One of the never-ending truths in teaching is that "nothing is never-changing." Indeed as I look back on the occasions that I have had to "play" this role, and as I prepare for the third time to take on this challenge, I find myself once again reflecting on the truth of this phrase.

For what is teaching but the constant quest for a new approach, a better, more relevant way to present material, to encourage students to find out the truths of life for themselves? How many times have we thought ourselves all prepared for the year ahead because we have been given no new courses only to find that in reality we have more work instead of less, since each year we must "revise and edit" what we accomplished the year before? These statements also apply to the cooperating teacher who tries to guide the intern through his or her thirteen weeks in the school setting while, all at the same time, must juggle other expectations - those of their students and their parents, their school administration, and, of course, their own. All this must be accomplished while trying to ensure that the intern gains "some idea" of the "job." I use the expression "some idea" purposely. After thirteen years as a classroom teacher, I am still not sure that I have a total comprehension of the intricacies of the "job." Education is constantly evolving, the skills required by both students and teachers always changing, the students we teach never exactly the same as the year before. As we ourselves struggle to cope with these changes, we must at the same time anticipate what to pass on to our interns.

They say that "doing is learning," and for that reason the internship, or better-expressed, practice teaching, is all-important. Nothing in the preceding five years of university course work can possibly totally prepare an intern or new teacher for the realities of the classroom. As a cooperating teacher, this presents a dilemma. There are certain pieces of information vital to the interns success, knowledge that will be needed as of the interns first lesson taught, as of his or her first interactions with students. Since in teaching, doing is learning, how can this information be imparted or its possession verified before the interns put themselves in front of thirty students ready to examine and test their every word, movement, glance, decision?

This is what makes the internship unique. An accountant knows his/her accounting skills, a dentist masters his/her dental care procedures. In the case of the apprehensive intern, however, (of whom a lack of apprehension would illustrate exactly my point - that no amount of book learning can actually illustrate or explain to a prospective teacher the extent of what (s)he is about to face), there are so many secondary factors which can negatively influence his or her even getting the chance to pass along the accumulated knowledge of twenty-plus years of living, so many factors which can effectively destroy any plan that any teacher (not just the intern) may have for a particular learning session.

For these reasons, a cooperating teacher must "tread softly," must ease the intern into this all-important exercise. An enjoyable internship experience can make all the difference between an intern ready to take on the challenges of his/her own classroom, or one who questions if (s)he is even cut out for the career into which (s)he has already invested so much time and money. It is through discussion and reflection regarding everything the intern observes and experiences, from the seemingly unimportant details such as who sits where or whether students should be allowed to go to the washroom to the seemingly more important, such as curriculum and teaching and questioning techniques, that the intern will grow to be ready to face the challenges ahead. No incident is too minor to be insignificant.

I must mention what I believe to be one of the most important lessons of the internship - the realization on the part of the intern that the school experience will not teach her everything there is to know, will not show her everything there is to see. An internship is, in large part, an unrealistic experience. Never again during her career will the young teacher have someone to "hold her hand," someone to have already established classroom and behavioral expectations with the students, someone to help her to prepare each and every lesson plan, someone to help her manage her classroom merely by his or her authoritative presence. What must be gained through the practice teaching is the ability to "roll with the punches," and the realization that he or she has chosen a rewarding career, but one in which there is nothing that is "never-changing."