Nathaly Jaquez

Experience paper

4/48/16

At first this semester started off a bit rough because I could not
get approval from the Board of Education for the original district where
I was trying to do my internship. It took a couple of months, but after
Professor Klein reached out to Dr. Solter, the superintendent of the
North Bergen School district I was able to find placement. Unlike many
other students who have the length of an entire semester to cover 150
hours with an administrator, I had a little over a month to complete
everything. At first that seemed terribly intimidating and there was the
possibility that I might not be able to complete it all. Luckily for me,
since I am not working at the moment I get more time to dedicate to
the internship. Meaning that for an entire month I was able to spend
every day of every week with the principal of a school. Since I was with
the principal every hour of every day I was able to see every last detail
of how he does things and how he manages his school.
All throughout my time at Lincoln school with Principal Pastor I
was never idle and luckily always had something to do. For the most
part, I cannot be directly involved with any situations, but I am allowed
to be present for a large majority of it and I did a good job of
documenting every moment of every day. My very first week I was
able to witness a wax museum where all of the 5th grade classes put
on a museum like walk through in the gym. All of the students present
were dressed as historical characters and next to them they had a
large red button. Once the passerby pressed the button next to each

Nathaly Jaquez

Experience paper

4/48/16

child then the child would begin a short performance talking about
themselves and explaining their historical accomplishments. When the
time was up the character would freeze in time once again like a
museum piece. Since it was cross curricular and involved everything
from black history, womens history, history, etc. they were able to
make time for it without it being a disruption in the day.
The following day I witnessed the school wide talent show where
my principal Francis Pastor played the guitar in his band called The
Referrals. The funds collected for the talent show that were sent to an
organization of choice. In this case the Make a Wish Foundation had
the most student votes. Within this same week I was able to meet the
city mayor who also, happens to be the Director of Elementary and
Secondary Supervision in the district and a New Jersey senator. During
his day at the school I did a quick walk through of every class in the
school with him and spent about an hour talking with him before he
left.
During my time I was supplied with anything I needed and
always directed to the necessary person or department that could best
answer my questions. I was able to see my fair share of good and bad
moments, every day the principal and I tackled a different topic on my
list, every day I made sure to ask him as many questions as I could
think of, and every day he was ready to teach me. He was not
resistant, but was very welcoming to the idea of having an intern with

Nathaly Jaquez

Experience paper

4/48/16

him in the office everyday. My time with this principal was very
informative. I not only received the daily ins and outs of a school and
its administrators, I was able to meet with a series of big stakeholders
within the district from the mayor, superintendent, district attorney,
department directors and everyone in between. Although the school
district is quite large, it works as if it were a small district where the
board works very closely with each of the schools. In particular Lincoln
school had a recent facility extension that added about 400+ K
students and the pre-K. This extension provided space to house
several district directors, supervisors and departments. The amount of
in school programs and departments allowed me insight and the
possibility to see more than what goes on in the average public school
and most districts that I wouldnt have otherwise gotten.
I was even able to see how they managed to have an autism
program within district such ACES (Academic Classroom for
Educational Success). Another great program included AMP (Advanced
Math Program), where the students are allowed to take an extra math
class at the high school so that they can get advanced. The Real
Time computer database that they use is also a lot better than any I
have seen in any other district. It tracks and easily logs all of the
information for any one student in the entire school, and it also works
well with the Danielson Evaluations (calculating scores and sending it
to central offices). I translated several calls for the principal and did

Nathaly Jaquez

Experience paper

4/48/16

teach observations and walk throughs as well. Overall my time as an

administrative intern at Lincoln school was a memorable learning
experience where I learned so much through a principal that was
always available and eager to teach.