Many of my learning goals for my summer internship with teachNOLA / TNTP Academy revolved around communicating effectively with those that I interacted with, and becoming knowledgeable with the tools that I was using to complete my tasks, specifically Excel. As my internship continued, I became a lot more confident with composing emails and communicating effectively with those around me. I learned it is important to repeat necessary things because not everyone will catch it the first time. I learned that even if you think an individual will ask a follow-up question or already should know the information, it is important to supply them with as much information as possible the first time you confer with them, as to limit any more confusion. Pretty much every task that I did involved recording information in an Excel sheet, or pulling information from another Excel sheet. One thing I learned to do with Excel was a VLOOKUP. This function allows you to draw information from a file of interest and transfer it to the file you are using automatically, with the use of a common identifier. This function saves a lot of time and unnecessary transferring from one document to the other. Another one of my learning goals was centered around asking fewer questions, and being more thorough in the questions that I did ask. I learned that the more comfortable you get in a position and the more confident you become in your abilities, the easier the question asking becomes, the fewer the trivial questions become, and the easier the answers are to understand.

During the rest of my time at Tulane, I plan to help where help is needed in my life. Many of the everyday tasks that I completed aside from my long projects were things that really just were helping get things done that other people maybe didn’t have time to do. Myself and the other interns made posters to hang up at PST and we helped with the folding and distribution of the end of training T-shirts. We also were at hand to help with anything the staff needed during the big hiring fair for the fellows as well. During the rest of my time at Tulane I also plan to just enjoy myself. Watching how stressed each of these fellows were about making sure they got through the program, and figuring out where all the money was going to come from to pay for it, made me realize how I am not ready to jump full-force into adulthood. I’d rather just enjoy the time I’ve been given to relax and be naïve, and take advantage of that time. In the future, I look forward to learning more: more about where I am at, more about where I want to go, and more about what I can do to contribute to society.

If anyone is interested in interning with teachNOLA / TNTP Academy, this is what I recommend. Be flexible. Take advantage of all the opportunities you get to help anyone. I wish I would have taken more opportunities to see what it is that actually happens during Pre Service Training, rather than just what is behind the scenes. Be on time. You can get a lot more work done, and have a lot more opportunities to do new things if you make the most of your time, including getting there early. Enjoy the job you are doing. The staff is great and more than willing to help with any questions you may have.

If you are interested in the field of non-profits I would explore the vast number of opportunities. There are many non-profits that offer a number of different services. If there is one thing I learned from my internship, it is that there are many different branches on a tree. Everyone each has their own job and their own leaves to support so explore.

I learned that to become a more effective problem solver, you have to be firm and flexible at the same time. You have to try to understand each individual’s problems while still trying to get your job done, which is heavily dependent on deadlines. It is all a balancing act, and it is important not to judge any one person because their situation may be a little more difficult than another’s.

I have had a great summer with teachNOLA / TNTP Academy. My favorite part was getting to interact with the staff, the fellows, and my fellow interns. I have learned a lot, and I look forward to implementing what I’ve learned in the future wherever it may apply.

Hannah

 

 

 

Hey y’all!

This past month at teachNOLA/TNTP has been great! We are in full swing of Pre-Service Training (PST) for this years teachNOLA fellows so it is definitely exciting each day. PST occurs at a local charter school in New Orleans East so it has also been a change of scenery. With the start of PST, my duties have shifted a bit. Instead of solely working on collecting fellows paperwork from the database, I am now getting to talk with the fellows one-on-one with regards to their paperwork and progress. Along with that, I am getting to see the process of what teachNOLA really does, and just how much work gets put in from both the staff and the fellows. Oh, and I also got to make some posters for PST!

Mainly, what I have been doing as the Operation Intern is all focused on getting the fellows licensed. For the current cohort, I am collecting their transcripts and Praxis scores and compiling them for each person so that when it comes time for them to apply for their practitioners license, everything will be in order. The Department of Education has certain standards with which everything has to be submitted, so we have to make sure that everything that gets turned into us will pass with the DOE. A new task that I have been working on is processing past year’s fellows practitioner license renewals or their level 1 license applications. I’ve found that it is important to follow the right process and procedure each time, especially since the fellows licenses rely on the correct completion of all the paperwork.

I am definitely feeling more confident in each of the tasks that I am assigned, and am having to ask less questions. I think I am making progress on my communication skills, and feel more confident composing professional emails. Although comfort isn’t necessarily a measure of progress, but it is amazing how much more you can get done when you aren’t constantly worried about doing something incorrectly. I am most proud of the fact that I am becoming a more independent worker in the office, as a result of a gain in knowledge. I come into the office in the morning, and usually have an idea of what I need to do each day. I think throughout this internship my communication skills will continue to grow, as well as administrative skills. Because I plan on getting a masters degree in Health Administration, I think these skills will prove important both in the classroom and on the work force.

I can’t wait to see what the next month has in store with teachNOLA/TNTP!

Until next time,

Hannah

Hey y’all!

This past week at teachNOLA has been very insightful, and I can’t wait for what will come next!

First off, I learned that teachNOLA and TNTP Academy are one and the same so I am interning for both organizations. TNTP used to stand for The New Teacher Project, but after awhile, it has just come to be TNTP.

The teachNOLA/TNTP Academy office is located in the CBD in New Orleans, right across from the Superdome, which is where I park! When I walked into the office, all I could think about was the television show The Office, and if my experience was going to be anything like the show. Let me tell you, my supervisor bares little to no resemblance to Michael Scott, and there aren’t quite the shenanigans in the teachNOLA office as in the Dunder Mifflin office, but I’m still enjoying it just the same! I think I have met just about everyone that works in the office, and they all seem very nice, and I look forward to interacting more with them in the future! Later on this week, there is another intern starting and I can’t wait to meet him or her, and start working with them as well.

At the start of the week, I was given an introduction to what teachNOLA does, and about all the necessary paperwork that must be received for all of this to be achieved. There is so many documents that come into play for teacher’s to be eligible for certification, and it is our responsibility to make sure that everyone has the necessary documents before the start of our Pre-Service Training. We use a large Google spreadsheet to compile everything, which we draw from a database and emails. I have learned that it is important to record everything, right when it happens, and that when recorded, it needs to be in the same format to make it easier to look up in the future, which can be difficult sometimes with multiple people inputting in the spreadsheet.

Most of my tasks throughout the week have been inputting information into the spreadsheet from the database, and then later on in the week I sent out 3 emails that were distributed to around 80-90 recipients, in which I then weaved through responses, responded and input more information into the spreadsheet. It is amazing how fast an inbox can fill up!

I look forward to developing my computer and communication skills, and well as learning the ins and outs of administrative tasks, through this internship. For now, most of what I will be doing will deal with the spreadsheet, but Pre-Service Training will start in a couple of weeks, and I can’t wait to see what that entails and what they will have me do next!

Until next time,

Hannah

My name is Hannah Ryan, and I will be a senior this upcoming fall! I am majoring in Public Health, and after graduation will be continuing onto complete my MHA at Tulane’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. I found my internship for this summer at one of Tulane’s Center for Public Service’s Internship Fairs.

This summer I am interning with teachNOLA. teachNOLA is a nonprofit teacher preparation program that “is designed to transform talented professionals into great teachers through practical, classroom-centered coursework, with a sharp focus on core skills.” teachNOLA is dedicated to “training a generation of great teachers who believe that change starts in the classroom.” The main office of teachNOLA is located in downtown New Orleans, but this summer I will be working at different training sites throughout the local area, as well as working in the office.

As an Operations Intern with teachNOLA I will be managing logistics for teaching hiring fairs, as well as developing strategies to collect licensing materials from teachers who have not yet turned them in. I will be following up with teachers about licensing documentation, which will be important to ensure that the teachers are on track to receive their license. One important skill I will be building is proficiency in Excel so I am able to quickly and efficiently communicate with teachers. I will also be helping to manage training/hiring logistics.

This summer, I hope to learn a lot about how a non-profit functions on a day-to-day basis, as well as develop various computer and communication skills. I am really looking forward to working with new people, and learning from every opportunity I take this summer. I am very interested in education, and think the exposure to teachNOLA and how it functions will be insightful into the changing education system.

Until next time,

Hannah