One, two, three, eyes on me!

On October 11, I became a kindergartner again at Kemptown Elementary School.

For Alyssa Yammarino, Class of 2017, this is a regular occurrence. She leaves school before third block to attend her internship.

“There are 36 interns this year, 14 of which are helping at an elementary school,” said Mrs. Jennifer Radil-Harris, Internship Coordinator.

A College Board study shows that students who have a job are better at time management and have more self confidence than students who don’t work.

Yammarino helps in a kindergarten class alongside the teacher Ms. Katie Vosburg.

“This is a good learning experience for me and is helping to prepare me for becoming a teacher in the future,” said Yammarino.

Yammarino is currently enrolled in Child Development, where she is learning how to make lesson plans and how to teach early education.

Helping in a kindergarten class has shown her that she does not want to teach early education, but hopes to teach an older elementary grade.

“Experience in many different classrooms and observing many different teachers is the best way to understand all the roles of a teacher.” said Vosburg.

While at Kemptown, Yammarino helps Vosburg with everything from working directly with kids to preparing activities for the class to do.

She regularly pulls kids aside to work one-on-one with them in math and writing.

“She serves as another set of eyes in the class and helps to reinforce information for some of the slower kids,” said Vosburg.

Yammarino loves working with the little kids, but she does agree that it is sometimes difficult.

“The hardest part is switching between the skill levels of each student. Some kids know the entire alphabet while others know only a couple letters,” said Yammarino.

Vosburg uses many visual aids to help her students learn, along with integrating technology into the curriculum.

“All of my students love her and she is a huge help to me. She jumps right in and helps whenever she sees a need,” said Vosburg.

An application for a new internship at the National Cancer Institute at Frederick was recently released. See Mrs. Radil-Harris for additional information or visit the link provided.