close

Intern program is alive at Beach Elementary School

4 min read

While the future of some elementary teachers are in jeopardy due to cuts to preliminary budgets in schools across Lee County, Beach Elementary School is becoming instrumental to a positive beginning for future teachers.

For the past 12 weeks, two interns from Florida Gulf Coast University have been working with supervising teachers and students at Beach Elementary. The Beach school rejuvenated its internship program that had been dormant for the past 10 years.

Richard Dodge, the internship program supervisor at FGCU, obtained the position during his first year with the university. The student teachers are in their final week at the Oak Street elementary school.

“This has been a tremendous experience for the students at FGCU,” said Dodge. “They are assigned to highly qualified teachers. My job is to supervise them and guide them through this experience. This is the first time Florida Gulf Coast has had interns at the Beach school.”

Dodge has been coming to Beach Elementary every two weeks for the 12-week period to observe the interns and work with their mentors on feedback.

“Florida Gulf Coast selects teachers who are highly qualified and who go through training before doing this,” he said. “We really like to get the best supervising teachers at the school – ones with experience and advanced degrees – who are good at being role models and perform ‘best practices’ while in the classroom. This is a great growth experience.”

One of the interns is Courtney Eppleman, a 22-year-old FGCU senior from Atlantic City, N.J. She describes her experience at Beach Elementary as “phenomenal.”

“Every minute, I’ve learned more than I possibly could by being in the classroom,” she said. “It’s a life-changing and rewarding experience that you can’t read in a book. I’ve enjoyed working with this wonderful school and being able to grow as much as I have in these three months.”

Eppleman calls her teaching desire a “passion for learning” and is not threatened by the expected teacher cuts due to the poor economy.

“Some people are shaking in their boots but I feel that if you don’t love what you do, then it’s not worth living for,” she said. “I’ve engraved this in myself. I’ll take the high road and have faith and devotion in my profession to succeed.”

Beach teacher Cathy Trent, Eppleman’s supervisor, has been impressed with her intern.

“Courtney is a natural,” said Trent. “She was born to teach. She doesn’t miss a beat. She not only has wonderful ideas that she implements in the classroom, but she gives me a chance to learn from her. That’s the wonderful thing about having interns in the school. We get to learn the new things that are coming down the pike.”

Nic Williams, a 23-year-old intern from Duluth, Minn., has called his time with supervising teacher Joy Rockwell and everyone at Beach Elementary a privilege.

“It’s been extra wonderful to come to this small school in a really nice community,” he said. “Joy has been absolutely wonderful to work with. I’ve learned so many things from her.

Williams, a male elementary teacher in a predominantly female profession, had to gain respect with the youngsters before anything.

“The kids have been wonderful and very open,” he said. “Sometimes they put up a front because someone new is coming into their classroom. You have to earn their respect.”

Rockwell commended Williams on his overall job with the students and admitted she is learning from him as well.

“He does everything really well,” she said. “I basically turned everything over to him because he was doing such a great job. We discuss a lot of things like what can we do to make things better. It makes you rethink..”

Dodge thinks the two interns are ready for their own classrooms. Beach Elementary School principal Larry Wood hopes the internship program is the start of a long-term relationship with FGCU.

“We’re looking at next fall again,” said Wood.