Winter 2012 Partnership Magazine - College of Education Home ...

After the last full school year of
collaboration, the Redesign team foresaw
a need to make the assessment accessible
to all its users, that this would ensure timely
collaboration and a full understanding of the
requirements as they relate to practice. So
this summer 18 teacher education faculty and
K-12 school educators developed an online
module complete with multimedia resources,
documents, and tools.
“The goal is to make expectations for
the TPA clear throughout coursework and in
our teaching,” says Kitty Foord of the K-12/
Secondary Programs department.
Five teams covered
the initial four tasks of the
assessment with a team “
overseeing the technology
use. Each team gathered a
mix of materials to address
the objectives, measures,
evaluations, and resources
for each task, including
sample videos and student
work in specific applications. Additional
resource files were added for technology and
literacy issues.
Now, both teachers and students include
resources from their current curriculum in
Winter 2012 Partnership
the module. This is gradually building learning communities particular to districts and school
buildings, which in turn affects faculty instruction with the assessment and opportunities for
more development. Meanwhile, four Professional Learning Teams use the module as a base
from which educators extend applications to their practices that arise in their discussions of the
assessment, and the meetings provide a forum for reporting the results.
Learning Teams
As new curricula emerge and morph with current practice, educators from across
institutions accepted a call for collaboration in creating common, effective teaching practices.
Over 30 teaching faculty and K12 teachers began meeting regularly this fall to build
knowledge and practice with topics they collectively identified last fall in surveys and focus
groups as important to their schools and classrooms. Seven teams cover areas such as the TPA,
differentiation, and co-teaching this fall, and expect to add more learning teams reviewing
mental health and/or technology in spring 2012.
We’re learning to use differentiation
as a tool, not merely as a generalized concept,
because the bottom line is
what’s useful for us in the classroom,
said Jeff Pribyl.
”
Curriculum Area Lead, Kitty Foord, commented,
“We can’t transform practice, or integrate theory or
ideas or learning, without ongoing, job-embedded
development to support it.”
Some groups meet face-to-face, which in many
cases means transportation to and from common
destinations, while others meet in online forums
at least four times over the semester. Jeff Pribyl, a
Chemistry content area professor, meets with two
elementary educators from Le Sueur-Henderson and
Assistant Director of the Office of Field & International Experience,
Laura Bemel, to discuss differentiation strategies.
“We’re learning to use differentiation as a tool, not merely as a
generalized concept, because the bottom line is what’s useful for us
in the classroom,” Pribyl said.
The Learning Teams are based on K-12 Professional
Learning Community empirical research, which focuses on
ongoing development, diverse membership, fostering
collaborative relationships, and meeting diverse
needs. Pribyl added, “To be able to use or know the
material, we must talk to people who are using it
regularly.” He said it’s more effective when each
of them think specifically about instructional
techniques they use in their own courses.
The team found a common resource in a
book called The Differentiated Classroom,
and members alternate teaching each other
about the material through the lens of their
own practices, which can come through life
experiences as well as classroom environments.
The development of these resources and
practical strategies will inform the practice of
future teachers and education faculty, so a common
language and understanding surrounds the flux of its
practice. In an agile response to this flux, the Learning
Teams’ success depended partly on the participants’ ability
to extend learning into increased collaborations in their
respective environments.
Educators from the College of Education and related
content areas mixed with K-12 educators from Mankato,
St. Peter, Le Sueur-Henderson, and Sibley East school
districts. If you’re curious about participating in upcoming
Learning Teams or would like to catch up on the learning
and products that have come out of current teams,
talk to your PDS colleagues. They could be TOSA’s,
administrators, teachers, or professors, and they’re willing
to share.
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