Teaching internship expectations and professional development goals

Personal Education Platform the Internship

The key components of a successful internship experience include the following: that you learn necessary skills to help your future career, that you meet people who will be able to help you both in the present and in your future career, that you gain experience which you can use later on in life, and that you have the ability and opportunity to ask whatever questions are necessary to help you understand the job, the environment, and your role within the field. The only way to truly gain something from an internship is to feel that you are contributing by being there and also that you are learning from the experience. If you only show up and do the assigned tasks without really investing yourself then it will be unlikely others will invest in you and you will leave the internship without having learned very much.

Personal Education Platform: Views on Education

The three primary goals for education for students in my school district are to teach students to be lifelong learners, that the students are able to problem solve and to think critically, and to provide the basic tools which will allow students to progress in their education through higher education and into their adult lives. In order to ensure that these goals are met, students must be nurtured and properly supervised. Supervision does not just mean that you watch your students, but that you ensure that they are on task, that they are accomplishing their tasks, and that they feel safe and secure in the environment in which they are working. Supervising children is very different from watching over adult workers who just require someone to look over their finished project and provide motivation. Supervision of children requires more attention, more involvement, and more impetus on the part of the teacher.

Personal Education Platform: The Mentorship

It is my hope that my professional mentor will help prepare me for what it takes to be a really good, innovative, effective, and creative teacher. Going into the program, every person has a dream of being an incredible teacher, of being able to educate and inspire. However, few really understand all that is involved in learning how to teach. My mentor will be able to answer my questions and to show me what it is like to be a classroom teacher. I hope my mentor will give me tools but also provide feedback for my own ideas which will then encourage me to utilize even more of myself in my lesson planning.

Personal Education Platform: My Vision for the Internship

I see an internship where I get first-hand experience in the classroom. During my internship I will get time with students and with teachers, as well as members of school administration. My vision for my internship is a cohesive relationship between myself and my cooperating teacher.

Personal Education Platform: Disposition: Area of Strength

Of all the criteria in the chart, I believe lifelong learning is the area of my greatest strength. Throughout my life I have been dedicated to learning and teaching others. Every day there are opportunities to learn and I try to take advantage of as many opportunities as possible. It is my dedication to learning that I hope to spread to others by becoming an educator.

Personal Education Platform: Disposition: Area of Improvement

Of the criteria listed, I believe the area where I could use the most improvement is in excellence. While I have always strived to perform my best and get good grades, I have sometimes failed to realize that straight A's do not necessarily equate with personal excellence. A child with a learning disability can work harder to get C's than others work to get A's. I hope to look at each student and determine excellence in comparison with original work.

Personal Education Platform: Culture

School culture is the same as any type of culture. When a group of people come together in an environment, they create a common culture, ideas and artifacts and dialogue which are unique to that population. As an intern, I will become part of that culture and also I will be able to influence that culture in a positive way.

Personal Education Platform: Your Role

During the internship, I hope to be viewed as a dedicated person who is looking to become a great educator. I wish for students to see me as a caring and warm individual who they can depend on. I wish that colleagues would see me as willing to learn and as an individual who will make a great teacher.

Personal Education Platform: Change

If you are unwilling to see room for improvement, then you will not be able to improve. To be a great intern and then a great teacher, you must embrace change. The field of education is itself ever-changing. There are always new techniques, new technologies, and new methods which can be tried and implemented. You have to be willing to accept that change or you will not be successful.

Part 2: Summary

The importance of education in a person's life cannot be overestimated. In the United States of America and throughout the world people have been encouraged to educate themselves to the highest degree that is possible. Education will be the one thing that a person can control which will determine his or her eventual success in their future lives. Education is what allows any person, no matter how modest their birth, to rise up and become anything that they wish. By reading the historical perspective of some of the world's greatest thinkers, modern people can come to understand how important education and schooling has been and how important it will continue to be.

The job of a teacher is to educate, no matter neither what type student they have nor what type of conflicts exist in trying to teach their students. Teachers and other education professionals are tasked with taking care of their students, of providing them with the tools to cultivate their minds. Without educators, young boys and girls would have to find some other way learn which would be quite impossible. As much as doctors or nurses, they are life givers and life savers. Every day, teachers have to go to work knowing that they will witness some sort of difficulty, either because of their students is distressed or because of another conflict of some kind. Yet, the teacher must be both compassionate and competent. The teacher must understand the frustrations of their students and not give way to upset of their own when students lash out them. It is both the most rewarding and most challenging job in the world. This is echoed by Plato who wrote that a teacher should take on a personal relationship with students and thus feel a personal stake in whether or not the student is successful in his or her future endeavors. Just like a parent, the influence of the teacher will have a marked result in the success or failure of the student. The teacher must not think themselves having the same kind of service as a business person or a salesperson. People who take upon this occupation must do with the strict understanding that they are influencing future generations and only those with the intention of influencing positively should take up the role.

My philosophy of education is that everyone should endeavor to become as educated as possible. It is the responsibility of each student to become as knowledgeable as they are capable. Teachers should do everything in their power to instill in their pupils the importance of education and to make them understand that by getting an education, they are not only fulfilling their role as a child, but are creating for themselves a far better future than they could hope for if they were not educated.