Primary Responsibilities:
- One-on-one assistance to some of the students who were under IEP's
- Helped teacher lead classroom activities
- Supply each student with the necessary support needed in order for them to learn
- Mini-lesson plans for those children in need of some informal speech therapy
- Play small group games with children who were in need of further physical or articulatory assistance
There were no changes to my responsibilities during my placement.
Overall, I would rate this placement as very good.
I would recommend this site to other students who are interested in working with small children and who are in need of some guidance to whether working for children is best for them. As far as learning experience as a teacher, I learned a lot, but it may not be beneficial for those who are considering the teaching field as there is not as much structure and things to learn in comparison to a higher level classroom.
If I were to change anything about this placement, I would have appreciated more time with the specialists instead of being involved only in the classroom in order to get a feel of what the SLP, PT, and OT specialists do on a daily basis.
Advice I would give other students looking for an internship is to look in depth of what is to be expected of you. Although I enjoyed my experience, there are some field experience positions out there that are not what they claim to be. Although it does look good on your resume, it may not be worth it if you are not learning anything from the experience.