Internship Reflection 1

The first week of my internship, I saw what it takes to plan for the upcoming school year.  The students came back on Thursday, but since I am in a Special Education resource room, we did not pull students the first two days.  This gave me an opportunity to become familiar with my room, as well as my mentor teacher.
The first day I was there, we cleaned the room.  As I cleaned, I looked through the resources that my teacher provided for her students.  It was evident that she had everything she possibly could to aide her students in Math and Reading, the two subjects I will be teaching primarily this semester.  This was so encouraging to see how many manipulatives she provided for her students.
The second and third day were group meetings with the entire county, known as the Academy.  Here, we discussed how to reach the Common Core Standards during this school year, as well as what we could do to provide a wonderful, goal-seeking year for each and every one of our students.  The Common Core made me think of what I could do this year to reach the sacred guidelines the standards provide, as well as the secret stories I could develop to reach the guidelines to their full potential, but in my own way.
Another thing I also realized was how much documentation a special needs classroom requires.  The amount of copies I made goes to show exactly how many recordings I will keep up on to keep records on each student.  I was able to become acquainted with each child's schedule as well as their strengths, what they need, etc.  This time was much needed in order to give me a bit of preparation to accommodate my students when the time came for them to come into the classroom.  Individualizing plans for 15 individual students will be challenging, yet rewarding.  I can't wait to take on this journey and prepare myself for my future career.  I can already tell my mentor is going to be one that I learn a lot from.  I'm really looking forward to this year.