Learning in the Field

By Arlene Gibson

I teach fashion marketing, and recently I participated in a four-week educator internship in the summer at an area Macy’s department store. I hoped to be able to better integrate academics through school-based projects and build and strengthen business partnerships. I also hoped to transfer my learning of the world of work to the fashion merchandising classroom and assist students to develop their problem-solving, decision-making, and communication skills. I also expected to be able to encourage exploration of careers through academic lessons and experiential learning opportunities.

Given the externship model we use in our district, I was responsible for:

• Creating a learning contract with professional development goals with the career and technical education program coordinator;
• Contacting the Macy’s store manager to discuss my goals;
• Developing a schedule with the store manager;
• Participating in scheduled workplace activities and observing organization operations, participating in meetings, interviewing staff, and completing tasks;
• Completing a daily reflection journal;
• Developing ideas for creating lesson plans that link academics and authentic work experiences;
• Thanking employers and sending evaluations;
• Developing new or revised lessons, new projects, and other changes to current teaching based on the internship experience;
• Teaching lessons to students; and
• Using a rubric to evaluate the education internship experience.

The experience of observing and learning more about the world of work and how academics can be applied to authentic experiences impacted my students’ future careers in fashion merchandising. More than 50% of my students were placed in fashion related co-op experiences, and two students were promoted to retail managerial positions. One student even became a personal shopper after I shadowed a personal shopper and shared that experience. I’m proud that my experience led to such outcomes.

Arlene Gibson is principal/director of River Rouge High School/New Tech International Academy in River Rouge, Mich.