From the Alliance for Excellent Education:
If you are participating in a TQP school you will need access to a camcorder. You are welcomed to use any camcorder you have access to, assuming it meets the minimum requirements. However, TQP has a number of camcorders you are more than welcomed to checkout and use for the week of your field experience. If you are interested, please contact Daniel Mourlam, Technology Specialist, and set up a time to pick up and have a short tutorial on the equipment.
You can contact Daniel at the following:
If you are completing the Level III field experience in a TQP school, you will be required to record yourself teaching as part of the performance assessment associated with that level. To make that process a little easier, we wanted to share the recommended and minimum requirements for recording for the Reflective Conversation. You can find the requirements here.
Please contact Daniel Mourlam, Technology Specialist, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org or 319-273-7673.
A story about UNI TQP was recently published by the University of Northern Iowa about the grant's work towards preparing more effective teachers. The article provides a great overview of the pilot experience UNI TQP students are experiencing as they participate in the pilot project. Hear from the UNI students and cooperating teachers directly on their experiences in the first semester of the pilot project.
There are two teacher evaluation webinars coming up in the next week that may be of interest to some of you. The first is September 9, and is titled: "Training Educators for the New System," and the second is on September 14, and is titled: "Selecting a Model for Your Teacher Evaluation Pilot," with Dr. Marzano.
You must register for both conferences to be able to attend the webinar. Both webinars are free and open to the public.
Yesterday, ITQP was featured on Iowa Public Radio in a segment highlighting rural schools and education. One of our partner school districts was also featured in the same piece. You can listen to the story here: =3004
Today was the inaugural TQP Technology Support Group meetings. The purpose of these meetings is to get TQP faculty together to learn about the technology we are using in the grant. It gives everyone time to step away from the hustle and bustle of the regular work day to take some time to first learn one new technology and then how to use that technology in a meaningful way in the classroom.
If you've been following UNI TQP you might know that the faculty are using iPads with their courses as well as once they go into the field for the clinical experience. However, there is so much any one person could learn about the iPad that it's often difficult to plan training during our monthly faculty meetings. So instead we took a different approach and decided to find a time when the faculty that were interested could come together and learn how to use some of the technology. This would be separate from everything else we do with TQP, but still connected to the underlying objectives we hope to achieve.
While the majority of the sessions will focus on the iPad, soon they will expand to other technologies, such as BlackBoard, video cameras, and video conferencing. Today we talked about the camera app on the iPad. You can catch a synopsis of the session over at the iPad Blog.
The TQP grant at UNI is in full swing. Much has happened over the past few months, so here is an update on our progress thus far.
In June the UNI faculty who teach level three methods courses met and went through a week long summit where they learned about the priorities of the grant and met many of the key players. The sessions covered topics including: effective teaching, response to intervention, English language learners, blended learning, universal design for learning, rural education, and many more. These topics and priorities are currently being targeted in the level three methods courses at UNI for the pilot project and will be implemented over the course of this school year and beyond.
In July we interviewed for a new position within the UNI TQP grant. As we enter into the pilot project, the grant will need to place a number of students in our current partner schools. Therefore we are happy to introduce Leasha Henriksen as the new Field Placement Coordinator for the grant. Her responsibilities will be helping the UNI faculty place UNI students in the partner school districts. She will serve as a liaison between the university and our partner districts. We are excited to have her on board!
As we begin to bring August to a close we are getting into the full swing of the pilot. We are currently working to find placements in our schools for about half of our faculty who are scheduled to teach their level three methods course this fall. The rest will be working on placements for the spring semester. We are also in the process of implementing the video conferencing technology that will be used to provide a more immersive experience for our pre-service teachers. We hope to have all the equipment installed and ready to use within the next few weeks.
Times are certainly exciting at TQP. As updates are available we will keep you informed!
The best practices ceremony this year included the new John I. Wilson Leadership for Learning Award, founded to honor John Wilson, NEA executive director, and founding member of P21 who is retiring this year. The criteria for the award includes an emphasis on multi-stakeholder collaboration to honor John Wilson's collaborative spirit and ability to create unique partnerships on behalf of the nation's children.
Wilson joined Walker and Kellogg on stage as Kentucky received the inaugural John I. Wilson Leadership for Learning
Here is a reminder about a very special opportunity.
Much of the work so far on the Iowa Teacher Quality Partnership Grant at UNI has centered around what has been termed, the Emerging Qualities of Effective Teaching Continuum. Over the past year a team of researchers at UNI have been researching what effective teaching looks at and three lenses have emerged: Traditional, Responsive, and Transformative. Attached is a visual that breaks down these three lenses and shows how they fit together to form a continuum.
As we head into the summer months and look at the pilot project coming in the fall, a crucial component will be the redesign of partner UNI faculty level three teaching methods courses. This process will be June 1-3, 6-7 on campus at UNI. There will be a variety of discussions around the following topics:
Scholars in Action: the 2011 Symposium on Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity at the University of Norther Iowa
Last week, the Iowa Teacher Quality Partnership grant presented at the 2011 Symposium on Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity at the University of Norther Iowa. As the research team begins to conclude their work it will be important to seek out feedback from others both within and outside the grant. The research symposium was the first opportunity for our researchers to talk with others about the important work they are completing.
We are please to announce that the Iowa Teacher Quality Partnership grant LEA partners for our first year of the pilot project that takes place in year two of the grant have been determined. We will be working with five PK-12 schools in year two of the grant as we begin to implement the emerging attributes of effective teaching. Here are our partnering districts:
We are pleased to announce that the CAL Community School District school board has agreed to work with UNI and the Iowa Teacher Quality Partnership team as part of our initial pilot project. We look forward to working with CAL students, teachers, administrators, and communities as we head into the coming months.
We are proud to announce that the HLV and Midland Community School Districts have become partner districts in the Iowa TQP pilot project. We are looking forward to working with these two districts as we move forward to prepare effective teachers for all learners.
We are pleased to announce that the Springville Community School District Board of Education has agreed to establish a partnership with the grant project. This is a very exciting time for everyone in the grant as we begin to move forward with our mission of improving student achievement by developing more highly qualified teachers.
Drs. Davidson and Herring will be presenting at the Iowa Colleges of Teacher Education Fall Conference on October 21 in Ames, IA at 4pm. The presentation will provide an overview of the TQP grant, current progress, and upcoming grant activities. Dr. Davidson and Herring will also be asking each of the colleges of teacher education to provide information about their programs. More information is forthcoming, so stay tuned.
Welcome to the Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) at the University of Northern Iowa. The TQP will be working to increase student achievement at the P-12 level by enhancing the quality of teachers both pre-service and practicing. One of the hopes for the TQP is to aid new teachers from pre-service through their induction, rather than leaving new teachers alone during their first years in the field, which are the most impressionable on their career. Supporting students as they transition into teaching is what makes this grant unique.