My first day at internship was eventful. I was immediately introduced into Mrs.

Cady’s
class and helped run a Gaga rotation amongst the 5th grade. We were in charge of
monitoring a makeshift Gaga pit so students could develop new rules and test them
immediately. Gaga is a game very similar to dodgeball, players have to hit a ball around
an octagon-shaped ring trying to hit other players below the waist. The last player
standing wins. Cady and I cleared the center of the classroom and tilted tables to form
the octagon necessary to play. Once the kids came into class after lunch they were
thrilled to see the room in shambles. I immediately felt a part of the class family, and I’m
glad this is my first memory of the students. Their contagious laughter mixed with the
bouncing of the rubber ball filled the room with noise. We did several rounds of the
game, with each new game students developed new rules and different strategies.
Once the activity was finished we launched into their new project: to design a Gaga pit
of their own and calculate its cost. The hour spent playing really motivated the kids to
focus on the math lessons throughout the following week.
This is a photo of the majority of the 5th grade staff in their matching staff shirts
(besides Cady). This was my first prep time with the teachers and it was extremely
insightful. Prep periods were from recess through the end of lunch do to the kids going
to ​Art and Dance​. During this prep I was actively tuning my own project along with the
other teachers, giving and getting critique throughout the meeting. The closest
experience to this prior to internship was a project tuning I did with 11th grade teachers
at the beginning of this 2017-2018 semester. However I found this to resemble a more
refined critique session, something akin to critique amongst fellow students. It’s not
surprising to see teachers using strategies that they teach, but I wasn’t expecting the
process to be so similar behaviorally. From this and subsequent meetings I finalized my
lesson plan for the coming weeks. I would develop a geography curriculum, teach video
editing and video production, and lastly have students film a short news broadcast of
their own. I enjoyed brainstorming potential projects, it was fun to create something that
was fun and educational. I think this is why education appeals to me so much; I’m in
love with the idea of understanding my students, creating what they need to learn and
retain, and the payoff of teaching it successfully.
As the 2nd week of internship ended I received a laptop. We labeled it “HTE NEWS”
and with it my projects really took off. I began to flush out my existing lesson plan for
geography and construct my iMovie lessons. I knew that I wanted to incorporate my
passions into a project. After the brain storming and critique session during our prep
period I decided on geography and video production. Geography, especially at an early
age is very important to me and I feel that it is greatly under taught. In becoming global
citizens the importance of having at least a basic understanding of continents and
countries is massive, and frankly Americans are far below where we should be in terms
of geographic knowledge. I first taught geography with a placement quiz, continent
video and online game. After completing the placement quiz I learned that the vast
majority of students didn’t know their continents. I would make this the center of the
upcoming news broadcast. I then moved to teaching video editing with 2 workshops
along with 1 on 1 follow ups throughout the last three weeks. These two project later
coalesce into the first news episode: a continent special.
While talking to Mrs. Cady I learned that she had had a newscast in mind since first
semester. In the picture above Curtis is being interviewed during the first filming session
of the project. I was expecting students to not be too thrilled about starting the project or
going out into the cold, damp elements. However on stepping out into the school’s back
lot the kids chortled with delight. They immediately tried everything from different
introductions to camera angles. They were naturals. In this instance and in news
segments to come students were showing a willingness to learn that I feel is lost in
higher grades. As someone who hasn’t seen much genuine motivation and excitement
in terms of projects I was pleasantly surprised to see it so abundantly. It was refreshing
to see students eager to film and talk on camera, especially about educational topics.
This experience showed me that the newscast could become an ongoing reality in this
classroom.
 Once students had learned more about geography and finished their iMovie
workshop we divided them into seven continent groups. In these groups they began to
research and write news segments about their part of the world. Many groups were
initially off to a rocky start, but after consulting with them found their footing and
polished their scripts. We held a practice shoot focused on Zealandia, a proposed 8th
continent that includes the islands of oceania. Mrs. Cady had written the script prior, so
this activity was solely to practice filming in groups. Again, I was surprised by students
collaboration, they communicated well and expressed frustration clearly and civilly.
While there were a few hiccups throughout the exercise many students were very aware
of how their behavior affected the filming and acted accordingly.