Jul 01 2008
Working with Administrative Interns
This past school year I worked alongside Linda Finn an educational administrative intern through SUNY Fredonia. This summer Sandy Olson will be attached to the Hewes Center Summer School Program as she works on completing her administrative internship through SUNY Fredonia as well.
Administrative Interns give Principals and Supervisors working in schools a unique opportunity to stop and take stock of process and procedures in the day to day running of an educational venture. Most of the time veteran school administrators work on automatic pilot knowing or seeming to do exactly what needs to be done at the given moment. Time to process information and challenge decisions does not come until the end of the day when school is over, by this time, students may have left school with hurt feelings, teachers may have left feeling ignored or paraprofessionals have left for the day without informing the office of some nagging problem. In my mind even when the school is quiet, the principal may not devote time to valuable reassessment of the day because calls have to made to parents regarding disciplinary actions, email has to be answered, paperwork has to be completed and turned around so as to reach higher office and the demands continue into the night.
Having an administrative intern for me is the greatest joy because I get to explain what is happening in real time, share my thoughts in real time, ask for in-put from another adult in real time, check for understanding of the issues with another school official and get another perspective from people who ordinarily work in school settings in other capacities - Linda Finn is comprehensive health educator throughout Erie 2 CC BOCES, while Sandy is a school psychologist at Panama Central School in Western New York.
It is a privilege to be associated with an administrative intern program. The goals of this program are to give an individual interested in pursuing educational administration the most succinct immersion in the working life of a principal/supervisor. Examples of internship duties and exposure are as follows - hiring, staffing, participating in CSE meetings, writing memos, planning faculty and staff meetings, developing short school based programs, contact with parents, discipline of students, working with outside agencies, developing a administrative portfolio, interacting with teachers and staff, problem solving, assisting in writing grants, researching school based programs and assisting in the evaluation of teachers among other worthwhile opportunities that can be provided by the internship experience.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the interns that have been assigned to my office in the past, now and in the future. You challenge my thinking and my practise and for this I am grateful because together we both learn. To the teachers and staff of the Hewes Center thank you for your patience and understanding as you partake in the development of school leaders.
One response so far
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I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Una and all of the staff at the Hewes Center during my internship. My one regret is that I would have liked to have had more time to spend there. I agree with Una that working alongside someone gives the opportunity for both parties to be reflective in real time and to learn from those experiences. I was able to make mistakes and learn from them in a safe environment. This is valuable beyond measure. Una and the staff at Hewes guided me in the right direction and were supportive of my endeavors. SUNY Fredonia is fortunate to have the opportunity to send administrative interns to the BOCES Centers, because as Una said, it is a win-win for both sides.
I look forward to continuing to work with folks at the Hewes Center now that I have completed my Administrative Certificate program.
Thanks for all of the support and guidance.