1. Answer these 5 questions: a. What did you do intentionally and/or what just happened to you that led you to learn more about yourself as a teacher, both as a reading and content area teacher? At the beginning of this internship, my plan was to be organized and I prepared for each week as soon as I got my placement. This lasted for my first four weeks, but soon after Jake's students moved to new schools or didn't show up on Wednesdays. Soon, I realized that I needed to redo the lesson plans and rethink what the students would be doing each week. As my internship progressed, it was more and more apparent that the classroom dynamics had completely changed and making them relevant to my new students was going to be a challenge because: 1. I had no idea who would be in the next class period , and 2. Each student was at a different place in their artistic experience, 3. They all have drastically different interests. I had to consider all three of these aspects and was expected to work with the entire group that was there that day. It was more of a challenge than I thought and I can't even remember how many times I revised my lesson plan. I knew that teaching cannot be subject to a rigid schedule, but I feel like I really realized this at the end of the practice when I had more lessons ready and knew when we needed to stop and discuss other issues (like school dropouts or children ) which were playing a huge role in students' lives and distracting them from their school work. I've learned that it's worth taking a step back and talking about any other important event in a student's life, otherwise they won't learn. Another thing that happened to me a lot in this internship is that the students all had an extremely...... middle of paper...... peer/friend attitude. I felt that they really appreciated having a real and honest conversation about the challenges of college but also the key benefits. I feel like education would be so much more meaningful if they understood why they are learning it and were excited to learn! The article also mentions on page 163 that some educators are unwilling to actually work with the student if it means changing what has been effective in the past for other students. I feel that a student really has no chance of receiving a healthy education if the person providing the education, the teacher, has no interest in truly helping each individual child. I really enjoyed the article and think it was a great read, especially for my SPED major and it really makes us think about how the hope and well-being of every child is what our education programs should be focused on.