Course Description:
This course provides a practicum in selected school media centers under
the supervision of university staff and a certified media specialist
at the school site. It is required of students without school media
center experience to meet initial certification requirements. Students
with school media experience and/or those currently working as media
specialists must complete the requirements of the course, but can incorporate
past and current on-the-job experiences to satisfy the requirements.
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Goal:
To provide students with authentic experiences to serve as a basis for
developing their professional vision, and to familiarize them with the
responsibilities of a media specialist through hands-on experience.
The School Library Media
Internship experience conforms to the University of Georgia’s
College of Education Student Field Experiences Placement Policy:
Candidates
are placed in a wide variety of educational settings and work with students
from diverse backgrounds. Coordination of field experiences and student
teaching placements are made collaboratively by the local school districts,
COE departments and the Office of Student Services in order to ensure
that students complete experiences in two of the following contexts:
rural, inner city/urban and suburban school settings. Student placements
are monitored and tracked and a database is kept by each department
based upon information provided by the student (1) at the completion
of each placement or (2) as part of the candidates’ portfolio.
At the end of each academic year, information from the departmental
databases are provided to the NCATE coordinator and summarized at the
unit level. (Draft version, April, 2003)
EDIT 7460 is evaluated
on a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory basis; successful students earn 3 hours
of semester credit.
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Minimum
Prerequisites:
EDIT 6170: Instructional Design
EDIT 6300: Administration of Media Programs
EDIT 6320: Information Technology
EDIT 6340: Information Services in School Media Programs
EDIT 6360: Information Literacy in School Media Programs
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Objectives:
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The student will be able to define the central
roles of the school media program.
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The student will be
able to describe the organizational structure and management of
a media program.
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The student will be
able to plan and, if possible, conduct a collaborative teaching
experience with classroom teachers.
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The student will be
able to identify characteristics of an effective media program.
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The student will be
able to perform basic procedures and management processes that are
required in a school media center setting.
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The student will be
able to evaluate his or her own performance in a professional media
setting, and formulate long-term goals for self-improvement as a
continuing development process.
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The
student will be able to design media program elements that enable
students of diverse abilities and personal characteristics to learn
and develop in an individually appropriate way.
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Requirements:
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The internship begins
with a meeting between the student and the supervising UGA faculty
member, during which a contract for the internship experience is
established. The contract will include the elements described in
this document, and any other components necessary to fill gaps in
the individual students’ experience and ability. More
than 120 hours may be required if additional experience seems
necessary.
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Contact hours include
a minimum of 100 hours at the primary site, spread over no more
than two semesters.
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The student must spend
a minimum of an additional 20 hours in reflection about the on-site
experience, including keeping an experience log and sharing experiences
with other interns and supervising faculty.
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In addition to
the primary site, the student must spend at least one day each in
two other media centers with grade levels different from the primary
site.
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The student must attend
one or more professional school library, reading, or technology
conferences (either state, regional, national, or international)
during the last year of study.
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The
student should seek and document opportunities to work with a wide
range of diversity in P-12 students.
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The student must submit
all required documentation (see below).
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The student should remember
that he/she is entering a profession with high standards of personal
conduct and appearance as well as definitive legal standards. While
on-site, the student must follow all locally accepted rules applying
to language, dress, and deportment, including relevant school rules,
system rules, state laws, and federal laws. It is the responsibility
of the student to discover the rules and laws that govern the primary
school site.
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Field visits by supervising faculty will be made as needed.
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Site
selection:
The student will work with the supervising faculty member in choosing
a site, and sites must meet the approval of supervising faculty. The
faculty member will be ultimately responsible for contacting the supervising
media specialist and requesting permission for internship placement
with the school’s administration, but the student should expect
to facilitate this process as much as possible. If the student is presently
employed as a teacher or paraprofessional, the student and faculty member
are encouraged to place the student in an internship outside the student’s
present building if possible. Placement in an unfamiliar setting benefits
the student by providing new ideas and different perspectives.
Once
the internship contract is approved by the supervising faculty, it must
be signed by the school’s Principal, by the mentoring media specialist,
and by any other official required by the local school system .
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Documentation:
The student will keep a log of individual experiences reflecting
an understanding of tasks undertaken and observed during the internship.
The log will be a personal record of the student’s experiences
with adequate detail to describe those experiences. However, it should
not include personal names other than the students’. It may include:
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Notes of conversations
held with IT faculty, media specialists, and other media students
about questions and problems encountered during the internship experience;
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Questions about the
media center program and the media specialist’s roles and responsibilities
that the student might explore;
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Discoveries about these
questions resulting from personal investigation;
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Personal reflections
on these discoveries and how they apply to the student’s vision
of a media program; and
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Problems, concerns,
and challenges for future exploration and reflection.
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Minimum
core experiences:
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A project developed
by the student in consultation with the supervising media specialist
and faculty advisor. (Projects involving collaborative planning
with teachers are particularly encouraged.) The student should conduct
the project, and keep a record of its progress in the personal log.
At the end of the experience, the student will submit a brief paper
or other documentation describing the project to the supervising
faculty member.
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Engaging in planning
activities with one or more teachers
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Attendance at a media
committee or technology committee session
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Attendance at a grade-level
or departmental meeting with the media specialist
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Designing an information
literacy component with the media specialist
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Assisting individual
students in information tasks
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Teaching at least one
large-group session in collaboration with a classroom teacher
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Addressing
diversity in students as required by local learning situations
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Waiver:
Students who have worked as professional (paid)
media specialists for one year or more may waive the Internship requirement.
Students interested in doing so should obtain a letter certifying this
employment signed by their school principal. If enrolled in a degree
program, a substitute elective course must be taken to meet minimum
hour requirements.
Instructions
to the student
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Make
preliminary inquiries to determine a site for your internship, and
establish an approximate timeline.
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Visit
your mentor and discuss the activities required to complete the
Internship experience.
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Draw
up a proposal, listing all experiences and demonstrating how you
will meet each requirement. Submit this proposal to the supervising
faculty member. When the professor responds, make changes until
you have a mutually agreed upon contract.
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Return
to your internship site. Share the finalized contract with your
mentor, and obtain his/her signature. Note that more negotiation
may be necessary at this stage. Finally, obtain the signature of
the principal on the contract. In addition, find out if there is
any other school system official that must sign off on your internship.
Make a copy, and return the signed copy to your supervising professor.
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When
the signed copy is submitted, the supervising professor will provide
registration instructions and clearance.
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If
you are a paid professional employee in the school which is your
primary internship site, it is doubly important that you obtain
your principal’s permission. The internship should not interfere
with your normal job responsibilities. If you use your preparation
time to count toward internship hours, then you must make up for
missed clock hours on the job during your own personal time. As
a student at UGA, you are honor-bound to be scrupulously honest
in all matters regarding coursework; that expectation fully applies
to this internship experience in accounting for your time toward
your employer.
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