Friday Memo 11/13/15

The Leader in Me Presentation
Mark Engelhardt and the T/W Student Chapter of ASCD sponsored and organized a fantastic event for his students at the Troy/Wentzville RLC Monday night. Kristi Garland and the Leader in Me Team of Teachers from Elsberry Elementary School shared about their experiences with the Leader in Me program in their school. Feel free to encourage your students (even if not from the T/W RLC) to attend What Pre-Service Teachers Need to Know about District Hiring Practices on November 30th at 5:00. They are also invited on February 8 to hear from MSTA Online Community Coordinator, Aurora Meyer, as she presents Protecting Your Online Reputation.

MoPTA Celebration
The MoPTA Celebration is one of my favorite events to attend, as I thoroughly enjoy listening to our student teachers discuss their experiences. Although they are overwhelmed with all of the requirements of the MoPTA, they all had wonderful things to say about their student teaching experience. Here are just a few comments I heard Wednesday night:
Donyelle said "I am having the time of my life and my kids made me cry on my last day." She also told the other students that she has been offered three teaching positions and a coaching position.
Lindsey shared with the other students how important their classroom behavior management class was and how she used many concepts learned in the real classroom.
Elizabeth Nelson talked about how "super blessed" she is because she gets along so well with her cooperating teacher. She talked about how her students make her so happy. Katie, a PE student teacher talked about how if she could do it again, she would have requested a school placement other than her previous high school that she attended so that she could experience another school environment. Her second placement is in an elementary school and the second graders have stolen her heart. Jackie, another PE student, talked about how her experience has helped her greatly with her confidence in her classroom management skills.
When I asked what specific areas did MBU prepare them well for their student teaching experience, I heard the following:

• Having an understanding of the theorists helped me. When the teachers talked about specific theorists and current experts like Lucy Calkins, I knew exactly who they were referencing.
• I felt very prepared for classroom management.
• MBU taught me to be flexible as a teacher. 

When I asked if there was anything specific that they felt underprepared or that MBU could have done a better job preparing them, the only comment made that was also prefaced with an explanation that there was nothing that MBU could have done differently, but this particular student was not mentally prepared to hotline one of her students. Many of the student teachers quickly recognized how the students in their classrooms came from rough home situations. 

One student teacher concluded the evening on a positive note when she said that one of the highlights of her experience was seeing one of her 5th grade students go from a 2nd grade reading level to a 5th grade 3rd month reading level. These students made me so proud!!! 

Kathleen's Birthday

I don't normally mention birthdays in the blog, but Kathleen deserves recognition as she celebrates a special birthday this weekend. Dr. Dykstra made a few remarks and we enjoyed cake together as we honored Kathleen - Happy Birthday!!!!

Counseling Update

Dr. Triplett, Mary Ann Conaway, and I met to discuss the future plans for our pursuit of CACREP accreditation. We also discussed working on establishing a timeline to move the Counseling Licensure program into the Behavioral Studies Division. Stay tuned for more information. 

CEEDAR

Susan Hladky, Shelton Smith, Thurma DeLoach, and I met to discuss our CEEDAR team plan. I am excited about some partnerships we are working to establish and the opportunities that we are trying to organize to expose our students to excellent Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruction. We also discussed some possible resources we may attain that will benefit all of our students and faculty.

Upcoming Meetings

• SASCD/SMSTA Main Campus Meet & Greet     Thursday, 11/19     2:00pm     The Perk
• Division PLC meeting     Tuesday, 11/24     10:15am     FLD Conference Room

Last night my son, Dane, and I were talking about our favorite Bible verses. My favorite verse is is 2 Timothy 1:7 - For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of sound mind. I have this verse memorized and I lean on the words to remind me of God's power and His reminder that He did not give us a spirit of fear. And then my 11 year old son told me that his favorite verses are in Psalms 23. He told me that he really likes the words "fear no evil" because there are often evil things in our world, yet God tells us we are not to fear the evil. 

What is your favorite verse? I would love to know. Feel free to leave your favorite verse in the comment section below.

Have a blessed weekend!

Melanie