Friday Memo 12/12/14

Happy Friday! I don't know about you, but this has been a REALLY LONG week for me.

First of all, thanks for your thoughts, prayers, and kind words regarding my friend who was rushed to the hospital Monday night for what the doctors thought was an aneurysm. They have determined that he did not have an aneurysm, but they are continuing to run tests to determine the cause of the bleeding in the brain. Randy has been moved from ICU to a regular room, and he may be able to go home Sunday. Praise God!

Doctoral Dissertation Defense - This week I had the pleasure of attending two different dissertation defenses. Steve Weinhold presented his study about standards based grading. Patrick Schwalbe defended his study about the effects of a high school advisory program. I always enjoy the opportunity to attend a defense. I always come away learning something I didn't know!

Teaching in a Diverse Society - This semester is the first time we have offered this class as a requirement for initial certification. I met with the instructors of the class Monday night so we could review what worked, what didn't work, and how we could improve the course for next semester. We discussed the course content, textbook, and field experience. David Collum, Tonia Crane and I met today to discuss further the implementation of SimSchool and field experience.

Curriculum/Program Redesign Task Force - This group met Tuesday and continued marching onward toward all of the necessary program changes that need to take place to satisfy the new DESE requirements. This group worked on a variety of curricular updates. The task force voted to approve the proposals for a Cross-Categorical K-12 Stand-Alone Certification Program and an Early Childhood/Special Education Stand-Alone Certification Program. I will forward the proposal in an email. Please let me know if you have any problems with the proposals as they will be presented to Academic Affairs after the holidays.

Mobile Learning Initiative - We met yesterday to begin planning our METC - Motivate, Educate, Transform, Connect - conference presentation that we will be giving at the 2015 annual conference in February. Sharon Sumner, Sheri Brandes, Alicia Noddings, Michael Broombaugh, Greg Lawrence, Tyler Pitts, and I are looking forward to presenting the following workshop - Collaboration
& Cooperation - Bridging the Gap between K-12 & Teacher Preparation Mobile Learning Initiatives.

CAEP - I met with Kathe Rausch, a friend of MBU who serves on accreditation teams for CAEP - Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation. We had a meaningful dialogue that will help me lead the division forward to ensure we are collecting and analyzing the necessary data for CAEP requirements.

APR - Good news! Our preliminary Annual Performance Report from DESE indicates that all of our certification programs have either met the DESE requirements or there is an insufficient cell size. I would like for all program directors to set up a time with Kristie Breeding to come see me so we can review the APR for each program.

Student Teaching Orientation Meeting - We have been working diligently to get placements and packets ready for the Student Teacher Orientation Meeting for this coming Tuesday.

Faculty Loads - We have been working on faculty loads this week. Mary Ann Bouas, Mandy Kehoe, and I watch enrollment numbers very carefully at this point in each semester. Our enrollment is down considerably in most programs so we have had to work hard to manage loads, determine which classes need to be canceled, and keep faculty updated. Thank you for your patience as we work through the challenging schedule.

Christmas Party Canceled - I am so sorry that I had to cancel our faculty Christmas Party. I know we would have had a good time, but many of you probably appreciated gaining a few hours to get some grading completed.

Twitter - I have been utilizing twitter recently. I encourage you to follow me @drbishopedu.


Upcoming events:


Meeting
Date & Time
Location



Student Teacher Orientation
Tuesday, December16th
10:00am
Chapel
Feasting Day
Thursday, December 18th 
1:00pm
Cafeteria






I was blessed by the following scripture in Col. 2:2-3.


My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Have a blessed weekend,
Melanie

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