Frostburg State University

Intern:

Amy Jo Llewellyn

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.

In reviewing my pre-assessment survey, I can see a definite degree of improvement in not

only my level of comfort with each standard, but also my level of confidence within each
standard. I was able to focus on specific areas in which I had originally rated myself as some
to low degree of ability. By the conclusion of my practicum experience, I feel that I have
gained knowledge and experience in each of the standards. For example, during the activities
in which I provided staff development, I was able to evaluate my degree of ability, and also
gather feedback from faculty regarding their evaluation of the staff development training.
The positive feedback I received, as well as the constructive criticism, have enabled me to
assess my skills and effectiveness as an instructional leader.
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 feel that as part of the activities involved in coaching our newly formed PBIS team, I was

definitely able to meet the specific needs of the individuals who participated on the team.
Throughout the school year, I held meetings twice per month during the first semester, and once
per month during the second semester. These meetings were designed to facilitate the
development of the newly formed PBIS program at Allegany High School. The team members
began with little to no knowledge of the PBIS program, and all participants ended the year with a
clear understanding of the goals, objectives, and the critical components of the program. The
post-evaluation implementation survey clearly indicates growth on the part of the participants.
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?

The Allegany High School Mission statement is, Preparing all students for tomorrows
challenges life, college, career. In developing the Positive Behavior Interventions and
Supports (PBIS) team, a major part of the program revolves around taking the schools mission
statement and creating a school-wide approach to effectively developing the school climate and
culture to be reflective of that mission statement. This school year is the implementation year for
PBIS. This means that all 10 critical features must be addressed. The first few critical features
all involve creating a school vision and mission statement and then effectively incorporating the
school vision into all aspects of the educational program. Not only was I able to work with the
staff members who had been assigned to the initial PBIS team, but I was also able to gather
further buy-in from staff who were not initially signed up to participate. Several staff
members have currently approached me to ask to become part of the team. This helps me to
realize that learning was positively affected by my work as PBIS team coach.
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.

Each high school within the county (with the exception of CCTE) has been mandated by the
state department of education to implement the PBIS program. I was able to participate with not
only my own faculty and staff at AHS, but I was also privileged to be a part of the county level
PBIS team. I worked closely with Randi Agetstein at the central office to facilitate team growth
and to establish a network of collaborators at the county level.
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?

Yes. The Spring Implementation Phase Inventory (IPI) was completed by two administrators as
well as the instructional leaders, and the PBIS team at Allegany High School. The Spring IPI
was used as one of my artifacts for Element 6.3. The graph at the end of the IPI clearly provides
data indicating growth among all indicators of the PBIS program.
6. Identify your efforts to bring members of different groups together to work on
achieving similar goals and objectives.

I feel that there were two activities that exemplified my work toward bringing members of
different groups together to work on achieving similar goals and objectives. The first activity
would be where I planned and created an opportunity for parents of upcoming seniors to meet
with administrators and guidance counselors in order to discuss the senior year process. The two
groups in this case would be the parents of the class of 2016 and the administrative/guidance
staff at Allegany High School. The goal in this case is to prepare parents for the process that
their students will encounter as they begin the college application process. This meeting was the
first of its kind at Allegany High School. We had over 40 parents attend and the feedback we
received was very positive. Parents expressed appreciation for being invited to the school as
well as appreciation for the information shared.
In the second activity, the PBIS team members and the faculty came together to work toward
implementing the new PBIS program. The efforts that were made this past semester have gone a
long way toward achieving buy in from staff as well as the input and viewpoints that faculty can
offer as they take ownership into this new program.

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.

One strategy employed to engage staff members into the PBIS team was to ask for input in the
form of a survey conducted. Staff members were able to answer a series of questions
anonymously and the survey information was then used to focus the needs and goals of staff
members. A second strategy employed was to recognize staff on the Wall of Awesome in the
faculty lounge. By allowing faculty members to recognize each other for all that they do behind
the scenes, faculty may feel more a part of the collaborative team and less like they are somply
fulfilling yet another state mandated task.
8. Name or identify types of planning strategies utilized in your project work.

The main type of planning strategy utilized in the PBIS implementation year plan was strategic.
Because this is an implementation year, it was important to start at the strategic planning level so
that we could start with the schools mission and vision statement and work toward a long range
goal of building school culture. The PBIS model itself is built upon strategic planning and is
designed in a way that first identifies the long-range goal, and then builds the critical elements to
achieve that goal. A second key ingredient of strategic planning is that it requires multilevel
involvement which allows all participants to play a significant role in achieving the goals. By
developing a team consisting of administration, faculty, instructional leaders, and support staff,
we are able to facilitate a more collaborative effort among staff.
I came across several instances throughout my practicum experience where I felt that some
excellent ideas on the part of experienced teachers and staff are being squelched because of the
sheer amount of mandated tasks and obligations being handed down by the state. During the
course of my practicum experience, I had the opportunity to discuss current trends and initiatives
with faculty members. Many faculty members currently feel overburdened with mandated
requirements which are stifling their creativity, passion for education, and love for the teaching
profession.
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.