Samantha Erneste

Professional Studies Internship

Mr. Magnuson
May 8th, 2016
This semester I got the pleasure of teaching every fourth block at Lakeview Middle
School in one of their three Essential Skills classrooms. My host teacher was Ms. Harrington.
Ms. Harrington has taught in Park Hill for 17 years and holds degrees in special education,
school administration, and autism. She actually created the first functional classroom in Park Hill
at Congress Middle school in 2000. For many of you the terms: functional/essential skills and
resource are second nature, but for others they are completely foreign. Functional/Essential Skills
classrooms are where students are separated form general education classes for all subjects
because general education curriculum is not appropriate for them. Resource classrooms are
learning centers where a special education teacher assists a small group of students identified
with a learning disabilities. Students who are in resource classes also spend time in general
education classrooms, but are provided with accommodations that are written in their IEP. Both
are considered special education, but the two are very different.
First semester I took a class called Education 2020. In this class we did many things to
help prepare us for our future careers. We went through FERPA training, I got confidentiality
certified, I wrote 1st grade history curriculum, I decorated a classroom, I wrote lesson plans, etc.
Most importantly, I went out on three two week internships. My first internship was to Hawthorn
Elementary, my old stomping grounds. I was assigned to a resource classroom with Ms. Monroe
as my host teacher. While there I got to witness my students struggles outside of school, and

how those struggles effect their academics. It infuriated me that these students were not getting
the support they needed at home (emotional, or academic) when the school provide many
resources for them to utilize. This would be a reoccurring frustration that I would cross paths
with at each internship to come. My time at Hawthorn taught me that teachers really do matter,
the love and support that I give as a teacher to my students could be the only thing that keeps that
child going.
My next internship was in another resource room, but this one was at Tiffany Ridge
Elementary. My host teacher was Ms. Barner. Ms. Barner was absolutely amazing! The kids
loved her and she love each and every one of her students. She allowed me to teach every single
day I was there. Sometimes I was reading aloud, sometimes I was helping my students learn new
vocabulary words, and sometimes I was running the entire class while she took care of students
having violent emotional outbursts. My favorite memory from that internship was going around
the school every morning and collecting mail with a student who had severe behavior issues. I
fell in love with that crazy little munchkin! He may bite, he may scream and he may disrespect
every other teacher in that building, but he was my favorite. The 10minutes we spent together
every day was just enough to build a relationship with this unruly student. He knew I cared
about him, he knew I would go out of my way to help him succeed, and that was all he longed
for. He wanted somebody to care, and because I did he did amazing work for me. He behaved for
me, he read aloud when asked, he finished his work and with any extra time he would draw me
his favorite Star Wars characters. He is the reason I am going to be a teacher.
My third internship of first semester was at Lakeview middle school in an essential skills
classroom with Ms. Harrington as my host teacher. Obviously I fell in love with it because I
choose her as my semester long internship after, but still, Ill tell you a bit why I chose her and

her class. When I decided I wanted to teach special education I really wanted elementary
essential skills. I thought that it would be cute to teach my little Autism and Down syndrome
babies to sign and learn to feed themselves. What I didnt yet know was how fun and awesome it
would be to teach students with intellectual disabilities how to do life and be independent. My
students at Lakeview had aspirations to be authors, firefighters and Teachers. They wanted to get
married someday and become moms and dads. One of my girls is in love with animals and would
love to run an animal shelter. In middle school students are figuring out who they are and who
they want to be. They communicate clearly (at least clearer than elementary student) with me
about what they need, and since puberty is hitting majority of them I still get the excitement of
calming their emotional outburst. Middle school gave me the best of both worlds, and having
Ms. Harrington as my host teacher gave me a clear idea of how to run a classroom.
This semester I got to be in Ms. Harringtons class fourth block every day. Since I was
there so often I really got to see what I like and dislike, I got to see how my students reacted to
change and structure, and I fell in love with autism. Autism is so complex and so diverse. No two
kids with autism are the same! Everybody has different sensory devices to calm them down,
everybody has different triggers that set them off. It is such a beautiful thing that I can only hope
to understand as well as Ms. Harrington does someday.
All in all my experience in the professional studies program has been second to none. I
am so very blessed to have gotten the chance to gain the professional experiences that I have this
year. I will never forget the lessons that each one of my internships taught me, nor will I forget
the smiling faces of all of the students who have let me into their classrooms this year. This class
is one that I hope the Park Hill School District continues to encourage student to take. It has been
the most rewarding class I have taken in my four years at Park Hill.