Winter Solstice

Yesterday saw much of eastern Iowa in snow and windy conditions which caused schools to be released early and evening activities to be cancelled.  A typical event that occurs several times throughout most school years.  Yesterday was also an opportunity to view the unusual event of a total lunar eclipse.  Not only an eclipse, but one on the Winter Solstice. Wow!  And then to be obscured by clouds . . .  But now we live in an age where technology can offer a solution.  Several sites offered "live" web coverage of the eclipse and I have also seen several photos and videos posted on websites and you tube.  Great way to use technology but I am concerned that it offers an excuse for many to not get outdoors and experience the eclipse directly.

Although a rough metaphor, I am going to make the jump to that of comments made by Iowa's own Tom Harkin yesterday.  This is reported in "The Answer Sheet" blog by Valerie Strauss on Washington Post.com http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/congress/a-highly-qualified-gift-from-c.html
The office of Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who is chairman of the Senate’s education committee, sent this statement late today:

“There is broad, bipartisan agreement among members of Congress and the Obama administration that it is the intent of Congress for alternative-route teachers to be considered highly qualified, consistent with the regulation that has been in place for several years. Chairman Harkin strongly believes that teacher quality is essential to student success, and intends to address this issue as part of a comprehensive ESEA reauthorization. While that process is underway, the 9th Circuit’s decision – which reverses a previous court ruling in favor of the regulation – could cause significant disruptions in schools across the country and have a negative impact on students. Maintaining current practice is a temporary solution, and underscores the need to act quickly and reauthorize ESEA early in the next Congress.”

Well, that is interesting.  Indirect experiences make you "highly qualified"?  I might be able to accept "qualified" in the sense that it is a warm, human body in a room that can be responsible for student behavior.  But where do we start to consider the learning?  Is there anything to be said about a warm,human body performance that engages learners and encourages a continued quest for learning?

Of course, our work here with the Teacher Quality Partnership grant is bridging the expression from "highly qualified" to "highly effective".  Now that is a whole other realm to wonder about what Tom would define to be.

Partnership Districts

As of yesterday we have five districts with which to partner for our project. We are all excited!

CAL
HLV
Midland
Springville
West Fork

We also had our holiday gathering for the seven of us . . . great food and conversation, made particularly special with the sharing of Lebanese traditions and Russian by Zeina and Ksenia. There was something magical about sitting in the 5th floor lounge watching the snow lightly fall. . .

Standing at the left of the stairs:
Dan Mourlam, Ksenia Zhbanova
Standing at the right of the stairs:
Leanne Lewis
On the stairs from top down:
Mary Herring, Stacey Snyder, Nadene Davidson, Zeina Yousef

National Teacher of the Year

I would venture to guess that it isn't too often that a typical educator gets to share a day with the National Teacher of the Year. So when I heard that Sarah Brown Wessling, an Iowan, was going to be presenting to fellow educators at Grant Wood AEA, I inquired about it. Myra Hall generously agreed that my presence as part of the Teacher Quality Partnership would be welcome.

Sarah's topic: "Ensuring Success: Iowa Core in Action . . . A Day of Learning with National Teacher of the Year, Sarah Brown Wessling". Part of the description of the day included the following: "Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on their own practice and consider how they might benefit from Sarah's approach and philosophy to improve teaching and learning in their school communities."

Indeed, this was a day for reflection and for being inspired by Sarah's approach. It left me wanting my children to be in classrooms inspired by Sarah's creative genius. From the moment she began I was enamored. She exclaimed that she was so excited to be a teacher for the day! This invitation mirrored (or renewed) my enthusiasm for being a learner. Wow! What if all classrooms offered this expectation of invitation to learn.

I will try to capture some of my learning and insights from the day:
* Sameness precludes learning
* Sometimes efficiency isn't efficient at all
* Learners who are process driven are lead learners
* Teaching for learner differences: targeting strengths and growth for each student individually~it's that simple and that complex all at once
* Scaffolding is like "Seeing the Board" in chess . . . plan ahead twelve moves
* There is a difference between teaching and playing school.
* Gap as an opportunity rather than an obstacle
* In Iowa we Grow Teachers (slogan with picture of corn field)
* Challenge us to flatten the hierarchy of learning by putting the learner in the center
* Intellectual risk taker (Story of water skiing with her grandfather and getting beyond the wake . . . resonated with me as I am oldest grandchild as well)
* Create in our learning environments, opportunities for mistakes
* Use of "Mona Lisa Smile" clip to discuss growth as an educator
* Use of Mentor and Critic dialogue with clips from Top Master Chefs and American Ido to talk about what makes good descriptive, precise feedback that propels further learning
* Not lowering but rather lengthening expectations
* Making the implicit, explicit through parallel experiences
* Dispositions for learning: Deliberateness, Intentionality, Purposefulness
* "Because you care"

What a blessing to have spent the day with Sarah Brown Wessling.

TQP Advisory Board Meeting

On Tuesday, December 7, our UNI TQP Staff (Dan, Leanne, Mary, Nadene and I) along with Dean Dwight Watson travelled to Des Moines for the first TQP Advisory Board meeting at the Grimes State Office Building. I marveled at the Memorial that adorns the sidewalk leading to the building from the north where we parked. It was a bit unnerving to get close to the memorial and read that it was dedicated to those Iowans that died at Pearl Harbor, the day of infamy. . . coincidentally almost exactly 69 years ago to the hour of the attack that I stood there. Hard to not have tears well up in your eyes. The sidewalk is described as "Victory Walk" and proceeds through the years of World War II.

Attending members of the Advisory Board:
Salvador Aguirre (Meredith MS-DMPS, 1st year teacher)
Isbelia Arzola (DMPS)
Molly Boyle (2011 Iowa Teacher of the Year)
Mary Jane Cobb (ISEA)
Mary Delagardelle (IASB)
Kevin Fangman
Jessica Gogerty (North HS-DMPS)
Deborah Humpal
Dara Lothi-Phaisith (Garton Elementary-DMPS)
Bill Lynch (Superintendent Partner School, HLV)
George Maurer
Terry Rhinehart (Superintendent Partner School, Springville)
Connie Richardson (Green Hills AEA)
Dan Smith (SAI)
Kim Swartz (AEA 267)
Dwight Watson (UNI)
Gail Wortman (2001 Iowa Teacher of the Year and Online Learning)
Others in attendance to listen included UNI TQP Staff and DoE staff including: Mary Beth Schroeder Fracek, Sue Swartz, Colleen Anderson, Kris Crabtree-Groff, Rosanne Malek, Connie Maxson, Geri McMahon, Jay Pennington as well as Julie Kearney as evaluator from the UofI.

The morning included introductions and setting the state and national context by Kevin Fangman. This was followed by the overview of the grant. Mary and Nadene overviewed Goals 1 & 2; Mary Beth did Goal 3; Jay Pennington talked about the role of integrated technology platform; Julie Kearney added grant evaluation information.

Lunch was delightful and included baked chicken breast with stuffing, tossed salad, winter mix vegetables, diced roasted potatoes, rolls and a caramel brownie (that was evidently heavenly, of course those that know me realize I don't care for chocolate so cannot speak directly to its merits).

After lunch Eric Docter and Ameetha Palanki of Show Evidence (from California) overviewed the platform they are creating for online storage of performance assessment data. She is an educator and is certainly well-versed in the needs of allowing evidence-based documentation about teacher effectiveness. They are very much interested in partnering with this process and feel that Iowa is on the right track and ahead of many others in the nation.

Ameetha sat at our lunch table with us and talked about coming with the only coat she had. Who knew I would already be this cold in December (teen and 20s). When we went back in to the meeting room after lunch, Eric Docter greeted me with "thanks for following us on Twitter". Wow! I was floored! I have actually been recognized in the Twitterverse! I asked how he knew I was following him and he said he recognized my picture. Then I asked him to vote for our football video and he said he would. Gosh, it is fun to meet new people!

All in all it was a good day. It feels great to have the process starting and some people in place to guide the process. Interestingly many of those in attendance were concerned that the model we create in small schools may not transfer readily to larger districts. I wonder how often small schools are represented at "think tanks" like this and if the concern is ever the other way?

GWAEA district recruiting

Today our TQP team traveled to Victor for a 9 am meeting with Bill Lynch, Superintendent. Since we arrived a few minutes early I just had to go meet with the counselor . . . you know me, always needing something! :) Actually, Ron Orf, the counselor there was my high school counselor and the person whose position I accepted upon his "first" retirement. It was great to see him in his district for which he has worked part-time for four years.

Bill has been the superintendent at HLV for 31 years! Wow! He spoke about the reality of small rural districts and how it is important to get the right fit for folks as not all want to be in small districts or recognize its importance. It was also fun to connect with him and learn about all the folks he knew that we were connected to. For me it was Allan Hjelle, my first principal when I was at Underwood.

After our meeting at HLV we traveled to the Grant Wood AEA building. That was a thrill for me. It was strange to put on the "Visitor" badge and go upstairs. Unfortunately folks were not in that I had hoped to see but I left a few little smiley notes for them! :) I did get to talk with Andy Crozier, Keith Stamp and Trace Pickering, all of which I was delighted to see again. Oh, and Cathy, at the front desk!

We met there with Brian Rodenberg of Midland. He has also been in education for many years (30) although in seven different districts. He also knew people that we did. He had great questions such as preparation for candidates in small rural schools and whose responsibility the ARRA paperwork might be for the grant. His insight about community and relationships really resonated with me.

Great news! They both agreed to become involved and partner with us!

Hopefully this means I will get to meet up with more of the comrades I gained from my time at GWAEA.