Thanksgiving

The UNI Campus has gotten very quiet this week with no students roaming around . . . I think I have only seen three people on this floor in these three days. It is quiet enough that I have accomplished much reading.

As my mind turns to Thanksgiving I sit here in my office reading research about teacher effectiveness it gives me opportunity to reflect on the past year and my contacts with former students. Although I have not outrightly asked them if they felt I was an effective teacher I do from time to time get feedback that warms the heart.

For instance, Megan Meier McDonough, a student from Fredericksburg recently shared a story about her young son, Vaughn, and how she is teaching him about the moon phases. LLL (lit on the left in the last), LOL. And Amber Dilger O'Neill has told me how her involvement with the Envirothon shaped her career choice. Others have shared fond memories of science lessons including monarch tagging, jelly making, and dandelion eating. Although I haven't heard too many stories about my years as a school counselor, I hope also, that I made a contribution in some way to the lives I touched there as well.

I have no data to prove or disprove my effectiveness as a teacher but I do have small testimonials from former students that make me smile. I also have the knowledge that I did get better each year, with more experience, greater time for reflection, increased opportunities for professional development, exposure to students, and an awareness that teaching really does touch the future. Teaching is a profession that touches all others.

The longer I am away from the classroom the more I wish I could have the chance to go back and teach again. My goal is to teach would-be teachers and I think I have positioned myself in places to enrich my life and offer me the opportunity to be good at that. This makes me thankful for mentors along the way: David McCalley while a graduate student; John Verdon while a young teacher in Waverly; John Rothlisberger while teaching in Fredericksburg; Ed Redalen, Nancy Lockett, Karen Garvin, DJ Corson, and Julie Crotty while serving as AEA consultant; Marti Roling and Traci Penning while serving as school counselor; and Janel Lesan, Bruce Frana, Phyllis Anderson and Kelly Jones while at GWAEA. Many of my friends are teachers and people that I call on for advice along the way: Ginny Elliott, Di Sinclair, Kristie Schult, Jean Eells, Vern Fish. And then there is also a teacher that effected my growth and development all along, my grandmother, Aura Snyder.

Gosh, with all the publicity that teaching receives in the news I hope people take the time to recognize from where we have been as we look for direction into the future. Educators are some of the most flexible folks I know . . . it is with this flexibility and optimism for the future that we need to see how to guide the ship into the future for the next generation of learners. We have the capacity and we have the reason, we now need the enlightened vision of leaders both within and outside of education to collaborate.

Happy Thanksgiving . . . and be sure to thank and recognize your teachers (including those students from which we learn) and our mentors.

Two Big Events and Discovery of Presidential Sense of Humor

Yesterday (November 17) marked the first day of our newest team member, Leann Lewis. She will serve as Project Coordinator of TQP. It was great to be able to meet her and to give her a little bit of background on the project. I also gave her an abbreviated tour of our building and then we headed across campus to get her UNI ID card. As we were leaving that office we were asked if we were planning to attend the ground breaking celebration for the new campus apartments. We were not aware of the event but we decided to take advantage of the opportunity. There I ran into my friend Brenda Buzynski and we caught up a bit. We also heard the remarks of several dignitaries and what this building could come to mean to student life on campus. President Ben Allen had most of us laughing with his remarks about the brisk weather and his reserve from taking off his jacket for what that might mean to the fellows that would speak after him.

Later in the afternoon President Allen and Provost Gibson visited the College of Education. During the first half hour two projects were chosen to highlight their programs. The first was about USA and Olympic training opportunities through five world-class coaches. It was totally new info to me and I found it pretty incredible. Then Mary and Nadene presented about the TQP opportunity. Following this both the President and Provost made their remarks.

Again, President Allen showed his sense of humor. I laughed again (and again as I recall the story). Apparently both he and Gloria Gibson have a degree from the University of Indiana. Not far from the podium there was a broken chair on the stage. He felt it was appropriately welcoming that the COE had saved Bobby Knight's chair for the event. LOL! Interestingly enough, during the time for questions, Mary turned this comment around to ask when we might see some funding to renovate and update the building to keep up with the innovative education appropriate for our next generation learners.

Whoa and Wow

The "whoa" was attending a training session for "Managing Projects" offered by the Office for Sponsored Programs. There were moments when I wasn't sure I was even speaking the same language as the presenters. Fiscal management . . . how did I get here?! Did they really choose me for this position?! Me, the one who is fiscally challenged and overwhelmed with the amount of money I have overcommitted to in the remodeling/construction project for my home. My brain is in a panic. (Sigh)

The "wow" was visiting our first LEA district, Springville. We (Mary, Nadene, Dan and I) had a delightful visit with Terry Rhinehart. It appears that he is very interested in participating in our pilot project. We also had a good discussion while traveling to and fro.

Nadene said something that resonated with me and my mixed feelings of the day . . . if you can be comfortable with ambiguity then you possess a next generation skill.

What a Week

Whew . . . what a week!

Working on Logic Models takes lots of brain energy!

Good thing I have had many diversions in my "off"-time to keep me fresh:
~My eldest turned 18
~We traveled to Preston for football tourney game and we won 44-7
~Voted with my adult child
~We traveled to Cedar Rapids for volleyball tourney, beating Preston to get to state tourney
~Cooking class at my newly-found loved cabin (we made squash soup, paninis and pumpkin trifle)
~New flooring in my dining room & kitchen remodel
~Mock Trial practice

Getting ready to wind down the day in the office and head across Hudson Road to the UNIDome to watch the Tripoli Panthers in the Quarterfinals!! GO PANTHERS!

A corrected link . . .

One of the links posted earlier today does not appear to work. Try this instead:

http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2010/11/teacher_evaluations_shoud_be_m.html

Visual Representations

As my mind twists and turns around the Logic Models I have found myself visualizing the life of the grant over the next five years in my mind.  In my attempts to get these thoughts on paper, I have turned to a couple of web-based tools.

One of these was Webspiration.  This allowed me to see the goals and objectives in a format other than a list or table.  If you are interested in seeing this the link is:
http://www.mywebspiration.com/view/625548a87cd

Then I turned to a tool that was introduced to me by my GWAEA colleague, Erica.  The Mindomo tool has many options.  My "mind map" is still in development as there are many things yet to place on as inputs, activities and outputs but this initial draft shows a large part of our current status of our work in progress on the grant.  If you are curious:  http://www.mindomo.com/edit.htm?m=af6c605a15684e13b40f90ebdd9dcbb6

Mary is in Kansas City today presenting about this and Nadene is in San Diego as part of the TPAC training.  

Over the last week I have seen several articles and references from other states (see below for two such links) talking about teacher evaluation and effective instruction.  Here we are, right in the midst of the national transformation.  Sort of exciting and overwhelming all at the same time.

http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2010/11/teacher_evaluations_shoud_be

_m.html

http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2010/10/22/pilotassessments.html?tkn=ZNYDpvo1ApI9NZ%2F3CJYT2LRfTJrvQkI3N9ja&intc=es

I am now going to do some reading.  On top of the list is an article by Linda Darling-Hammond entitled "Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: How Teacher Performance Assessments Can Measure and Improve Teaching", October 2010.