10-11-11 Meeting Minutes

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October 11 Meeting Minutes

Present: Vikki Krekler (Guthrie Theater), Jean Wilhide (Washburn Center), Anna Karena (Brain Injury Association), Katie Herron Bobb (Pangea World Theater), Jennifer Thao (MN Historical Society), Kara Nakagaki (Century College), Judy Lykins (Century College), Kathryn Hanna (University of MN),
Lauren Kavan (Hamline University), Phylis Ware (MCAD), Julie Hull (PPL), Cindy O’Donovan (Concordia University), Michael Porter (Macalester College), Laura Winterstein (NAMI Minnesota)

Business Items:

The MAFEL Survey that was sent out with the last meeting reminder will decide the agenda for the rest of the year for MAFEL meetings. The deadline for completing the survey is October 18, 2011.

The next meeting (December 13, 2011 8:30-10:30 am) will be a networking meeting. Kathryn Hanna will have returned from the MCEIA conference in Milwaukee and will do a presentation to the group.
The meeting will be held at Peace Coffee,3262 Minnehaha Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55406.

The Minnesota Association of Colleges and Employers (MN-ACE) will have their Winter Meeting on Friday, December 2, 2011. The topic will be on orientation. http://www.mnace.org

Intern Bridge will be conducting an internship survey in partnership with universities in the Twin Cities. Intern Bridge is a for profit organization that supports companies set up good internships. They have free resources that are useful: http://www.internbridge.com. Another useful resource is Intern Advocate: http://www.internadvocate.com/

Meeting Topic: The How and Why of Reflection
Facilitator: Kathryn Hanna, University of Minnesota

Kathryn began with an introduction of reflection and shared a handout with a list of resources on reflection in experiential education. Members then broke up into small groups and answer the following questions: Why reflection? What is the purpose?

Groups presented their ideas and they were organized into two categories: theoretical or practice. Some of these ideas fell in between the two categories.

Theoretical Ideas: Why reflection? What is the purpose?

Processing experiences and learning
Theory vs. Practice
Hypothesis testing -what's working, what doesn't, and ongoing self-assessment
Connecting cognitive, emotional components or an experience

Practice: Why reflection? What is the purpose?

Processing experience
Challenging personal experiences
Developing professional skills
Reflection is a foundation of learning
Supports learning integration
From the organizational perspective it allows us to receive feedback from the students
It support students with articulating their knowledge, skills, and abilities during job interviews or on resumes
Supports with breaking down internship component parts so that it is more useful for learning and processing

Brainstorming session: What does your site do to encourage reflection? What can you do to facilitate reflection? What are some reflection activities?

Internship Site Reflection Activities

Midterm interview with reflection questions.
Anonymous post internship online review completed via survey monkey.
Online progress report with 6 questions with yes no questions and comments to check if there are an red flags. Exit interview survey at the end and paper survey that needs to complete to come into the exit survey.
There is a shared intern manual that interns create themselves. Includes a 1 page reflection of other interns to learn about others experiences. This allows for a buddy system of learning that carries on from semester to semester.
Feedback tools and performance appraisals focused on what you learned, what new skills want to develop, what you need from your supervisor? Students complete this at the end to help summarize their experiences.
In meetings we talk about what expectations are and discuss reflection and what it is ("pre-flections").
Students write a letter to describe adjectives during group and describe where they are and where they are at now.
Students write a letter to themselves during orientation focused on what their goals are, what they want out of their internships, and how they would have changed at the end of the semester. Students can leave an item in the envelop too (gum, money, etc). They seal it up for safe keeping (staff do not read it) and they receive it at the end of their internship.
Informal check-ins and probe a reflection related items and to lead to reflection.
Defining learning objectives and evaluation of this at the end of internships.
Soliciting feedback from the students and instilling in students that they are valuable. Listening to their opinions and empowering them to give feedback.

Academic

Intern supervisors gather at the schools and learn about the intentions of academic institutions.
Blogging about internship experiences
In class, small group oral reflection using Kolb's Model and connecting these to learning objectives.
Kolb's Cycle of Reflection
What?
So what?
Now what?
Reflection papers at the end of an internship that is submitted online.

Additional Reflection Ideas

Sites: Murals, performances (artistic expression) and structured discussion outside of the classroom
Academic: Service log with progress reports, presentation to stakeholders, poster presentations, journals, directed readings and written responses, examining ethical issues through case studies, group exercises (i.e. using an object as a metaphor for explaining how it is related to the internship experience)

Next Meeting: Networking Event

Tuesday, December 13, 2011 8:30-10:30 am

Peace Coffee, 3262 Minnehaha Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55406.

The meeting dates for the rest of year are:

Tuesday, February 14

Tuesday, April 10

Tuesday, June 12

Please contact Laura Winterstein if you are interested in hosting any of these meetings.

MAFEL welcome page | about us | membership information | meetings & events

MAFEL best practices/resources |scholarship info |connect/post opportunities