Bishop's Blog

I am currently multi-tasking as I am at a meeting in Jefferson City right now with Shelton Smith, so this Friday memo will be shorter than others. Work of the division this past week: Faculty Development Continued evaluations - I completed my evaluations of the full-time faculty.  Thanks again, full-timers for your efforts in completing your self-evaluation and for taking the time to meet with me. Now that I have been through this process twice, I am looking forward to making a few adjustments next year as I would like to spend some more time and energy discussing your own professional goals for the upcoming year. Faculty Meeting - We met briefly to discuss the action alert noted below and to discuss a few other topics.  Professional Development - Thanks to Amber Henry for presenting to the faculty about Google Forms. Many PK-12 school districts utilize google applications so we need to make ourselves familiar with these technology tools. We learned how easy it is to make a go

Here is a snapshot of what the Education Division worked on the week of January 19th after celebrating the life of *Martin Luther King, Jr.: STUDENT RELATED Outstanding Beginning Teacher Awards - At the spring conference, MACTE presents two OBT awards for each teacher preparation program. We have selected Brandon Riley at Grand Center Arts Academy and Melinda Golubski at Mehlville High School to represent Missouri Baptist as our Outstanding Beginning Teachers.  President's Chapel - All who attended were blessed by President's Chapel. After some beautiful music provided by some of our own music faculty members, Dr. Lacey shared the story of Louis Zamperini. Hearing his story has inspired me to read the book, Unbroken, by Laura Hillebrand, that is based on this man's difficult life journey and how God proved Himself faithful. Diversity Field Experience - I have been working with Tonia Crane and Terri Moore to place our main campus students in the Parkway School

Shelton Smith and I are serving on the CEEDAR State Steering Committee. For more information about CEEDAR, click  CEEDAR Website We will be at a meeting in Jefferson City on Friday, January 30 and Thursday, Friday, February 19-20.  I apologize in advance for the time that I will be out of the office. We will provide updates at the division faculty meetings.

The Chronicle of Higher Education published the following article regarding enrollment in teacher education programs. Decline in Teacher Ed Enrollment

The Education Division was busy this week as we are in the second week of this spring semester. Read below for more information. Teacher Certification Through collaboration, a decision was made that we will not be participating in the DESE pilot of the MoPTA Task 4 Alternate Assignment. Our spring student teachers will complete tasks 1-3 of the MoPTA just like in the fall. Seminar instructors will grade the tasks and submit results to Gina Walker. Curriculum, Assessment, and Data-Driven Decision Making course - Sheri Brandes, Mary Ann Bouas, Judith Scott, and David Collum met to continue the work needed to create this new course and syllabus. DESE Webinar - DESE conducted an informative webinar regarding the following topics: transition process, annual performance report, CAEP schedule (they are coming to MBU February 25, 2018), MEGA assessments, MEES, CEEDAR/Missouri Partnership (MBU is one of the participating schools), and the upcoming webinar schedule. Thanks to all of you w

Welcome Back! Here is a snapshot of what we have been working on the last few days: Spring Faculty Conference - We learned valuable information regarding our Honors Program, upcoming HLC visit, Canvas Learning Management System, Integration of Faith and Learning, and lessons learned from the Teaching and Technology Conference. Here is a shout out to Tim Delicath, David Collum, and Sheri Brandes - great job sharing what you learned at that conference! Missouri Content Assessment (new test that replaced Praxis) - Kathleen Wendt and I have been meeting to determine the best way to track the assessment results as they are being reported to our university differently than the Praxis. We want to be intentional about how we track this information so we can use the data for analysis purposes. Counselor Position Review - We continue to review resumes from applicants for our counseling position(s) available. Possible candidates are being identified and interviewed. Mobile Learning Initia

It is that time of year. Time to get back to the gym. For the last few days, I have been utilizing the fitness center at the MBU SRC. I would like to take a few minutes to encourage all MBU faculty to take advantage of this free resource. It takes effort, energy, and planning to pack my exercise clothes, towel, and headphones. However, the benefits outweigh that effort. I have felt so much better the last few days. When I run on the treadmill and lift some weights, I make better eating choices. Check out the fitness center today!