Introductory Letter

You will create an introductory letter to send to the parents/families in your internship class. You will introduce yourself and tell a little about your background and experiences and why you are working in the classroom with their children. You may include a digital photograph if you wish. Your teacher must approve the letter prior to copying & sending it home to parents. You also will turn in a copy to me by February 10.

Internship Participation Plan

The internship is an exciting and perhaps anxious time for you. It is an opportunity to work closely with students in a K-6 classroom. The internship provides an opportunity for you to learn from an experienced classroom teacher. It is not student teaching but an opportunity to learn more about teaching roles and to begin practicing some of those roles without having the full responsibility of a teacher. Your cooperating teacher will guide and support you throughout this experience. I also will visit you regularly.

You and your cooperating teacher will plan specific ways that you will participate in the classroom to learn more about teaching and learning. Your activities might vary from week to week, but should fit within an overall plan that enables you to engage in a variety of experiences. You and your teacher should arrange a time to discuss options and develop a specific plan that fits the curriculum in the teacher?s classroom and helps you extend your own learning. Please provide me with a copy of the plan by February 10. Please include the following components as you develop your plan:

• I would like for you to plan for ways to participate in the classroom. In the beginning you may observe your teacher teaching. To get more out of the observations, identify a particular focus for each observation. Think about ways to learn more about your students as you observe as well as learning about teaching from your teacher. At the end of this handout is a list of suggestions for participating in a classroom, however, you and your teacher may also think of additional options that suit the classroom setting you are working within. In your plan you should identify the particular activities you plan to do and a timeline for doing them?not the exact day but the general time of your internship.

• By the time you finish the semester, you should have had opportunities to work with individual students, small groups, and the whole class. When you are going out once a week you may spend more time working with individual students. When you are there during full-time you will be teaching many lessons to small groups and perhaps the whole class. Talk to your cooperating teacher about ways to work with individual students, small groups, and the whole class.

Suggested Ideas for Classroom/School Participation

• Have students read aloud,practice a skill

• Look for ways to help in the classroom and take initiative as needed

• Walk students to and from places (e.g., lunch, library, PE)

• Talk to different school staff personnel (e.g., counselors, computer lab, resource teachers)

• Attend staff meetings

• Try using specific strategies, activities, and materials for teaching lessons described in courses or suggested by your teacher and write about how you think the activity went, what you think students learned, and what you would do differently or the same if you used the same activity again.

• Join a small group discussion. Develop a way to record your impressions about which students participated and what kinds of support they might need for all students to participate successfully in the group. Reflect on how helpful your recording device is for keeping track of various dimensions of student participation.

• Read and discuss children?s literature related to topics or themes being studied in the classroom with individuals or a small group. Make note of how the children respond to the book, what the content of the book gets them talking and thinking about, and how you might use this book with children of a similar or different age in the future. Think about the reading levels, is it on the student's instructional, frustrational, or independent level?

• Make and display a bulletin board about something the students are studying. Observe and keep notes on how students respond to the bulletin board, the kinds of conversations it generates, and how it seems to help them think about the topic.

• Talk to the librarian about book sets or other materials you could bring into the classroom that connect with what the children are studying. Plan with your teacher ways in which these books/materials can become part of the curriculum and how you will be involved in introducing them, working with students, and so on. Do an internet search and find appropriate student friendly web sites to use.

• Grade/respond to a set of students? papers. Keep track of patterns you see in student responses, ideas, areas needing work, etc. Make note of questions you have about assessment.

• Make arrangements to accompany your students to recess on the playground or another school experience (art class, music, computer lab). Observe and keep notes about similarities and contrasts in student behaviors and attitudes in the classroom and other settings. Reflect on how this information might help you think about planning.

• Participate in an ongoing routine. Reflect about ways in which your participation and your students? participation change across time.

• Eat lunch with your students. You will gain insights about them from seeing them in a different context.

• Be sure to take photographs of your work with students as well as bulletin boards or other examples of your work. You may want to leave a disposable camera at school for unexpected opportunities. You can use the photographs in your professional portfolio.