Professional Development School Council
A partnership between Berry College Teacher Education Department and Berry Elementary, Middle, and Child Development Center
Purpose: To facilitate collaboration between the schools and to communicate information to all faculty to increase collegiality as well as to optimize student and teacher candidate learning and development.
Council Members: Chris Love, Jackie McDowell, Leslie Marlow, Duane Inman, Chris Muire, Mary Niedrach, Paul Atkinson, Christine Puckett, Ann Tankersley, Joan McPherson
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Minutes
Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Attending: Jackie McDowell, Chris Love, Duane Inman, Leslie Marlow, Chris Muire, Ann Tankersley, Barbara Henderson
Calendar and locations for monthly meetings (first Wednesday of every month, 8:00 a.m., with the exception of January):
- October 4: Elementary School – Barstow
- November 1: Child Development Center
- December 6: Cook Building – Fish Bowl
- January 10: Cook Building – Fish Bowl
- February 7: Elementary School – Barstow
- March 7: Child Development Center
- April 4: Cook Building – Fish Bowl
A suggestion was made for a “themed” retreat in January, and the idea will be presented to other faculty members to weigh the pros and cons of tentatively setting the date for January 18th. The multi-purpose room at the elementary school was mentioned as a possible site for the retreat.
Changes in collaborations: Gretchen Dodson is working with Karen Kurz and Valerie Chapman. Mary Clement and Mae Wlazlinski are working with Annette Herrington.
Ways in which the CDC and Elementary School can help recruit undecided students to become education majors:
- Recruit from the freshmen who are student workers at the schools.
- Jackie said that freshmen can stay in their work assignments.
- Jackie took out a one-half page ad in the “Who’s New” magazine. Ruth Ference, Mary Clement, and Jackie worked up a flyer talking about all the advantages of teaching. They asked Lynnwood to make a poster. This could be for the majors and minors fair and maybe put one up at the Elementary/Middle School and Child Development Center.
- Make a list of students attending the Majors and Minors Fair and send them information from the education department.
- At student-worker-appreciation events, give handouts to encourage interest in the program.
- Give out packets of materials in BCC classes.
- Make statistics available for freshmen regarding teaching in locations farther away from Georgia. Let them know what to expect.
Duane brought up that we should decide on the responsibilities and implementation of these ideas. Jackie said she will get the posters and brochures and make them available in classes like EDU 102.
Student teaching responsibilities vs. class responsibilities:
Leslie: Students say they can’t come to class, or they’re late for class, because they have been told they need to attend field trips or special events with their cooperating teachers. Student teaching is not full time during fall semester. Their first responsibility is to their Berry classes. We need to get the word out to their teachers regarding this. Jackie asked if this is a problem with the elementary school. Leslie said there were one from Cave Spring and one from Elm Street. Students missed Instructional Management class to go to Open House. Jackie said we can’t tell the other schools, like Cave Spring, what to do. They need to get direction from their supervisors. We can do something about the elementary and middle schools. Chris said he would tell the teachers in their faculty meeting.
Student teaching by invitation only for the Berry Elementary and Middle Schools:
Chris said that the elementary and middle schools have an idea about selecting student teachers by “invitation only.” He would like for BCES/BCMS to be a prestigious place to teach.
There were opposing views to this suggestion, in that most of the group felt it was Mary Outlaw’s decision to place the students. Duane said we should possibly send the strongest students out and keep the weakest ones on campus so we could work with them more.
Examples were cited about students asking faculty members if they could work with them. It was agreed that the proper response to these requests should be, “Those decisions should come from the Field Experience Office.”
Jackie said that if the students indicate a school or a teacher they would like, Mary Outlaw works very hard to get them their choice. The group agreed that Mary needs to be a part of these decisions. We should see if Mary will come to the next PDS meeting to find out how she goes about placing the students. Leslie added that Paul should be at the next meeting too.
Bridge the gap between the long stretch road and the schools, perhaps teleconferencing:
Chris asked if there are ways to make this easier since almost 20 minutes are spent in travel time. How do we make it work?
More involvement/expertise from other Arts & Sciences faculty: Decide what we could do for them in return.
Substitutes for half days to make planning more realistic: Jackie would be willing to fund a half-day substitute teacher if it would make planning easier.
Submitted by Barbara Henderson
August 15, 2006
Attending: Paul Atkinson, Debra Belvin, Lynnwood Belvin, Janda Canalis, Wade Carpenter, Valerie Chapman, Mary Clement, Jane Cunningham, Gretchen Dodson, Jeanne Elkins, Ruth Ference, Kathy Gann, Michelle Haney, Claire Howard, Duane Inman, Brian Jory, Karen Kurz, Chris Love, Leslie Marlow, Jackie McDowell, Joan McPherson-Blose, Chris Muire, Mary Niedrach, Mary Outlaw, Amber Prince, Fran Roe, Julie Trejo, Jason Tucker, and Dara Wakefield.
Outgoing Chair Leslie Marlow welcomed everyone to the PDS picnic to begin the school year by meeting with their partners and talking about collaborations. The second page of the packet material listed the faculty teams for fall 2006. The PDS Council, established to promote collaboration for teachers from the Berry College Teacher Education Department, Elementary School, Middle School and Child Development Center, has been meeting for 2½ years. Members serve on the Council for two years before rotating off; and this year Debbie Belvin and Ruth Ference rotated off, while Chris Love and Chris Muire begin to serve on the Council. This year meetings will be held on the first Wednesday of each month at 8:00 a.m., with the location alternating between the CDC, BCES and Cook Building. The first meeting is scheduled for September 6, in Cook 205. Agenda items may be sent to the chair before the meeting. As Chris took over as chair, Leslie was commended for her hard work and success as chair.
Chris welcomed the new members to the Council and they include Paul Atkinson, Valerie Chapman, Julie Trejo, Jason Tucker, and Monica Willingham.
Presentations
Michelle Haney and Mary Niedrach presented their collaboration, “Intergenerational Project with Berry Elementary Kindergarten Children and Students taking PSY 221, Lifespan Development.” They talked about 1) description of kindergarten project involving pairing with senior adults at a local residential nursing home; 2) description of the Lifespan Development class; and the goals and other collaboration plans. A Maymester is planned for Japan in 2008!
Janda Canalis talked about the collaboration during the past year with the EDU 215 and EDU 322 Integrated Arts class that Jackie McDowell and Dara Wakefield co-teach. To begin the collaboration Dara sent the syllabus to Janda and she scheduled the elementary classes that the college students would be visiting and assisting, which included those taught by Claire Howard, Jane Cunningham, Monica Nichols, and Michelle Majors. The college students wrote reflective journals which were given to Janda as part of the grading system. Janda would like to see more involvement of the elementary students doing more hands-on activities. Jackie talked about how the college students’ evaluations contained so much praise for the collaborations between college, elementary school, middle school and Child Development Center, and that bridging that gap was one of the big accomplishments that make us all so proud!
Chris asked the group to go ahead and divide up into their teams, and if team members were not at the meeting, Chris asked the members to think of some ways to collaborate. He requested a copy of each team’s Collaborative Endeavors Planning Form and/or Collaborative Endeavors Report for 2005-2006.
Outlook Calendar
After about thirty minutes the Council reconvened for the picnic; then Chris explained how to use the calendar in Outlook. He walked through the process of sending and accepting or rejecting schedules on the program. This would be an excellent way for the Council to communicate with each other.
Role of Student Practicum Experiences in CDC, BCES, and BCMS.
Our practicum students need to know what kinds of experiences we are expecting them to have in the three partner schools. Council members were asked to share their expectations for field experiences in their areas, particularly so the new members on the Council could get a better understanding of expectations. When Leslie taught EDU 102, students did three observations, one at each school. At the Elementary School, the teacher would give her a schedule of what would be happening in the school and students would sign up for the observation times they wanted to attend. Fran Roe will be teaching EDU 102 during the first seven weeks of the semester; Dara and Duane will be teaching the other sections of the course. Fran has talked with Paul about when she would be able to take the students to the Elementary School. It may be problematic because the class is scheduled for 8:00 – 9:00 and school doesn’t start until 8:30. Duane and Julie team teach EDU 205. They have generally scheduled 15 hours of observation in the lab schools, with 10 structured observations in which they will answer specific questions and write reflective journals. The classrooms in which they will do observations are arranged through the field experience office (Mary Outlaw) about four weeks in advance. Students are required to get in touch with their assigned teachers once they have their placements to work out schedules.
Jackie asked Mary about attaching expectations for field experiences to the syllabi. Mary will be asking the faculty to please specify that they have assigned tasks for the students. Mary receives feedback from a lot of teachers and they appreciate having some information (single page) separate from the syllabus that states, “We expect the student to do this and this and if you would please help the student by …” Duane said one of the things that helps is having those teachers note when the students show up so teachers would have that information. Teachers also supply faculty with important feedback as to how they see the college students relating to different lab school students and different age groups. Janda asked if students are feeling like their needs are being met in the classrooms at the elementary school and Duane answered that the 205 students really don’t know what those needs are. College students are cautioned about being judgmental and asked to look for the specific activities mentioned in the syllabi and not focus on other things happening in the classrooms.
Mary Outlaw talked about the big picture: In EDU 102 students would go in with their own expectations of what teaching is about; in 205 they would be in classes for extended periods of time. Fran and Mary have been talking about the Curriculum and Methods classes with a field trip in them, then in the spring they will have further exposure to the classrooms. This seems to be a nice arrangement that shows that our students are clearly having exposure to our lab schools. In EDU 321 they go back and look for writing to these specifically; then they take the Integrated Arts and Sciences classes. In EDU 370 they go to Elm Street and West Central. Mary is very aware that early in the spring semester of their junior years they turn in their request for field placements. Chris Muire commented that in EDU 340 they do Project Wet and Project Wild workshops with 14 contact hours. In HPE 306 and 308 Jeanne does weekly communications with Janda. Her children come to the dance class five times. In EDU 322 students spend 22 hours during the semester working with CDC children, which is 1 ½ hours for 15 weeks. Bob Pearson’s HPE 301 Team Sports for Teachers’ class works with the middle school twice a week all semester for 30 hours. Bobby Epling’s HPE 310 class goes to the elementary school during the spring twice a week for 30 hours. During the spring, Brian Jory’s FAM 230 class goes to Mary Niedrach’s kindergarten class for about four hours. Mary Clement recommended putting the EDU 499/599 student teaching on the list.
When asked what the Council would like to do this year, Janda recommended that the Elementary School would like to bridge the gap between the long stretch road and the lab school with the faculty of the other schools on campus (arts, sciences, etc.) This could be an opportunity for the Council to go out and get other faculty members to come to the lab schools on tours so they could get a sense of how they could be involved with the lab schools. The Council needs to ask for specific expertise that the other faculty could bring to the elementary school campus. Jeanne spoke about how planning time is always an issue and that college faculty have more time than lab school faculty. The Council could look at more meeting times for partnerships other than just once of twice a semester. Janda thinks a good time for partnership meetings could be lunchtime. By taking that time, the children would not be shortchanged; but it would be a matter of logistics since it takes 20 minutes to get to the schools. Jackie would be happy to help finance some substitute teachers for ½ day planning sessions and find some way to compensate the elementary/middle/CDC teachers as well for their time.
With no other questions, Chris thanked Leslie for her job as chair over the last year and for mentoring him in the position, thanked everyone for coming and the meeting was adjourned at 6:20.
Submitted by Kathy Gann
April 12, 2006, Barstow
Attending: Chris Muire, Chris Love, Jackie McDowell, Leslie Marlow, Duane Inman, Mary Niedrach, Christine Puckett, Paul Atkinson, Ann Tankersley, Joan McPherson
Fall PDS retreat – August 15th 4:00-6:00 pm
Plans for the Retreat:
Two presentations: Janda Canalis who has been working with Jackie McDowell and Dara Wakefield’s Arts and Cultures class. Leslie will contact Janda to confirm this. Mary Niedrach and Michelle Haney will talk about their planned project on Alzheimer’s.
The Deans office will provide dinner. It was decided to have an Italian dinner from Roma’s.
Chris Love will begin as chairperson for the Council in the fall. He will organize and facilitate the August retreat. On the Monday before the retreat he will send out a reminder to all faculty. Next year’s PDS Council meetings will be the 1st Wednesday of each month, at 8:00 am. Dates will be given out at the retreat.
The purpose of the PDS Council will be revisited:
The PDS council has been meeting for 21/2 years. It was established to promote collaboration for teachers from the college Edu. Dept, BCES/BCMS and CDC. It has 1-2 retreats a year to share collaborations and prepare for the following year.
It is use for communication between the schools. It is composed of: 1 teacher from the CDC, 2 teachers from BCES/BCMS, 1 professor from the Edu. Department and the administrators for each school. Service on the council is for 2 years. In January 2007, Leslie Marlow (TE representative) and Mary Niedrach (BCES representative) will be replaced by new members. The following January 2008, two other representatives will be rotated out. Anyone, not just PDS council members, can add concerns to the meeting agenda and can attend the meetings.
Jackie McDowell suggested that we discuss the role of the students practicum experiences in the CDC, BCES, and BCMS, starting from EDU 102, so that everyone will know what students are supposed to be doing for each class and can be prepared.
Jackie McDowell and Paul Atkinson talked about a joint internet calendar of what’s going on in the different education departments and the schools that can be easily accessible by everyone. Chris Love suggested using the Outlook calendar that can be accessible to everyone. He will conduct a 30 minute presentation at the retreat to show everyone how to us Outlook.
Child Development Center
Ann Tankersley discussed some possible changes at the CDC. She doesn’t want to give up the multi aged classes but because of declining enrollment some changes need to be made. Adding a young 3 year old class - Admitting 2 ½ year old children in August, (those who will turn 3 before October) is needed because of accepting younger 3’s through March resulted in some bad behavior because of the maturity difference in the younger 3’s and the older children. She also wants to stop the rumor of a waiting list for the CDC. She believes that the program will sell itself if she can get parents to visit the CDC. One suggestion that was made was that if space is available see if Kinder Music can conduct their classes in the CDC. A second suggestion was to opening the playground or offering story time to the public during the summer. The CDC will still have 3, 4, & 5 year old multi aged classes. Atlanta I, II and Faith Cottage will remain multi aged and Sunshine will be for the younger 3’s. A suggested goal is to pull out the Pre-K student for a certain time each day to work together as a Pre-K class.
Creative Curriculum, a play based curriculum, is used at the CDC. Most prospective parents don’t understand this concept. Duane Inman suggested that a goal is to have a formalized curriculum handout (professional brochure) to explain this concept or to look into a set/well known curriculum to work into the program.
Changes at BCES for Fall
New Director-Paul Atkinson
New 4th grade teacher – Jason Tucker
New 5th grade teacher – Julie Trejo
New Track & Cross Country Coach – Doug Bowling
New Middle School girls Basketball Coach – Monica Willingham
The meeting adjourned at 10:00.
Submitted by Joan McPherson
January 11, 2006
9:00 - Barstow
In attendance: Chris Muire, Christine Puckett, Leslie Marlow, Duane Inman, Joan McPherson, Mary Niedrach, Rhonda Gentry, Ann Tankersley
Mrs. Puckett introduced the new graduate assistant for the elementary school – Rhonda Gentry.
Purpose of the Council
To begin the new term, a brief discussion revisiting the question “What is the purpose of the PDS council?” ensued. It was reaffirmed that the primary purpose is to facilitate and communicate “things” (collaborative endeavors, ideas, practices, conversations, etc.) that are going on between/among the BCES, BCMS, CDC, and TE faculty and staff.
Old Business
Leslie Marlow gave out minutes from the last meeting. A brief review of the topics from the December meeting brought forth a couple of things for the “To Remember Calendar”: March meeting – begin working on the P.D.S. retreat for the fall term (August on same day as the faculty picnic); April meeting: decide on the new chair for the 2006 – 2007 term.
Directors Search
The search currently has attracted 9 interested applicants. The next meeting to discuss the search and the applicants is Wednesday, January 18th at 3:15 in the Cook Middle School Classroom. There were several questions that were raised which Leslie will email Jackie McDowell and then pass the information along to the PDS Council.
Who is on the committee from the college?
Who is the chair of the committee?
When the committee identifies meeting dates, can the PDS know of the dates in case anyone on the council would like to attend?
Who are the TE faculty members on the committee?
Are PDS representatives on the search committee? (From the Dec. minutes, we indicated that we would like for Mary Niedrach and Debbie Belvin to be considered.)
New Business/Announcements
Chris Muire provided a handout and discussed his grant proposal for a graduate course on the topic of grade level mapping curriculum. June 4 – 8 from 4:00-8:00 pm. Designed for Cave Spring, Southeast, and Berry teachers.
Duane Inman reminded everyone about the Northwest Regional Social Studies Fair. It will be held on Saturday, February 25th 2006, from 8:30-12:30. Judges are needed. Leslie will send out an email to all faculty requesting volunteers and will email those people who served as judges last year. Rhonda Gentry volunteered to judge. Mary Niedrach and Christine Puckett will see if any volunteers are available from the Elementary and Middle school. Christine also wanted a packet of social studies fair information sent to Michelle Major.
Chris Muire announced that he and Monica Nichols will be teaching Project Wild on February 2nd & 9th from 5:00-8:00 pm
In March they will be teaching Project Wet. Any interested teachers/faculty should contact him or Monica.
The next PDS Council is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 9:00 in Barstow. Please send any agenda items for this meeting to Leslie by Tuesday, Feb. 7 at noon.
Submitted by Joan McPherson