Alana Riklin's Fall 2007 Internship

Assistant Preschool Teacher at Kolter Elementary School

Well hello! Welcome to my fall 2007 Applied Sociology Internship website. My name is Alana Riklin and I chose to do my internship as an assistant preschool teacher at Kolter Elementary in Houston. Kolter is known as an exemplary school for language and culture. The preschool is a brand new program this year for the school. Kerri Lyons, my site supervisor, and I implement daily lessons to a class consisting of 20 four years olds.

Becoming an assistant preschool teacher has improved many of my work related skills. First off, I can now say that I have the teacher’s gift of “eyes in the back of my head.” In other words, I am able to be fully aware of my surroundings; which leads into the ability of being able to multi-task efficiently.

Management and communication skills are continually utilized and expanded during the various daily interactions with the students as well as their parents. These exchanges have also given me a new perspective on working with different types of people. Finally, working with a group of children this young has provided me with a larger range of problem solving capabilities.

I have truly enjoyed my internship experience. The career related skills that I have gained will provide me with a fresh, creative outlook on the business world.