THE ART OF TEACHING
By Kat Neeland, Lake Quinault Intern and GHYW Education and Training Intern
My name is Kat Neeland and I live in Humptulips. I am 17 years old and I go to Lake Quinault School. I chose to participate in Grays Harbor Youth Works because I thought it would be a great idea to help me decide what I want to do in the future. My internship is at Lake Quinault School and I work with Mrs. Mabey who is the elementary Art and Music teacher. In this internship, I have had the opportunity to gain experience classroom management skills along with learning more about the area and how to convey art and music in the best way to students.
I work with Kindergarten through 5th grade students and learn different strategies to control them depending upon their age. Sometimes I would instruct small groups by myself. I taught first grade through fourth grades how to ready some rhythms. Just the basic rhythms like quarter notes, eighth notes, half notes and quarter rests. I taught all the kids about lines and shapes in art and there meaning to art. I made my own lesson plan on lines and shapes for the students. I did a drawing lesson plan with the entire first-grade class and for my first try with an entire class it was not that bad but I still need improvements.
I am awfully glad that I have this opportunity because it is helping me decide if this is what I really want to do, rather than going to college for an education degree and realizing I do not want to teach. I am just incredibly happy I was able to do an internship in teaching. I have learned a lot and I am glad that Grays Harbor Youth Works made this possible for me.
We are proud to say, Kat used her intern experience and has been hired by a school district as a paraeducator.