Miana Krenz

Riverside Elementary School

Alexandra Giacobbe

September 6 - October 13, 2022

By shadowing the art teacher Alexandra Giacobbe at Riverside Elementary School, I was able to plan, design, and teach an original lesson as well as engage with students and experience the inner workings of a classroom. I also aided in various projects, put up and tore down art displays, painted bulletin boards, and learned what daily classroom life looked like.

To get the full experience, I decided to plan a lesson that played to my strengths as an artist, yet was compatible with a second-grade class. The focus was organic shapes and how you can incorporate faces and objects into said shapes. My planning included goals and step documents, note-taking, slideshow designing, and numerous painted test runs. The materials used were watercolor and sharpies. This cultivated the use of listening to instructions, fine motor skills, critical thinking, and imagination to create the final project. This lesson took about two weeks to plan, so by the time it was my turn to teach, I had gotten to sit in on my mentor's lessons and see different styles of teaching. My lesson was split up into two weeks, so in that time, I had gotten feedback to improve my delivery of instruction, clarification of details, and time management geared towards younger children.

Throughout high school, my plans have gone back and forth between graphic design and teaching art to young kids. Though I am still undecided, my knowledge of teaching and lesson planning has grown exponentially. Had I not interned with Mrs. Giacobbe, I would have not known that every lesson brings different skills and joy out of kids. I would not have seen how much fun planning can truly be. I definitely would not have been able to grasp the fact that even scribbles on a page bring me great excitement. By spending weeks with my mentor, I got to hear how a teacher becomes a teacher, how to keep a good work-life balance, and how to have fun in a job dedicated to children. The chances of me taking a teaching position later in life have strengthened more than I ever thought. My goal was to get an authentic teaching experience, and I fully believe that I received it.

Many, many thanks to Riverside Elementary and Alexz Giacobbe for this incredible opportunity. I would have never imagined that I would love this job so much so to come back and do it for 6 weeks straight (let alone it being a job possibility)! I just learned so much and couldn't think of a better internship experience, mentor, or class to be in. If this is the path I end up taking, you, Mrs. Giacobbe, will definitely be the first to hear about it. Your contribution to my senior year will never be forgotten and will be looked back on by me for years to come.