Frostburg State University Intern Justin Ridenour

Form 002
Administration and Supervision
Self-Assessment of Final Practicum
Your internship has been a total experience that included not only yourself, but also all of the staff, administration,
students, parents, and community members who participated in some way in projects of your implementation. Also,
you might consider all of the individuals you were required to deal with as you conducted the internship duties and
responsibilities. For example, discipline problems would normally involve students, teachers, and parents at a
minimum. As you attended to such discipline problems, you would be engaged in trying to facilitate among the
needs of all individuals. Given this back-drop, provide answers to the following questions regarding your internship
practicum experience.

1. Was your internship effective? Did it meet all of the goals and objectives as stated in your Planning Guide?
In answering this question fully, consider the use of such instrumentation as:
a. Pre- and post-surveys to determine outcomes of staff development training
b. Observation checklists to determine if students were behaving in the ways expected by the school
and the community
c. Interview schedules to determine parent and community opinions about the need for a change or
the impact of a change
d. Data from standardized tests and measures to determine how well students have learned over a
given period of time in given subject areas.

I feel that after this experience I not only met my goals and objective, but I feel I surpassed
and exceeded my expectations. I set out to give myself an authentic experience and I believe
I did just that through my practicums. Upon finishing my practicums, I feel I completed each
and every goal. Through running a program as a leader, analyzing data, evaluating teachers,
and developing schedules, I feel that I have a greater grasp on what it means to be a leader
and administrator.

2. Did your internship projects meet the specific needs of all of the individuals who participated? Where
Question #1 focuses on the project goals and objectives of your internship, this question focuses on the needs
of individual participants. How well do you believe individual participants needs were met throughout your
internship?

I believe that I met the needs of the individuals who I impacted during my internships. One
example comes from serving as the principal of University Pals. I was asked by my interning
teachers to observe and give feedback to them. Through these observations I saw growth in
week I was with them. Second, I was asked by the administrator of my school to be part of the
technology implementation team. As part of this team, I helped pave the way for 1 to 1 iPad
implementation in the classrooms. I also helped establish what a technology integrated
classroom looks like.
3. Did your internship help to bring about meaningful organizational change in your school building? Many
times internship projects are designed to facilitate the development and implementation of new programs
either for the delivery of instructional services to students of to help in the management of the organization.
Did your internship facilitate such conditions at the building level? One important way to determine the
 answer to this question is to investigate whether or not your internship projects had an impact on the
buildings mission and /or vision statements regarding schooling. Was learning positively affected by your
work?

I believe that I did have an organizational impact in both of my internships. In my first

practicum as the principal of University Pals, I wrote official documents for the University
Pals handbook. Under my time as principal, there needed to be a policy added to terminate
teachers. During my second internship at Potomack Intermediate School, I was part of the
iTeam. This was a county team that established what a classroom would look like with 1 to 1
iPads. I assisted in constructing the iPad contract on the county that is currently used.

4. Did your internship help to bring about meaningful organizational change in the school district? There have
been times when an internship project has been piloted at a building site with the intention that, if judged to
be effective, the district or the division would have considered adapting it at other sites. In this way a pilot
project could have an impact on the organizational change of an entire district or division. How close did
your internship come to enjoying such an impact on the district or division? In refining your answer to this
question with an interest of establishing a broader base t it, consider reviewing the districts or the divisions
mission statement or board of education annual reports on their goals to the community.

During my internship at Potomack Intermediate School, as part of the iTeam, I assisted in

constructing the iPad contract for parents. This contract was the basis for students iPad when
the county went 1 to 1 with iPads. During a parent night at Potomack about iPads, I assisted
the Math curriculum director in constructing the presentation for the countys Math series.

5. Did your internship experience provide project participants an opportunity to have input on the overall
assessment of the experience? Did you give staff members, parents, students, and community members an
opportunity to let you know how they think your internship affected the district or the division, the building,
and the instructional programs?

During my internships I was in constant contact with my principal at Potomack Intermediate I

School. During these conversations, I would ask how I could meet certain objective and what I
could do to improve. While I was the principal at University Pals, I held meetings once a
and during these meetings I asked how my interning teacher what I could do to improve as
their administrator.

6. Identify your efforts to bring members of different groups together to work on achieving similar goals and
objectives.

As the principal of University Pals, I brought my team together and created a collaborative.
summer school. Each day I assisted teachers in creating effective routines. During my
internship at Potomack Intermediate School, I was a pilot teacher for departmentalization
During this experience, I asked teachers to track data of their classroom, I complied this
and used it to establish if this piloted program increased student outcome. As other teachers
and the administration was also interested, it took a team effort to keep classroom data tracked.
7. Identify strategies used to engage members from different constituents in the project work. Examples of such
constituents include but are not limited to these: parents, senior citizens, and local government figures.

During my internships, I collaborated with many different individuals. I worked alongside my

administration team at Potomack Intermediate School. While working on a presentation for
parents concerning Math, I worked alongside the Math curriculum director at Berkeley county
board of education. As the principal of University Pals, I worked each day with my interning
teachers to effectively run a summer program.

8. Name or identify types of planning strategies utilized in your project work.

During each internship I made sure to document everything I did electronically. On my tabular
summary I made sure to plan what needed to be done. I created checklists of what I needed to
do in order to complete all tasks. While at University Pals, I made sure each morning to create
a to-do list. My goal each day was to complete my to-do list and make time to go into
classrooms

9. Name or identify ways by which your internship experience might have made it clear to you that local issues
can confront us with barriers to change.

As the principal of University Pals, I found that the funding of this program was extremely
difficult to do. The local government offered no assistance to this program. It was through
grant writing that this program still exists. Without the efforts of the administration team and
the program director, University Pals can continue year after year. I realized that the advocacy
for the program is just as important as the implementation and management pieces.