Co-Teaching

«     A second workshop for teacher candidates interested in co-teaching during their student teaching experience was held on Oct. 4, 2004. 14 teacher candidates attended the session.

«     Four half-day co-teaching pairs workshops were held on November 9 and 10, 2004. During these sessions, cooperating teachers and teacher candidates came together to explore communication styles, co-planning and collaboration. 54 cooperating teachers and 54 teacher candidates attended one of the half-day sessions.

«     Seventeen presentations on the co-teaching model were made to educators in participating schools and districts this quarter. Audiences for these presentations ranged from 14 – 80 people. Please refer to the attached calendar for more details on co-teaching presentations (entries in blue).

«     Co-teaching occurred in 61 classrooms in two school districts this quarter.

Professional Development

«     A professional development consortium has been established, with representatives from 5 partnering school districts and the university. Each school district is represented by one district level administrator and at least one teacher. These thirteen people meet regularly to discuss staff development needs and to share resources. The group is in the process of developing a needs assessment that will be disseminated to all teachers in the five-district area in January. The results of the needs assessment will provide information regarding staff development needs as well as existing levels of competence and expertise in each identified area. The group is also considering the potential of hosting a summer institute for teachers.

«     A professional learning community focusing on staff development has been meeting monthly as well. This group is comprised of 18 teacher representatives from the five partnering school districts as well as the university. Staff Development PLC is studying models of effective professional development for educators and is focusing attention on particular areas, including how to make staff development on-going, how to meet the needs of adult learners, how to balance top-down staff development with teacher needs. The group is reading pertinent literature focusing on one of the topics and sharing thoughts, insights and recommendations with each other.

Mentoring

«     The first gathering for new teachers (in years 1-3 of teaching) was held this quarter. The event was held in the evening, and featured the Minnesota Teacher of the Year as the keynote speaker. Teachers attending were provided opportunities to discuss key questions, including: “What do you like about teaching?”; “What do you need?”; “What do you wish you had known?”; and “What’s hard about entering this profession?”. The event was attended by 15 new teachers. The leadership group has brainstormed ways to increase attendance at future events.

«     A professional learning community focusing on mentoring has been established. This PLC includes teachers and administrators from the five partnering districts as well as university faculty. The group of 17 meets monthly to study mentorship and induction of new teachers, design a cross-district collaborative mentor training program and conduct research to determine the impact of the training program. The group is starting by researching exemplary induction and mentoring programs around the country, comparing the components of successful programs and exploring which components are present in existing mentoring programs in the partner districts.

Dissemination Activities

«     TQE has participated in a number of web meetings on campus to determine the best approach to improving the timeliness of updating the TQE web site. Software has been purchased to enable the grant personnel to maintain the web site themselves rather than relying on the college web team. The college web team will provide technical assistance as needed.

«     The three key leaders of our project attended the TQE Directors meeting in Phoenix during the month of November. There they were able to meet with the project grant officer regarding issues specific to our project.

«     A project overview was presented to both the SCSU College of Education Faculty Forum and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board in November, 2004.

«     TQE Co-teaching Specialists have been working closely with our business partner, DMR, to capture the video tape needed to create a co-teaching instructional video. The co-teaching specialists have developed a script and framework for the video, and taping will continue throughout the remainder of the school year.

Other Progress

«     Building Contacts have been identified and brought on board to help with the dissemination of project information to teachers and administrators in the field. A copy of the Building Contact job description has been attached. There are currently 27 building contacts working with the TQE staff. Two sessions were held during this quarter to provide building contacts with an overview of the grant initiatives.

«     Data has been collected from cooperating teachers and teacher candidates regarding communication between teaching partners. Data has also been collected from teacher candidates regarding self-efficacy.