Internship Placement Description of Classroom Environment

The first day that I walked in, I was very nervous, because it was my first internship, and

I did not know what to expect. I was anxious as I stood in the main office, waiting patiently for

my intern mentor teacher (IMT) to come escort me to his classroom (since I didn’t have a clue

how to get there). The first few minutes after meeting my intern mentor teacher were crucial to

remove any fears I had fostered, he seemed very approachable, easy going, and with a friendly

demeanor, which made me hopeful that I would not struggle communicating with him and

seeking his help throughout my internship experience.

Description of School’s Socioeconomical Demographics

The school that I am interning at is Metro Tech High School, a Title 1 school part of

Phoenix Union High School District. This school, like any other Title 1 school, is made up of low-

income students of predominantly ethnic minorities. In the case of Metro Tech, most students

(~96%) identify as Hispanics. Metro is classified as an A+ School of Excellence, which basically

means that they are performing well academically, and my intern mentor teacher bragged about

the school’s 99% graduation rate. However, regardless of the academic excellency of the school,

these students have the same challenges as any other low-income youth across the U.S. For

example, my intern mentor teacher was quick to point out that these students aren’t expected to go

to college…

The Layout of the Classroom

As soon as I walked into the classroom for the first time, the first thing that I noticed was

the horrible layout of the classroom, but my IMT is not to blame for this aberration. The

classroom had been designed as if the architect didn’t have a clue how a science classroom, or
any classroom, should look like. The classroom layout is the following: about one-fourth of the

room has a lower ceiling that the rest of the classroom, at this lower ceiling location the

whiteboards and smartboard are located just behind the teacher’s desk. To make matters worse,

this classroom that was designed to function as a place for students to conduct experiments, has

cabinets, and science workstations aligned along the walls of the classroom! In other science

classrooms, a more efficient way of setting up workstations would be to have workstations that

are “island” workbenches that provide more space for students to move around and collaborate

as a group. Thus, I find myself worried about the impact that the classroom layout will have on

the effectiveness of my lessons in the internship. I am afraid students will be too far away from

the whiteboard to see what I am writing down, or not be able to engage in videos/images/text that

I present to them through the smartboard.

Observations About Inclusiveness & Teaching/Learning Strategies

Intern teacher mentor attitude towards inclusiveness. The First impression I had of

my IMT was very positive, he seemed to genuinely care about his students learning, but after

speaking with my IMT, I learned that it is hard to change traditional teaching methods to better

research-based teaching & learning strategies. When it came to inclusive education, something

such as differentiated instruction can also seem impossible to accomplish. In their research

paper, Casale-Giannola et a. (2012) mentioned that “although general education teachers

typically support the concept of inclusive education, they often find themselves unsupported and

ill equipped to provide effective instruction and support for diverse students in the inclusive

classroom” (p. 5). Based on my current understanding of the education system, I can’t just brush

off my IMT as incompetent or uncaring for the diverse learning needs of their students. I

understand that there is a lot of pressure set on a teacher’s shoulders. For instance, “The
increased accountability associated with NCLB has created a system that relies on the one test as

indicator” (Rush and Scherff, 2012, p.5). Teachers are laden with the stress of trying to have

their students prepared for standardized tests, and this might make them feel overwhelm to do

things differently from traditional teaching.

Challenges that are evident within the classroom. There is something that right away

caught my attention in the classroom, and that is the sense of utterly chaos when students worked

in small groups. My intern mentor teacher teaching style is very lay-back, but at times I found

myself upset that students were not reprimanded for being on social media or watching videos on

their phones instead of working on their class assignment. I understand that research indicates

that learning as a group (cooperative learning) can “have positive effects on young people. Social

and constructivist learning theories assert that humans acquire and extend knowledge through

interaction with one another” (Igel and Urquhort, 2012, p.2). However, there needs to be some

expectations to the proper behavior of students when working in small groups.

I want to emphasize again that I am not against cooperative learning, but I think teachers

need to know the proper strategies to implement this type of learning. Unfortunately, sometimes

teachers “gradually abandoned it, primarily because of students' disruptive behavior and

concerns that some students do the majority of the work while others coast” (Igel and Urquhort,

2012, p.3). Thus, teachers need to advocate for this type of learning experience but understand

that they have to make sure it is being implemented successfully.

Final Thoughts on Internship Placement

I am happy with my placement right now, and I am excited to continue growing as an

educator throughout the internship experience. One of the reasons that I wanted to intern at

Metro Teach was because this is the type of school I went to (low-income and minority-

majority), and this is the type of school that I hope to build my career as an educator. I am trying

to learn how to apply what I am learning in my education courses. I understand that my intern

mentor teachers and I have different teaching styles. However, I am still confident that I will

learn a lot from him throughout the semester!!

 References

Casale-Giannola, D., & Green, L. S. (2012). 41 Active Learning Strategies for

the inclusive classroom, grades 6-12. Corwin Press.

Gore, M.C. (2010). Inclusion strategies for secondary classrooms: Keys for

struggling learners. 2nd Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Publishing.

Igel, C., & Urquhart, V. (2012). Generation Z, meet cooperative learning:

Properly implemented cooperative learning strategies can increase

student engagement and achievement. Middle school journal, 43(4), 16-

21.
Rush, L. S., & Scherff, L. (2012). Opening the conversation: NCLB 10 years

later. English Education, 91-101.