Alyssa King

EL 605

January 25, 2018

Instruction Internship Report

It is critical for principals to support the implementation of high-quality standards-based

instruction which results in higher levels of achievement for all students. During my internship,

I am committed to taking on more of a leadership role to support my principal and colleagues in

providing quality instruction.

As part of my daily responsibilities and internship hours, I participate in second grade

planning meetings weekly. During lunch and recess on Wednesdays, a team of second grade

teachers voluntarily meet to collaborate. Seven out of twelve second grade teachers actively

participate and share ideas each week. We plan together to create optimal learning opportunities

for all our students, including students identified as gifted, students with disabilities and at-risk

students. We work to ensure the instructional content is aligned with the Ohio Academic

Content Standards and curriculum priorities for the school and district. We collaborate to ensure

instructional practices are effective and meet the needs of all students. We share and discuss

ideas, techniques, and resources that have been successful in our past teaching experiences. We

have also been working together to redesign curriculum maps, plan quality writing lessons using

mentor texts, plan quality lessons for the new Social Studies text, and enhance cold read

questions to incorporate all Depth of Knowledge (DOK) Levels. This year I have taken on more

of a leadership role in our planning meetings.

I also attend and participate in Professional Learning Communities (PLC) and grade level

meetings. We meet monthly to share expertise, work collaboratively, and analyze data to
enhance instruction. At one of our meetings this year, we compared the cold read scores of all

the second-grade students. As we further discussed the cold read and student responses, we

realized we should have created an answer key prior to grading the tests. On the extended

response questions, I was not as lenient as some of my colleagues, which was apparent when

looking at the scores.

Helen Keller once said, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” In the

world of education, collaboration is extremely valuable. Effective collaboration will not only

improve teacher performance, but it will also improve student performance. It is the

responsibility of a principal to encourage and facilitate effective collaboration, which in turn

facilitates successful instruction.

Instruction is at the center of education. Students go to school to learn, to receive a good

education that will help them blossom into well rounded, responsible, independent-thinking

individuals, and successful lifelong learners. As teachers and leaders, it is our duty to create

unique learning opportunities and expose students to new experiences to cultivate inquisitive,

self-motivated, and critical thinking 21st century learners.