This class was meant to be a replacement. An elective class that could take the place of my unwanted 3rd-period PE class, Sophomore year. As I walked in on the first day, I headed to the back of the room with one thought in my mind: “Just get it over with.” I didn’t expect that class to change my perspective on a career I never intended to pursue. Ms. Thomas was the teacher I chose to be my internship teacher. She is creative, kind, and so passionate about her job. She was also my teacher in kindergarten, 12 years ago. Her current kindergarten class was where I was set to intern for McDaniel High School’s CTE Education class. One day a week, every week, until April.
I was surprised when a wave of nostalgia hit me whilst I opened the wooden doors of Vestal Elementary School. As I walked through the dimly lit hallways, I gazed at the beige walls lined with small lockers, students’ artwork scattered all over the hallways. I thought back to my experiences at Vestal and how fond I was of this school. Ms Thomas’s Classroom was different from when I was her student; now, it was a big, light blue room with many windows that allowed the sun to shine in. There were small chairs and tables, big enough for 5-year-olds, and of course, the huddle of students on the dark blue carpet, all sitting on a different colored dot.
“Class, this is Meno!” Ms. Thomas announced, “She is who I told you would be staying in our classroom every week.” The students on the carpet turned around and waved; some shouted. “Hi! My name is Meno, I’m from McDaniel High School.” I said as I waved back to the class.
Every week, Monday rolled around, and every Monday I showed up at that classroom. At first, tired. But slowly excited to see the kids again. I learned all their names in the first 2 visits, and eventually got to help Ms. Thomas with her lessons. She would frequently ask me, “Do you want to read this book to the class?” or “Can you help these students with this equation?” Knowing that she trusted me and believed that I was able to help the kids learn was very impactful.
Around January, the semester was about to end, and I had been engaging with students frequently in class. Helping them with work, playing games during recess, and learning from Ms. Thomas on how important it is to be able to rally up a class full of 5-year-olds. If you let them get too crazy during the day, the room would end up looking like a tornado had swept through, leaving only the walls intact by dismissal.
Once it was spring, the sun started to show again, and the flowers were slowly blooming. So was my interest in my internship, and the education pathway as a whole. The people around me started to notice how much I was talking about my internship, how I wanted to make an impact on the students in my internship class. Every Monday during 4th period Biology, I would inform my friends about what events had happened in my internship that day. We laughed at the stories I would tell about the kids being funny, because kindergarteners can surprisingly be very, very funny. Such as when one student would repeatedly hide in the fridge from the realistic wooden kitchen, and wouldn’t come out unless you knocked on the fridge door and asked, “Please come out, we can play Legos instead!” I would recite the books that we had read and show off the drawings the kids would make for me during their indoor recess. I became very proud of my internship, and every week, I looked forward to entering that old, red brick building.
I know now that I can say that my experiences in that classroom have helped shape me. My experiences in that classroom, and the passion I felt for helping students learn, are some things that I will carry with me for a long time. Knowing that I can make a difference for kids in a world that is so harsh will be a guide for me to continue to pursue education. I am glad I joined that replacement class, because when I walked into the classroom for the second year of internship, I thought to myself, “This is somewhere I want to be.”