WFED interns are required to complete a full semester internship under the mentorship of selected teachers in schools approved by WMU.
The internship is designed to prepare teachers not only for their roles as classroom teachers, but as professionals studying their own teaching practice. In the intern teaching program, both school and university faculty work closely together to support and assist interns as they progress through the semester.
The intern teaching program is designed to be a high quality experience for intern teachers as well as their mentor teachers and their students. Participating schools and mentors work together with the WFED coordinator which allows the interns and mentor teachers to work together and learn together as reflective practitioners.
WMU’s intern teaching program allows interns and mentors to use the College of Education and Human Development’s co- teaching model to improve the preparation of intern teachers.
Intern teacher—An intern teacher is a university student who is assigned full time for one semester to a school and who is preparing to be a teacher by studying and teaching under the guidance of a mentor teacher.
Mentor teacher—A mentor teacher is an experienced teacher who guides the practice of an intern teacher.
WFED university coordinator—Is a faculty member that works with the mentors and the interns to study new and developing aspects of intern teaching to solve problems as they arise and to plan for new initiatives in education.
Sites: The following school districts are currently participating as sites in the WFED intern teaching program:
- Battle Creek
- Gull Lake
- Kalamazoo
- Mattawan
- Parchment
- Paw Paw
- Portage
- Romeo
- Van Buren Skills Center
- Vicksburg
Additionally, WFED students are placed and supervised by mentors in their respective disciplines (Business, FCS and Industrial Technology) and are generally limited to placement within a 50-mile radius of Kalamazoo. Placement is limited to Michigan.