Q: What are the tasks and environment of your internship? What do you enjoy about it?
A: My first week of senior internships was really fun. Working alongside Skye Trussell, we completed many tasks for Rivers and Revolutions and worked with many other teachers and students. We created a full lesson plan, agenda and content-rich slide show for the Thursday stewardship day. This lesson looked deeper into the Concord River being a metaphor for our lives. In order to understand the river better, we looked at the different forms it can exist (i.e. the different states of matter). How can we see these different states in the river? How can we see them in ourselves? We worked with the Willard teachers, Michael Goodwin, and Nico from the SSERC to develop a really fun and thoughtful lesson, which went really well. Generating lesson plans is just one part of our internship.
Last Wednesday after the half day, Sophie Mone and I took part in the teacher workshops and assisted Michael in his workshop regarding giving and receiving feedback. We worked with a few teachers from the high school having nice conversations about our experiences as students, ways feedback can be used in the classroom, and how it could be improved across the school. We then talked with a few teachers individually about their lessons and gave them constructive feedback on ways they would be improved, or what we thought was really helpful.
Working with Michael is extremely fun. He is a really outgoing person and can bring out the best in anyone. I know that whenever I am having an off day, once we start talking, I will forget why it was off. The environment of Rivers and Revolutions is really laid back, but very thoughtful. When I walk into the Rivers room I feel a wave of calmness wash over me immediately, but I also start thinking and making connections that are most of the time fairly abstract. I'd say that my favorite part of this internship is that I am working with some really creative minds doing something we all love to do! Working with the high school and surrounding school communities is something I thoroughly enjoy and am excited to do for the rest of my senior year.