Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Three Key Women and Their Affect on Teacher Effectiveness

Yesterday was the first day of the Mentoring and Induction Institute at the Park Place Conference Center in Cedar Falls. It was an amazing day and one highlighted for me by three women and their perspective on teacher effectiveness.

Linda Darling Hammond began the conference through a live web-based presentation. She was able to make this environment work and to personalize her message to our event within a national lens. She offered these ten points as to what effective teachers do:
1) offer authentic learning experiences
2) provide intellectually ambitious tasks
3) use of a variety of strategies
4) assess learning to adapt and change and inform instruction
5) create scaffolding supports and sequences
6) provide standards and models on high quality work and offer feedback and opportunities for self analysis
7) develop collaborative classrooms
8) build links to families and communities
9) know students well
10) use each other as collaborative partners (teaching is a team sport!)

Then I was able to interact briefly at two times with Mildred Middleton, a generous educator of nearly 98 years (her birthday is 7/4)! She became UNI emeritus status through teaching as an adjunct and still passionately engages in education today.

Her message is given through a golden key (a treasure to keep forever) . . . it is a teacher's job to know when to "lock" and "unlock" the mind. Wow! Her thoughts brought tears to my eyes as the emotions of seeing both my grandmothers in her . . .  Later in the day she sat at the grand piano and played as many of us gathered to sing along.

Sarah Brown Wessling closed the night with her thoughts and perspectives of Teaching Spaces. She is the 2010 National Teacher of the Year and she has had a variety of opportunities to travel and reflect about teaching around the country and the world. Some points from her amazing sharing:

  • We must meet learners where they are
  • Our learners are worth being listened to
  • We need to be the lead learner in our classroom
  • In Iowa we GROW teachers (like corn)
  • Intellectual Risk Taking as a teacher disposition
  • We must nurture what we love
  • Give permission to fail 
  • We are architects, and architects are philosophers first
  • Her secret is about deliberateness
  • An extra set of eyes can open our world
  • Make the implicit explicit through parallel experiences
  • Stacking means filling compartments, layering creates beauty
  • Humility is at the center of great teaching
  • Voice is earned. Be present!
  • We all have a lens . . . use it to help learners grow~
Thank you, ladies, my soul resonates with your thoughts and actions. You are true role models and leaders in our profession.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Universal Design for Learning

Today's session for the faculty redesign summit was Universal Design for Learning. Phyllis Anderson, a member of the CAST Faculty for UDL, served as our consultant.

Some new learning for me:

  • this is a new way of thinking
  • a conceptual framework to understand an approach to educating for all
  • this approach originated in architecture 
  • the principles offer the perspective that the curriculum is disabled, not people
  • UDL offers the ultimate learning context for all to learn
There certainly is a plethora of resources available to use.

We spent several hours perusing what would the resources would offer.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Faculty Redesign Summit

Wow!

Day two of the summit is now completed. It has been good~very good!

Agenda June 1
     Introduction, Welcome
     Change and Design
     Teaching 2030
     Teacher Effectiveness
     Iowa Core: Content, Constructs, Characteristics

Agenda June 2
     Teacher Performance Assessment (TWS & TPA)
     Rural Education Realities with representatives from our partner districts
     Distribution of iPads

We have a wonderful group of twelve faculty that have been very open to the new ideas and actively participating in our discussions.

Some highlights include:

  • Welcome and Introduction included four quotes and about change and growth. Each was to individually pick the one that resonated with them the most and physically go to that location. In small groups share the meaning behind it and then share out to the large group. Analogous to ooblek and stretch. Point brought back to design and Pink's book "A Whole New Mind". Designers are change agents. Change is both utilitarian and significant . . . with the ultimate goal of changing the world.
  • Sharing of the pride for and passion about the partner districts. Each of our five partner districts (West Fork, Midland, Springville, CAL, HLV) gave a presentation about what they would like us to know about them. Phenomenal! From foundations being started to assist the school so that the tax base would not increase, to the donors that make certain that students are able to travel to Hancher Auditorium for cultural events and Washington DC, to the power of 1:1 initiatives for motivation for learning, to the stories of first generation high school graduates, we are fortunate to have the opportunity to partner with these people.
  • The modeling of blended learning through the use of Blackboard Learn to house some of our course. Dan and I learned about it the week before and it is gratifying to be able to put it to such relevant use.
  • The arrival of the iPads! These will be tools for the work in the districts. I received one too!
Tomorrow the highlight is UDL, Monday will be blended learning and using technology tools, and Tuesday will be Response to Intervention.

After all the dreaming and hoping and planning, it is good to see some of the pieces falling into place.