Abraham Hernandez 

10th December 2024

The past couple of months have been a rollercoaster of emotions. Throughout my time in my internship, I can say that I have learned a lot. One of the biggest things that I have learned is the idea of expectation vs. reality, or better said, ideal vs. real. An ideal situation is one that a person would plan, think and expect. It was these situations that I would find myself in often PRIOR to giving my class. However, these ideal situations were often confronted by reality. Oftentimes, I would plan ahead for my class; lesson plan, notes and a timeline. In the actual class is when I realized that sometimes it’s always best to leave room for error. I would find myself planning to the last detail of how the class would go; possible questions a student may ask, a timeframe for how long I would spend on a subject, etc. These are things that sometimes cannot be planned in detail due to the fact that sometimes the students may have questions that other students may want to build upon. Sometimes it doesn’t go like this and the students are quiet and have no questions. These situations are hard to deal with since often the class ends up finishing earlier than expected and a quiet class is not always in my plans, however, these situations result in being a learning experience for me. I’ve been coming to understand that not always things will go to plan but one must continue. I will continue to plan, continue to strategize, but will always leave room for error, or room for improvement. 

A typical week at the internship I am in is never the same. Some weeks can be quite stressful and other weeks come with their fair share of pressure, but nothing that would have me pulling my hair out. Since the day I give the lesson falls on a Monday, my “work week” starts on Tuesdays. On Tuesdays, I typically just do a recap of the previous day’s lesson. As of recently I have been recording voice memos of myself speaking. If I am being honest, this is probably the hardest part since I do not like hearing myself speak. However, hearing the lesson from the previous day has helped me in looking at the areas that need improvement. I listen to the voice recording while looking at my notes to see what I did well in or what I could have dove deeper into. After I take my notes I then begin to prepare for the next lesson. In my internship, I was given a topic from which I must form my own lessons from which makes it easier for me. I start my lesson prep by studying the topic I was given, then breaking it down in the days to follow. I often find myself looking at YouTube videos or even TikTok’s for inspiration for icebreakers and/or games I can use to incorporate them into the lesson. I find that students are much more engaged when they are actively participating in the class. It takes me about 2-3 days to prepare for my lesson. Over the weekend, I do a run through of my lessons. Sometimes I have found myself physically speaking in my room, almost in a way acting out the lesson as if it was in real-time. This is the final phase of how I lesson prep and it helps me in preparing myself mentally since I am still working on my public speaking skills, as well as helping me take notes on certain points in my lesson that I might need to emphasize or spend more time on. Overall the experience has been great and I can definitely notice how these skills will help me for my future development. 

One of my aspirations from this internship is to be able to learn and gain teaching experience. My career goal is to be an educator, specifically a high-school English teacher. Based on the work I have done in this internship for the past few weeks, I can see how many of the skills I am learning can translate over to my career. The internship I am in revolves heavily around studying, lesson planning and giving oral lectures/lessons. Now, since the group I am assigned to are teenagers between the ages of 13-17, I cannot simply just stand and talk since the attention spans are very limited. This experience has forced me to think outside the box and be able to think outside the box when it comes to ensuring that the students are actively engaged during the class. This has involved doing games, illustrations, icebreakers and presentations that must have a direct correlation to the subject matter at hand. This has forced me to tap into my “inner teen spirit” and think of ideas that the students would find engaging and entertaining. This experience has made me reflect on my time in high school and the teacher’s that I had who I can say truly impacted me. One of these teacher’s was my Algebra teacher Mr. Vogel. As a disclaimer, math has NEVER been my strong suit. For as far back as I can remember, I have never been good at it. However, Mr. Vogel was able to make this class very engaging. He would start every class with an icebreaker that would then lead into the lesson for the day. He was a very stern and strict teacher, however, he would always show that he truly cared for the students and that they are actually learning the subject matter. He has also been an inspiration for the way I try and teach my class and someone whose teaching style I aspire to imitate.

One of the most interesting things that I have done in my internship was found in the lessons themselves. Part of my job as an intern is to give weekly lessons based on excerpts from the bible and how it can apply to the daily life of a teenager. This requires me to speak publicly to this group of teens, which has not been the easiest part of the internship. Even though I am speaking to teenagers, I still get really nervous when it comes to public speaking. In the past, whenever I had to speak publicly, I began to sweat, stutter and just get really nervous. I have only given three lessons so far and the first one was not the best. No one told me how well or poorly I did but looking back, I know it wasn’t done well. However, I know that it could’ve been done better. For my next lesson, I decided to record myself speaking and afterwards look back and see where I can improve. I noticed that I tend to get lost in my notes often so an improvement I made was to make my notes clearer. I looked back at some of the notes I wrote from my first semester when I took a public speaking class! I applied them to my next lesson and it turned out better than the first time around. Never would I have thought that they would come in handy but I’m glad they did! Overall, I have really been enjoying this experience and understanding how, aside from the setting I have been placed in, the skills I am learning can translate over to other areas of my life that contribute to my professional development for the future.

Abraham Hernandez 

Professor Lee Norton

15 September 2024

ENG 299

Internship at COGOP Freeport 

This semester, I will be interning at Church of God of Prophecy Word of Life as a Youth Bible Study Teacher. This internship opportunity was one that was offered to me by the church’s bishop when the opportunity opened. I gladly accepted. My career goal is to one day be a high school English teacher and I feel that adding this experience to my resume will be beneficial for me and my professional development. 

The first week was one that was filled with study, research and lesson planning as I began to prepare myself for my first lesson. The class itself is made up of around 20 students ranging from ages 13-17. For the next 4 months, the class will focus on the books Letters to the Church by Francis Chan, Relationship Goals by Michael Todd and Jesus Is___. by Judah Smith. For the first couple of weeks, the first book we will be dissecting is Smith’s Jesus Is___. It felt a lot like my courses in college where I had to read a story or work of literature, annotate and prepare for a discussion. However, this time instead of a professor leading the conversation, I had to be the one to ask questions and create an environment and space where the students felt free to express their opinions, ask questions, make comments and/or state their concerns. The first lesson went great in my opinion. The students were able to express their thoughts and feelings on what they are expecting at the end of the year. I gave them an overview of what we will be discussing and what to expect out of the book. We briefly dove into the first few pages of the book and they seemed to really enjoy it. 

I am excited for the next four months during my time at COGOP Freeport and I hope that in the end, the experience will have developed me in my professional skills and abilities.