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=This wikispace is presented by Tracy Elsen in fulfillment of the requirements of= =SEED 394 Internship in Secondary Education= The Internship Field Experience is the second of three required field experiences for certification in The School of Education at The University of South Dakota. The Internship is designed to give students a more extensive and participatory experience than the Paraprofessional Field Experience, and students who complete the Internship will be better prepared to enter the Student Teacher Field Experience. In keeping with the School of Education’s theme of //Reflective Decision Making + Leadership//, the Internship is designed to allow students the opportunity to examine their interactions in the school setting and to evaluate the role they play in student learning. According to Donald Graves (2001), “Awareness that grows out of the specifics of your own situation produces energy. For this reason, you need to know the details of your own experience in order to make some judgments about how to set a personal and professional direction for your life.” The activities required during the Internship Field Experience and the associated written assignments will give you the chance to reflect upon your progress toward becoming a teacher. Perhaps more importantly, you will have the opportunity to reassess and, hopefully, reaffirm your commitment to teaching as a career path.

Graves, D. (2001). //The Energy to Teach.// Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann

|| =Check List - Next Steps=
 * Tracy Elsen's Spring 2009 SEED 394 Internship Placement**
 * School: || Irene HS/MS ||
 * Field-based supervisor: || Jerica Westra ||
 * Content area: || Math ||
 * FBS e-mail address: ||  Jerica.Westra@k12.sd.us
 * FBS phone: || 605-661-3597 ||
 * USD supervisor || Kevin J. Reins, Phone: 605-677-5831, e-mail: kreins@usd.edu ||

Next steps: Please check off the following items by replacing the "o" with an “X” in the left hand column of the table once you have completed the task.
 * x || Upon receiving this information, respond immediately via e-mail to Dr. Kevin Reins indicating that you have received your placement information and that you have no major conflict with the placement. ||
 * x || Contact your field-based supervisor within 48 hours of receiving your placement information either by phone or e-mail. ||
 * x || During this first e-mail or phone call to your field based supervisor, ask to set up the first meeting (at your FBS’s convenience) for you to visit the classroom. ||
 * x || Upon arriving at the school, go directly to the main office, introduce yourself, the reason for your attendance, (make a great impression from the beginning) and ask to be directed to your FBS’s classroom. ||
 * x || During the first visit to the classroom, notify your FBS of the URL to your wikispace and let her/him know that you will be documenting the __requirements__ of the experience in this space. Discuss the requirements. ||
 * x || Deliver the FBS’s packet with the evaluation forms and return envelope to your field based supervisor during the first meeting. ||
 * x || Also during the first meeting, exchange phone numbers in case of emergency (edit your wikispace and put your FBS’s prefered phone number in the informatin table above), confirm your visitation times, and discuss what you will be doing in the class over the course of the 45 required hours in the classroom. ||
 * x || When convenient, introduce yourself to the principal and other faculty throughout your stay at the school. Be kind, courteous and show appreciation for the opportunity to be visiting and working with the students and faculty at the school. Always try to leave a great impression on people. ||
 * x || Within the first two visits, ask for a copy of the school handbook or ask to borrow a handbook for the semester. ||
 * x || Report to Dr. Kevin Reins via e-mail after you have completed your initial visit. Briefly describe the visit and ask any questions or state any concerns you have at this time and through the semester. ||
 * x || IF YOU MISS A SCHEDULED TIME – REPORT IT TO DR. REINS IMMEDIATELY. ALWAYS KEEP HIM INFORMED. RECORD THE DATES THAT YOU MISSED HERE. ||

= =

My goals for the internship:
Write three goals for your internship experience. (1) To gain more confidence while teaching a large class (2) To gain more experience with different teaching styles (3) To gain a better understanding of classroom management

Post-experience reflection on my goals.
I am very happy with what I have accomplished throughout my internship. For my first goal, after teaching my two lessons, I sat down with Miss Westra and we talked about how my teaching went for the two classes. After discussing with her, I know that my confidence in my ability to teach has sky-rocketed. Miss Westra gave me great constructive criticism and I am very grateful for it. Next, I did not gain as much insight for my second goal as I had hoped, because Miss Westra’s teaching style is a lot like my Paraprofessional field based supervisor’s style. However, I did get to observe how, despite not having a lot of technology; Miss Westra uses what she is given to make Math interesting for her classes. Finally, I have such a better understanding of classroom management now than I did before. Miss Westra showed me that even the arrangement of desks can make a difference in how students learn.

A. 45 hours of field-based classroom participation
Introduction meeting with my field base supervisor, Miss Westra. We discussed when we would like to set up future meetings and what I needed to accomplish in the duration of my internship. Miss Westra invited me to stay and observe for the rest of the afternoon. This was nice because I got to meet the afternoon classes. Irene High School held a teacher in-service in the afternoon, so I was only able to observe in the morning class periods. I really enjoyed this because I had already met the afternoon classes, and now I was able to meet the morning students without having to worry about the names of the students in the afternoon classes. Also, one of the students in 9th grade Geometry had missed class the day before and did not understand the material, so I took her to a table in the back of the room and worked with her on understanding the main concepts. This was my first full day in Irene High School. I observed all of Miss Westra’s classes and learned a lot about her teaching style. Also, Miss Westra went to a Math Conference a few weeks before, that I was also at, and she used one of the math games with her 9th grade Geometry class. Since Miss Westra does not have a lot of technology use in her classroom, I got to help her when she used dry-erase boards with the classes. I also helped Miss Westra correct papers and test for all of her classes. On this day I got to observe how Miss Westra uses some technology in her classroom. Her 8th grade Algebra I students were playing a quiz game from a T.V. program that was designed on her textbook. Miss Westra divided the students up into teams, and then once the question was asked, she would pause to video so that the students could figure out their own answers and then they had the choice of A, B, C, or D. This was a great way to get the students active in the classroom. I really enjoyed observing this day. Miss Westra was teaching very hard concepts in all of her classes, and to help them have fun with it, they got to play a game. Miss Westra had them play 7-Up, but the way you got to be the “it” person was to not only have your thumb pressed, but to also solve a problem on the board. She did this with all of her classes that day, and they really seemed to enjoy it. Some of the students in Miss Westra’s Algebra I and Algebra II classes seem to have trouble when it comes to actually starting their homework assignments. So in both of those classes, after Miss Westra finished teaching the lesson, I took two or three students to the back table where we worked together on starting their assignment. Also, on this day, I found out that Miss Westra is very good at handling a student when he or she gets very disrespectful. This was the day that I got to teach two classes. I taught the 10th grade Geometry class about solid figures using playdough to visualize it, and then I taught the 9th grade Geometry class about lines that are tangent to a circle. I was very impressed with some of the students and I had a blast actually teaching. This was my final day in Irene. It was also St. Patricks Day! I will never stop being amazed at some of the outfits students will wear to school. I hadn’t gotten around to conducting my teacher interview until today, so during Miss Westra’s prep period, I conducted my interview. It was very comforting to find out that most mathematics textbooks are designed match the state and national standards.
 * **Date** || **Hours** || **Description of my activities/participation in the classroom....** ||
 * 1/30/09 || 4 hrs. ||  ||
 * 2/13/09 || 4 hrs ||  ||
 * 2/20/09 || 6.5 hrs ||  ||
 * 2/26/09 || 4 hrs ||  ||
 * 2/27/09 || 6.5 hrs ||  ||
 * 3/3/09 || 4 hrs ||  ||
 * 3/5/09 || 4 hrs. ||  ||
 * 3/6/09 || 6.5 hrs ||  ||
 * 3/17/09 || 8 hrs ||  ||

B. Work with a group of students
The group of students that I worked with consisted of students that are a little bit slow when it comes to starting their assignments. Thus, their task was to start their homework. I took these students to the back table in the room, and talked through the first few problems with them. I think this helped these students because since they actually started their assignments when they were still in the classroom, instead of waiting until they got home, I was able to answer their questions so that they understood the concepts better than before.

C. Work with students individually
The individual that I worked with was a ninth grade girl in my Geometry class. This young lady had missed class earlier in the week so Miss Westra asked if I would help her understand the section that she missed. The student's task was to complete the assignment from the class that she missed. To accomplish this task, I went through the lesson that she missed with her, hitting the vocabulary hard. Then we did the first problem from each different section of the homework together just to make sure that she understood how to complete her assignment correctly. My interaction with this student caused her to be able to understand the concepts from the lesson she missed and complete her homework. To asses my impact on her learning, after we went through the first problems together, I had her do the second problems by herself, but then I checked them and she had them all correct.

D. Participate in redesign of a lesson with technology
For my lesson with technology, I decided to create a powerpoint out of the lesson in the textbook. Since I have a Gateway Notebook, I was able to sync my computer to the projector and do the whole lesson on my computer screen. It was a very unique experience, as I rarely use the notebook funtion of my computer.

E. Classroom teaching two lessons with lesson plans and documented impact on student learning

 * Lesson #1 9th Grade Geometry - Tangents**


 * Lesson #2 10th Grade Geometry- Solid Figures**

F. Design an assessment tool for evaluation of one of the lessons taught
Objectives: 1. Identify solid figures

G. Share two duties with field-based supervisor
One of the two duties that I shared with my Field-Based Supervisor was to help her correct the quizzes that she had given to her class the previous day. I also helped her collect and hand out materials during her 10th grade Algebra I class. Throughout these two experiences I learned that collaborating with a colleague can be very time saving, especially when it comes to correcting papers!

H. Attend an extra-curricular activity with students
For my extra-curricular activity, I attended a high school band contest that a lot of the students I taught were participating in. I learned that students really appreciate it when teacher take time out of their day to come support them, especially at a band contest! I think the students reaction to me showing up at their band contest had a great impact on me. Students, even the ones that may not be the most pleasant in the classroom, can be very pleasant to be around and fun to talk with outside of the classroom.

I. Attend a school board meeting
I attended the February 11, 2009 Irene-Wakonda School Board meeting. I learned that the policy and procedures of a high school are very complicated. Especially with the economy in a recession it seems like there are a lot of things that need to be changed or dropped completely.

J. Reflective interview of field-based supervisor around teaching standards
//What do you think of everything you teach needing to meet certain standards? // There is a lot of pressure to meet the standards. Especially in mathematics, there are so many different subjects like Algebra, Geometry, Problem Solving, Probability, Statistics…ect, that it puts a lot of pressure on a teacher to meet all of them. //How do you incorporate standards into your teaching?// It is easy to incorporate standards into teaching because the textbooks that I use match the state and national standards. //Does having to meet standards impact you teaching? // Since the textbooks I use match the standards, the main way standards impact my teaching is that not the subjects are not always in the order that they need to be in. So, sometimes I will not go in the order of the chapters in the book. Thus, some of the material does not get covered.// Do you place more emphasis on certain standards? // I would say that I place more emphasis on the algebra standards, just because I teach more algebra than any other subject. I think that my field-based supervisor has a good attitude towards teaching standards. I think that teaching standards do not necessarily have as great of an impact on instruction in mathematics as they would in certain other subjects, just because most mathematics books are created around standards and we do not have as many options as a literature teacher would have. As of right now, I tend to incorporate standards into my teaching the same way my field based supervisor does, by teaching out of a good textbook that goes along with the standards from the state I am teaching in.

=
I think that Miss Westra has a good attitude towards teaching standards. She implements them into her classroom even if they are not in the order that she perhaps would prefer them to be in. From my own perspective, I think that standards are important for guidelines as to what we are supposed to be teaching. When I am teaching, I think that I will incorporate standards in the same way that Miss Westra has done, by using the textbook!======

= = =Items that I have included that might be helpful for accomplishing the requirements of the internship=
 * Suggested Routines for Participating in the classroom**

1. Make a seating chart. 2. Take attendance. 3. Run errands for the classroom teacher. 4. Help with classroom housekeeping. 5. Organize materials needed for a lesson. 6. Make copies of materials needed for the lesson. 7. Help pass out materials to the students. 8. Arrange a bulletin board. 9. Check out books from the library to be used by students in the classroom. 10. Check out media to be used in a lesson. 11. Make a chart or graph. 12. Make a transparency or stencil. 13. Run a film, filmstrip, videotape, etc. 14. Get supplementary materials needed for a lesson (e.g., magazine illustrations, pamphlets, maps, etc.). 15. Develop a bibliography for an upcoming unit. 16. Correct papers. 17. Set up or help set up a lab. 18. Write news/assignments on the chalkboard. 19. Set up a learning center. 20. Set up an experiment or a demonstration. 21. Obtain a speaker to come to class, or help organize a class field trip. 22. Help gather materials for a class party. 23. Help make costumes for a class play. 24. Send out a class newsletter to parents. 25. Help individual students with seatwork. 26. Assist a small group. 27. Assist students with library research. 28. Monitor a test. 29. Hand out and collect materials. 30. Listen to an individual student read or recite a lesson. 31. Give a test or a quiz. 32. Read aloud or tell a story. 33. Help students in a learning center. 34. Accompany students to school office, bus, playground, after-school programs. 35. Help monitor the hallway, lunchroom, or playground.

1. What did the students learn from your lesson? How do you know they learned from your lesson? (Attach assessment tools from the lesson.) 2. What did you think about or consider when planning the lesson? (Be specific.) 3. What do you think was the most effective part of the lesson? Why? 4. How closely did you follow your lesson plan? If you deviated from the lesson plan, what decisions did you make during the lesson and why? 5. Were the activities/materials/visuals/aids appropriate? Why? Why not? 6. What part or parts of your plan would you consider changing before teaching this lesson again? 7. What do you see as your teaching strengths? 8. Identify a goal you would like to have your field-based supervisor assist you in achieving.
 * Analysis of Instructional Planning and Impact on Learning**


 * Checklist of Interview Techniques for Teaching Standards**

1. Before the Interview a. Establish the purpose for the interview. b. Request an appointment (time and place), giving sufficient time for the interview. c. Plan specific questions related to the purpose of the interview. d. Prioritize questions, asking the most important first.

2. During the Interview a. Be on time for the interview. b. Start the interview by restating the purpose of the interview. c. Take careful, objective notes-- try to list direct quotes as often as possible. d. Avoid inserting your own impressions or judgments. e. Limit the interview to no more than 15-30 minutes.

3. After the Interview a. Review with the respondent what has been said or heard. b. Express your appreciation for the interview. c. Offer to share the interview report with the interviewee.


 * School of Education Standards for Initial Preparation of Teachers**


 * 1. Understands Content:** The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and the structures of his/her discipline. The teacher demonstrates the content, pedagogical, and professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to help all students learn meaningful subject matter.


 * 2. Understands Development:** The teacher understands how children learn and develop and can provide opportunities leading to active learning that support their intellectual, social, personal, and physical development.


 * 3. Understands Difference:** The teacher understands how students differ in their approaches to learning and creates instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners.


 * 4. Designs Instructional Strategies:** The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage students’ development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills while incorporating state and national standards.


 * 5. Manages and Motivates:** The teacher uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to establish a safe, orderly, and equitable learning environment that fosters positive social interaction, active engagement in learning and self-motivation.


 * 6. Communicates:** The teacher uses knowledge of effective verbal ,nonverbal, and media communication techniques with students and their constituents within and beyond the classroom. The teacher fosters active inquiry and engagement in lifelong learning to prepare students for workforce readiness.


 * 7. Plans for Instruction:** The teacher plans instruction based upon knowledge of students, subject matter, technology, curriculum goals, and the community.


 * 8. Evaluates:** The teacher understands, creates, selects, and uses formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and ensure the continuous intellectual, social, and physical development of the learner.


 * 9. Reflects on Practice:** The teacher is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the effects of his/her instructional choices and action on others (students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community) and who actively seeks out opportunities to grow professionally.


 * 10. Participates in the Professional Community and Seeks Professional Growth:** The teacher fosters relationships with school colleagues, parents, and agencies in the larger community to support students’ learning and well being, reflects on their professional behaviors, and actively seeks opportunities for professional growth and development.

1 **1. Integrates Technology to Enhance Learning:** The teacher uses current technologies, software, and telecommunications networks to plan, design, deliver, and evaluate learning experiences to enhance learning. The teacher employs the ethical use of technology and uses it to further his/her professional productivity.


 * 12. Understands Evolution of Public Education and Its Legal and Ethical Responsibilities:** The teacher understands the foundations of public education, technological and societal changes in the schools, and upholds the legal and ethical responsibilities of the teaching profession.

=How your wikispace will be graded=

 Name: _ Completing the Internship Application Form (3 points) _ Writing goals for internship (3 points) _ Post-experience reflection on goals (5 points) _ Log of: A. 45 hours of field-based classroom participation (10 points) _ Reflection on: B. Work with groups of students (5 points) _ Reflection on: C. Work with students individually (5 points) _ Artifacts for: D. Participate in redesign of lesson with technology (10 points) _ Artifacts for: E. Classroom teaching two lessons with lesson plans and documented impact on learning (40 points) _ Artifacts for: F. Design an assessment tool for evaluation of one of the lessons taught (10 points) _ Reflection on: G. Share two duties with field-based supervisor (2 points) _ Reflection on: H. Attend an extra-curricular activity with students (2 points) _ Reflection on: I. Attend a school board meeting (2 points) _ Transcript and Reflection on: J. Reflective interview of field-based supervisor around teaching standards (5 points) _ Documentation form for field experience (3 point) _ Maintaining wikispace (6 points) _ Performance on Knowledge and Skills from Evaluative Comments (21 points) _ Performance on Professional Dispositions (18 points)
 * Wikispace Grade – SEED 394 Grade**

Total points possible: 150 points