**LDA-R - STUDENT TEACHING AND INTERNSHIPS** **Last Updated Date:** 07/08/2014 **Adoption Date:** 01/10/2006 Our primary responsibility is to the children of the South Hadley School System. The training of any potential teachers or interns must be so conducted that those young people to whom we owe our basic responsibility will benefit from the program. An intern is a college student who is seriously considering entering the profession of teaching. The candidate for internship shall he competent in the field in which he/she proposes to teach, should have a real interest in the field of education, should be willing and free to spend considerable time and energy in the learning situation in which he/she will be involved and should conduct himself/herself as a professional at all times. However, because he/she is a student, the intern is not yet ready to assume all the professional responsibilities of a teacher and should be introduced to those responsibilities as he/she demonstrates his/her ability to handle them. Vacations will be according to the school’s calendar rather than the college university calendar. Responsibilities of the Administration The administration shall: 1.         Assign no intern to a teacher who does not actively desire one; 2.         Provide an orientation program for all supervisory teachers at which time the responsibilities of both intern and supervisory teacher shall be clearly defined; 3.         Interview every candidate for internship exactly as if he/she were a candidate for a permanent teaching position; 4.         Set up interviews between potential supervisory teachers and/or department heads when applicable; 5_._         Complete paper arrangements at least one semester prior to the intern’s arrival; 6.         Provide for a meeting between interns and an appointed administrative representative to discuss rules and regulations pertaining to the running of the school; 7.         Provide all interns with copies of the teacher’s manual and other operational materials; 8.         Introduce interns to permanent members of the staff with whom they may be working, i.e., the assistant principal, director of guidance, librarian, nurse, special teachers, etc.;                   9.         Provide interns with a guided tour of the building to acquaint them with available facilities; 10.       Make clear to every intern that their presence is at the good graces of the administration and teachers of South Hadley and that he/she is expected to conform to the codes and patterns of this system; 11.       Reserve the right to drop any intern at any time if it feels that so doing is in the best interests of the school; 12.       Insist that college supervisors observe and confer with their interns and their supervisory teachers a minimum of twice a month during the period the intern is actually teaching. The school may require additional visits; 13.       Use no intern as a substitute teacher. An intern may conduct a class with which he/she is working, but the certified substitute teacher ultimately will be responsible for the class and should be present; 14.       Emphasize to the entire faculty that the intern is to be extended the courtesies and support desired by all members of the teaching profession. Responsibilities of the Supervisory Teacher The supervisory teacher shall: 1.         Be a teacher with professional status or have had a minimum of three years teaching experience elsewhere and at least one full year’s experience in the South Hadley School System; 2.         Permit no more than one intern to teach any given class during any one school year; 3.         Work with no more than one intern at any given time without administrative approval; 4.         Remember that he/she is a professional teacher responsible for all activities that occur in those classes assigned him/her; he/she shall at all times know what his/her intern is teaching and what his/her intern is doing; 5.         Proceed cautiously and judiciously before allowing any intern to assume the teacher’s role; 6.         Supervisor will: a)         Check lesson plans and make comments and suggestions b)         Allow the student teacher to share in deciding upon teaching activities c)         Have periodic conferences with the student teacher to discuss strengths and weaknesses, evaluate the work d)         Allow the student teacher to gain experiences in all phases of school routine 7.         Confine his/her activities to professional work—evaluating the intern’s performance, conducting student conferences, preparing instructional materials, studying professional literature, correcting papers, etc—at anytime he/she turns the classroom over to the intern; 8.         Consider using the intern in the classroom as a resource person, as one leader in group discussions, as an individual tutor, as one member of a team-teaching situation; 9.         Require no intern to be responsible for the correcting and evaluation of any work the intern has not personally assigned; 10.       Work with any intern as he/she would with a fellow professional teacher; 11.       The intern shall receive a well thought out evaluation at the completion of his/her internship. All evaluations must he submitted to the administration for final review prior to mailing. Responsibilities of the Intern The intern shall: 1.         Obtain a dossier to include: Departmental approval form, copies of transcript informational sheet reflecting the student’s interests and involvement in activities, etc.; 2.         Do considerable classroom observation among the various teachers of the school department or grade level; 3.         During the term of his/her internship, he/she shall have no outside commitments that prevent him/her devoting full time to the intern program; 4.         Be available after school hours for consultation with his/her supervisory teacher and students; 5.         Assume the teacher’s role in the classroom as well as other assigned duties only when he/she is familiar with the students, the classroom procedures, school regulations (as they apply) and has demonstrated to his/her supervisory teacher his/her readiness to teach; 6.         Prepare carefully in advance for each class or portion of the class he/she teaches: a)         The objectives b)         The materials for achievement of these objectives c)         The instructional activities of the classroom             He/she shall then evaluate student performances and confer after each classroom presentation with his/her supervisory teacher; 7.         Discuss at suitable times with students the merits of his/her own performance; 8.         Do frequent observation of the other teachers both in his/her own area and in other disciplines or levels and make himself/herself available for student conferences, individual or group tutoring, etc.; 9.         Be assigned to work regularly with (not in place of) one home room teacher and one study hall teacher. The intern shall be assigned one duty period per day, or comparable duties in other administrative structures. As a general rule, intern teachers may be assigned to a particular South Hadley School for a maximum of 16 weeks, at the discretion of the principal. The high school prefers 8 week internships.