Education Commons^™

Accountability By Design In Literacy Professional Development, Catherine Rosemary, Patricia Grogan, Kathryn Kinnucan-Welsch

Kathryn A. Kinnucan-Welsch

This article identifies the principles of high-quality professional development based on research and explores how the principles were used to examine the Literacy Specialist Project (LSP) in Ohio. It discusses how each principle was related to literacy professional development using examples from the LSP, reports data from the project about teacher and student learning, and presents implications and additional questions related to accountability systems for professional development.

Using Active Learning To Teach Hawthorne's 'My Kinsman, Major Molineux', Charlie Sweet, Hal Blythe

Hal Blythe

No abstract provided.

The Sacred And The Secular In Clay's Quilt, Charlie Sweet, Hal Blythe

Hal Blythe

n a telling scene toward the opening of Clay's Quilt (NY: Ballantine, 2001), Silas House has the novel's protagonist, Clay Sizemore, heading up Town Mountain toward the Hilltop Club, the local honkytonk. As he approaches the club, Clay notices that "across the bowl that held the town, another mountain rose up" (52). The most noticeable feature on this opposite mountain is a "marble statue of Jesus with his arms stretched out in front ... so lit up that it could be seen for miles" (52). Importantly, this scene acts as House's foreshadowing of the struggle Clay will endure as he …

It Works For Us, Collaboratively! : Shared Tips For Effective Collaboration, Charlie Sweet, Hal Blythe

Hal Blythe

"Collaborating is a highly effective skill we develop and use throughout our lives … until we become faculty." Thus the authors begin their journey into yet another in their popular "It Works" series that include: It Works for Me! Shared Tips for Teaching It Works for Me, Too! More Shared Tips for Teaching It Works for Me, Online! Shared Tips for Online and Web-Enhanced Teaching Everyone in the following pages—the authors’ collaborators—has found some area of academia that has been improved through the use of collaboration. The book begins by presenting some general tips about collaboration, then moves to more …

Your Library Goes Virtual, Audrey Church

Audrey P. Church

No abstract provided.

William Carl Bolivar: Philadelphia Journalist, Collector, Educator, William Welburn

William C Welburn

No abstract provided.

Depaul University Mathematics And Science Partnership Evaluation Report, Steven R. Rogg

Steven R Rogg

The DePaul University IMSP was designed as a longitudinal cohort program. Two cohorts of up to 25 teachers each will be supported. The second cohort is offset by one calendar year. Each teacher will complete a sequence of 12 university graduate-level courses (48 quarter hours), over two and one-half years, leading to a Masters of Science in Science Education (MSSE) degree. Thus, all successful participants will meet or exceed requirements of the designation “highly qualified” as described in the MSSE proposal quoted here.

“The Masters of Science in Science Education program is designed to provide rich content-based professional development of …

History Of Iowa State, Tanya Zanish-Belcher, Michele Christian, Becky Jordan

Michele Christian

Iowa State University is a very special place, full of history. But what truly makes it unique is a rare combination of campus beauty, the opportunity to be a part of the land-grant experiment, and to create a progressive and inventive spirit that we call the Cyclone experience. Appreciate what we have here, for it is indeed, one of a kind.

Way Of Being, Not Doing: The Influence Of An Innovative Writing Project On Teacher’S Adaptation To Mandates, Elizabeth Truesdell

Elizabeth Truesdell

Its Hour Come Round At Last, Hal Charles

Charlie Sweet

Caught up in the bright lights of the modern world, it is easy to pretend that the old myths and legends have lost their hold over our hearts and imaginations. Sometimes, when we least expect it, the old archetypes return in terrifying new forms. Gods and Monsters is an anthology that explores these themes with fifteen new tales of the fantastic from some of the brightest new talent in fantasy and horror.

Utilizing Web Based Technologies In Problem-Based Learning, William H. Robertson

William H. Robertson

This instructional strategy utilizes a Problem-based learning (PBL) approach to curriculum development and delivery. Each student is tasked with designing, developing, and reflecting on an appropriate grade level project that is published as a Web based curriculum. The content of the PBL focuses on a current real world science topic while concentrating on specific concepts and skills in both science and technology. The purpose of this integrative approach is to have the learner demonstrate an understanding of scientific inquiry that effectively integrates Web based technologies.

Accountability By Design In Literacy Professional Development, Catherine Rosemary, Patricia Grogan, Kathryn Kinnucan-Welsch

Catherine A. Rosemary

This article identifies the principles of high-quality professional development based on research and explores how the principles were used to examine the Literacy Specialist Project (LSP) in Ohio. It discusses how each principle was related to literacy professional development using examples from the LSP, reports data from the project about teacher and student learning, and presents implications and additional questions related to accountability systems for professional development.

Depaul University Mathematics And Science Partnership Internal Evaluator's Interim Report, Steven R. Rogg

Steven R Rogg

The DePaul University IMSP1 was designed as a longitudinal cohort program. Two cohorts of up to 25 teachers each will be supported. The second cohort is offset by one calendar year. Each teacher will complete a sequence of 12 university graduate-level courses (48 quarter hours), over two and one-half years, leading to a Masters of Science in Science Education (MSSE) degree. Thus, all successful participants will meet or exceed requirements of the designation “highly qualified” as described in the MSSE proposal quoted here.

“The Masters of Science in Science Education program is designed to provide rich content-based professional development of …

Evaluation Of An Online Community: Australia's National Quality Schooling Framework, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young, Keryn Mcguinness, Peter Cuttance

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

This chapter considers the development and implementation of Australia’s National Quality Schooling Framework (NQSF), created particularly for teachers and others involved in improving school education. This large-scale, highly structured, and outcome- focused community space, funded by the Australian government, was developed as a means of building and testing knowledge. Using Wenger’s infrastructure for communities of practice, the chapter evaluates the NQSF in light of its capacity for engagement, imagination, and alignment. Although these three are often intertwined, we conclude that firstly, users value the space for engagement and that this needs to be supported by a national telecommunications infrastructure. Secondly, …

Old Comics And Current Technology Combine To Form New Hybrids, James Carter

James B Carter

Critical reviews of "40 Years of The Amazing Spider-Man." DVD-ROM. Graphic Imaging Technology. New York: Marvel Comics, 2004 and "44 Years of Fantastic Four." DVD-ROM. Graphic Imaging Technology. New York: Marvel Comics, 2005.

Tears, Fears, And The Dreaded 5-Paragraph Essay: Encouraging Your Students To Write In English, Susan Adams

Susan Adams

Presentation at the Indiana Department of Education ESL K-12 Conference, 2006.

Princes, Beasts, Or Royal Pains: Men And Masculinity In The Revisionist Fairy Tales Of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, James Carter

James B Carter

An examination of the roles men fulfill in select short stories of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman.

Rethinking The Dynamics Of Young Children's Social Play, Genan Anderson, Clyde Robinson

Genan Anderson

A review of research on young children's play with ideas for applying the results in preschool classroom teaching.

Challenging Student Teachers’ Images, Sirene Lim, Alexendria Ieridou, A Goodwin

Sirene Lim

No abstract provided.

Addressing The Education Of Boys: A Community Of Practice Approach, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young, Greg Neal

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

The Boys’ Education Lighthouse Project (BELS) has enabled clusters of schools throughout Australia to identify, intervene, research, and report on initiatives to improve boys’ learning outcomes. In this paper we apply a community of practice model to analyse the BELS Project and consider knowledge building through student and teacher learning as the practice of the community in question. Clusters have focused on initiating new literacy programs, modifying teaching practice, introducing male role models or using ICT to improve learning outcomes. The four clusters considered in this paper show differing levels of development as communities of practice on a national scale, …

Teachers As Designers In Computer-Supported Communities Of Practice, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

School classes can be conceptualized as bounded communities of practice made up of teachers and students working together to build knowledge. Teachers make design decisions about physical and virtual spaces supported by information and communications technologies, and about curriculum. Design influences how students go about their work, and their learning outcomes, but its processes are rarely observed. This paper, based on observations and conversations in schools, explores how teachers engage in designing learning environments. It argues that while most teachers display leadership in design decisions for their classes, they should build on this experience to influence policy and become more …

Enchanting Readers With Revisionist Fairy Tales, James Carter

James B Carter

"Students examine three examples of revisionist fairy tales in which female characters act in empowered roles rather than behaving helpless and submissive"

Joining Up The Episodes Of Lifelong Learning: A Regional Transition Project, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young, Angela Smallwood, Sandra Kingston, Philip Harley

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

In this paper, we explore the rationale, process and outcomes of the Regional Interoperability Project on Progression for Lifelong Learning, a project that established a model of cross-sector collaboration in personal development planning technology in the UK. With specific reference to the widening participation agenda, and grounded in the perspective of lifelong learners, the project tested an approach in which discrete nodes of an individual’s learning journey are joined up through technology services. The paper describes the development of conceptual and practical tools to assist transitions between various communities of learning. A set of scenarios was developed, involving study to …

It Works For Us, Collaboratively! : Shared Tips For Effective Collaboration, Charlie Sweet, Hal Blythe

Charlie Sweet

"Collaborating is a highly effective skill we develop and use throughout our lives … until we become faculty." Thus the authors begin their journey into yet another in their popular "It Works" series that include: It Works for Me! Shared Tips for Teaching It Works for Me, Too! More Shared Tips for Teaching It Works for Me, Online! Shared Tips for Online and Web-Enhanced Teaching Everyone in the following pages—the authors’ collaborators—has found some area of academia that has been improved through the use of collaboration. The book begins by presenting some general tips about collaboration, then moves to more …

Using Active Learning To Teach Hawthorne's 'My Kinsman, Major Molineux', Charlie Sweet, Hal Blythe

Charlie Sweet

No abstract provided.

My Grandfather Is Dead: Narratives Of Culture And Curriculum, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young, Frank Vetere

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

Curriculum, the term used to denote a course of study, has been understood in recent years as a documented program developed by experts and managed by an education authority. In many cases this has resulted in a focus on the experience and the goals of dominant cultures, so that minority groups do not feel well-represented in the curriculum. In this paper we explore the possibility of young people using mobile devices to enrich their curriculum by contributing content that encapsulates aspects of their lives. In a short project, we provided indigenous secondary school students from both urban and isolated communities …

Teachers’ Roles And Professional Learning In Communities Of Practice Supported By Technology In Schools, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

This article explores four roles of teachers in classrooms using computers, from the perspective of communities of practice (Wenger, 1998). It reports on an indepth study undertaken in 12 schools, and shows that teachers appropriated technology in a range of ways to help them create classroom communities that build knowledge. Some also acted as brokers to cross classroom and school boundaries, engaging in professional learning through curriculum projects with other teachers and their students as new communities of practice formed. However, while such projects were initiated and driven by individuals and groups of teachers, their success required support through school …

Eportfolios In Australian Schools: Supporting Learners' Self-Esteem, Multiliteracies And Reflection On Learning, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

Electronic or ePortfolios are containers for selections of digital items – whether audio, visual, text, or a combination of these – generally used to show individual learning. Large-scale systems are being developed in Europe and the United States, based on specially-designed proprietary or open-source software. In contrast, most Australian ePortfolio projects in schools are small-scale, locally-developed attempts to take advantage of digital formats to develop a range of literacies, express learners’ identities and present achievements to various audiences. This paper describes recent school-based examples reported by teachers and students and concludes that teachers believe that important outcomes lie in increasing …

Continuing The Mission Of St. Vincent De Paul: Insights On Vincentian Leadership Practices At Depaul University, Marco Tavanti

Marco Tavanti

The mission of St. Vincent de Paul was one that was absolutely clear and absolutely simple. His mission was to serve. His mission was to provide service that empowered. His mission was to provide service that liberated. That service was provided to human beings, to people whom he recognized as being his brothers and sisters. He also provided to communities because communities are made up of human beings and you can’t liberate human beings, you can’t empower human beings, without empowering and liberating the communities they are a part of. And so DePaul University continues that mission of service, that …

Hey Come Vsit My Site: Kid E-Communities On Think.Com, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young, Karen Corneille

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

This paper considers the extent to which the free, password-protected online community environment of the Oracle Education Foundation’s Think.com supports children’s learning. Using an interpretive approach, we analysed the uses of the environment within a broad frame of digital literacies, social interaction and facilitated collaboration, in order to identify potential for, and instances of, learning. We found that many children engaged readily with the site to display a range of digital literacies and to communicate with others, and that teachers and facilitators played a powerful role in mediating learning, managing the communities, setting guidelines for participation, and linking students with …