New Experiences

by Maryann C., Panther Blogger

This is my last semester at Ferrum College. I am having many different emotions about this fact. I feel excited, nervous, scared, sad, and glad all at the same time! I thought my last semester at Ferrum would not have any new experiences for me; after all, I have been here for four years. I felt like I had done everything there was to do. Well, I was wrong!

This semester, I am doing an internship at Ferrum Elementary School and an "externship" at the Gereau Center in the nearby Town of Rocky Mount.  The Gereau Center is part of the Franklin County middle school where 8th graders go for half of the school year.

Working at Ferrum Elementary School is going to be a very new experience for me. I am studying secondary education, so I have not worked with this younger age group in school before. I have met with my cooperating teacher once and have observed her class one time so far. Based on my first impression, I think I'm going to have a great time working with these kids and learn a lot from my cooperating teacher.

I have done internships at the Gereau Center before, but this one is going to be very different for my cooperating teacher and me. This semester, one of my main focuses is to create lesson plans that all the teachers could access and use that they desire. Let me explain.

At the Gereau Center, they have what is called the CEED Building. It is an environmentally-stable building, and it uses energy from the environment - such as wind and solar - to power itself. The CEED Building also collects data, such as temperature, precipitation, and carbon dioxide levels. My goal is to take the data that the CEED Building collects and use it to create lesson plans, and then make those lesson plans accessible to all teachers.

I am very excited to begin working in both of these internships with the Franklin County Public School system.  I think I am going to learn a lot and of course gain experience. It's amazing how the faculty and staff at Ferrum College never cease to go beyond my expectations with the opportunities and support they provide.