Austin Internship to Promote Hands-On Experience for Aspiring Teachers
Students in the teaching professions Magnet program at Stephen F. Austin High School are getting real “hands-on” classroom experience and learning what being a teacher is all about.
Now, thanks to a plan approved by the HISD Board of Education on March 12, 2009, this innovative internship program will be submitted to the Texas Education Agency for renewal.
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| Crespo Elementary School teacher Luis Sáenz is an Austin High School Magnet teaching program success story. He participated in the program in 1999 and has since been nominated for HISD Teacher of the Year and Bilingual Teacher of the Year. |
The educational internship class is taken by seniors, who are matched with master teachers at participating local HISD schools. The students work two hours a day, two or three days a week, as teaching interns. While at their assigned schools, they gain valuable, first-hand experience, and make significant positive contributions to the learning environment.
“It makes us very proud to see our senior Magnet students going out into the community and passing on some of what they have learned here at Austin to younger students,” said Austin High School Principal Linda Llorente. “The educational internship class is an excellent way for our students to get a feel for what it is like to actually be an educator, while at the same time giving back to their community.”
“There is nowhere, outside of university teaching programs, where students can get this kind of hands-on teaching experience to prepare them to take charge of their own classrooms,” said HISD Magnet Specialist Kathy Koch.
Luis Sáenz participated in the educational internship course while in the Magnet program at Austin High School in 1999. He went on to receive a Bachelor’s of Arts in Bilingual Education and a Master’s degree in English Literature. He is currently teaching at HISD’s Manuel Crespo Elementary School, where he previously was nominated for HISD Teacher of the Year and Bilingual Teacher of the Year.
“I attribute much of my success to my experience in the educational internship class, which was an eye-opening experience of the tremendous role teachers play every day in the classroom,” said Saenz. “As an intern at Cage Elementary, I would observe my mentor teacher, Mrs. Ebel, implement consistent classroom management techniques, higher-thinking skills, and excellent methods of organization to facilitate her instruction. Now, as a bilingual fourth-grade teacher, I continue to use those techniques to provide a successful learning environment for my students.”
