Friday Memo - March 24, 2017

Faculty Meeting
On Tuesday, March 21 we had a Professional Development Faculty meeting.  Clint Limoges and Jan Speck from the Counselor Education Department led a sand tray activity.  Sand tray activities are used with adults and children in therapy.  Our task was to make our work world in our tray with the various figurines, objects, and fun toys that we could choose from a table overflowing with objects. It was interesting to hear about everyone's "work world" through the objects they chose.  I look forward to faculty utilizing what they have learned in their classrooms when appropriate! Thanks, Clint and Jan, for sharing your knowledge and experiences that you had at a recent conference with the rest of us.

CAEP Conference
Alicia Noddings, David Collum, and I attended the CAEP Conference from Wednesday, March 22 through today in St. Louis.  Between the three of us we attended informative workshops that will help us with the CAEP accreditation process that is underway.

CACREP Update

We are underway updating curriculum, live streaming to main campus from the RLCs, and continually working through the transition issues as we move toward CACREP accreditation. The administration decided earlier this week that we would continue offering certification only programs, although those are not part of the CACREP accreditation. We will continue offering certification only programs for 2017/2018 and will reassess this decision next year as we have 17/18 enrollment data.

Commissioning Service

Plans are underway for our inaugural commissioning service to honor all teacher certification candidates who have completed the many certification requirements. Full-time faculty and staff are expected to attend so please mark your calendar for Monday, May 1st. Adjunct instructors, as always, you are welcome to join us. We would love to have you there, but do not feel obligated. The service will begin at 7:00pm, will last approximately one hour and refreshments will be served following the ceremony. This will be a very special event where we honor our amazing students and their journey to certification and highlight God's calling on their lives to serve students in schools. Jason Lievanos, MBU alum and administrator in the Rockwood school district, will be our speaker. 

Upcoming Meetings
MBU Faculty Meeting: Monday, March 27 at 3 p.m.
MACTE Conference: Monday, March 27 - Wednesday, March 29 in Columbia
Teacher Education Council: Monday, April 3 at 4:00pm in FLD 310
Outstanding Student Awards Ceremony: Tuesday, April 4 at 7:00pm
Main Campus Certification Celebration: Wednesday, April 5 at 5:30pm in FLD 326

Closing Thought
How To Lead When You Are Not In Charge
Over spring break I asked my lead team to listen to two podcasts led by Andy Stanley titled "How to lead when you are not in charge." If you have access to listen to podcasts on your device, I encourage you to listen to these podcasts. All of us have influence in the work that we do, whether we are influencing students in our classroom, leading faculty members in our program, leading faculty members as a lead instructor in a particular course, or leading students through advising or internship placements. We are all leaders and Andy's guest, Clay Scroggins , discussed four main ideas about this topic. He suggested that you should 1) Lead yourself well, 2) Choose positivity, 3) Think critically, and 4) Reject passivity. I encourage all of us to remember these four ideas as we lead in our own work environment as we strive to teach, inspire, and empower students!

If you have an iTunes account and would like to listen to the podcasts, download the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast and download part 1 and part 2 of How To Lead When You Are Not In Charge.