Reflections of my first week

I remember being so nervous. I had no idea what I was going to be doing, if I would feel like a glorified clerical person or really feel like an administrator. Well, I won't keep you waiting any longer. I absolutely, positively, felt like one of the team!!! It was so exciting to be treated like an associate principal. I know that probably sounds funny, but really I haven't finished my course work and I haven't worked in a high school as a teacher since my student teaching days. It was wonderful!!!!

So, what was wonderful about it? Well, when I started in early July it was about half way through the summer school season. Every morning we did "rounds." We walked around to every classroom and even to the PE classes outside. Let me tell you, this summer was rough for the PE kids (and teachers). It was stinking hot. Ok, anyway, so back to that first week. I discovered that all remedial summer school classes are online. Interestingly good and bad. Good for teachers in that there is less stress about developing lesson plans and assessments. Bad if you're a special needs student and you have to read pages and pages of information and take notes on something you clearly didn't master during the school year. There were more than 200 kids taking classes as well as 200 or so taking the summer PE course.

By the end of the first week I had dealt with dress code violations, cell phone policy violations, checking students out of summer school (meaning they finished early!), talked with seniors about graduation, looked at data (not so exciting, but interesting to some degree) and helped solidify the mentoring program! Woo Hoo! Not too bad for someone who was REALLY nervous the night before getting started.

Oh, yeah, before I forget, I worked with only 2 of the 5 associate principals during my first week because 2 were on vacation and 1 recently resigned. The posting for the vacant associate principal position closed the day I started (interesting, but that's for another time).

I hope to post again tomorrow about the second week :) Hope you all are having as great an experience as I did. If you're not interning, I hope you're having a great summer!

First Impressions

Starting an internship is sort of like starting a new job. I was incredibly nervous, didn't know what to wear and wondered what on earth would I really be doing. I am interning at a high school in a district I do not teach in (I was more than a little nervous about that). But, I'm excited to say, it has started off VERY well. I am working with two APs who are professional, positive and sensible.

Besides learning so many new names and faces, my first tasks revolved around summer school. As you can guess, its been interesting. Luckily, all has gone well. Students are working to complete their assignments and are anxious to be finished. Teacher are busy grading and working with students who still aren't quite "getting it."

The coolest thing I've learned so far is that the APs I work with, practice so many of the effective leadership skills I've been reading about (and sometimes complaining about) for the last year! They are out in the halls, they are visible in the cafeteria, hallways and classrooms. Kids already know my name and I'm just an intern. When there is an issue to be addressed, they address it (or let me, woo hoo).

I hope everyone in the cohort is having a great beginning experience. I'm sure some of you are nearly done. I'm curious how many of the breadth activities folks have completed so far. Me? Well, let's just say my first two days were crazy busy and overwhelming. I'm planning to get to the breadth activities next week.