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Jared Robles

Mrs. Elizabeth Dupont

Virginia Teachers for Tomorrow

3 February 2017

Pre-Internship Reflection

As my internship creeps strikingly closer, a new sense of optimism has filled me, while

inevitable strains of anxiety have lingered. In the past months in Virginia Teachers for Tomorrow

(VTfT), I have solidified my desires to be a secondary or postsecondary teacher in the fields of

mathematics and instrumental music. For my internship, I will be able to gain a stronger insight

into one of those areas, as I intern in an Honors Geometry class at Salem Middle School. In the

coming months, I hope to learn how to build and maintain professional teacher-student

relationships, as I interact with varying demographics and personality types. Further, I hope that I

can find a sweet spot in my demeanor that demands respect but invites students to come to me

with anything they need, personal or academic. Despite my placement into a math class, I do not

intend to focus my time on deliberating a future career as a math teacher. I understand that

unseen circumstances and moral shifts occur and could take me into a whole new direction of

education. Thus, I plan on not using the internship to plan my future, but to build skills instead.

Regarding my cooperating teacher, Mr. Stephen Mason, I hope that he will have a

classroom that is structured in a manner similar to high school. In other words, I hope that he

refrains from using groups, and teaches in a lecture based way. I find teaching in groups is

difficult for me, because I have to repeat myself numerous times in a way that irks me. Not to

say that reiterating course material annoys me, as I understand that remediation requires the

reiteration of a subject. Rather, my ideas on classroom efficiency and student independence clash
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with the notion of group work in math. I also hope that my teacher is enthusiastic and can help

me develop a stronger sense of appropriate, yet upbeat, teacher decorum. I finally hope that he

gives worksheets and allows students to do practice problems while he is there. I enjoy

classrooms like this, because it allows teachers time to help students individually, while not

leaving other students to wait for further instruction. Overall, I hope Mr. Mason has a classroom

that is arranged in rows, is lecture based, and has a foundation in teacher-student interaction.

Throughout the past months, I have learned numerous invaluable lessons about education

and the normally unseen forces that make the American and Virginian education systems work.

Although I cherish each lesson, the most important thing I have learned in VTfT so far is that

teachers have extreme power and flexibility in organizing their classes. Although not a formally

instructed lesson, this acquired knowledge has made me more empathetic towards my

instructors. Previously, I thought that teachers were given direct instruction from superiors on

how to run their class. Although I knew that teachers had the ability to add different activities

and lessons, they ultimately have the power to cover any topic at any length they desire. While

working on lesson plans, I learned that teachers can exaggerate any classroom activity to fit

broad course standards. I found this troubling, as I feared of the potential abuse of such power by

individuals. In conclusion, the most important lesson I have learned is that teachers are less

leashed and restricted than I thought.

Currently, I am scared that my students will disrespect me or question my authority, as I

surely would if a student a few years older than me started teaching my class. However, I also

feel optimistic and excited, as I enjoy sharing knowledge with others in ways that lead to their

future success. I am looking forward to memorizing each student's name and learning about them

as a student, but more importantly, as an individual. After my internship in complete, I hope I

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will feel sad yet grateful. As Dr. Seuss once said, Don't cry because it's over, smile because it

happened. I hope that I will miss my class in ways that will make me want to cry, because I had

developed outstanding bonds with my students. I also hope that I will feel ready to teach. I know

that I have reservations to teaching a yearlong course, but I hope that interning will be reassuring

to me. Overall, I hope have high expectations for my internship, and hope to finish with strong

pride in my accomplishments.