Team 3 Internship Placement Policy, Procedures
and Eligibility

The first consideration in making  internship placements is to prepare you for certification in Michigan.       To do that, we place you in situations that match the teaching certificate you intend to earn, and which prepare you to teach diverse students in diverse settings.  We also seek to place you in settings which best fulfill your educational needs as we see them.  Our second consideration is to place you in schools with which we have developed good working relationships and which support a productive combination of course work and field work.  Our third field placement consideration is your preference of a location for the internship year.  We attempt to honor your preference, provided that we can satisfy the first two considerations and have enough placements in a given location for all who want internships there.  Under no condition are students allowed to negotiate their own placements.

Placement Procedures

1.	Oct. - Nov.  Senior-level students complete the Internship Placement Request form.  These forms are to be completed and returned to the Team office by December 1st.

2.	Oct. - Nov.  Seniors and Post BA students write resumes to prospective mentor teachers.  Guidelines for writing a resume are given to students in October and are also available on the Team 3 website.  These resumes will be given to the school at which the Team is suggesting a placement.  The Team contacts schools to talk about the number of interns each school would like to have for the next year.

3.	Feb. - Mar.  The Team works on arranging placements.  Although we will try to accommodate a student’s first choice of grade level, we often have to look at second and third choices to match students with mentor teachers who are interested in working with an intern.

4.	April - May.  Students are informed of those placements that have been arranged and the procedure to follow to contact their prospective mentor teacher.  The student and mentor teacher report back to the Team to confirm the placement.  The Team continues to identify placements for any seniors who have not yet been placed.

NOTE:  The Team will make every attempt to identify placements by the end of April.  However, sometimes a placement is difficult to make due to circumstances which we cannot anticipate in advance.  The Team will continue to work on placements even through the summer if it is necessary.

Eligibility For The Internship Year

To be eligible for the internship year students must have completed all teaching major and/or teaching minor(s) requirements as well as teacher certification coursework and other courses required for teacher certification.  Students must have the bachelor's degree awarded prior to beginning the internship.  Students will be held to a minimum GPA of 2.5 for each of the following: university overall GPA, teaching major, and/or teaching minor(s).  A GPA of 2.5 or above must also be maintained for pre-internship, professional education courses required for teacher certification, with no individual grade below 2.0.  Students must also pass the required State of Michigan certification tests for elementary teaching and the Michigan State Department of Education technology requirement.  Students must complete, sign and submit the Criminal Disclosure Form.  

Eligibility For Teacher Certification

In addition to the criteria for the internship, to be eligible for teacher certification students must successfully complete the internship year.