Lessons · Teaching · the intern certificate, and why it is not the probationary one
The intern certificate: the one that does not get a second year
Texas issues two one-year certificates that both let you be the paid teacher of record. Which one you get depends on your examinations: the content examination alone reaches an INTERN certificate, which cannot be extended, and the content examination plus the pedagogy one reaches a PROBATIONARY certificate, which may be renewed for one further twelve months.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
In beta. This lesson was written for Hone and has not yet been checked by a state certification officer. Practice material, not professional advice. What that means.
What it is for
Both certificates look the same from the outside. You are the teacher of record, you are paid, you are finishing your preparation. The difference only shows up at the end of the year, when one of them can be renewed and the other cannot, and by then the examination you did not sit in the autumn is the reason you are out of time. This page exists because a candidate who thinks she has a second year, and does not, makes a very different plan in September.
How to think about it
Send your programme one email and use these words: which certificate am I being recommended for, and which examinations does it need? Get the answer in writing, because the two are easy to say interchangeably out loud. Then treat the pedagogy examination as the thing that buys the second year rather than the last box on a list, and if the answer is intern, count backwards from the end of that single span: what has to be finished, and does all of it fit?
Worked example
Content examination passed, pedagogy not yetEligible for an intern certificate: one year, and one span only.
Content and pedagogy both passedEligible for a probationary certificate: one year, with a further 12 months available.
Either certificate, once issuedTeacher of record, paid, preparation unfinished. Identical from the classroom's point of view.
The end of the first yearWhere the two part company, and far too late to change which one you hold.
Your turn
One of these two certificates can buy a second year and the other cannot. Say what the intern certificate cannot be.
An intern certificate cannot be
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Hearing intern and probationary as the same word in different clothes, because both mean unfinished. They are two certificates with two different rules, and the one that sounds more provisional is the one that can be renewed. Confirm which you are on with your programme and with the state's current rule, because these are the rules that change.