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Since writing at the end of the month, I've been feeling a lot
better about my approach. I'm able to make it through the entire
internship with only TWO days out of school. I did about 15)
hours the week before pre-planning (in my elementary placement).
That is a neighboring district with a different schedule. I am
doing another 15 hours in that district this month when we have
two days off when they are IN session.

I am not the type to take time off work for an internship. My
students are my priority. This is why I posted here asking for
support. I think missing two days in three months will be
doable. The internship will be completed at the end of November,
and I haven't taken any time off yet. I've been doing
observations during planning and coming in at the crack of dawn
to make up for lost time.

I didn't want to do a summer placement because I wanted to get
more out of the experience that interviewing and inventory. I
wanted to get my hours in when school was in session in order to
get the most authentic experience possible.

Thanks for your response.

On 9/29/13, First question needs to be, "What's best for my
students?" wrote:
> Address the situation immediately with the college you're
> PAYING to get you through the admin credentialing process.
> Remember that you are their CUSTOMER, and they should be
> helping you with an appropriate placement. They really should
> have done this over the summer. I've never heard of an
> administrative internship, but it obviously shouldn't involve
> working full-time in a position that has nothing to do with
> administration, then scrambling around to do 90 extra hours in
> admin work...when, after school??
>
> Honestly, I'm not seeing any way that's going to work well for
> anyone. You WILL need to take time off to, effectively, take
> on a second job during the hours you're already working.
> That's absolutely cheating the students. It's reprehensible
> that your college advisers even allowed the situation to get
> this far.
>
> If you want to stay in the classroom, tell your college that
> you need to complete the admin credential next semester, or
> over the summer, or next year, when you'll have time to do it.
>
> If you really want to complete the internship now, then you
> need to get out of the Language Arts gig so you can do that,
> and so the students have either a good long-term sub or a
> replacement teacher who can give them their full attention.
> Language Arts is too important a subject, particularly in
> eighth grade, for the teacher to be coming and going, trying to
> cut time corners, and so forth. Sure, you can tell yourself,
> "It's only one year." But that's from YOUR perspective. Those
> children will have exactly ONE eighth-grade ELL teacher in
> their entire lives, and right now that's YOU, so if you stay in
> that classroom, it's your responsibility to be 100% present and
> focused on THEIR needs, not your own outside time challenges.
>
> You simply won't be able to do both things well. You need to
> decide which is more important to you. Then drop the other
> thing, if only for now, and throw all your time and energy
> behind Door #1.
>
>
> On 9/22/13, Busy intern AND teacher in Florida! wrote:
>> I'm currently teaching 8th grade language arts while taking
>> my last two courses for administrative certification. One
>> of these courses is the internship, and I've chosen an
>> approach that incorporates both elementary and middle
>> school experiences.
>>
>> The challenge is finding the time to complete the required
>> 90 hours of experiences while teaching full-time. I have a
>> few colleagues who have done this while working in an
>> administrative position, such as a dean or even as a CRT.
>> They reported few issues due to the nature of their jobs.
>>
>> I'm trying to avoid taking personal days, but I'm not sure
>> how I'll be able to complete the hours without taking time
>> off. I did not do this over the summer because I wanted to
>> have the chance to work with a principal while school was
>> in session.
>>
>> I would appreciate any suggestions for tasks that could be
>> completed outside of school. I'm looking at planning a
>> brief inservice of some kind, doing some data analysis at
>> home, and so forth.
>>
>> I would also like to hear any suggestions regarding
>> experiences you feel are absolutely essential for the
>> internship. I will be taking some personal days next month.
>>
>> Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

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