EXTENDED GRADUATE INTERNSHIP FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION

Catalog description

The graduate internship experience consists of 170 hours of teaching students with disabilities in the role of the special education teacher and is divided into two components, clinical experience and clinical internship. Clinical experience consists of 50 hours working in childhood (P-6) or secondary (7-12) settings prior to the internship. The internship is the culminating experience and consists of 120 hours teaching under the guidance of a mentor teacher who is certified to teach students with disabilities at the 1-6 (Childhood) or 7-12 level. Students MUST complete one of these experiences at the P-6 grade level and the other at grade 7-12. Students are expected to apply developmentally appropriate differentiated instruction to meet individual needs, develop both long and short-term plans to implement curriculum, use technology to enhance instruction, develop and administer appropriate assessment strategies, provide instruction and monitor progress for IEP goals, organize and manage the classroom environment and exhibit the characteristics and ethics of a professional special educator.