Internship

During my internship, I attended weekly Education classes at Berkeley City College, priming and preparing myself for a career in education. These classes are ongoing.

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1/26/2022 - 3 hours 

We began class by getting to know our fellow students, on-to-be teachers, and their backgrounds and experiences with education. I approached this from a very different perspective, as I was the only student in the class still attending high school. We discussed and wrote about our experiences with memorable teachers, the good and the bad, and broke down why they were so memorable to us. I was introduced to the term "pedagogy", which refers to "the method and practice of teaching". We were assigned to read about the "5 C's" of a good teacher and measure our strengths and weaknesses against them.

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2/2/2022 - 3 hours 

We spent class learning about the history of public education in America, and about its early innovators and its varying structures and purposes over the past three centuries. We observed the progression of schools up and into what has been dubbed the "Era of Testing" today. We studied the origins, rationale, strengths, and weaknesses of standardization and standardized testing, as well as our own personal experiences with it. We were assigned to write and explain what drew us to the field of education.

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2/9/2022 - 3 hours

We further explored the merits and shortcomings of standardized testing, especially as it pertains to equity. We learned about the ways our public education system underserves minority communities and leads to differing outcomes. We took a specific look at the idea of "Hidden Curriculum", or the different ways that a teacher's style, the school environment, and the school's culture all teach their own subtle lessons. We were assigned to reflect on our own time in school and to provide an example of hidden curriculum in hindsight

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2/16/2022 - 3 hours

We heard stories from career teachers about what drew them to teaching, as well as their experiences with the difficulties and growths involved in teaching. We learned about Professional Development and Lifelong Learning, and about how even though we may be teachers, our education will never truly be done, as new developments in pedagogy expand the field constantly. We were assigned to begin to develop an idea of how we would behave and instruct as teachers, and to write about the different ways your students can serve as mirrors to you, and yourself a mirror to them.

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2/23/2022 - 3 hours

In class, we watched the film Finding Forrester, a story about a reclusive writer who is brought out of his shell through his mentorship of Jamal, a young black man from the Bronx as he grows into his own as a writer and struggles with prejudice. We were assigned to take notes on the film and to observe examples of School Culture, Hidden Curriculum, White Privilege, and analyze the dynamic between Forrester and Jamal.

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3/2/2022 - 3 hours

As a class, we began to develop our own teaching strategies and styles, ensuring that we were leaving room for the students to implement their own learning strategies into our curriculum in a way that fit them best. We further learned about the various schools of thought ingrained in our education systems, such as Behaviorism, a very rigid and punitive structure, Constructivism, which is more dynamic and builds on itself, and Social Cognitive Theories, which center education on collaboration and social development. We were assigned to further research these ideas and describe their strengths and weaknesses.

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3/9/2022 - 3 hours

As a class, we began to formally prepare report presentations on specific educational policies that have had major impacts on education in America. We were to describe the policy, the socioeconomic and political climate of the time, the ways it positively, negatively, or controversially changed education, and to be prepared enough in our research to answer questions afterward.

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Conclusion

As with all things, my learning is ongoing, but I can say with certainty that this class has shown me my path to who I want to be in the future and what I want to be. That being said I should probably start saving because I intend to live in California and from what else I've learned that's going to be difficult.

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