Pre-Internship I Field Experience Journal

EDUC 3313, Clinical Teaching/Pre-Internship I, K. Carey

Each teacher candidate in the NSU Teacher Education Program will begin a field experience journal in the Pre-Internship I, continue it in the Pre II internship and through the completion of the Final Internship experience. A journal provides an opportunity to record, process and reflect on your experiences, ideas, practices and goals as you grow and change through each of your clinical education internships. By allowing you to learn through observation of the good practices and shared expertise of an experienced educator, your clinical education field experiences contribute invaluable to your professional growth. Your journal should be a non-threatening place where you consider what you have learned about education, educators, and students. You should be able to use it as a vehicle to sort through your feelings and experiences, draw connections between and across theories and express your surprise, delight, disbelief and other responses. Your journal could be “a repository for wonderings and wanderings, speculations and questionings – a place for exploring thoughts, discovering reactions and general mental ramblings” (Farris & Fuhler, 1996).

Guidelines

1. Write a journal entry for each of the 8 Pre-I Internship visits. Label each entry with the corresponding date and visit number (i.e. March 12, 2004, # 3).

2. Your entries should respond to one of the prompts provided for each visit. You also may write additional information.

3. The entries should be a candid account of your professional experiences and growth; however, they are not intended as personal confessionals. You should not expect your journal to be filled with dramatic revelations, or transformational insights.

4. As you record stories and events that make references to students, or teachers – other than your Clinical Faculty – avoid using actual names or other identifying information. It is important to maintain confidentiality.

5. Set aside time for journaling within 24 hours of each internship visit. Do not make this a meaningless chore by trying to write several entries at once.

6. This journal will be continued in your Pre-II and Final Internship experiences. Choose a sturdy, durable, journal book, or record it digitally. Keep it in a safe, secure place!

7. Journal entries may also be read by teacher education faculty or other authorized professional educators.

8. This journal will be graded by your EDUC 3313 instructor. Grading criterion is as follows: Fail = less than 8 Pre-I Internship days reflected in entries and/or no journal prompts used; Pass = 8 days recorded with minimal reflection responses to journal prompts; High Pass = 8 days recorded with significant reflection responses to the prompts.

Prompts for Pre-Internship I Field Experience Journal Entries

Your entries are expected to respond to at least one of the prompts provided for each visit – you do not have to respond to all the prompts for each week. You also may write additional information. Except for week 8, you do not have to use the weeks in the order presented.

Week 1: Begin your first entry with the name and location of the school, the clinical faculty member, the subject and grade level of your internship. Is it in a small/medium/large school; in a rural, suburban or urban area? What were your first impressions during your first internship visit? What surprised you? What helped you feel comfortable or uncomfortable? How did it feel to be in a P-12 setting again? What are your goals, expectations or hopes, for your Pre-I experience?

Week 2: Describe your day & compare it to the first visit. What patterns did you notice between the first and second visit? Who appeared to do more talking, the clinical faculty member or the students? What philosophy of education you think influences the clinical faculty teacher?

Week 3: How do you feel about your career choice? Do you remain confident or concerned about whether you are making the right choice? What are your expectations of yourself as an effective teacher? Given what you’ve observed in the classroom, and your discussion(s) with the clinical faculty, how realistic are these expectations? What skills, aptitudes and attitudes/dispositions will you need in order to achieve them?

Week 4: Describe the classroom in which you are interning. How does it look? What is in it? How does the layout of the classroom facilitate, or hinder, your clinical faculty’s teaching activities (you may wish to provide a diagram of the classroom setup)? What about the classroom environment do you think assists, or distracts student learning & teacher effectiveness?

Week 5: Describe the students in your field experience class, including such factors as race, exceptionalities (including gifted/talented), cultural backgrounds, socio-economic levels etc. Talk with your clinical faculty teacher about how these characteristics influence his/her instructional decision-making. Which of these characteristics do you think are relevant to instruction or not? With which of these characteristics are you uncomfortable?

Week 6: From what you’ve observed, what teaching methods/techniques do you wish to follow? What effective classroom management ideas have you observed? What effective discipline management processes have you observed?

Week 7: Choose to observe a small group of students during direct instruction (while the teacher is actually teaching) or during a specific instructional activity. Discuss your reasons for choosing that specific group of students. What do you notice about their interaction with the teacher – with each other – with other members of the class?

Week 8: How do you feel about the success of your Pre-I experience? How did the overall experience relate to your expectations? What were the most difficult challenges you faced working with students in your internship classroom or school? What were the most enjoyable? What significant things did you learn about yourself - about teaching in and learning – about being a teacher – about students -? As a result of your experiences and learning in the Pre-I Internship, what specific learning experiences will you seek in your Pre-II Internship experience?