Yasin Afrida | CIIP 2023 Blog Portfolio

Posted: July 6, 2023

Orientation Week

It was a bit challenging to voice my thoughts just because there are a lot of people in the program who I don’t know. Public speaking is something I am constantly working on so I am proud that I participated more on the last day. If I were to go back and redo orientation week I would participate more. However, I was very engaged for all of the presentations and listened to everything everyone had to say. It was interesting to see how everyone had very different experiences and perspectives on the same topic. particularly enjoyed the scavenger hunt because it allowed for me to learn how to use the baltimore city public transportation and it also helped me figure out how to get to my placement site. One of my fears for the program was learning how to get to my placement site and now I am more confident that I will be able to do it alone. I also liked the scavenger hunt because it allowed for our peer mentor group to get closer and learn more about each other. During the first two days there weren’t a lot of opportunities for us to just talk about ourselves in the peer mentor groups so it was nice to be in an outside setting and without a prompt to talk about. I also enjoyed some of the theater action group activities or just the thought behind it, which I think was to get everyone to talk to each other. I liked that we chose partners in such interesting ways and got up and moved around the room. Lastly, I also really enjoyed meeting our supervisors on the last day because I was only able to meet my supervisor through zoom before so it was really nice to finally meet them in person and discuss more about our positions.

Week 1

This week was virtual for me which meant that I had some virtual meetings with my supervisor through Google meets throughout the days and then independently worked on the research part of my project. I wasn’t fully sure what my role was in the program or what even the program was fully focused on. I was unclear about the number of students in the program and their age ranges. However, having the meetings cleared it up as I was able to have a more concrete layout of what I am expected to do and how I will be doing so. I initially thought that I had the role of assisting my supervisor with the project but I realized that it’s more of my supervisor assisting me as I plan out the different projects for K-8 grade. This was very intimidating at first and still is a bit intimidating and challenging. It is interesting how I have to think about and consider many different things while I create lesson plans and activities for “call to action” for students of different ages. When researching and trying to find inspiration for activities, it almost seemed like kids have no direct control over climate change or climate justice. Finding suitable and meaningful actives for K-3 graders is something I am still working on as I am not sure about their background knowledge and I have limited time with them. There is also no strict guidelines for me, which has both pros and cons. I like that I am able to think outside the box and come up with unique and fun activities but also it is very hard to start building on different ideas because I am unsure of what could be meaningful. So far, I think it will be definitely a challenging but rewarding project and experience, especially when the program actually starts.

Week 2

This week was my first week in person, which was great because I finally got to meet everyone who is working here over the summer. I also got to meet someone who recently graduated from Hopkins and is interning here for the summer. One of my biggest fears was being able to get to St. Francis Neighborhood Center using public transportation. However, I was able to do that quite smoothly on my way here. I did get a bit lost on my way home, but it was a good learning experience that made me less scared to take different routes. In terms of work and adjusting to my placement, the challenging part has been brainstorming different activities and projects for kids of different ages. I am especially worried about my ability to keep kindergarteners entertained while also teaching them meaningful lessons about climate justice. I have been working on that and coming up with topics for different lessons for the older students as well. On a slightly different note, I have really been enjoying the BITES sessions because I am able to use the knowledge and trying to connect it to what I am working on. For example, the first presentation, which was about the food cycle, policies, and food justice inspired one of the activities I decided on for the 6-8th graders. While reading about and researching the climate policies and action plan in Baltimore city, I learned that transportation is the biggest contributor to carbon emissions but what was surprising was that food transport plays a huge role in it. So, I focused more on researching that topic. Overall, I really like the concept of focusing on different issues/concerns we have.

Week 3

I get to work at 9 am and make myself a to-do list for the day, as it helps me stay on track and guides my day regardless of the specifics. I then start researching and brainstorming lesson plan ideas (which is usually on my to-do list but more specific). Around 10 I join a class to shadow and meet the students to get more familiar with them. I get to learn their names while doing their regular class activities and observing what the teacher does to get their attention. Since I will be teaching lessons in the second part of the summer, it is nice to get an idea of what the students’ personalities are like, what they like, and what they do not like, what gets them interested and so on. These sessions are usually two-hours, so I stay there until 12. The different age groups are divided into four larger groups, and I usually try to join different ones each day depending on what fits my schedule (in case I have meetings or an urgent task to complete). 12pm to 1pm is my lunch break. From 1pm to 3pm, I usually focus more on if I have completed the tasks I had set for myself. However, since I am going on a trip next week, I have been shadowing more classes and activities that involve the group I will be chaperoning for the trip, which has been really fun and interesting. Usually, I leave to get home around 3, unless there is a staff meeting which lasts until 4:15. Every day is quite different, especially as we are getting more busy by the day and since the second part of summer is way closer than when I just began the internship. I have met multiple interesting and fun people, whether that is on my commute here or at the workplace. However, as I have mentioned in one of my earlier blogs, it is very nice to have another intern here and sharing the office space with them as we get to bounce off of each other’s ideas and have moral support.

Week 4

My goals for summer were very vague, for example: being independent, making friends, making somewhat of an impact, and so on. I do not think that they have changed as I have just started defining these goals differently. Being independent at first just meant learning to live by myself and now it is exploring Baltimore by myself, learning to use the public transport, setting work goals for myself and creating tasks when I am not given any tasks. Making friends started by just getting to know people at CIIP from getting to know people at my workplace and hanging out with friends from CIIP outside of the program setting. There are some new goals or more specific goals that have tagged along the way, for example, I really want. To develop a creative lesson plan and have engaging activities that not only cover climate change and climate justice but also allow me to incorporate my personal interests like the chemistry, art, and photography. However, that has been very difficult to do considering the resources available, the budget, the age range of the students, and getting my supervisor’s approval on some of my ideas for the call-to-action projects. It is a learning process to accept that some of my ideas may not be doable in this specific context even if I think they are great ideas by themselves. I am still determined to somehow incorporate my interests in the lesson plans or activities even though I have yet to figure out how to make that happen. I am a bit skeptical of that happening due to the time constraint, but I think I can make it work. I also want to work on my perspective of what I am doing. We have been told in orientation to accept the idea that we are only here for a summer, and we cannot change the world in this one summer. While that might be true it has been hard for me to stay motivated knowing my work is probably not “important” or “memorable” for the students. I hope to get over that mindset and find meaning in the process.

Week 5

It has been very interesting to work at a summer camp and especially learn about what service learning is. The most enjoyable part of the internship for me has been getting to know more people and why they do what they do. I also realized that time flies by when I am actually enjoying what I doing, for example interacting with the youth and planning creative projects for them. However, I realized that I do not enjoy sitting in front of a laptop for long periods of time for work. I am not sure if it is because of the specific type of work that I am doing this summer or if it’s a general case.i Therefore, I will try to explore that a bit more before eliminating that from my list of things I want in an ideal career. I think that communication is something that can definitely be worked on at my internship and it really made me realize how a program cannot function properly if people are not communicating the goals and steps with each other. Communication is something I have always worked on and through this internship I realized how important of a skill communication really is. I will definitely use the communication skills I developed through this internship in my future profession. I am still working on taking constructive criticism and using it to improve my ideas and projects. I hope to develop this skill and ultimately use it in my daily work and academic life.

Week 7

This week I finally started implementing the lesson plans and projects that I had been working on for the entire summer. My first group of students were 16 6-8th graders and the topic I chose for them to learn was the 3 R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle) and it was interesting to hold conversations with them as it allowed me to learn about their background knowledge on the topic and hear out any assumptions they had. They are also very engaged and participated a lot more than I expected which led to the presentation taking a bit longer than I expected. For one of the activities, we were going to be doing a community trash pick up. However, due to weather conditions at the time we were unable to do so. This was the first challenge I faced with this lesson plan as this was unexpected, but this activity was also a huge part of the lesson plan. Since I had planned out backup activities with my coworker, we were able to pivot quickly and still make the lesson interesting and engaging. The next group I presented to and did service learning activities with is a group of 20 K-2nd graders, which was very different from the first group. The topic I chose for them was air quality, which they seemed to have liked; however, it was more difficult to keep them engaged. Some of them fell asleep in the back of the classroom (and I was unsure of what to do to wake them up) but some of them were very engaged and would participate a lot. My next group of students that I will be presenting to and working with are a group of 20 3-5th graders, which I am excited to do.