Friday Memo 1/23/15

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 District for their diverse field experience. We got word this week that our students in the main campus sections of EDUC 203 - Teaching in a Diverse Society will be allowed to observe in one of the following schools: Ross Elementary, Craig Elementary, McKelvey Elementary, Northeast Middle, and North High. We are excited about this opportunity for our students to observe a diverse group of students in these schools. 

FACULTY RELATED

• Faculty Reviews - Again this week I have had the opportunity to sit down with many full-time faculty members to discuss their efforts in our division. It is an important part of my job to celebrate successes and discuss areas of improvement. 
• Leadership Commission - Shelton Smith is one of eight people serving with the commissioner on a new Leadership Commission. The group had a lengthy conference call this week to discuss the future of school leadership and the preparation of those leaders. Due to Shelton's involvement, MBU will have a tremendous influence on the future of leadership programs in Missouri. 
• Character Plus - Creating a Cultural Responsiveness Classroom Environment - Our very own adjunct instructor, Terri Moore, presented to a group of about 100 educators at a recent event sponsored by Education Plus. Terri shared what it means to be culturally responsive, what culturally responsive teaching looks like and sounds like, and how culturally responsive pedagogy improves teaching and learning. 
• Mobile Learning Initiative
• Alicia Noddings, Michael Broombaugh, Sharon Sumner, Sheri Brandes, and Tyler Pitts met to review our conference proposal. We are getting very excited to share our experiences with others at the METC conference.
• METC - Midwest Educator Technology Conference - The group above will be presenting on February 10. We will be out of the office on February 10-11 attending a variety of sessions regarding educational technology. We will be sharing with the faculty some of what we learned.

PROGRAM RELATED

• Program Assessment 
• Annual Performance Report - Many of us participated in the DESE webinar regarding the new APR. Our official report will be released next week. Our draft report looked very good, but I will wait to share detailed results until it is officially released.
• CAEP Report - Tonia Crane, Kathleen Wendt, Angela McGowan, and I met to discuss the CAEP report that is due in April. We reviewed the required fields and determined who would be responsible for each section of the report. We also reviewed our graduate survey and determined next steps to send a survey to those graduates' employers. CAEP's 8 Reporting Measures are listed below:
• Impact on P-12 learning and development
• Results of completer surveys
• Graduation rates
• Ability of completers to meet certification and any additional state requirements
• Indicators of teaching effectiveness
• Results of employer surveys, including retention and employment milestones
• Ability of completers to be hired in education positions for which they have prepared
• Student loan default rates and other consumer information
• AACTE PEDS Report - Kathleen, Angela, Tonia and I also briefly reviewed the PEDS report that is due at the end of May. The PEDS report collects some of the same data as the CAEP report; however, we are also required to submit data regarding the following:
• Candidate and graduate enrollment data
• Faculty background, count, and teaching loads
• Revenues and expenditures
• Educational technology and online learning
• Program selectivity
• Clinical experiences
• Program Impact Data

Student Assessment - Pearson Webinar - Many participated in a webinar conducted by Pearson regarding the Results Analyzer that will help us utilize and analyze the student assessment data that is being collected by Pearson from the student assessments. I look forward to utilizing this tool so we can see how our students perform on the Pearson assessments and then we will make program decisions based on that data.

Upcoming Events and Meetings:

Faculty Meeting - Monday, January 26th 3:30pm Recital Hall

Division Faculty Meeting and Professional Development - Tuesday, January 27th 10:15am FLD Conf. Room

Campus Labs - Compliance Assist Meeting (Invite only) - Wednesday, January 28th FLD Conf Room

Program Redesign Task Force Meeting - Wednesday, January 28th 1:00pm SRC 115

David Collum's Dissertation Defense - Thursday, January 29th 8:30am FLD Conf. Room

I am going to close this week's blog with a quote from Louis Zamperini. There is wisdom in the following quote, not just for young people, but for all. 

“All I want to tell young people is that you're not going to be anything in life unless you learn to commit to a goal. You have to reach deep within yourself to see if you are willing to make the sacrifices.” 

Have a great weekend!

Melanie

*The MLK, Jr. image was found on http://blogs-images.forbes.com/causeintegration/files/2013/01/martin-luther-king-jr-day-L-xGOagM1.jpeg.

The Louis Zamperini image was found on https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiZbrOeeGn_nF_BzrgMHjhtEUMMQBB5X1vtNArvjPvRJFxnJZeC-L83Wz11BA487Q9ZG6qUFwwRM6d1ABMYkHT53fBlFWXRIZfSxoRtECMSO3kGpa5UUcQ3uUMxBV6-fsUL6b-SIDIzDr9/s1600/Unbroken+Book+Club_Clean2.jpg