Being An Internship Supervisor: Mid-Term Week

One of the best and most difficult parts of my job is evaluating the skills of my interns. This is mid-term week for my current intern, and it is time to get my trusty, competency-based evaluation ready to review. 

My evaluation is 29 pages long. Now, I can do an evaluation, without commenting, in about 30 minutes. Commenting adds time to the evaluation, but it is an important part of this process - feedback, feedback, feedback. The reason my evaluation is so long is that it includes all sorts of information - every competency, operational definitions of each one, and where each competency is demonstrated in the assignments and situations that happen in the internship.

Every single competency has multiple skills (well, except for those that we don't cover in my program) as part of the evaluation process. My interns get this from the beginning of the time - they know what they are supposed to demonstrate from the start of the program in order to pass their time with me. As indicated in the picture above, the first column is the list of the competencies. The second column includes the operational definitions (which I can evaluate using a Yes/No/Sorta system). The third column indicates which assignment(s) include these operational definitions (and is the most specific to my program), and the last two columns are the places where I put my ranking.

I use a three letter grading system - A for area of focus, E for emerging skill, and P for proficient in any skill. I tend to go through the operational definitions and color code the A skills and the E skills. This provides me with a visual cue for comments at the end of the evaluation. All skills ranked A need to be taught and modeled ASAP. All skills marked E are things that are starting to be demonstrated but don't feel completely natural and routine for the intern at evaluation time. Things that I feel are proficient are left without color.

When I go through the evaluation process, I find that it is easy to get through the pages and pages of my eval. The first pass goes quickly, but that is not the only time I go through the process. I tend to go back after a couple of days to review my first draft, change things as needed, and then compile my comments. While I am doing this process, my intern is doing the same thing on their own skills. During the mid-term evaluation, we compare evaluations and clarify what is meant by each operational definition. 

In the years before school sent along their competency-based evaluations (well, most schools - I am still waiting for some of those...), I used this as an initial evaluation as well as the mid-term and final evaluation. I am going to go back to that practice with intern #37 - whomever that turns out to be. I find that having an initial evaluation helps interns with goal development and finding a focus for the first three months of training.

So, I will be heading off to work to run my one classroom group, evaluate my intern's two groups, and then do a push-in group for another classroom. After that, a bit of bus duty, and then the day will be done. I will finish my first draft either today or tomorrow. The final draft is due on Friday, so I have some time.

For now, I am getting ready to leave early so I can find out how cold my room is going to be this week. It has been very cold in there, and I am tired of having to deal with the complaints of kids all the time, so we have been doing music therapy in a different classroom. That classroom is dilapidated and gross, but it is a space. My poor intern is getting a taste of what it means to be a music therapist - often placed in spaces that are not always the most conducive to therapy and in situations that do not favor what we are tasked with doing. I asked the vice president about the fact that my room does not get warmer than 63 degrees, and her comment was that she had no idea if anything would get fixed. I wonder how my facility can justify having such cold temperatures in an educational setting for prolonged periods of time. I have been complaining about the temperatures in my treatment area for 2.5 years now with little to nothing being done about it. I am tired of complaining, but I am also tired of not having the support that I need from administrators. They are sitting in their comfortable workspaces while I am having difficulty keeping warm in a world where the outside temperature is 20 degrees warmer than the inside temperature. Time to get dressed for my foray into the colder climes and then out into the heat of the afternoon. I am so tired of layers...

Ah, Monday.