Marileny Valera
Internship Memory
I completed my internship last semester in Pace Charter Elementary School. The school is located in Hamilton and is very small; unlike most elementary schools it provides instruction only up to the third grade. There are two classrooms for each grade which are taught by all female teachers except for one third grade male teacher. During my internship JPE (Junior Professional Experience), I had a partner who is also a female. I worked with both third grade classes, but was particularly assigned to one third grade class. My cooperating teacher (the teacher I worked with), was also female. The class was made up of about 7 boys and 7 girls.
My responsibilities consisted of attending my own classes here at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) and also visiting Pace. At first I was not expected to do much more than interact and establish a relationship with the students, but later I taught lessons, planned activities and even disciplined them. I began to fully understand what it would be like to be a real teacher. It is one of the toughest jobs that exist and many times it is taken for granted. A teacher is somewhat of a mother; nurturer and protector, while teaching children basic skills they will need for the rest of their lives. A truly amazing and rewarding job, yet exhausting. Exhausting because you need to be a mother, an actress, an entertainer, an artist, and a child all at the same time. You must be able to keep control of the classroom, and teach the students while managing to keep them interested.
Through my time working with my JPE partner and cooperating teacher, we did have some time for conversation; believe it or not. One day as we were eating lunch in the teachers’ room we some how ended up talking about our families. We were discussing how unfair it was that the women in our families were always designated to cook and wash the dishes at family gatherings while the men just relaxed and discussed politics or watched T.V. My JPE partner and I had a similar experience where our mothers wanted us to serve our boyfriends dinner when they would come over the house. We agreed on our feelings—we refused to do it and made a big deal out of it. In the midst of our discussion I was beginning to feel confident that maybe these women were “undercover feminists” looking for a friend because of the views we shared. I was very disappointed to find out I was wrong. Our conversation ended with my partner saying, “Well, I’m not all ‘women’s liberation’ or anything but…,” this completely shocked me. It was totally unexpected and not welcomed at all. I could not believe she said that; I chose not to really comment on what she said probably because I felt she would not understand. She made it seem as though ‘women’s liberation’ was some absurd group and somewhat irrational. This made me view my partner in a different way because I felt she was a restraint on the Movement and an insult to feminists everywhere.
Additionally, I wish to leave future interns a few words of advice. Make sure you give your internship all that you have to give, whether you hate it or love it you will learn something from it. Also keep your eyes open for any opportunites that may come your way; from my internship I was able to get a new job working at the school’s after care program. So maintain professional relationships with those at your internship because networking is not a myth.