Internship Activity Reports

Your Name: Austin Schmidt

On-site mentor’s name & position: Heather Patriquin, Learning Support Team Lead

Internship Activity Report #1

Due March 2, 2018
Name: Austin Schmidt
Date: 2/28/2018

Place an X under the domain(s) that will be focused on in this Activity Report:
Domain 1 Domain 2 Domain 3 Domain 4 Domain 5 Domain 6 Domain 7
Fostering a Accessing Promoting Facilitating Promoting Improving Advocating
collaborativ and using professional improvemen the use of outreach for for student
e culture to research to learning for t in assessments collaboration learning and
support improve continuous instruction and data for with families the
educator practice and improvemen and student school and profession
developmen student t learning improvement community
t for learning
student
learning

X X X X

Provide a summary of your activity within this project:

Thus far, I have worked with my mentor to find materials that would be beneficial to the
classroom teachers that will be using the services set up by the mentorship team. I have
also begun to choose which classroom teachers are both willing to be apart of this
program and use the mentorship team, as well as how they would most like to use the
mentorship team. I have located a total of 5 teachers in grades KG to Grade 4 that felt as
though they could benefit from this sort of mentorship program. My on-site mentor and I
chose these five teachers because they had all gone to her previously in the year to ask
for advice with working with their students on the spectrum. All of the teachers expressed
interest in being exposed to additional resources, two of the teachers were open to
attending a small intensive workshop and three of the teachers were open to allowing for
observations to occur in their classrooms and for feedback to be given following that. I will
also be gauging their reactions at the end of the mentorship period to see how further
alterations could be made in the future if the mentorship team was to continue in future
years.

Describe how this activity applies to Teacher Leadership.

This activity applies to teacher leadership because the end goal is to help the teachers
involved be able to better accommodate and service all of their students.

How is this activity aligned with the chosen Domain of TLMS?

The main domain I will focus on during this section is domain 3, promoting professional
learning for continuous improvement. The biggest part of this phase of my project has

EdLead 6291, Internship Activity Report

been acquiring resources that can help the teachers as they move forward. Finding the
resources that will help is a big part of how we can continuously improve in the field of
education. This is also related because I was able to learn how to best assist these
teachers in the future by following their survey of what services they feel they need.

Reflect upon your growth and learning thus far in Teacher Leadership as a result
of this project.
I think the biggest way I have grown as how I see teacher leadership is in how difficult it
can be to get people to make changes. When I went to my mentor, she listed probably
fifteen or sixteen teachers who had come to her asking for advice about working with their
students on the spectrum, however when I went and talked to those teachers, only five
had actually followed her advice (hence the reason I have five participants in my
mentorship group). Because of this I know understand just how hard teacher leaders have
to work to motivate people to follow them on their innovations and how important a
school culture that is open to change can be.

EdLead 6291, Internship Activity Report

 Internship Activity Report #2
Due April 6, 2018
Name: Austin Schmidt
Date: 3/21/17

Place an X under the domain(s) that will be focused on in this Activity Report:
Domain 1 Domain 2 Domain 3 Domain 4 Domain 5 Domain 6 Domain 7
Fostering Accessing Promoting Facilitating Promoting Improving Advocating
a and using profession improvem the use of outreach for student
collaborat research to al learning ent in assessment for learning
ive improve for instruction s and data collaboratio and the
culture to practice continuous and for school n with profession
support and improvem student improveme families
educator student ent learning nt and
developm learning community
ent for
student
learning

X X X X

Provide a summary of your recent activity within this project:

My mentor and I have continued to gather materials that will be helpful to the teachers
that have agreed to be apart of the mentorship program. In addition to the five initial
members of the group, three more have been added from either Kindergarten or Grade 3.
None of the new additions have students in their class who fall on the autism spectrum,
but knowing the incoming classes they will have next year, they have chosen to get some
background information so they are well prepared for the following year.
Observations of the three teachers who agreed to be observed by the mentorship team
have started, and each teacher has two observations under their belt. Immediate
feedback was given to those three teachers after each observation; additionally we were
able to guide them to additional resources to use in the classroom to better reach all their
learners. All three teachers seemed to be very interested in hearing the feedback they
were given.
Using what we observed during our in-class observations we were able to create a small
group time with the two who agreed to participate in a small group intensive workshop.
We have only met once with this small group, and has so far proven to be the most
difficult to organize. The time that we met with the small group, was primarily sharing
personal findings from our classes and how they related to what we may have read or
watched from the materials provided. Promisingly, the two teachers and the mentorship
team seemed to grow from bouncing different ideas off of each other and learning from
what others have done. I think in the future when/if this idea is recreated, the small group
it will be more of a group sharing and brainstorming session based off of personal
experiences and reflections from the shared materials.

How is this activity aligned with the chosen Domain(s) of TLMS?

This section I found a lot of chances for the different teachers to collaborate! They were
sharing suggestions with each other and finding common ground based on shared
experiences. Once we located the teachers who were finding similar backgrounds we were

EdLead 6291, Internship Activity Report

able to better cater our resources to them, and gave them the tools to work together both
with the mentorship team and with each other to be more successful!

Reflect upon your growth and learning thus far in Teacher Leadership as a result
of this project.
I think with this section I realized I needed a lot more flexibility than I thought I would
need. As a teacher, I am use to changing plans at the drop of a hat because kids are so
unpredictable. I had gone into this experience thinking working and leading adults would
be easier because adults are more predictable. I could not have been more wrong! Adults
need just as much wiggle room as kids do, and just like kids, adults have their own
agendas and lists of things that are important to them, and as leaders of these people we
must take these into account.

EdLead 6291, Internship Activity Report

 Internship Activity Report # 3
Due May 4, 2018

Name: Austin Schmidt

Date: 4/30/17

Place an X under the domain(s) that will be focused on in this Activity Report:
Domain 1 Domain 2 Domain 3 Domain 4 Domain 5 Domain 6 Domain 7
Fostering Accessing Promoting Facilitating Promoting Improving Advocating
a and using profession improvem the use of outreach for student
collaborat research to al learning ent in assessment for learning
ive improve for instruction s and data collaboratio and the
culture to practice continuous and for school n with profession
support and improvem student improveme families
educator student ent learning nt and
developm learning community
ent for
student
learning

X X X X

Provide a summary of your most recent activity within this project:

As we have finished with the “official” portion of the mentoring program, my mentor and I
have had a chance to reflect on what we have found from what we have observed
ourselves and what the participants have said. As mentioned in the previous posts, I had
planned on giving a “post-participation” survey to the five initial teachers that have been
apart of the program since the beginning. Overall, the feedback was very high! The most
beneficial aspect of the mentorship project seemed to be the informal observations of the
classroom, and those teachers who participated felt as though the feedback was incredibly
helpful. The least successful portion of the program was the small intensive workshop.
After the second report, we were able to have two more meetings as a small group, but
each time it felt disorganized, and felt more like small group sharing time, than a time to
help. In the future, that may be a part that is cut, or is re-vamped in a very big way.
There were two other teachers that have also reached out to be involved in the program
in various ways. Both were interested in having access to additional resources, and one of
them was very keen on the idea of an informal observation with some follow-up
personalized directions.

How is this activity aligned with the chosen Domain of TLMS?

This activity aligns with domain 4, facilitating improvement in instruction and student
learning. Through the use of the one-on-one meetings and observations, as well as the
introduction of the new resources, this program has helped the teachers to be able to
improve their instruction by helping their students to learn in a more meaningful way.
Through these aspects of the program, they have also been able to hear of new ways to
manage their classrooms in a way that is sensitive to students on the spectrum, which
often times can be beneficial to students who are not diagnosed on the autism spectrum.

Describe how this project is applicable to future leadership roles.

I think there are many ways that this project can open up future leadership roles. In the

EdLead 6291, Internship Activity Report

future, I think my school, or any other schools with a high population of students who
may need additional services, should look into hiring a specialist or team of specialists
who are available to help the teachers to improve in their craft. After this experience, I
have come to the conclusion; it is almost a full time job to do all of this mentoring on top
of the full time job of being a teacher.

Reflect upon your overall growth and learning in Teacher Leadership as a result
of this project.
My biggest take away is just how much work goes into being an effective teacher leader.
As was touched on in the previous question, it really is a full time job on top of a full time
job! I also think I really started to understand the importance of using the input of others
when making leadership decisions. As the mentorship program went on, I saw that it was
very important that I listened to the participants in order to guarantee success!

EdLead 6291, Internship Activity Report