Applying Internship to AcademicsThroughout my experience at internship the biggest thing I can take away from it, is knowing and understanding that teachers are a lot more than what we see in our class environment. My mentor is a teacher, athletic trainer, wife and a mother of a one year old. I've had teachers that had other jobs and families but I never thought about how much effort and work they have to put in to get everything done until I started working with Christi. I see how much effort she puts in everyday. I am so glad to have a mentor like her. It shows me what true work looks like.
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I haven't faced any problems at my work site. Everyone is very nice and help me out a lot. If anything, the hardest thing for me is remembering all the steps in taping since I have only done them a couple times.
I think that the most difficult task Christi has at work, is handling the students. She is very sweet and understanding of most things but I believe that a lot of the students try to take advantage of her. She lets a lot of things go but when she actually needs something done by a student she asks in a different tone so it gets done. Carmen Thumm - Both Carmen and I are doing things we love. Although, our experiences are different, the feeling is the same. being passionate and loving what you're doing is what makes our internships amazing!
Nymeshia Shannon - She sounds like she has a mentor who adores and is passionate on what they do. My mentor is the same way. I could ask her any question and if she doesn't know the answer she does not mind looking it up for me. She wants and cares for me to learn. Liliana Ferrer - Lillie seemed like she got to start right away! It took me a couple of days to get some action but I am not complaining, watching sports all day is an amazing way to spend my time doing at internship! My taping skills are slowly improving. With more practice and taping different people I will get a feel for what type of necessities people need. When I first learned how to tape thumbs, I first practiced of a guy with giant hands. It looked like crap... Then my mentor told me to practice on her and it came out very beautiful (for a beginner). So then Chris told me to do it on him again because he wanted it to look nice like hers. I still couldn't figure out how to make it look pretty. But I have been practicing on him since that day and every time it looks better and better!
Another way I'm improving is becoming the best me I can become. While I've been at my internship, I have had a lot of conversations with my mentor (work related and personal issues). My mentor is an extraordinary person and I believe that she is rubbing off on me! I have learned how to communicate with others better and how to think before reacting. My internship has taught me so much already, and we still have three weeks to go! Since my work place is at a high school there are a lot of interactions between students, teachers, and administrators. I interact the most with my mentor and other students since they are my age. The first couple of days were harder for me because I didn't know anyone but now every time I am on campus people greet me and smile.
Horizon is a small school, smaller than High Tech, so everyone knows everyone. When I go see my mentor during school hours I noticed that a lot of the same students have the same classes for all 6 periods. I have always liked the smaller school environment but sometimes there are some cons. Their cheerleading team only has five girls. For athletic training it is better to have a smaller work environment because you can keep up with all the athletes and know how new injuries relate to old ones. This first week on internship has been amazing! Today was my first day of actually practicing taping people so I was really excited about that. After today I think I have an idea of a project I could do to show my learning. I wanted to create a book/booklet with photographs of each type of taping I have done while being at Horizon and add a description of how it helps the student athlete. Not only would this show my learning but it could help any future interns in the field of Athletic Training. I'm super excited to continue learning more and I definitely want to tape Will"s thumbs when he comes to my site visit!
At my internship the people that benefit from the work I do are mostly the student athletes. Athletic training responsibilities consists of; taping, strethching, massaging, aligning hips, making ice bags, etc. As of right now, I have learned how to align someone's hips, taping ankles and fingers, and how to suck air out of an ice bag. Athletic training is important because it helps student athletes stay safe, prevent injuries, and also, provide first aid in case there is a possible injury.
My work also benefits my mentor and myself because I help her out with keeping records of every job she does on an student. The work I do at Horizon benefits me because I am learning a lot about the type of job I want in the future. This experience has helped me so much already and it had only been a week. Mr. Johnson has worked at Horizon Christian Academy for over 20 years now. He started out as a substitute teacher and now is the Principle of the school. He did his BA at San Diego State and Masters at UCSD.
He loves his work and plans on working at Horizon for the rest of his life. He believes that working with high school students and teaching them about Jesus is amazing and wants to make a difference in people's lives. I've known Mr. Johnson for six, almost seven years now and he is the kindest and most thoughtful person I know. I didn't have my phone today to take a picture. Coming from a High Tech school environment, being at a private school for internship has definitely been a weird change. Also, on top of that, this private school is Christian. The Christianity part of the school is something I enjoy learning about and being a part of. I have sat in on a couple of Mrs. Evans's classes and they always start out with a prayer. Today's prayer was about finding wisdom and clarity of the mind. Each prayer makes me think about my personal life and how I could apply myself better to situations I come across. Although I did not come for the religion part of this school I have learned a lot about how I can improve myself as a person rather than just a student.
As a Christian school, their mission is to:
WIN a person to Jesus Christ (Mark 16:15) DISCIPLE a person in Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:19-20) SEND a person for Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8) Every faculty member is responsible to keep each and every student accountable for their actions. Therefore, when a student either acts inappropriately or says something out of line, they are spoken to and asked how do they believe Jesus would view their actions as. The faculty memebers also bring parts of the Bible into their conversations with students as examples of what has happened in the "past" and how Jesus sees things. It's a different type of enviorment I am used to but I have quickly adjusted. |
GoalThe junior students at High Tech High were on internships during the month of January going into the month of February. These are my daily blog posts throughout my experience. |