(no subject)
Slight quandary.
I started an internship in mid-January at a middle school in a neighboring town, since I've always wanted to teach and I needed something to fill my time and blahblahblah. I go most days of the week, from approximately 9 to 1, and I help out and observe in art, math, and language arts classes. I'm really only a big help in the art classes, since I can really interact with the kids and give them advice and whatnot. In the math class, there are only about ten kids. They're a level 3 class, meaning the lowest level, and the kids need the most help. When they're given in-class problems to work on, I can generally walk around and help them a bit. I was more hesitant at the beginning, because I wasn't sure how they were taught to do certain things or how calculator-dependent they were or whatever, but that's been getting better. The language arts class is actually taught by someone who's been a family friend my whole life (as in he stops by my grandmother's house on Christmas and Easter, so he's close), and while I get the most observational experience, I don't do much. My friend has taught for 30+ years; he knows what he's doing and he has his routine and I don't want to mess with that. (Fun fact: he taught Henry's dad back when he was in middle/high school XD) Still, he talks to me and explains how he does things and I know he'd be open to me leading in-class discussions or whatever.
Buuuut... the Red Sox season is starting again, soon, and I'm split about what I want to do. I feel like there isn't too much more I can do with the internship, and even though I originally was going to do it through June, I'm considering stopping at the end of April. The last couple of weeks have been wonky (I swear I have some seasonal depression going on; I don't function when it's so gorram wet and dreary out), and I'm not sure if that might be some part of why I'm so anti-internship at the moment. But I'm torn. It's not like I couldn't work plenty of games *after* June. So let me pro-con this, and... well, thoughts and opinions would be welcome.
Internship
PROS:
- it's good experience for teaching
- I get to see how a classroom is run, in a couple different subjects that interest me
- it's fun, I like the teachers, I like the kids, it hasn't been traumatic yet (though some of the stories I've heard...)
CONS:
- I'm paying to do this internship, because I'm dumb (I paid for TEC to find me this internship, get me the placement, and now they check up on me and keep it official, blahblah. Mostly high schoolers do it, so parents will pay for their kids to get experience and get out of the classroom, but still be Under Control, and I don't need that coddling.)
- I'd prefer teaching at a high school level, but I'm too close in age to high schoolers, so I can't currently
- goddamn, I do NOT like mornings
- because I'm not an official teacher's aide, what I can do is limited
Red Sox Store:
PROS:
- I get paid
- it's a hella lot of fun (it's at Fenway Park, hellooooo)
CONS:
- doesn't give me experience for any career I'd like to actually pursue
- I have to go into Boston for it
What I'm currently leaning towards is stopping the internship after April and working at the Red Sox Store, as much as possible around my hours at the library. I've applied to some schools, but I'm really bad at it, and I'm keeping my expectations low. So if I get into schools, I'll be pleasantly surprised, and if I don't, I won't be too disappointed. Anyway, in the fall, if I don't go to college, I'll talk to some teachers about interning again but NOT through TEC, so I won't have to pay for it, and I'll just be doing my own thing.
Of course, then I start wavering again and I feel bad about quitting the internship early and I've really only been doing it for a couple months and I could probably get more out of it if I wanted and GRARGH. Thoughts?