Announcements

1. Calling all book orders, please . . .  Submit online at iusb.bncollege.com.  You'll begin by registering.  Please note that the login is NOT your IU credentials.  You'll need to create a new user name and password. 
   
   Even if you do not need a book for a class, you must submit that to this online site.  
   
   There are drop-down choices for Summer 2010 and Fall 2010, so you can submit orders for both those terms starting now. 
   
   Finally, please note the requested due dates are Summer (March 1), Fall (April 1), and Spring (October 1).  As noted in faculty meeting last week, it is best if you can meet those deadlines.
   
   
2. F100 location in annual reports.  As decided in faculty meeting on Friday, if you teach a section of F100 Introduction to Teaching, you should include that in your annual report under ADVISING.  When discussed there, it should not be discussed in any other part of the report.  (This would be true of all items included in the annual report.  Include anything you feel is germane, but include it only one time in the report.)
   
   
3. Indiana's Race to the Top application has implications for teachers and teacher education.  You can read the state's submission at http://www.doe.in.gov/fastforward.  See section D(2) on page 63 for information on teacher effectiveness and section D(4) on page 84 for implications for higher education.
   
   
4. If you have other announcements for the department, please feel free to post them as comments to this.

NCATE Move Toward Increased Clinical Experiences

Indications are that NCATE is moving to a more clinically-based model.  What this means for us is that we will be expected to develop relationships with schools so that our students can benefit from more field work in those schools.  Of course, if our students are involved in more field work, that likely means additional faculty supervision and that has implications for credit hours for our students and faculty load.

Add to this "mix" our current status with REPA and it becomes a difficult issue to address too deeply.

But it does need to be in the fore of our thoughts.

Checkpoint Reflections by Students

One issue that arose at our February Meeting was how we were allowing students time to reflect on their checkpoints and incorporate that reflective work into our data-driven decision making processes.

One suggestion was that we move the due date for checkpoint portfolios up by 2-3 weeks to allow students the opportunity to see their assessed portfolio and then write a reflection on that assessment to then be included with their portfolio.

This is an item that needs our discussion.

Course Scheduling

The dean announced in the School of Ed meeting last Friday that we are to discuss how we schedule classes in the future so that we better meet the needs of our students.

Here is some data about our current academic year scheduling habits.


Fall 2009
Monday        GR 1 class (4:30)
                     UG 1 class (11:30)

Tuesday        GR 5 classes (4:30, 4:30, 5:30, 7:10, 7:10)
                      UG 4 classes (4:15, 4:30, 4:30, 5:30*, 5:30)
                      * Elkhart campus

Wednesday    GR 4 classes (4:30, 5:30, 5:30, 7:10)
                      UG 6 classes (5:30 - all content methods classes meet at 5:30 PM)

Thursday       GR 2 classes (4:30, 7:10)
                      UG 7 classes (11:30, 1:00, 4:30, 4:30, 5:00, 7:10, 7:10)

Mon/Wed      UG 5 classes (8:30, 9:00*, 11:30, 11:30, 1:00)

Tue/Thur       UG 3 classes (8:30*, 10:00*, 2:30)
*F201/202

Spring 2010
Monday        GR 2 classes (4:30, 7:10)    
                     UG 4 classes (11:30, 4:30, 7:10, 7:10)

Tuesday        GR 5 classes (4:30, 4:30, 5:30, 7:10, 7:10)
                     UG 3 classes (1:30, 4:30, 4:30)

Wednesday   GR 3 classes (4:30, 4:30, 7:10)
                     UG 2 classes (1:00, 5:30)

Thursday      GR 2 classes (4:30, 7:10-ND)
                     UG 5 classes (11:30, 1:00, 4:30, 4:30, 5:00)

Mon/Wed      UG 4 classes (8:30, 9:00*, 11:30, 1:00)


Tue/Thur       UG 4 classes (9:30*, 10:00*, 1:00, 2:30*)
*F201/202

Assessment Data

Having reviewed the assessment data supplied at last month's meeting, what themes do you see emerging that we could discuss?

This discussion is required by NCATE . . .

Just as a reminder, it was this data from previous years that prompted us to drop EDUC-K205 and add EDUC-P407 to the undergraduate program.  We discerned that our students were lacking in assessment training and their comments indicated they felt they were getting more special education coursework than they needed.

REPA Update

As of this writing, we have not yet received a final, signed version of the new rules.  While we are fairly certain that REPA will allow students to continue as Secondary Education majors taking content coursework "at least equivalent to" the major, we are not 100% assured of this.

If our students remain our majors, it will be necessary to work closely and collaboratively with the good folks in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to adjust our undergraduate advising sheets to include all the courses that majors in that field currently take and any other additional courses we deem necessary to meet the SPA (specialty program association) standards for teacher preparation.

What I am seeking is some way to divide this work equitably among all of us.  My sense is that we should work in groups of two, each group taking one academic area (Math, Science, Language Arts, World Languages, Social Studies) and meeting with CLAS folks to hammer out the required courses our students would take.  The starting point for these discussions would be the current requirements for a major (bachelor of arts most likely) in the content area.  REPA requires that students content preparation be AT LEAST identical to the major.  So, the work is to determine, in addition to the required courses for the major, are there other courses to be required for education majors in that content area.

At the same time, each group could be working on creating a 4-year plan of study as we have been asked to do by the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs.