Internship Reflection

Matthew J. Dailey
Often times you do not know what a place has to teach you until you are in the final
phases of an experience. Libby Middle School (LMS) was the right placement at the right time
for me, but as my needs evolved, the support from my internship placement and mentor were
not commensurate with my needs. The greatest lesson I have taken away from my time at LMS
is to identify when it is time to move on and allow for a clean separation. It is unfortunate that as
I completed 200 of my 220 internship hours- with the remaining hours coming from an
observation at Portage North Middle School and over twenty hours coming from work at Loon
Lake Elementary School in Walled Lake - my mentor was unwilling to write a job
recommendation because she "will not have the time." Regardless of the beautiful
recommendation letter I was able to have a LMS staff member write on my behalf, my final
feeling of LMS and my mentor was one of utility and not the deep-seeded connectivity I
generally associate with such profound experiences.
Hiring practices reveal the priorities of school institutions. Michigan Standard for a the
Preparation of School Administrators cites under standard 2.3, "Candidates understand hiring
practices of qualified and appropriate...instructional and leadership capacity of school staff."
During my time at LMS, the principal took a new job in Ann Arbor, setting off a hierarchical
administrative movement that resulted in a new assistant principal being hired. During the
transition of the new AP coming onto the job, I was compiling teacher evaluation data to make
professional learning recommendations for the 2015-2016 school year. As I was working, my
mentor and the new AP were dialoguing about topics he had on his new job. In this
conversation, I was appalled by the nature of the questions being asked. One such question was
what the student demographics were of LMS and how much experience the new AP had working
with students considered to be "at risk". The other question that was also a bit dismissive to me
was when the new AP prefaced his thought with, "So do we talk about ugly truths around this
place? Are we allowed to talk about issues with race and the achievement gap?" When my
mentor responded with, "What about the achievement gap?" the new AP could not offer any
insight as to what he actually meant bye achievement gap, what that looked like at LMS, or what
potential solutions he had for narrowing the achievement between different student
demographic groups. While I could appreciate the dialogue that was taking place between my
mentor and the new AP, it seemed to me that all of the topics under conversation should have
been discussed during an interview. Given these questions, I wondered what criteria the
interview committee used to select candidates and by what standard they were using in their
interview process. As such, I was able to read the interview questions used for the AP position
only to find a question list dating back to 2005. This experience promoted me to see a side of the
hiring process that necessitates school institutions match interview questions with their
building's or district's priorities as opposed to using a generic set of interview questions that
may or may not address the academic, social, economic, and political contexts needed by
someone in the position.
One area of being able to bridge the gap between theory and practice was in the
opportunity I utilized to take learning from my winter course on curriculum design and
professional learning and apply it to a problem of practice with LMS's School Improvement Plan
(SIP). Standards 1.3 and 1.4, respectively, emphasize candidates being able to "promote
continual and sustainable school improvement" and "evaluate school progress and revise school
plans." LMS had stagnated in its state and school assessment data in science. Therefore, in the

2014-2015 SIP, LMS wanted to transition to using the Next Generation Science Standards
(NGSS) for their curricular framework in all science courses. Upon investigation of LMS's
implementation of the SIP NGSS, I discovered zero work had been done beyond "sit and get"
professional development, but had not been reinforced or built upon during staff meetings. With
this, I developed a three-year professional learning and NGSS implementation timeline. While
the plan is designed to be responsive to the changing needs of the LMS science faculty and
support staff, the plan created a launching point to begin work on this curricular transition and
supporting professional learning.
In a profession that seemed to regularly embroiled in controversy, I find myself engaged
in many conversations on what could, can, and should be done to provide a more pertinent
educational experience to our students and how to develop staff to meet these changing needs.
Standard 6.0 centers on building-level education leaders being able to influence the larger
"political, social, economic, legal, and cultural context through advocating for school students,
families, and caregivers." Whether I am at my own wedding talking to family and friends or at
the grocery engaging in casual banter in the checkout line, the tone of the conversation always
changes. Standards 6.1 and 6.2 want candidates for building-level leadership to "advocate for
school students, families, and caregivers" and to "act to influence local, district, state, and
national decisions affecting student learning in a school environment." Since being involved
with LMS and having the opportunity to work in two other very different schools, the most
effective way to influence the larger political landscape to improve student learning and the
school environment is to make yourself available to parents and community members. Two of
the three principals I have actively observed all make a habit of being visible before and after
school as well as spend time in public events to talk one on one with community members about
the things going on in their buildings. Communication has a vital ripple effect on forming and
informing the public perception of what goes on in the walls of poor schools. Therefore, while
standards 6.1 and 6.2 appear to broad and seemingly impossible, the small act of keeping
informed that on school issues, knowing what the current public perception of school, and then
positioning yourself to engage in vin versatile has proven to be an effective way to influence the
public conversation.
If the fall works out as I hope, I will be in an entry-level administrative job. My ambition
for the 2014-2015 school year was to complete my internship hours. Within these hours, I
became confident in my ability to analyze the needs of a school building, keep student learning
at the center of what drives our school's work, and bridge the gap between expectations and
reality at the secondary level. Given my long-term desires to enter the superintendency, I am not
sure if I should put my energies on working more at the elementary level or keeping up my work
in secondary school contexts. Regardless, I am looking for continued growth with different
teacher evaluation models and creating and implementing meaningful, sustained, and on-going
professional learning.