tpiignite

tpiignite

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Teaching and Public Perception: How Do We Advocate For Our Profession?


As an educator I know teaching is hard, but rewarding work.  Teachers are not only responsible for helping children learn, they play a pivotal role in creating a space that is safe for children’s emotional and physical well-being.  From school shootings to weather related disasters, the courageous actions of teachers in the midst of chaos and terror has been in the media multiple times over the past few months.  The selflessness of their actions, the compassion and protection that they offer to their students has been lauded publicly.  There is no doubt in our minds: they are heroes. 

This is a welcome contrast to the portraits that were painted not that long ago of teachers as overpaid, under-qualified drains on the economies of many states.  Who hasn’t heard these comments, “teachers get summers off, they are done working at 3 pm, they don’t work as hard as everyone else” and are members of unions that protect the “bad teachers”?

This extreme dichotomy of opinion on the status and worth of teachers is difficult to digest.   Yet, these attitudes seem to surface in the media repeatedly. 

We need to be proactive and market teaching for what it is: hero’s work.  Teachers may not all be saving children physically, but they are providing students with the tools to reach their potential, catching them when they fall, and serving as strong role models.      

I leave you with a few questions to get you thinking about how we all might become activists for teachers and the profession:

  How do we support our teacher candidates, new teachers, and colleagues to be prepared for, and    
  personally manage shifting public opinion of their profession? 

  As School Districts, Colleges, and Universities, how do we advocate for our profession and shift 
  public perception?  How can we utilize our various strengths and leverage our P-16 partnerships to 
  promote teaching and build support within our shared communities?

  What role do teacher preparation programs play in providing our future teachers with all of the tools 
  needed for supporting student learning, and also being a leader and positive role model in their 
  communities? 

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Co-Teaching, Building on Success


St. Cloud State University is known for it’s nationally recognized Co-Teaching approach to student teaching.  This model was developed by a team from SCSU led by Director Nancy Bacharach as part of a Teacher Quality Enhancement grant.  Nancy and Teresa Heck are continuing the work out of the Academy for Co-Teaching and Collaboration at SCSU. You can learn more about their work at www.stcloudstate.edu/soe/coteaching.

This model has been supported by data that indicates P-12 students have greater reading and math achievement in classes where they are co-taught by a teacher candidate and cooperating teacher, than by a teacher candidate or classroom teacher alone. 

At TPI, we are working to expand this co-teaching model in several ways based on recommendations from our Co-Teaching Task Force.  Specifically, we want to foster a culture of Co-Teaching at SCSU and in our six partner districts.
  • We are supporting train-the-trainer workshops this summer for teachers in our partner districts to enhance their co-teaching infrastructure for hosting teacher candidates as well as promoting co-teaching infrastructure for hosting teacher candidates as well as promoting co-teaching between two licensed teachers and in induction programs.
  • Faculty will also be invited to participate in these workshops to build our internal capacity for co-teaching.
  • We want to provide multiple opportunities for students to experience co-teaching before student  teaching, and will be working with faculty across the institution to not only incorporate co- teaching into their curriculum, but also support the modeling of co-teaching between two faculty from different departments, as well as faculty and P-12 teachers co-teaching content and methods courses.  

All of our NExT partners (www.nextprogram.org) have adopted our Co-Teaching model for student teaching, and we look forward to continuing to innovate in the application of our model.

How could you use Co-Teaching to support student learning in your classroom?