Artifacts
1. Summer Academy for
Integrated Learning (SAIL) Model
The second artifact is an evaluation of the SAIL project from
2004-2005. SAIL was a program initiated by Otterbein College
teacher educators and was collaboratively designed with teachers and
administrators from Columbus Public Schools. Its intent was to allow for
experimentation with middle school philosophies of teaming and developmentally
responsive, integrated curriculum for young adolescents in an urban setting.
The building of a collaborative community of middle school teachers,
administrators, teacher candidates, students, and local community members was
essential to the success of this project. The project had three
phases: Phase one was to provide professional development for in-service
teachers that aligned with the courses in theory to what teacher candidates at
Otterbein were learning in courses. In phase one, in-service teachers and
teacher candidates collaboratively planned curriculum for a summer academy with
middle school students. Phase two was to plan and implement a three week summer
academy with in-service teachers teaming with teacher candidates in small
school teams of ten middle school students. The curriculum implemented
during the academy followed state standards and was reflective of the needs of
the middle school students. Methods and strategies implemented were best
practice and included inquiry based, hands-on, student centered
activities. Experiential learning was at the center of the curriculum
with place based, contextualized learning occurring. Phase three of the
project included a follow-up with in-service teachers and teacher candidates
implementing action research plans revolved around best practices found in the
summer academy in their classrooms the following year. What was most
evident from the results was the great impact of teaching and learning from
this experiential, integrated, collaborative model. This model was
repeated for three years with slight variations; 2002-2003, 2003-2004, and
2004-2005. After a larger federal grant was acquired by Otterbein College
and Columbus Public Schools, this model was used and
modified for this project. This artifact shows my strong commitment to
young adolescents, democratic classrooms, and the need to address issues of
social justice and equity in urban environments
2. Urban
Middle Childhood Strand
The third artifact in this
section is a reflection from a group of Master’s in the Art of Education
teachers from Columbus City Schools. This artifact represents how the
class responded after reading and reflecting on the middle school beliefs found
in their mission statement in This We Believe. The teachers
reflected on how these middle school beliefs were reflected in their own
classrooms in the urban setting. The importance of this artifact is that
it represents my ongoing desire to connect theory to practice and specifically
in regards to issues of social justice and equity in the urban setting. I
taught this group of teachers onsite in Columbus
and worked hard to modify my instruction by using their voices and their
experiences in an urban setting. What I heard over and over again from
them was that the middle school philosophy sounded wonderful but they could not
see it working with their students in their urban setting. What I learned
in teaching this group of teachers led me to take on a larger piece of
scholarship; a book entitled This We Believe with an Urban Focus. (See
information about this book in the scholarship section.)
3. Teaching at
European Peace University
The fourth artifact is a
summary of my teaching experience at the European
Peace University
in Stadstchlaining, Austria. The experience was
supported through my fall 2006 sabbatical. Teaching a course on Social
Justice and Equity in Education at an international level was a
professionally life-changing experience. Where my work had always been
situated around issues of social justice and equity, it was not until I had
this experience that I began to truly have an understanding of what social
justice and equity might look like and what the political and social barriers
might be to ensure this vision. Because of this experience, the concept
of social justice and equity took on multiple layers of meaning from a myriad
of cultural perspectives and provides for my ongoing research to be richer and
more authentic.
4. Evidence of Student Learning
The last set of artifacts are examples of
student work. Evidence show that it is not what I teach that is important but
how my students learn. I would like to share the following pieces of student
work as evidence of my their understanding of this very same concept. In my
methods class, students are asked to give examples of student learning in their
classrooms. I am impressed that they are beginning to see this dynamic
importance of performance based assessment, values based assessment and data
driven decision making in their classrooms.
Brooke
Neal
Dusty Hines
Kelli Peirano
Denise Wolfe