Lydia Koehler 

Intervention Specialist, Dublin Sells Middle School 

Jenna Antwiagyei 
September 3rd-October 10th 
 
I had the opportunity to intern in a special education room with Jenna 
Antwiagyei at Sells Middle school. Heading into my internship I had known my 
mentor for a while, she was the one who got me started down this path of special 
education. I was super excited to be back in her room and back in the presence of her 
teaching. Sells Middle School specialized Learning Center (SLC) and inclusion 
program is all about helping kids with mental and physical disabilities strive to the 
best of their ability. You can automatically see this when you walk in there room, 
teachers ready to help and stretch students and peers ready to be a friendly face to a 
student. An intervention specialist in simple terms is a teacher who helps teach 
students and guides para pros to achieve the same goal: impacting students learning. 
I think a major take away from this internship is how to be fun and patient yet 
still make sure the student is on task. In so many other classrooms and different 
settings, I see others be harsh or very strict with kids like the students I worked with 
and that doesn’t help the student want to learn and isn’t always effective. I love the 
way Jenna makes each student feel when they walk into her room, they want to be 
there and they are most likely not going to fight us to do work. Something that I also 
observed was the team unity aspect, in a special education department lots of things 
can take a sharp turn quickly and it's hard to handle those situations alone. Having 
clear and open communication is a key part of this team of teachers, para-pros, 
principals, students, and parents. So often we are afraid to keep each other 
accountable because it is hard to comfort someone graciously but I saw accountability 
done right in this classroom.  
This internship reinforced why I want to major in special education in college 
and pursue this route more. I often doubt myself if this is really what I want to do or if 
I’m just set on this path because that's what I decided on forever ago. This internship 
has made me realize why I feel the need to go into this career, I have a mind that loves 
to problem solve quickly and come up with new ways to get tasks done which is 
essential for working with kids who have short attention spans or can’t sit still. I’m 
planning on attending Bowling Green University and majoring in special education to 
get a degree and license in a moderate to intensive k-12th grade environment. I hope I 
have the opportunity to come back to Dublin City Schools to teach in the district that 
has taught me so much! I’m super grateful for the experiences I had with Jenna and 
Sells during my internship! I learned so many new things that I’m positive will be 
helpful in the future.