Summer Teacher Extern Program: Connecting the Classroom to the Workplace

Krista Suri, a Math Teacher from Wilde Lake High School in Howard County Maryland, was our Summer Teacher Extern for the summer.  The Teacher Externship program with Howard County Public Schools is a unique professional development opportunity connecting the classroom to the workplace.

Krista shares how she will extract from her insights gained to further expand the tools she uses to help her students succeed:

“This relationship allowed me to spend my summer reflecting and strengthening my teaching skills and practices and understanding what is most important and relevant to student learning.

I was able to share my insights and understanding of the next generation with management of BI&A so that they may take some things from how I have successfully developed relationships with my students and use them to motivate and focus new employees. Together we have had some great discussions about power and authority levels within organizations and what best practices could and should be used for developing and maintaining those relationships.

As for my personal professional development, I am taking several concepts and tools from the Agile Scrum Model back to my classroom to improve critical thinking skills.  My experience as an engineer helped me relate and appreciate the quick iterative process it provides at reaching your goals.  Specifically, I focused on the retrospective component because I would like to require the students to reflect on what worked for them and what didn’t, building their metacognition skills. Students providing me that feedback also allows me to adjust my teaching practices and better meet their needs.  I am taking back several retrospective models used at BI&A to gather this information from my students.

This externship has also inspired me and my career.  I was able to have some great discussion related to AI – how it works, where it is going, how to manage it.  This has inspired me to learn more and get more involved in AI applications in education; specifically, how to ensure that AI in education is used for good and how education needs to positively adapt to this new technology and innovation.”