Trinity Internships provide a 360° view
After officially launching in 2023, Trinity’s Teaching Internship Program has welcomed four new Interns into the program across different departments, including Drama, Physics, Visual Arts, and Economics.
Trinity’s Internship Program offers up an opportunity for pre-service teachers to engage in paid, practical experience with the support of mentors; a commitment that they are able to balance alongside their studies.
‘Placement’ or ‘Prac’ during Education Degrees is an extremely valuable experience, giving students an opportunity to teach in a school setting, putting their theory into practice. But many students say that the university-organised placement can be too short and too infrequent, leaving them craving more opportunities for hands-on experience.
“Prac is so short, but being part of the Trinity Intern Program means I am immersed in teaching for a far longer time,” says Ms Cassie Longworth, a 2024 Intern in the Visual Arts Department. “You can build rapports that you can’t build in four weeks with students and see things right through to the end for a whole year. You can be involved in reports and things that you wouldn’t usually get to do in prac, so you’re seeing every single side of a school. It’s really great; I would recommend it to anyone who is becoming a teacher.”
Typically, education degree placement at one school takes place across a number of weeks in a single term which limits the scope of work that Education students are able to experience.
Candy Huang, another 2024 Intern teaching Physics says that the year-round nature of Trinity Internships is one of its biggest strengths, allowing her to see things from beginning to end to get the whole picture.
“We’re here for one day a week for the whole year,” she says. “You get to be here at the beginning of the year where you see how the teachers settle the classes into new routines – especially the Year 7s … helping them transition from primary school to high school – and you don’t get to see that on a placement that is usually in Term 3 or Term 4.
“And, because I’m here the whole year, I get to watch teachers write assessments, conduct them, mark them, provide feedback – I get to be involved in that! I actually wrote a few questions for an exam for the first time recently. You also get to experience things like Year 7 Swap Days, see how things work for Parent/Teacher interviews … it’s just a lot more insight than you’ll get in only a four-week placement.”
The reality of teaching in a classroom can be quite different from the theory taught during a degree. With so many variables and unique routines at every school, a Trinity Internship is giving Interns opportunities to embrace adaptability.
“You need to be able to pre-plan, but with the knowledge that you’re going to lose lessons,” Ms Helena Wilkinson, a 2024 Intern teaching Drama and Studies of Religion. “It’s learning to function better when things change. The routines are set, but there are often things that come up, like the athletics carnival or swimming carnivals … or kids will be sick! Dealing with those changes really helps and that’s been a really helpful insight from the program.”
