Friday Memo 11/21/14

Friday Memo 11/21/14

Prior to reading the list of happenings, please note that our strategic plan is complete. The plan was sent in an email so please take a few minutes to read the plan. I will be using this document to lead and guide us through the upcoming year.

I will also be forwarding an email from Hap Hairston, Director of Educator Preparation at DESE. There is important information in this email about an upcoming webinar. You are welcome to participate in any and all webinars conducted by DESE.

What we were up to this week:
  • Professional Development - Shelton Smith presented Artistry of Teaching professional development in the Hazelwood School District.
  • Franklin County adjunct workshop - Marsha Tierney and Shelton Smith conducted a workshop for the adjunct professors at the Franklin County Regional Learning Center. Sharon Sumner presented a technology presentation to the adjunct faculty at this workshop.
  • Graduate Program Discussion - Alicia Noddings, Sheri Brandes, and I met to discuss our graduate programs. More information to come regarding some possible new online graduate programs.
  • Teacher Surveys - Angela McGowan, Kathleen Wendt, Tonia Crane, and I met to discuss the surveys we send out to our recent graduates. We will be making some slight revisions to those surveys to reflect the changes in accreditation requirements.
  • Assessment Update - Tonia Crane and I met to discuss the timeline for the Annual Performance Report. We submitted our data October 30th. The preliminary unofficial 2014 report will be available December 1st. The official results will be provided to each institution on January 26th. I will share information with  the faculty as soon as possible.
  • Teacher Education Council Meeting (see pic) - Tuesday evening was the fall Teacher Education Council Meeting. Erica Bumpers, Laura Rauscher, Carl Holschen, Alicia Noddings, Karen Kannenberg, Jerry Deese, Ladd Faszold, John Han and I gathered to discuss policies and requirements necessary to maintain state certification, education curriculum, program and degree requirements in the field of education. We would like more MBU student and K-12 involvement so if you are interested or you know someone who is interested in participating in this council, please email me or Kristie Breeding.
  • Union School District Board Meeting Presentation - Shelton Smith presented at the board meeting to talk about the professional development opportunities MBU can offer to the school district.
  • Mobile Learning Initiative Meeting - Sharon Sumner, Alicia Noddings, Sheri Brandes, Amber Henry, Michael Broombaugh, Greg Lawrence, Tyler Pitts, and Heather Brendel (MBU student) met to discuss our continued efforts to learn more about mobile learning and how we can implement mobile learning in our classes. Heather Brendel, middle school special education teacher at Sullivan Middle School, presented how she and her colleagues are utilizing mobile learning in the classroom. We had a lot of fun learning about the following applications:
    •  Moby Max -  K-8 curriculum and teaching system with progress monitoring, goal setting, fluency practice, and motivation tools. Heather finds that this is a perfect intervention for many students and the lessons help her students meet their IEP goals. 
    • Gynzy - Smartboard lessons, activities, and games
    • Movenote - Presenting your documents with video
    • Class Dojo - Can be used for behavior management and parental communication 
    • IXL - online math and language arts practice
    • Epic - eBook service for children's books
    • Gmath - Google docs add-on that allows one to create graphs and write complex math directly in a google document
    • Quia - Can be used to create educational games, surveys, worksheets, and webpages that automatically capture the data  
    • Kahoot - Classroom response system - We participated in a kahoot formative assessment that Heather created for her students. We utilized our own devices to enter our responses to the assessment. This response system was more engaging than other systems I have used in the past. We had a lot of fun with this activity!! I encourage all of you to try this app.
    • I would like thank Heather for joining us. I would also like to thank Greg Lawrence.
  • Greg Comfort, Karana Phillips, Marilyn Kay, Mary Ellen Bouas, and I met to discuss our procedure for collecting gradebooks at the end of each semester. Starting at the end of this fall semester, we will ask that you submit your gradebook to our office digitally. More information will be coming in an email in the next few weeks.
Upcoming events:
Meeting
Date & Time
Location









Faculty Meeting
Monday, November 24th
3:30pm
Recital Hall
Thanksgiving Break
Wednesday, November 26th – November 30th

Faculty Meeting
Monday, December 8th
3:30pm
Recital Hall
Division Faculty Meeting and Christmas Party
Tuesday, December 9th
10:00am – 1:00pm
FLD Conference Room
Program Design Task Force Meeting
Wednesday, December 9th 1:00pm
FLD Conference Room

Lowell Pitzer had knee surgery this week. Praise God that he is home and recovering. Please keep Lowell in your thoughts and prayers.

I will not be sending a memo next week so I want to wish all of you a blessed Thanksgiving holiday. Please know that I am extremely thankful for each and every one of you.

Melanie

Dr. Melanie Bishop | Dean of Education

One College Park Drive | Saint Louis, Mo 63141 | 314.392.2323




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