The Education Internship prepares high school students making the decision to go into education. Around five years ago, the program was brought to Rock Island High School. The students participating in this internship find it not only useful for the future, but find it fun, looking from the perspective of an educator. Even if you don’t know what you want to do in the future, trying out the education internship has opened doors for many students. Interns go to classrooms for one or two class periods in their schedule; if you are going to an elementary or jr. high school, you would take either the first or last two periods of your day to go to the school you’re assigned to. If you’re placed at the high school, you get the choice to do one or two periods due to the fact that your next class would be in the same building, outside of the internship. This gives interns a time frame for balancing the internship and regular classes, with enough time to observe, help, and learn from the experience overall.
The internship has grown significantly over the years. It first started with around fifteen students, and currently in the 2025-26 internship, there are roughly forty-five students. Although there are aspiring teachers in Rock Island High School, the hard truth comes when some students believe the internship is just a fun way to get out of regular classes. It turns out there is just as much work to do as there is in an elective at the high school. “The work is pretty different from other classes. Every sixth period, we meet in a room to get our weekly assignment and discuss our topic and goal for the week, of which our co-operating teachers need to sign at the end of the week to be a valid and completed assignment,” Intern Avery Hanson (She/Her) says. “I’ve had friends in the internship last year who told me there was work to be done every day. Now that I’m doing it, I think the assignments are actually beneficial for becoming a future teacher.”
The challenges of becoming an educator are hard to get over, especially when you’re new to the experience overall. Avery Hanson is currently in her first year of being an intern, which can take some getting used to when overcoming challenges that may seem small, when in reality, they’re some of the biggest challenges when going into education. “My biggest challenge is learning how to confront behavioral issues in my class. My placement is in second grade, so when they are being too loud or doing something they’re not supposed to, I feel it is hard to discipline them because I feel like they won’t like me as their student teacher anymore,” Hanson said. “Another challenge I have in my placement is learning how to properly communicate in my classroom. With the short amount of time I am there for, plus the large amount of work they have to do throughout the day, it’s like there is a barrier between me and my students due to the little amount of time I have with them to talk about their personal interests or likes.” In the education internship, you constantly talk about what has improved and what needs to be changed to set goals and milestones for their future.
Rock Island High School social studies teacher and co-coorinator, Mike Mertel(He/Him), has been leading this program since it started in around 2019. The reason for the program starting in the first place was because of Mike’s own personal experience. “I participated in a similar program at my own high school, and I’ve been wanting to provide the same one for Rocky students,” Mertel said. “I had been pushing for this program to come to Rocky for awhile before the district agreed.” Mike said. Now that the program is planning to stay at Rock Island High School, Mike looks forward to the future to see how the internship progresses over time and what opportunities it will bring to aspiring educators.
