Collaboration between the Unit and School Partners
To increase P-12 involvement, the Advisory Board was reconstituted and is now composed of urban school and suburban school principals; elementary, middle school and high school teachers; Columbia students and alumnae; and a CPS Arts Administrator. The Board meets twice each year to examine the conceptual framework, review policies and procedures, and make suggestions for improvement. Advisory Board minutes are shared with faculty. Their input has been invaluable for marketing, encouraging males to enter our programs, suggesting professionals to hire as external evaluators, and suggesting sites for field experiences and clinical placements.
The undergraduate program hosts a series of dinners throughout the year to which it invites mentoring teachers, school administrators, candidates, and program faculty. These dinners serve as the forum for discussing the program’s conceptual framework, its implementation, the field component of the program, and concerns or suggestions that arise. Minutes from the Field Experience Dinners are shared with faculty. Input from these events has been helpful in shaping the clinical experience and the coursework that precedes it.
The P-12 community is an integral partner in providing for field experiences. In 2007-2008 student teaching internship placements for graduate program candidates were made in 17 Chicago public schools and in 10 suburban schools. Undergraduate program candidates were placed in fourteen Chicago Public Schools. Four schools hosted candidates from both the graduate and undergraduate programs.
Members of the undergraduate program work closely with six Chicago Public Schools (Pulaski, Sabin, Jenner, Crown, Herzl, and ACT Charter) and the public school districts in Rockford and Carbondale as part of their work on the Illinois Parent Information Resource Center (ILPIRC) which they host in collaboration with the Center for Community Arts Partnerships at Columbia College. These schools serve as models for an innovative approach to parent involvement that they are developing. This almost three million dollar, five-year grant from the Department of Education is in its third year and supports parents in Illinois in fostering the development of their children. The undergraduate program has successfully placed a number of students in the Chicago model sites.
Karen Haigh, faculty member of the undergraduate program, has just been awarded a $600,000 grant over 18 months by the McCormick Foundation. The grant, entitled Relay, is with the City of Chicago’s Department of Children and Youth Services. It is to work with middle managers and education coordinators in Head Start programs in order to promote reflective practice and advance program quality. Several members of the undergraduate faculty will work as mentors in this grant which is to begin October 2008. The sites for this work will further strengthen the undergraduate preprimary placement network. This is also true of other sites in which Ms. Haigh consults, notably an excellent series of placements in the Velma Thomas School which employs the Reggio Emilia Approach.
Members of the graduate programs collaborate with the Chicago Public Schools and Summit School District #104 in implementing an Improving Teacher Quality Grant funded by the Illinois Board of Higher Education. The goal of this project is to significantly increase the number of teachers, who are prepared to adapt standards-based mathematics instruction to match the linguistic needs of students enrolled in bilingual or English-as-a-new language programs. The project is designed to use the Japanese Lesson Study professional development model to research ways to integrate mathematics with the study of language and the fine arts in order to increase the probability of academic success for students, who are English language learners. The project has been funded for the last four years for a total of approximately $1.25 million dollars. Teacher candidates are afforded the opportunity of working alongside the participating teachers to learn about the Lesson Study approach and approaches and materials that can be used to teach mathematics to English language learners.
Current P-12 practitioners also contribute to the unit’s efforts in other ways. A part-time faculty member who is a full-time science facilitator for the Chicago Public Schools has been teaching the science methods course. As a result of her contacts, our teacher candidates are able to fulfill part of their field experience hours in the classrooms of designated master teachers of science at the elementary level. These teacher candidates are also able to participate in science professional development activities alongside practicing teachers.
The art education faculty member has made connections with a variety of elementary and secondary schools to facilitate productive field experiences, such as mentoring our candidates in providing visual art experiences for a public school class of visually-impaired students.
At the undergraduate level, field experiences have been enhanced by the expertise of the program’s new Coordinator of Preprimary Education. Because of her extensive prior experience in private care settings, parochial schools, and public schools, she has been able to effect an excellent series of diverse placements for each candidate.
Suggestions from Advisory Board members, leads from faculty members, feedback from teacher candidate observations, site visits by the Field Experience Coordinators, evaluation of State School Report Card by the Field Experience Coordinators, and feedback from college supervisors are used to select sites. Through its student teaching internship program, the Department has constant contact with teachers, principals and other administrators currently working in urban and suburban schools.
Specifically, the sites for graduate-level teacher candidate observations, pre-internship teaching, and the internship are selected using the following criteria:
During the first year(s) of the program, teacher candidates are supported by the Methods instructors and by the teacher(s) at the sites. During the clinical experiences in the semester prior to student teaching and during the student teaching internship, teacher candidates are observed and supported by college supervisors. During student teaching internship, teacher candidates attend weekly seminars in which aspects of the teacher candidates’ internship experiences are explored and processed.
From the evaluation forms, the formative observation system, the bi-weekly visits to the schools in which our students teach, the conversations with school officials during visits and the periodic meetings with student-teaching supervisors, we are made aware of the candidates’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions; some of the strengths and weaknesses of our curricula; and the strengths and weaknesses of pedagogy in preparing our candidates to teach.
The undergraduate program hosts a series of dinners throughout the year to which it invites mentoring teachers, school administrators, candidates, and program faculty. These dinners serve as the forum for discussing the program’s conceptual framework, its implementation, the field component of the program, and concerns or suggestions that arise. Minutes from the Field Experience Dinners are shared with faculty. Input from these events has been helpful in shaping the clinical experience and the coursework that precedes it.
The P-12 community is an integral partner in providing for field experiences. In 2007-2008 student teaching internship placements for graduate program candidates were made in 17 Chicago public schools and in 10 suburban schools. Undergraduate program candidates were placed in fourteen Chicago Public Schools. Four schools hosted candidates from both the graduate and undergraduate programs.
Members of the undergraduate program work closely with six Chicago Public Schools (Pulaski, Sabin, Jenner, Crown, Herzl, and ACT Charter) and the public school districts in Rockford and Carbondale as part of their work on the Illinois Parent Information Resource Center (ILPIRC) which they host in collaboration with the Center for Community Arts Partnerships at Columbia College. These schools serve as models for an innovative approach to parent involvement that they are developing. This almost three million dollar, five-year grant from the Department of Education is in its third year and supports parents in Illinois in fostering the development of their children. The undergraduate program has successfully placed a number of students in the Chicago model sites.
Karen Haigh, faculty member of the undergraduate program, has just been awarded a $600,000 grant over 18 months by the McCormick Foundation. The grant, entitled Relay, is with the City of Chicago’s Department of Children and Youth Services. It is to work with middle managers and education coordinators in Head Start programs in order to promote reflective practice and advance program quality. Several members of the undergraduate faculty will work as mentors in this grant which is to begin October 2008. The sites for this work will further strengthen the undergraduate preprimary placement network. This is also true of other sites in which Ms. Haigh consults, notably an excellent series of placements in the Velma Thomas School which employs the Reggio Emilia Approach.
Members of the graduate programs collaborate with the Chicago Public Schools and Summit School District #104 in implementing an Improving Teacher Quality Grant funded by the Illinois Board of Higher Education. The goal of this project is to significantly increase the number of teachers, who are prepared to adapt standards-based mathematics instruction to match the linguistic needs of students enrolled in bilingual or English-as-a-new language programs. The project is designed to use the Japanese Lesson Study professional development model to research ways to integrate mathematics with the study of language and the fine arts in order to increase the probability of academic success for students, who are English language learners. The project has been funded for the last four years for a total of approximately $1.25 million dollars. Teacher candidates are afforded the opportunity of working alongside the participating teachers to learn about the Lesson Study approach and approaches and materials that can be used to teach mathematics to English language learners.
Current P-12 practitioners also contribute to the unit’s efforts in other ways. A part-time faculty member who is a full-time science facilitator for the Chicago Public Schools has been teaching the science methods course. As a result of her contacts, our teacher candidates are able to fulfill part of their field experience hours in the classrooms of designated master teachers of science at the elementary level. These teacher candidates are also able to participate in science professional development activities alongside practicing teachers.
The art education faculty member has made connections with a variety of elementary and secondary schools to facilitate productive field experiences, such as mentoring our candidates in providing visual art experiences for a public school class of visually-impaired students.
At the undergraduate level, field experiences have been enhanced by the expertise of the program’s new Coordinator of Preprimary Education. Because of her extensive prior experience in private care settings, parochial schools, and public schools, she has been able to effect an excellent series of diverse placements for each candidate.
Suggestions from Advisory Board members, leads from faculty members, feedback from teacher candidate observations, site visits by the Field Experience Coordinators, evaluation of State School Report Card by the Field Experience Coordinators, and feedback from college supervisors are used to select sites. Through its student teaching internship program, the Department has constant contact with teachers, principals and other administrators currently working in urban and suburban schools.
Specifically, the sites for graduate-level teacher candidate observations, pre-internship teaching, and the internship are selected using the following criteria:
input from instructors based on curriculum in place at specific sites
pre-service observation forms on which the students are asked to rank the sites they visit as possible student teaching sites;
preference sheets for student teaching locations as part of the student teaching preparation packet
feedback from college supervisors about experiences with placements at specific sites with specific cooperating teachers
During the first year(s) of the program, teacher candidates are supported by the Methods instructors and by the teacher(s) at the sites. During the clinical experiences in the semester prior to student teaching and during the student teaching internship, teacher candidates are observed and supported by college supervisors. During student teaching internship, teacher candidates attend weekly seminars in which aspects of the teacher candidates’ internship experiences are explored and processed.
From the evaluation forms, the formative observation system, the bi-weekly visits to the schools in which our students teach, the conversations with school officials during visits and the periodic meetings with student-teaching supervisors, we are made aware of the candidates’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions; some of the strengths and weaknesses of our curricula; and the strengths and weaknesses of pedagogy in preparing our candidates to teach.
