Teaching in Secondary Education

Northfield Mount Hermon l Summer 2017 & 2018

 

Course Reflection

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Without a doubt, one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences I have ever had was working as a teaching intern for Northfield Mount Hermon (NMH)'s Summer Session program. Summer Session at NMH is an intensive program for middle and high school students from all over the world to study at the prestigious boarding school over the summer. A large majority of the students who come to the Summer Session are international students. For many of them, this is their first time in the United States. 

 

As a teaching intern, my duties included co-teaching a major course with a trained master teacher, leading two extra-curricular courses on my own, working in the dorm, chaperoning field trips and special events, and being an advisor to a small group of students. With all of these responsibilities, I found myself, particularly in my first year, incredibly challenging. It was difficult to balance all the tasks I had to do, with wanting to interact with the students outside the classroom and trying to stay on top of my own health and wellness. In addition to learning how to balance a lot of responsibilities, I was also grateful for the challenge of adapting my teaching even more so. In both of my summers at NMH, I taught quite different courses. In my first year, I taught a middle-school literature course, while in my second my focus was on an intermediate-level English-as-a-second-language course. Through these courses and my various experiences at NMH, I became a much better teacher in many ways, especially in my ability to communicate with students in many different age levels, language ability, and walks of life.