The first thing I did when I arrived at my internship was clearly state what I wanted to be doing. I wanted to tutor kids when possible, and be a versatile tool when it came to running the classroom. So far, my expectations have been met, and surpassed. My mentor actively uses me to take care of tasks that, while important, tend to take a lot of time and take away from the time she has to spend with her students.
When I run out of things to do, I search around for things that can be improved or that look incomplete. If I see a stack a projects yet to be posted on the wall, I take initiative and ask my mentor if those need to be put up. Many times she has said "Yes, but I haven't gotten around to it". That's my cue to start doing that job. Also, if I want to do something such as give a spelling test, I ask if that would be possible. My mentor loves it when I ask and take initiative, so most of the time she'll gladly give me what I ask for.
My mentor is a very messy person. She has always been like that, even since I was in her class 6 years ago. I've taken steps to help her get organized, such as cleaning up her desk, organizing papers, and filing away things in the appropriate folders. I'm now considering creating an organizational system for her as my internship project.
If I were to branch off into other classrooms and other parts of the school, not just my mentor's classroom, I'm sure I could find even more things and experiences for myself. If I just broaden my gaze, I could easily find someone in need of some assistance.
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