Monday, January 3, 2011

Opening Thoughts

Members of the Cardinal Newman faculty have created this blog in order to encourage an ongoing discussion of our future as we make the transition to a fully coeducational institution. Many good ideas have been informally expressed and rather than lose valuable insights, we have sought to create a format for their publication. All are invited to participate as we move forward to build a stronger community, a challenging academic institution, a professional workplace, and a collegial environment.
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6 comments:

  1. ryansmifJanuary 3, 2011 at 8:39 PM

    I would guess that many teachers would be with me in welcoming more opportunities talk with colleagues about teaching and school changes, but don't necessarily welcome more meetings. This blog is a great idea because it gives us a forum to share and listen when and where we each want.

    Parker Palmer in The Courage to Teach wondered, "Could teachers gather around the great thing called 'teaching and learning' and explore its mysteries with the same respect we accord any subject worth knowing?" (141). He argues for why teachers should: "We need to learn how to do so, for such a gathering is one of the few means we have to become better teachers. There are no formulas for good teaching, and the advice of experts has but marginal utility. If we want to grow in our practice, we have two primary places to go: to the inner ground from which good teaching comes and to the community of fellow teachers from whom we can learn more about ourselves and our craft."

    Lets gather here.

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  2. bernadetteJanuary 3, 2011 at 8:55 PM

    Jeff,

    Thanks for setting this up.

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  3. Mr. AcevedoJanuary 4, 2011 at 2:01 PM

    Hi everyone,

    This is my first time working a Blog so I hope that I'm posting this in the correct way. Do let me know if there is a better way to do it.

    I wanted to comment on the Pay Scale Type evaluations that we are working on.

    I do not think that the model we are adjusting from DeLa Salle will work. I like much more the model from North Carolina. In that model there are criteria that each teacher works on improving (ex. Demonstrating Knowledge of Content / Teaching Assesment Utilizing a Variety of Methods)
    HOWEVER, the teacher is only rated on how well they are doing on each criteria with generic terms such as "developing", "proficient", "accomplished" etc. There are no exact definitions of exactly what constitutes "developing", "proficient", "accomplished". I think that is a GOOD thing. It puts the burden on the teacher to define for themselves how they will achieve the goals of each criteria. They would be able to gather evidence and explain such evidence to a panel of other teachers and administrators in thier own way.
    Please look at pg. 34 from the North Carolina evaluation as an example.
    I can get you a photo copy of it if you need one. I think that is a form of evaluation that we might all feel a level of comfort with. It would (hopefully) lead to constructive conversations with the peer review panel that would help teachers reach a higher level of teaching.

    I just don't think that the explinations of exactly "how" one would be a emerging or distinguished teacher etc in the DeLa Salle model feel right and I don't think that we would be able to create definitions that would make much sense for all the teachers. I think that no matter how hard we try will will not be able to come up with a way to make that document fit us at Cardinal Newman.

    Morris

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  4. Mr. AcevedoJanuary 4, 2011 at 4:10 PM

    Here is a link for the North Carolina evaluation. It's PDF that you can download.

    http://www.ncoes.net/teacher_rubric.pdf

    I fell that the distinction between the different levels (Developing, Proficient, Accomplished, Distinguished) is more well thought out.
    I bet we can us this (not the De La Salle) document to make our own that more folks would be happy with.

    What do you think?

    Morris

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  5. CNHS Del MonteJanuary 4, 2011 at 5:12 PM

    Hi Folks: I like the idea of sharing ideas and suggestions here. Thanks Jeff, Hope it is utilized.

    Morris: I think the levels (Developing, proficient, accomplished and distinguished) are very similar to what we have with some simplification.
    Simplification and clarity are needed on the grid.

    When I copied the url and downloaded the PDF above I got only 15 pages yet you refer to page 34..am I missing part of the document?
    Bye for now,
    Anne

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  6. Maryanne BerryJanuary 5, 2011 at 11:13 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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