Frostburg State University

Form 002

Intern: Dana Small

Administration and Supervision

Self-Assessment of Final Practicum
Your internship has been a total experience that included not only yourself, but also all of
the staff, administration, students, parents, and community members who participated in
some way in projects of your implementation. Also, you might consider all of the individuals
you were required to deal with as you conducted the internship duties and responsibilities.
For example, discipline problems would normally involve students, teachers, and parents at
a minimum. As you attended to such discipline problems, you would be engaged in trying
to facilitate among the needs of all individuals. Given this back-drop, provide answers to
the following questions regarding your internship practicum experience.
1. Was your internship effective? Did it meet all of the goals and objectives as stated in
your Planning Guide?
In answering this question fully, consider the use of such instrumentation as:
a. Pre- and post-surveys to determine outcomes of staff development training
b. Observation checklists to determine if students were behaving in the ways
expected by the school and the community
c. Interview schedules to determine parent and community opinions about the
need for a change or the impact of a change
d. Data from standardized tests and measures to determine how well students
have learned over a given period of time in given subject areas.

Overall, I believe the more hands-on portions of my internships were the most effective. It
gave me a true view of what it is like in an administrators shoes. You have to consider the
whole staff, whole student and student body, and the whole community. With my hands-on
experiences, especially with the PALS program, I believe I have gained a set of skills unlike
any I couldve gained anywhere else, skills which will make me a valuable educational
leader.
2. Did your internship projects meet the specific needs of all of the individuals who
participated? Where Question #1 focuses on the project goals and objectives of your
internship, this question focuses on the needs of individual participants. How well do
you believe individual participants needs were met throughout your internship?

Yes, my projects met the needs of the individuals who participated. The teaching staff at PALS
were all great pre-service teachers to begin with, but you could see growth throughout the
summer. Students also made progress this summer, which is the ultimate goal! They had a
fantastic time under the supervision of their teachers, myself, and my administrative team. The
PALS Summer Program was a great success for a third year in a row!

3. Did your internship help to bring about meaningful organizational change in your
school building? Many times internship projects are designed to facilitate the
development and implementation of new programs either for the delivery of
instructional services to students of to help in the management of the organization.
Did your internship facilitate such conditions at the building level? One important way
to determine the answer to this question is to investigate whether or not your
internship projects had an impact on the buildings mission and /or vision statements
regarding schooling. Was learning positively affected by your work?

This experience let me have a hand in working with various components of the school operation
and culture. In my role as the principal of the PALS program, I was able to work with a great
group of individuals to help grow the program. We had a record number of students registered
this year, were able to problem solve as the summer went on in order to make changes to the
program and grow it again in the future.
Besides with PALS, the biggest change to the organization was my involvement in the
implementation of the Warrior Block period, a time for all students to receive
remediation/tutoring, make up assignments/assessments, or get work done that they would not
otherwise be able to do. This is a huge change within the BHS community and should have an
amazing impact on the building.

4. Did your internship help to bring about meaningful organizational change in the school
district? There have been times when an internship project has been piloted at a
building site with the intention that, if judged to be effective, the district or the division
would have considered adapting it at other sites. In this way a pilot project could have
an impact on the organizational change of an entire district or division. How close did
your internship come to enjoying such an impact on the district or division? In refining
your answer to this question with an interest of establishing a broader base t it,
consider reviewing the districts or the divisions mission statement or board of
education annual reports on their goals to the community.

The PALS program is endorsed by WCPS as a summer school alternative, which tells me that it
is seen by the district as a valuable program for struggling learners. Although it may not provide
change within the district, the students within the district may change for the better as a result of
this amazing program.
Also, I am hopeful that the Warrior Block period is one that will be adopted within other
buildings in the county. Many high schools have a block similar to this, but with different
motivation behind the time. With all of the work that we put into researching, formatting, and
now implementing the block, I am hopeful that others will consider this format as well.

5. Did your internship experience provide project participants an opportunity to have

input on the overall assessment of the experience? Did you give staff members,
parents, students, and community members an opportunity to let you know how they
think your internship affected the district or the division, the building, and the
instructional programs?

We provided parents, staff, and students with the opportunity to give us feedback on the PALS
program. There were some questions from parents that I was able to address at various points
within the program, but the overall program suggestions from parents were things that may or
may not have been within my/our control, such as the length of time students were with us on a
given day.
The Warrior Block piece was of particular interest when getting feedback. I was the chair of the
committee from conception. We had to present to SIT and then to the faculty on our proposal.
This then was taken to a more formalized Warrior Block team the following year with
suggestions from the staff on what they would change. Recommendations were made and some
changes were made to the program prior to implementation.
6. Identify your efforts to bring members of different groups together to work on
achieving similar goals and objectives.

I was involved in recruiting, training, and supervising staff of the PALS program. These staff
members consisted of undergraduate students, MAT-E students, an Educational Leadership
student, and various volunteers. We had a common goal to work towards which was to minimize
the summer loss of an underprivileged group of children.
Additionally, the Warrior Block committee brought members of not only each academic
department together, but members of the administration, guidance, and staff support in order to
create the best working environment possible for students.
7. Identify strategies used to engage members from different constituents in the project
work. Examples of such constituents include but are not limited to these: parents,
senior citizens, and local government figures.

My job as the principal of PALS required that I email, phone, and meet with students, parents,
and community partners in person. All constituents involved played a vital role in the successful
operations of the summer program.

8. Name or identify types of planning strategies utilized in your project work.

I am extremely organized and a planner to a fault. I love and require details. Throughout this
experience, I had to utilize technology and communication tools to collaborate with others. Two
major methods of collaboration were face-to-face meetings and work within the Google Drive.
Documents and lessons were shared on this drive so that I could see what teachers were planning
to ensure appropriate instruction was happening. Additionally, I used email, brainstorming
sessions and mentoring in my project work.
9. Name or identify ways by which your internship experience might have made it clear to
you that local issues can confront us with barriers to change.

As far as PALS is concerned, I was able to see an attitude from parents that I was not used to
seeing as frequently in Boonsboro. This attitude was one of tolerance of education as opposed to
valuing education. Many parents see the PALS program as a way to give themselves time to do
what they want, where we will do activities with their child/children and feed them. This was
not the case for all parents, but a majority of the population that we worked with saw the
program as such. Unfortunately, the children will eventually learn that their parents dont value
education so why should they, unless they can find someone who will inspire them. Until the
entire community sees education as meaningful, it will remain a challenge to get the backing of
some parents.