Tops program

The first few month of college were like visiting the biggest candy store in the world and being told that I could walk out with as much candy as I could carry. I took everything in: biology, history, and Spanish. In a few months I was sitting in a stiff chair across from my advisor. I forgot about my annotated edition of the Origin of Species and my sketchbooks. Instead, I remembered the candy-eyed students I worked with at my internship. I wanted to be a tearcher.
My first internship was in High School at the special needs preschool. It was imperative to create a safe environment, because the students were physically mature. One day someone ripped the dresser drawer off it’s hinges. Everyday I learned something new as scaffolds students to sort plastic fruit with teeth marks. My patient mentors knew each student so well. When we reviewed our records of each student’s improvements in ecclesiastical, speech, and social interactions they altered lesson plans to better cater to the needs of the classroom. My job was not just about playing with play dough, and that is what I loved about it.
The next preschool I internship at was my Senior year of High School. One day I looked out the window at the sprouting wheat fields and realized that I was completely happy. My knees were in my chest because the chair I was sitting in was for someone half my size. Yet, this was happiness. In that moment I realized that in a classroom happiness could be shared as easily as colored pencils; from student to teacher. Instead of sharing reds and blues we were sharing ideas about numbers, letters, and morals like kindness and respect. It was there that I developed my philosophy of teaching; I believe that teaching and learning are inseparably joined because they are the ability to share knowledge in a joint effort to discover.
Currently I volunteer every week with the local TOPS program to work in a local preschool. My job is to work with kindergarteners at the writing table. It no longer shocks me when I have a student ask me how to spell words like calligraphy or explain to me how trees help us breath. The students are undeniably real, really interested, really energetic, really soaking up everything. This time I can draw off ideas from Pigate and the DAP texts.
The opportunity to work in Washington D.C. for a summer would be more than memorable; it would be influential. I want to help with the program, and work with the students. While I was thinking about applying I realized that most of what I know about the world is from images trapped in pictures and magazines. This is not enough to prepare me to be the best teacher that I can be; I need experience and examples. I believe that this program would provided both, and I would be overjoyed if I was accepted into the program.