Sycamore Educator Spring 2008 - Bayh College of Education

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Partnering to Reform Education:A Project PRE UpdateA Teacher Quality Enhancement(TQE) Grant awarded to ISU by the U.S. Department of Education is changingthe face of teacher education programsat ISU, as well as impacting learningenvironments for K-12 students. Nowin its fifth year, Project PRE: Partneringto Reform Education has involved over50 faculty and staff across the campusand hundreds of teachers in K-12schools involved in the ISU ProfessionalDevelopment School Partnership (PDS).The grant allows faculty, preserviceteachers, and school partners time toexplore best practices and discover newways of working together to preparenew teachers for successful teachingcareers in the schools of tomorrow. Thiswork is resulting in the opportunity forour teacher candidates to be immersedin deeper and richer clinical experienceswithin a professional developmentschool. It is also bringing about changesin curriculum and sequencing of thatcurriculum across both elementary andsecondary teacher education programs.Funding from Project PRE alsosupports multiple strands of professionaldevelopment for inservice teachers andprincipals, all of whom are challengedby the need to meet new state academicstandards, higher accountability atthe federal and state level, morediverse learners, new technology,and changing demographics. Theprofessional development takes manyforms including Mentor TeacherPreparation Workshops, a SummerTeacher Academy, Principal LeadershipInstitutes, presenting alongside ISUfaculty at national conferences related totheir content area or PDS partnerships,and grants provided to each PDS forschool-based professional developmentaligned with school improvement goals.In the summer of 2007, 175 K-12 teachers participated in the fourthSummer Teacher Academy. Eachsummer, the focus is on deepeningteacher knowledge and acquisition ofnew teaching strategies in a contentarea, following Indiana’s textbookadoption cycle. In addition, otherworkshops focus on topics identifiedby teachers as having a high priority,such as Behavior Management, criticaland creative problem solving, andtechnology infusion into teaching.Teachers from the PDS Partnershipwho participate earn graduate creditor CRUs for license renewal, as wellas a stipend. All the professionaldevelopment is leading to improvedlearning environments for K-12 studentsand their teachers.Preparing PDS principals fortheir changing roles in leading aprofessional development school thatworks in concert with ISU to preparenew teachers is another priority ofProject PRE. The Principal LeadershipInstitute now has two components:an Aspiring Leaders Institute andPDS Principal Development. Bothcomponents are directed by the teamof Steve Gruenert, assistant professorin Educational Leadership and KarenGoeller PHD92, deputy superintendentof the Vigo County School Corporation.Each program meets six times duringthe school year. PDS faculty liaisonshave been encouraged to join in thePDS Principal Development workshopsto gain a deeper understanding of theprincipal’s role and current issuesimpacting each school. The 2007-2008 series is focused on instructionalleadership, and the combination ofpracticing principals and faculty liaisonsmakes for lively and rich discussion ofthe selected books and journal articles.Another aim of the grant is toinfuse technology into the teaching andlearning process. Several integratedworkshops have been included in theSummer Teacher Academy. This year,technology consultants and Ken JanzPHD05, director of the Center forInstruction, Research, and Technology,are working with PDS principals and6 http://coe.indstate.edu
their school improvement committeesto design and deliver specializedworkshops at each school.Although numerous changes areoccurring in the Teacher EducationProgram, nothing is generatingmore excitement than the pilot of anew professional semester prior tostudent teaching. For elementaryand special education students, theTOTAL (Teachers of TomorrowAdvancing Learning) Semester allowsthem to intern with a master teacherin a PDS. The interns take their coremethods classes (reading, languagearts, math, social studies, with scienceto be added in Fall 2008) on campuseach Monday, and then spend all dayin a single classroom the rest of theweek with a master teacher who hasreceived training and is designated asa “coaching teacher.” The intern startsout observing and performing manyof the duties of a teaching assistant,gradually assuming more responsibilityfor teaching and behavior managementas the semester progresses. During thesecond half of the semester, the interntakes responsibility for one subjectduring each of four focus weeks.Students report being able to see theconnection between the theories andmethods they are being exposed to onMondays with what is happening inthe classroom. Coaching teachers saythe experience is good for everyone– they try to model their best strategies,the interns have the opportunity fora rich immersion into the classroomand the whole life of the school, andthe children in the classroom get moreindividualized attention. Parents areexcited because they see the benefit totheir children of having two adults inthe classroom. PDS principals whoseschools are part of the TOTAL pilot likethe idea of another trained pair of handshelping classroom teachers deliver theircurriculum, as opposed to the old “pullout”model of early field experiencewhich was viewed as an interruptionto the classroom curriculum and ascheduling burden for all involved.One principal stated her goal now is tohave an intern in every classroom! Atthe end of the first semester pilot, everyintern exuded confidence in their abilityto have a successful student teachingexperience.Secondary programs are alsoexperimenting with a professionalsemester prior to student teaching byIndiana State UniversitySycamore Educatorcollaborating with content methodsfaculty in four different colleges(CAS, COB, COT, NHHS) to createan extended block of time for studentsto be placed with a coaching teacherin their content area in a local highschool. Content methods faculty andprofessional pedagogy faculty arerevamping their courses together tocreate space for richer and deeper fieldexperiences, giving the opportunityfor students to spend three hours a dayfor approximately eight weeks pairedwith a master teacher. Math educationstudents were the first to pilot the newconcept, followed by social studieseducation in the spring semester. All5-12 licensure areas plan to adopt thismodel by Fall 2009, with K-12 licensureareas of music, art, and physicaleducation currently studying how toadapt the model for their programs.After four years of collaborationamongst the College of Education, theCollege of Arts and Sciences and othercolleges housing secondary educationprograms, and our partners in K-12, ourrelationship, commitment, and abilityto, together, produce the best possibleteacher for tomorrow’s schools havestrengthened exponentially! And,we are all truly partners in creatingrich learning environments for K-12students.Written by Dr. Becky Libler, associatedean, College of Education.For licensing information,contact Education StudentServices in theCollege of Educationat1-812-237-3131http://coe.indstate.edu 7
Page 1 and 2: Indiana State UniversityIndiana Sta
Page 3 and 4: College of Education MissionTo prep
Page 5: David and Miriam Turney Education E
Page 9 and 10: Indiana State UniversitySycamore Ed
Page 11 and 12: After closing its doors to educatin
Page 13 and 14: some of the exceptionalexamples inc
Page 24: Student profile:Lauren AtheyJunior,

Sycamore Educator Spring 2008 - Bayh College of Education

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