they believed that he would graduate from high school.

When M walked out of class that day he seemed to be walking a little bit taller. I really hope that he does graduate someday.