DANA VISSER – PSIII INTERNSHIP

Fall 2020 – G.S. Lakie Middle School – Sheldon Arvay

 For my final teaching semester, I was blessed to be able to return to G.S Lakie Middle

School to complete both my PSII practicum and my PSIII internship. After quite a crazy PSII

experience with the Covid shutdown of schools, I was so happy to have some sense of familiarity

and “normalcy” returning to the same school I had my PSII practicum at. Due to the Covid

protocols, guidelines and restrictions, I think it’s safe to say it’s been an interesting year. I was

able to expand my subject area familiarity and teach outside of my major through this internship

and ultimately taught Science 6, helped with PE 6/7, and facilitated multiple “supplementary

activities”. While option classes were not an option this year, I believe that I was given the

freedom to experiment with various options that I may not have otherwise been able to teach. I

taught multiple classes of Guitar 6, a few Electronic Music Recording 8 classes and ended up

team teaching a Film Studies 8 class. These supplementary activities were only one month long,

and as a result, I was able to teach these courses multiple times and develop and adapt how I

taught them. I believe that this unique experience that in some ways is viewed as a negative, was

actually able to give me multiple chances at teaching similar material.

Like I mentioned earlier, the craziness of this year due to Covid was not always easy.

There were many results and restrictions that made teaching quite challenging this year. The

biggest area I believe that I have grown as a result of this year is my flexibility and ability to role

with the ever-changing punches. When I was originally given my teaching assignment in June, I

was to be teaching all within my major through several music options. However, this changed

the week before students came and I was told instead I would be teaching limited music and

mainly grade 6 Science and PE. While this was not an easy pill to swallow, I was able to learn

how to efficiently and effectively plan for subjects out of my area in very little time. I believe
that while this change in teaching assignment may have pushed me out of my comfort zone, I

don’t think I would have grown as much without this experience. Again, I was able to really be

flexible and adapt to the circumstances and I believe that I was able to rise to the challenge.

Of course, there were more things that made teaching during Covid hard for both

teachers, students and administration alike. Having both students and teachers wear masks all

day was a struggle, but I was so surprised at how little I heard complaints from the students.

They persevered and adapted to so many things and as a result, it gave me the determination to

follow in their footsteps. Another thing that threw a wrench in teaching was the absurd amount

of protocols when it came to using equipment in PE class. As a result, I was able to work with an

amazing PE staff that was so adaptable and creative and we were able to still give the students

meaningful opportunities to be active, all the while remaining safe and following Covid cleaning

procedures. Due to the number of enhanced cleaning measures, my teacher mentor and I were

worried we would be unable to offer any form of music whatsoever. However, we were able to

be creative and teach modern music options that followed the Covid protocols. I taught several

Guitar 6 courses in which we implemented new procedures such as assigning students their own

guitar to limit exposure, enhanced cleaning measures to the instruments themselves and socially

distant seating plans. In my Electronic Music 8 class, I was able to reach a wider range of

students that perhaps otherwise would not have been exposed to music education. I was able to

teach modern music recording to those with and without music experience and allow them to

experiment with music that is relevant to them. I offered choice in this option, and I believe that

the students were able to truly focus on individualized styles and genres of music to create some

amazing compositions.
 I truly think that this PSIII internship was such a crazy and unique experience due to

Covid. I believe that the challenges that were presented and the restrictions and protocols that

were implemented further pushed me to be creative, adaptable and flexible and truly demonstrate

perseverance. While it was not always easy, I believe that because of this experience, I will be

better prepared to handle similar challenges in my future teaching career.

Not only was I experiencing a unique semester due to Covid, but I also had the

opportunity to complete the rest of my PSII practicum and my PSIII internship in the same

semester. Due to the Covid shutdown in March, I was only able to complete two weeks of my

PSII practicum here at Lakie. Thankfully, I was able to come back to the same placement and

spend the month of September with PSII expectations to complete the full practicum. I then was

able to begin my official PSIII internship in October. This was something that I do not think has

ever been done up until this point. I was so happy that the university was able to adapt to the

times and allow us to complete all of our practicums fully to gain ample experience. I believe

that the adjustment moving in to PSIII was quite smooth as I was given so much meaningful

feedback in September that allowed me to comfortably progress into the full student teaching

experience.

I had the wonderful opportunity through this internship to work and collaborate with so

many amazing educators. I was able to experience being a core teacher and working in a dyad

(triad in my case) and get to know the ins and outs of the collaboration that occurs when given

the opportunity to work with other educators. I was also able to participate fully in parent-teacher

interviews with my triad. This experience was so critical in my growth, and I believe that by
gaining this experience, I was able to grow socially in communicating with parents. My triad

partners were so helpful throughout this experience, and I always knew I could go to them for

advice and feedback. I was also able to work closely with the grade 6 science team in developing

lesson materials. We were held quite strictly to a division-wide scope and sequence because of

the complexities of in-person vs. online, and to make any potential transitions as smooth as

possible. I was able to work weekly with the science team in planning topics to teach as well as

various activities and tests to implement. Once again, I knew that whenever I had questions, I

could go to any member of the grade 6 science team and they would guide me and give me

suggestions.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I was able to collaborate and learn so much from

my teacher mentor. I have heard of Sheldon Arvay’s name and program from growing up in

Lethbridge, and I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to work one-on-one with the legend

himself. He was able to push me in becoming a better and more well-rounded music educator

and give me the resources and advice I needed in order to feel confident going into a career in

music education. As a classical pianist with mainly choral and elementary music experience, I

was able to gain such meaningful experience in modern music education through working with

Sheldon’s program. I developed a passion and love for modern music education that I actually

developed into my PIP project. Sheldon also pushed me to expand my own teaching practice and

experience and because band is perhaps the option I have the least experience with, he expected

me to learn several band instruments, study and report on various music education pedagogies,

and work on developing my conducting through various score studies. This gave me such

meaningful knowledge and understanding of the complexities that are involved in band
pedagogy. I truly feel that this extra push allowed me to expand my subject-specific knowledge

and ultimately now, I feel fully prepared to enter a music education career in any capacity –

band, choir, elementary music or modern music education. This is truly because of the

individualized work I did learning from Sheldon.

I set two major goals in my TPGP at the beginning of this internship: 1) “To incorporate

a variety of formative and summative assessments to inform my teaching practice and validate a

fair and reasoned final grade” and 2) “Build positive and productive relationships with students,

parents/guardians, peers and others in the school and local community to support student

learning”. I believe that through my teaching assignment and the collaborative opportunities I

was given in this internship, I was able to experiment with so many different forms of

assessment. I was able to maintain an emphasis on formative assessment, while still creating

meaningful and engaging summative assessment opportunities for my students. I also believe

that I was able to truly build positive relationships with students, parents and colleagues. I made

a point of getting to know my student’s interests, passions and aspirations and was able to grow

mutual relationships of respect with all of my students. I was able to meet the kids where they

were at and work with them to develop learning strategies and goals for them to be able to find

success. I was able to maintain respectful communication with parents and guardians. I made an

effort to allow parents to play an active role in their children’s education. I sent out emails to

keep them informed and was able to help with parent phone calls as well. Lastly, I was able to

grow meaningful relationships with the staff at G.S. Lakie. The school culture at Lakie is

something that I honestly have not seen before. The staff truly cares about each other and enjoys

making the school more than just a building. They are able to joke around and always share a
laugh. I will miss each and every staff member, but honestly, I think I will miss the sense of

community that this school has the most.

While getting involved in extra-curriculars was very hard to do because of the lack of

opportunities because of Covid, I was able to help out in the school outside the classroom in a

few different capacities. First of all, I was able to assist the wellness team with handing out the

breakfast program daily. While this was a very small way to help, it allowed me the chance to

greet all grade 6 students every morning and continue to develop relationships with them. As

well, I believe that the wellness team does a great job in eliminating the stigma behind breakfast

programs, and I was so proud to be able to ensure that no child went without food. I was able to

assist Sheldon in creating a Remembrance Day video of “Travelin’ Soldier” by the Dixie Chicks.

I helped out with this project in various ways; I acted as a vocal coach and helped the

instrumentalists, I was able to assist in the recording process, and I was actually able to lend my

piano playing abilities to the project. I had so much fun working on this project and am so proud

of the end product. Beginning in November, we were able to begin intramurals and I jumped at

the chance to help out during my lunch break. I assisted the PE team by picking up and dropping

off classes to and from the gymnasium. I believe being active is so important, even when the

weather begins to turn in winter, and love that we were able to provide students with this

opportunity to stay active and have fun. Lastly, I was able to be a part of the staff Covid-parody

video that began the school year on a positive note. “The Covid Shuffle” was such a fun project

that brought the staff together and showed students that we could still have fun in a very unique

and difficult year. I was able to help lead the dances in this project and had such a fun time

getting to know the staff in such an amusing and playful way.

 While I enjoyed so many aspects of this internship, I think the main takeaways I have are

largely from the students themselves. I learned so much from my students and will remember

many moments between students for the rest of my career. I was able to get to know students in a

homeroom class, a core class, and an option class. All of these situations are unique, but I believe

that regardless of the teaching capacity, I was able to develop mutual respect and meaningful

relationships with all of the students I taught. They taught me patience, perseverance, positivity

throughout difficult times, and to not take life so seriously. They were always able to make me

laugh, even on hard days, and were able to show me just how resilient children are.

Overall, I believe that this internship allowed me to grow as an educator in so many ways

and I believe that because of this experience, I am ready to begin a teaching career in any

capacity, both in and out of my major area. I feel more resilient, more flexible, more

knowledgeable, and more prepared to start my career, and I believe that is largely thanks to this

internship experience. I will truly miss this school and this community and will take away so

many memories that I will be able to cherish for years to come. I believe my biggest takeaway

from this experience is that when there is a caring community present, no amount of hardships,

challenges or Covid-protocols will stand in the way of an educator from doing what they do best.

Thank you to all that were a part of my final internship experience. A special shoutout to

Sheldon for kicking me in the butt and molding me into a well-rounded and knowledgeable

music educator. I’d also like to thank my administration team for always being there for my

many questions and for showing me that even when you perhaps lack experience, if you have
work ethic and a positive attitude, you truly can achieve the impossible. Lastly, I’d like to thank

my UC, Keith Griffioen, for being there for me, perhaps more virtually than usual this year, but

still being able to answer my questions and be there for me through the craziness that was a

Covid internship.

Thank you,

Dana Visser