Lindsey Blum

Capstone engineering B6

Lindsey Blum
Capstone Engineering
October 23, 2014

My capstone project is an internship at Waxahachie Prepatory Academy (WPA)- a Christian

school that does not teach using regular teaching methods, and uses hands-on project-based
learning techniques. My passion behind my capstone is that I am interested in possibly teaching
children between the ages of pre-k to first grade, or being a childrens author and illustrator. An
internship where I can have hands-on experience with the age group of the children that my
writing or teaching would be aimed towards would help me to see what methods children are
best taught with and what appeals to and interests them.
The benefits that I expect to gain from an internship at WPA is the experience in a real teaching
environment and understanding what children need in order to learn best. I hope to find out what
entertains children and what encourages them to read and/or continue reading. Also, if I were to
pursue a writing career, I could use this internship as an opportunity to see if I should try to
create educational stories for children, or ones that are purely fictional.
The first ten milestones that I plan to accomplish within the first few weeks are listed below:
January 27: First day of internship
February 3: Second day of internship (introduce a teaching tip/trick)
February 10 or 12:
February 17: work with previous lesson plans to create a new one using TEKS
February 24: present my plans to other teachers and get feedback
March 3: teach the lesson plans that I have created on Renweb

Lindsey Blum
Capstone Engineering
October 23, 2014

March 10: observe teacher taught plans again and take notes on dos and donts
March 17: introduce a new game/teaching method
March 24: determine if projects or games are better for teaching the kids

March 31: combine my new knowledge with the teachers and get feedback for the lesson plans I
plan on continuing
The professional mentors involved would be the teachers that I communicate with about the
lessons that I will help teach in the classrooms. I will be helping one specific teacher in a
classroom so I will have one-on-one experience with them each week. The teachers that are there
would be helping me with teaching and developing the best possible lesson plans for the given
age group that I will assigned to. I would be at my internship every Tuesday from 8:30 to 11:30. I
would be able to do lesson plans on my own time, though.

Lindsey Blum
Capstone Engineering
October 23, 2014

My audience is both the children that I would be teaching, as well as the teachers that I will be
working with/under. My measurements of success are based for both myself, and the students. If
the children are retaining the information being taught, and are able to apply it, then they are
succeeding, which in turn also means that I have succeeded teaching them in a way that helps
them learn. Another way I could measure success for myself is the feedback I get from my
mentors and other teachers. If they give me positive feedback then it shows that I have been
successful. However, with negative feedback I could also be able to use that and in turn make my
lessons better with their help.