I am currently working at Kipp Texas Public Schools, primarily in Kipp Austin Collegiate, which is the high school I graduated from. What I do on a day-to-day basis is teach 11th to 12th graders environmental science, hold office hours, answer questions, help the teacher whenever she needs help, create lessons, and create exam review games.
What is interesting about this internship is the questions students ask; I learn a lot more from this since the questions they ask at times, I never taught about, and it helps me learn as well. It is also interesting because environmental science changes daily, so something can be occurring, and it brings up an interesting topic. For example, I am teaching about water quality, and the day we were talking about eutrophication that, same day Florida was dealing with toxic water. The toxic water has a lot of nutrients that can create algal blooms, so it was fun connecting it into the lesson! A surprise, while working here, is having to be fast and prepare, for example, being ready to answer questions. If I don’t have an answer to the question I am being asked then I need to be quick to find the answer, so it doesn’t take the whole class time.
This internship was effective in helping me re-learn things I had forgotten about; learn new things. This internship also helped me with my classes. I am currently taking Biology, and, at times, we talk about biology, and the times we; it has helped me with my biology course in understanding the material more. For example, we are learning about pathogens in the environment, and in biology, we are learning about pathogens as well; and where those pathogens come from, so this is helping me make sure I can remember these things for my exam.
The way I got this internship with this organization was by getting into contact with the school principal. This is the high school I went to, so it went pretty smoothly into getting this internship. This organization doesn’t hold internships; however, I just asked, and they were able to provide me with one.
I have also been able to incorporate a little bit of how college will be; so they can be ready. For example, I am having optional office hours, so if they want to come and, talk they have to take that step. I do not make my students come to my office hours since, in college, professors don’t do that.
I have been able to create a project for my students to do. I am creating this project to be about water quality and having my students digest a consumer confidence report and write a short research paper of what it means while learning how to properly cite. This is going to be helpful for them to be able to know how to cite since in college, you need to cite all your work, and it will also help them know how to digest a paper and translate it into their own words while knowing what it means.
Overall, it has been a good time working there!