The Indiana Department of Workforce Development provides a grant that gives teachers in Indiana a very unique summer experience through the Future Workforce Connections Intern Program, and I am lucky enough to have been one of the teachers selected.

This month I am getting some intense "training" as a BitWise Solutions intern in Indianapolis. BitWise is not new to the intern experience (BitWise Fellows), but I am their first visiting teacher. The tentative schedule has me helping with the development of a Web site, participating in Web Camp classes, meeting and brainstorming with BitWise Fellows, observing all positions represented by the company to take back to our careers class, and sharing my methods of developing lesson plans. It promises to be a very interesting June. I certainly won't be an expert at any of the tasks I try or observe, but I will know a lot more about Web design than I did before!

This experience is a wonderful opportunity for me to learn about the real world of Web design from start to finish, and will allow me to bring back hands-on lessons and examples to North Putnam high school classrooms this fall. The lessons I develop will be available from the Department of Education, as will lessons from all 47 interns placed around the state with various businesses.

--Patricia (Gayle) Hendrich