Project 3: Administrative Internship
"Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Overview
During the 2012-2013 academic school year I worked as an intern to the superintendent of schools and acting principal for Para Los Niños Charter Schools. As part of my internship I was assigned several projects to work on such as the Leadership project I described earlier as well as the professional development on the Common Core. I spent the remaining time participating in all the meetings and activities that he engaged in throughout his day.
Main Activities
- Conduct informal and formal classroom observations
- Participate in agency-wide leadership meetings
- Attend executive team meetings
- Engage in weekly professional development for teachers
- Tour neighboring charter schools
- Meet with parents to address student concerns
- Interact with community partners such as Reading Partners
- Attend the Critical Thinking Institute at the UCLA Lab School with the PLN teachers
- Socialize with community educators at functions such as the breakfast to welcome the new local LAUSD superintendent
- Dialogue about pedagogy, school policies, and leadership roles.
Reflection
My experience as an administrative intern was by far one of the most rewarding and informative experiences in my professional career as an educator. The superintendent that I worked for was extremely open, supportive, respectful and trusting. He invited me to a variety of meetings with him ranging from executive team meetings to informal meetings with disgruntled parents. I was exposed to school leadership on different levels. I saw how he interacted with colleagues, board members, parents, superiors, teachers, staff and community partners. He provided me with a choice regarding the projects that I worked on, which allowed me to commit my time and energy on a project that I was passionate about. Under his guidance, I observed classrooms both informally and formally and participated in several agency events. Although I was not an employee of the agency, he and his school embraced my presence at the weekly professional development sessions. It was a challenge at first to take on a leadership role at a school where I did not work and did not know anyone. However, half way through the internship I felt that the teachers and staff were responsive and that I had an opportunity to be of service to the school in addition to learning from everyone.
This opportunity to serve as an intern to both a superintendent and a principal significantly prepared me to take on a formal leadership role at a new school site. I think that principal or school leader apprenticeships should be part of the training model for new school leaders.
Connection to CPSEL
My role as the intern to the superintendent of schools afforded me the opportunity to develop skills that address standards 3, 5 and 6 of the California Professional Standards for Educational Leaders.
Standard 3: Advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning and staff professional growth.
Standard 5: Modeling a personal code of ethics and developing professional leadership capacity.
Standard 6: Understanding, responding to, and influencing the larger political, social, economic, legal, and cultural context.
Supporting Documents
Weekly Executive Team Meeting Agenda
Monthly Leadership Team Meeting Agenda
