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Planning Your Internship

John D. Watkins

College of Education, Grand Canyon University

EAD 519: Clinical Internship 1: Learner-Centered Leadership

Dr. Washington

March 30, 2022

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Planning Your Internship

Over the next six weeks my goal for this internship is to gain some good hard experience

in what it takes to lead a school. One thing I know for sure is I cannot hesitate to get involved.

Since I started this program, I have been very willing to ask different leaders throughout the

school how I can be of service to them. Because of these actions prior to this internship, I see no

reason to change that now.

Placement and Schedule

During this internship I will be completing the required hours of activities at Robert B.

Grove Elementary. Located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Grove Elementary is a Title 1 school and one of

14 elementary schools in the Union Public School District. I have the privilege of learning more

about the roles of a school administrator from my principal mentor, Mrs. Berns. My principal

mentor has been leading Grove Elementary for the last 12 years. Each day after school I will be

working alongside multiple leaders throughout our school that my principal mentor would like

me to work with. I will be working on activities setting up events like, Literacy Night with our

Instructional Coach, facilitating the Broadcast Club, assisting our assistant principal plan

summer school, and shadow, as well as attend many district meetings with my principal mentor.

The dismissal bell rings at 2:25 each day. If I am not facilitating an afterschool school

club, for example, the broadcast club, I will be riding busses to help monitor behavior issues.

Once I arrive back at the school, I will continue to monitor students still waiting to be picked up

by their parents. When the last student is picked up, I will start building internship hours doing

various tasks that are acceptable to the Grand Canyon University internship manual.

Leadership Activities Aligned to ELCC Standards

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For the next six weeks there will be many activities that are coming down the road that

will play a major role in completing the 90 hours of internship activities. I will have the chance

to meet with PLC’s, assist, as well as facilitate the first parents’ night back at Grove Elementary

for our Literacy Night, assist in the development and execution of summer school, and assist in

the Fifth Grade Graduation Celebration week.

An activity that will follow the requirements to meet Standard 1, will be collaborating

with our Data Teams or PLC. As I meet with my current team, I will be allowed to discuss

specific students’ needs and if they are progressing in the direction they need to be going and if

The activity that will meet the requirement for Standard 2, will be assisting my assistant

principal and principal mentor with Summer School. This activity will be able to cover many of

the ELCC Standards and their elements.

ELCC Standard 3 can be accomplished with the planning and development of a new bus

riding procedure. Riding school busses to help with bus behavior should be able to drop

tremendously and allowing bus drivers to drive their routes safer than before can help students

get home safer.

Assisting in the development of Literacy Night is applicable and aligned to ELCC

Standard 4. This Activity can also meet the requirements of ELCC Standard 6 by advocating for

and communicating with our families to show up to the school for this special event. This is our

first event to have families back in the building since the school shut down due to the pandemic.

ELCC Standard 5 can applied to the round of student led conferences I will be required to

attend towards the ending of April. This will allow for parents to learn about their students’

academic progress they have made throughout the school year, as well as what we can still work

on with State Assessments right around the corner.

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Artifacts

I will be using a Microsoft Word document where I will record all my internship

activities, the date, how long the activity took, and how it aligns with the ELCC Standards. The

expectation is to complete 15 or more internship hours a week. This current week I have

completed a little more than 15 hours. I hope to continue that for the remaining weeks. I will also

be utilizing the e-Portfolio to upload artifacts of specific activities. This week I was asked to

make a map for our families to travel throughout the school building for our Literacy Night. I

also made a movie trailer promoting literacy night that will play on the morning broadcast each

day until literacy night and will be sent out to our families through our school Remind and social

media account. This activity aligns to ELCC Standard 4 Element 1, allowing a chance to

communicate information about the school within the community (NPBEA, 2011). Meeting with

teachers about riding the school bus afterschool aligns with ELCC Standard 3 Element 3, giving

me the opportunity to implement a procedure to help ensure student, and staff safety while on the

bus (NPBEA, 2011).

Communication Strategies

Communication is extremely important no matter what profession you are in. Mrs. Berns

has a very well-respected open-door policy. This is one of the many great things about her. She

has always told me to make time for the teachers any chance you can. She responds to text

messages much faster than an e-mail. My communication with her will be vital in the success of

this internship. I will communicate with her through phone calls, text messages, and emails will

be a last resort, only because she receives hundreds of them a day. I will check in with Mrs.

Berns every Friday to discuss the experiences I have had throughout the week and discuss the

possible activities that could be completed throughout the following week.

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The Grand Canyon University Faculty Supervisor will mostly be contacted through

email. I plan on reaching out to the GCU Faculty Supervisor anytime I have a question as well as

the Internship Instructor.

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References

National Policy Board for Educational Administration. (2011). Educational Leadership Program

Standards: Building Level. Retrieved from

http://www.npbea.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/ELCC-Building-Level-Standards-

2011.pdf