Elevator Speech

Hello, my name is Reece Rada. I am a junior at Flowery Branch High school. Throughout the year, I spent two hours of my school days mentoring at Spout Springs Elementary, inside Mrs. Smallwood's first grade classroom. The mentorship was a wonderful experience, as I learned many new things and grew in my love for children. In the eighth grade, I decided I wanted to be an early childhood teacher. I took classes in high school based on teaching and early education, and I also currently work in the nursery at my church weekly. The biggest topic that came across my mind that I wanted to learn more about while in my internship was how to positively impact a student. Since this topic is very dear to my heart, I decided that I was going to do my final project for Honors Mentorship on this subject. My essential question was to distinguish how an early childhood teacher can positively impact a students life. To answer this question, I studied on what an effective teacher is, what their qualities are, and what the difference is between being effective and qualified. Overall, my mentorship experience was very beneficial to me, and provided me with many lessons that I will carry on as I continue to aim to be the best and most effective teacher I can be in my near future.

Week of 5/5

1. What impact did this experience have on my personal growth?\
My mentorship experienced helped me grow in my patience, responsibility, and love for children.

2.What was my greatest accomplishment?
My greatest accomplishment was working throughout the year with two individual students, watching them grow both in academics and in their social life.

3.What did you find most challenging about the mentorship?
What I found most challenging was dealing with students with troubling behavior. It required a lot of patience.

4.What did you discover about yourself?
At my mentorship, I discovered that I'm very patient and have a heart for children.

5.What influence will this experience have on your future academic and career choices?
This experience has greatly influenced my academic and career choices. While I thought I knew I wanted to go into teaching before my internship, I now am certain. I'm looking into colleges who specialize in education all throughout the south east.

6.What did you learn from people you admire in this organization?
The person I admired the most was my mentor, Mrs. Smallwood. By working with her daily, I learned the importance in the balance of sternness and positivity, and making sure the students strive to their very best.