Externships

What is a Teacher Externship?

Teacher externships offer a unique professional development opportunity connecting the classroom to the workplace. They provide an experience in which teachers spend time in a workplace to learn through direct experience about trends, skill requirements and opportunities in industries related to their subject to enrich and strengthen their teaching and bring relevance to student learning. There are many types of workplace experiences such as student internships, teacher externships, job shadowing, informational interviewing, and service learning, but teacher externships provide a peer-to-peer learning environment. Externships range from a day of job shadowing to longer externships that are usually project-based and can last a full summer. Teacher externships offer a professional development experience that is often transformative for educators and their students. With the goal that all students be prepared for college and careers, teachers must constantly update their own knowledge and skills about current workplace practices, requirements, and tools by gaining an “on the ground” understanding of economic and career trends that will affect their students. The externship experience helps teachers connect classroom content with students’ future career interests and helps students develop both the academic and technical skills required in the world they are preparing to enter.

What is the Purpose?

The purpose of a teacher externship is to engage in activities in business and industry, and/or service-based organizations, to learn how classroom content and learning strategies are applied in the workplace. Teachers improve their pedagogical practices by incorporating new methods, labor market information, and employment skills that meet current industry standards. The educational goal of an externship is to increase a teacher’s ability to connect theory and practice and bring an understanding of workplace practices and policies (e.g. problem-solving methods, practical applications of theory, leadership concepts) into the classroom, thus increasing the relevance of student learning.

What are the Benefits?

With first-hand exposure, teachers can design and implement classroom activities, projects and work-based learning opportunities that will add relevance and meaning to students’ classroom learning. Externships provide a fresh perspective that lets teachers tie curriculum to real-world applications. They gain an increased ability to explain the value of what students are learning. This often leads to activities in which students work in groups, engaging in cooperative learning and open-ended real-life, problem-based assignments. Externships also give employers other avenues of involvement in academies. They can inform educators about their expectations of employees in various positions and offer input to the curriculum, thereby contributing to the preparation of their future workforce. They can also become guest speakers, mentors, host field trips and job shadows, or offer internships for students. In addition, they provide an avenue for educators to “market” their academy, spreading the word to students about their opportunities in the academy. The benefits for teachers are many but, so too are the benefits for the hosting.