WELCOME!

Welcome to my blog about my internship experience while at Kendall College. I am excited to finish up my last quarter here and graduate. I hope everyone enjoys and learns something from my blog.

Thanks!

I just wanted to say thanks to all of the classmates. I really enjoyed reading about your internship experiences, and have gained a lot of useful information from them. I hope that you all learned something from mine as well.

Internship on 8/28/2011

Today I went to my internship. It was the Parent Orientation/ Open House for the 2011-2012 school year at the local Park District Preschool Center. I really enjoyed interacting and helping parents. The day was set up into 4 one hour sessions. The first session was for student M-W-F Morning Classes, the next session was for M-W-F Afternoon sessions, the third session was for T-TH Morning Sessions and the forth session was for T-TH afternoon & M-F Preschool. All session started off in the gym where the parents were directed to the table that their child's teacher was at. While at the table, the parents dropped off their child's school supplies and met the teachers. Then they were directed to the second half of the gym where chair and snacks were. In this area, the program director introduced herself and spoke about the center. Policices, Daily routines, parent involvement, etc. After this mini session, parents were directed to their child's classroom to listen to the teachers. When they arrived in the classroom, the teacher introduced themselves and spoke about how they conduct their class, and what is expected. (Bring children in clothes that they can get dirty in, bercause with exploration comes messiness. They also explained how they do try their best to keep the children clean but occassionally they do get paint on a shirt or ect.) After that the parents were ablke to ask the teachers questions. It was nice to be able to be part of this. I was able to help direct parents and show them where the classroom was. I also answered questions in which they had that I knew the answers. Overall, this was my favorite part of the internship so far.

Observing the Director on August 9th

On Monday I was able to go in and work side by side with the director of the early childhood departmnent at the local park district. I really liked seeing this aspect of the program. I was able to observe her use her staffing skills, as well as publicity that she does for the park district. She designs the programs for the park district book, and then budgets the results at the end of the classes. I was able to help her budget a couple of these classes. She also explained how she prices the classes and how they pull more children in with on site display posters. She also allowed me to see what she does to get the posters made for upcoming events at the park district. I also was able to see the food delivery system and observe the students at their lunch time.  I have worked the child care center for over 10 years, and have been a center director for 8 of thos years. I did think this was a lot like the child care setting director, except with the planning for the Early Childhood programs for the park district book. Overall, I am very happy with the knowledge I am gaining about the program. Right now the only challange I seem to have with the class is coming up with my thesis statement for my paper.

Observation/Interaction on 7/27/11

Yesterday I went to my internship for the observation and interacting with children. I am doing my internship at a local park district summer camp. The program I am observing involves children betwwen 5-7 years old. There typical day run 9:00am to 4:00pm. Many of the children stay after 4:00, but are moved to "After Care" room.

The day I was observing there were 4 staff members and 19 children. I really liked this ratio. I am use to daycare setting where the ratio would be 20:1. The one teacher (Coach Brian) was one of the people I  interviewed, so I felt like I knew a little bit about him already. The children really respond to him. When I met up with the class for the day, the children were outside playing. They then came in and did there learning centers. The teacher paired the children up and had them rotate to each learning center every 5 minutes. Then the children went to music class, and then to the playground. Then the children went back inside for snack and pick up.

I really liked how Coach Brian went over directions with the children first. Whenever he did this he seemed to use the word "recap".  I also liked the different centers they had set up. They had independent reading, writing center, computers, numbers and counting, art, books on cd, letters, music, buddy reading, blocks or puzzles and free choice.

The only thing I really did not like was the length of the learning center time. It ran from 12:45-2:30. The children started off great, but by the end the children seemed to lose interest. Even though they lost interest, it still amazed me how they were still quiet and stayed in the expected areas.

Overall, this was an experience for me. I am use to the daycare environment and I thought it was the same. However, this program was more geared to learning and keeping the children's skills up to par during the summer. I am happy that I was able to observe and interact with this class.

Interview on 7/13/2011

Today I went to my internship place. I am doing it at the local park district. I interviewed three instructors for there summer camp program. It was nice to talk to them and get to know a little bit more about the summer camp program. I have worked in child care for over 10 years, and I am not familiar with how the summer camp was run. I thought of a summer camp like a daycare care setting, but I was wrong. It is more geared towards education aspect of it. I also learned about the needs of the children from the instructors eyes. One instructor stated how it is important for them to get out and be physical. Another touched on the importance of male role models and the positive role models of teachers. Another stressed the importance of making learning a fun and positive experience for the children. Overall, I had 3 great interviews and gained lots of information to help me better understand the program and gained several ideas for my final paper. I can't wait to go back for my next scheduled day.