Developmental TimeLine of 16-week Internship Notes to reflect progress with regards to developmental timeline Kassandra Mckeever Bethlehem Catholic

High School
Weeks 1-2 Week 1 Internship started when my host teacher resumed full time teaching on August 29th. I took part in a school system wide presentation on assessment. This presentation was very interesting because it brought up multiple issues the division is having with assessment and presented different ways teachers can better their students. I also attended the school system wide mass. While listening to the mass I recognized the importance of faith in the Greater Saskatoon Catholic division. Ive also learned what it means to have faith and how it is represented in our schools and day to day life in the classroom. Week 2 Throughout this first week of school I made it a goal to know every students name in all the classes. Since I wasnt formally teaching I had copious amounts of time to print off the class lists and walk around to each student. In this time I introduced myself and got to know a little bit about the students I would be teaching in the near future. Thinking back to the first week, this was probably the smartest thing I could have spent my time doing; the moment I started teaching them I could tell that we were both comfortable with each other. Weeks 3-4 Week 3 I took over period four (grade 9) at the beginning of the week. This was a big learning experience for me because there was a lot of firsts and challenges that week. This class has taught me how to deal with classroom management. I have put a lot of effort into trying new things to make the grade nines have the best experience they could have in their art class. Week 2 had also taught me a lot about myself and the way I present myself in front of a room of 30 students. Week 4 Monday was the day I took over (grade 11) period 5. The transition from teacher to teacher went very smoothly. The transition was a success because I had tried my best to be involved day to day. Had I been sitting at the back of the room just observing I dont think the transition would have gone as smoothly as it had. The transition was successful because I already knew the students names and their personalities. Weeks 5-6 Week 5 By watching the grade 12 students work for the last couple weeks, I started to think what I wished that I would have been exposed to in my high school art experience; I tried to put myself in their shoes. On Monday of week four, I began teaching Feldmans theory for criticising art. This is a method I learned in university and I accommodated the entire method to best suit the students in this grade 12 class. Students learnt this particular method and then applied it to their own and peers art work. The week of learning Feldmans method went better than I had expected; students were engaged and I could see how the method helped them in critiquing their own art. Week 6 My soccer team was going at full tilt. Coaching soccer has also made a huge impact on my time spent at BCHS. It was a great experience managing the two sides of being a coach. I wanted students to feel that I was approachable but yet, for them to understand that I was their coach. Coaching is similar to teaching but the environment and the reality of it is much different. At this point I was teaching three separate grades. It was interesting to explore the different ways to properly respond to each grade. Even though they are so close in age there are different ways to approach the students, the terminology I use with the students and what I include in my instructions for each grade.

Weeks 7

Week 8-9

Week 10-12

Week 7 Both unit plans were being implemented in this week. I started teaching grade 10s the co-generated mask making unit and grade 11s the independent gesture unit. The key to my success for this week in particular, was planning ahead. Having my units and lessons preplanned was the success to not being overstressed and overworked. If I had not planned as well as I did, I may have ran out of the school screaming. Full time teaching is only manageable if you are planned ahead and always 10 steps ahead of your students.

Week 8 This week was when the reality of being a teacher set in. Parent teacher interviews were to start at the end of week eight. The days were busy with marking and trying to provide every opportunity I could for students to get their work handed in. I sat down with each grade nine students to let them know what they had handed in and what they needed to hand in. Organizing brief personal interview with every student really paid off. I was praised by my host teacher that she had never saw a grade nine class with that many assignments in before. Parent-teacher interviews were, as to date, the best experience I have had as an intern. One parent-teacher interview comes to mind. I told the parents that their son had partnered with a quite class mate for a project on Feldmans method. I simply explained that he had brought out the best in his partner and made her feel so comfortable that she started to communicate with others in the class. This had melted the parents heart; the mother was so proud of her son that she was almost in tears. This experience has helped me realize the reasons for why I wanted to become a teacher in the beginning. Being able to make that kind of an impact on someone is the biggest gift you could give. Week 9 Both unit plans were well on their way and I had taken over all instructional duties of my host teacher for the last couple weeks now. This week I incorporated Aboriginal component into my independent unit on gestures. Everything that I had chosen to present to the class flowed nicer than I had ever expected. Introducing Allen Sapps paintings and his culture was an amazing way to help students become in touch with their own culture and heritage. This was also a great way for EAL students to learn the history of Aboriginal people, and not create an idea of them based on specific stereotypes they may be exposed to.

Week 10 The days are starting to fly by. I am enjoying every minute of teaching full time. Students are now familiar with my teaching style and understand what is expected in my class. My host teacher has done a wonderful job of letting me explore my own teaching style. Michelle has let me take over the classroom and create it as my own. I have changed the room around and made the front of the room more assessable to my needs. Having the freedom to explore and create my own teaching style has made this internship such a blessing. Week 11 As things started to settle down at school, a couple of us interns started to take matters into our own hands. We have rotated around the school to either observe each other or even teach a lesson in each others classroom. The swap has benefited all of us in some way. Either teaching something we havent taught before, or just to observe each other in action. Full time teaching is still in full swing at this point. The stress of having to prepare lessons and to mark projects has been a real eye opener to what it will be like obtaining a full time teaching position in the future. Week 12 The Bethlehem staff meetings always bring up important topics or issues that every teacher should take back to their class room and try. This weeks topic is to include self and peer-assessment in our classrooms. In the last couple days of my independent unit I had my students complete a self-evaluation (straight out of the curriculum guide) on their final project. Having students complete a selfevaluation made a gateway to introduce peer assessment. To finish off my independent unit on Gestures, my class completed a peer critique of each others work.

Week 13-14 Week 13

Week 15 Week 15

Week 16 Week 16 and 17

My host teacher and I are slowly starting to team teach our period 5 class. Having even one less class to worry about decreases my stress level. While my stress level with content is decreasing, it is gaining with extracurricular activists. I am currently making props for the school Drama production, doing promotion and design for our fourth annual Bowlt Classic basketball tournament and coaching Junior Green Girls Basketball. Even though life is hectic at the moment, I know I could eliminate a couple extracurricular actives to help decrease my stress level; however, I want to be as involved with the school as I can possibly be. I choose to be involved because I want to gain experiences and knowledge as my internship slowly comes to ends. I really enjoy being involved with our school and the community. Week 14 Michelle and I took off a morning to complete my final assessment. Our meeting went very well, it was a great way to get out of the school and have a one on one conversation about my progress and achievements of internship. We met at the Mendel Art Gallery coffee shop. This was a great environment for us to work in, considering we both think of ourselves as art nerds; the environment alone sparked up great conversations between the two of us. Taking the morning to complete the final assessment was a great way to reflect together. The last half of the week was crazy in our school. The 4th annual Bowlt Classic Basketball Tournament started on Thursday November 29th. With only one step into our school, you would be able to feel the spirit and excitement in the students. The pep rally started on Friday and it was such a great way to introduce the tournament to the students and all the participating teams. I really enjoyed myself and I am so happy that I was able to be apart of this new tradition at Bethlehem High School.

As internship winds down, basketball season comes to an amazing start. Coaching basketball is a whole different ball game than coaching soccer. Through the years I played basketball but I am not completely up to snuff as I am in soccer. As an assistant coach I am also learning a lot from my colleagues. Our first game on Wednesday gave us coaches a better idea about what skills our girls needed polishing. We lost our first game, but we all admit that it can only get better from here on out. Students are getting a little uneasy and I can tell they are in need of break. I am still down to part time teaching, Art and English 90. I am so grateful that I took it upon myself to adventure out of the Art room to gain experience teaching English. Everything about teaching English is different than teaching Art; from the environment, students behaviour to the way I present myself in front of the class. I find that I am less exhausted teaching English than I am teaching Art. It has everything to do with the environment of the art room; I no longer have to compete with the noise of the art environment.

Is it already week 16? Internship has gone incredibly fast. My last week of internship feels like it has been one of the busiest. Teaching English 90 has been a very good experience for me. Even though, I took over for a portion of Romeo and Juliet, it took up a ton of time. My time consisted of reading the material, learning it , summarize it, studying it and then regurgitate it. I was basically learning it along with the students. I also had the experience of marking English assignments. The process of marking English papers, summaries, presentations, and posters ate up a lot of time and energy. I am so happy that one of the English teachers offered to take me under their wing to give me such a great experience. I will be sad to leave Bethlehem staff and students. Bethlehem has shown me such wonderful hospitality and I am proud to say that everyone from the staff to students took very good care of me during my internship. This is a wonderful place to be; I can honestly say that I never once felt uneasy about coming to school in the morning.