Individual Reflection

Internship program is a program that allows an intern teacher which means a

regularly enrolled student of an approved teacher education institution who teaches under
the supervision of the staff of the institution and of the employing school district in order to
acquire practical experience in teaching and for which the student receives both academic
credit from the institution and financial compensation from the school district or education
service district. I was given the opportunity to do my intern for one-month period in SK
Cheering. This internship experience provides enough guidance for me to complete my
coursework on the subject of Leadership and Teacher Professional Development
(EDU3083). The coursework mainly requires few tasks related on leadership in a particular
school organization.
Organization refers to the form of the enterprise or institution and the arrangement of
the human and material resources functioning in a manner to achieve the objectives of the
enterprise. It represents two or more than two people respectively specializing in functions of
each perform, working together towards a common goal as governed by formal rules of
behaviour (Sarfraz Ahmad, 2011). The scope of school organization is very massive. It
includes; efficiency of the institution, securing benefits of the school through practical
measures, clarification of the functions of the school, coordination of the educational
programmes, and educational planning. It provides close collaboration and sense of sharing
responsibilities, organized purpose and dynamic approach between leaders and
subordinates. In school organization, there is a great role of the economy, men, and material
to achieve the desired objectives.
Being able to observe the school organization and how leadership works in a school
has widened my knowledge a lot. During this internship, I was able to relate on how
leadership affects my professional development as a teacher. Leadership requires
experience and skills. I learnt that it was a tough job to become a leader. The school
organization is made up of several individuals who holds up certain positions and these
individuals are good at handling their tasks. I become aware of the skills in managing tasks
by referring to the senior teachers in this particular school. Managing tasks include managing
programmes or activities related with the school. During this period of internship, I manage to
observe several activities that have been carried out during these few weeks. As far as I am
concerned, I believe that collaboration between the leader, teachers and all the school
community is very crucial. A successful project or programme relies mostly on the effort and
collaboration of each individual in an organization.
Apart from that, using the knowledge of leadership also allows me to identify and
classify the perfect styles of leadership that is suitable to be use in the future professional
development. It is a must to combine all the practical experience, methods and theories of
leadership in order to achieve excellent in school. Though I learnt that there are a lot of
different style of leadership, I truthfully consider that a good leadership style is the blending
of various leadership styles. In addition, I have also experienced that it is significant to learn
about leadership during this internship as I can recognise how to solve problems and how to
make a decision. As a teacher, this has increase my professional development in terms of
dealing and handling problematic pupils in school. No matter what technique or method used
to solve a problem and make decision, as a leader one must always remember that the
decision should be beneficial in the long term, able to change negative behaviour to positive
behaviour, and parallel to the aims and objectives in the teaching profession.
Throughout this internship, I had the experience of dealing with problems related with
the technology advancement. I had a lot of difficulties during my intern as I had to complete
my action research. The lack of technology had somehow caused some trouble to me. Thus,
I proposed that the school organization to upgrade the ICT technology in the school in order
to follow the current demand in school. Other than that, during this internship, I found out that
the source in the library for my teaching and learning are very limited. I had observed that
most books are old and outdated. Hence, I proposed that the school organization created a
team of committee or Library Committee' handle books in the library. Even though there is a
specific teacher who facilitates the library, it is not enough. The task is huge and a single
person in charge is sufficient. At least working in a team can lessen the burden and the
productivity of the work can be increase from time to time. Last but not least, during this one-
month internship, I observed that there are a lot of disciplinary problems occur in this school.
Later comers, absenteeism, and inappropriate dressing code is the main issue regarding
discipline. Thus, I strongly proposed that the school should have more than one disciplinary
teacher. Maybe two would be great.
As a conclusion, internship program has given a lot of chance for me to not only
observe the leadership in an organization that relates to my coursework, but also to allow me
experienced working with teachers who act as my mentors and help to develop deeper and
trust relationship with all the school community. I also get the opportunity to see how the
school operates, get feedback on my teaching skills, and learn how to discipline, attend
teacher meetings, and serve as part of the educational team. Being able to get the
experienced in hand eventually increase my knowledge and skills and hopefully I will be able
to apply on whatever I had learnt throughout this process and improve on becoming a great
teacher ahead.