On February 25 -26 NC QUEST’s Cohort III came
together at the Watson School of Education for a two-day
educational event where they met with instructional staff,
professors, and fellow participants. Cohort III is the
third group that is sponsored by NC QUEST, a jointly sponsored
program between the UNCW’s Watson School of Education,
the College of Arts and Sciences and coalition partner
school districts in Southeastern North Carolina. Cohort
III consists of seven participants who either have a focus
in math or science; the group is comprised of teachers
from three partnership counties; Brunswick, New Hanover,
and Pender.
The science teacher participants are: Liz Crace, Williston
Middle, Brianne Hoff, Murray Middle, Nancy Keith, Cape
Fear Middle / West Pender Middle, Chynthia Siddons, Pender
High, Mary Sparks, Virginia Williamson, and Rick Thomas,
South Brunswick Middle. The lone math participant is Doug
Towle from Murray Middle.
NC QUEST is designed to help fulfill the mission of the
federal “No Child Left Behind” legislation
by assisting middle school math and science teachers in
increasing their knowledge in both content and instructional
practice, and by increasing the number of skilled mentor
teachers to promote teacher development and retention.
The Winter Institute commenced with a warm welcome from
Dr. Cathy Barlow, Dean of the Watson School of Education.
In her welcome, Dr. Barlow pointed out some of the unique
characteristics of the lovely new education building and
the N.C. Teacher’s Legacy Hall, which was created
to honor teachers across the state. Special kiosk’s
line the main hall and recognize our state’s teachers
and principals of the year, display tools for teaching,
a school bus display with bench seats, and generous donors
who brought this dream to fruition. This sampling of Legacy
Hall is just that, a hint at the hall’s beauty.
The coordinator for Professional Development at the UNC
Center for School Leadership Development in Chapel Hill,
Dr. Karen Gerringer, was there to openly express her welcome
to the students and to share the high esteem that exists
between her office, the Watson School of Education and
the NC QUEST Program. UNCW has demonstrated its commitment
to the program and was recently awarded an additional NC
QUEST grant, “Coalitions 4 Success” which will
run through September 2006.
There was an overview of the NC QUEST course and an introduction
of the project directors and instructional team. The project
directors are Dr. Karen Wetherill and Dr. Ron Sizemore.
The project instructional leader is Pat Smith and Sherry
Broome serves as the evaluator. The mentoring instructor
who works with this cohort’s study groups is Diane
Calhoun. Marty Sugerik serves as the math instructor and
Dr. Rich Huber works with the science students. Graduate
assistants supporting the office and work of this cohort
are Marty Link and Jennifer Barber.
In mid-morning, Diane Calhoun divided the participants
into groups where they discussed building their capacities
as teachers by using study groups and to discuss the importance
of teacher’s participation in personal self-assessment
and reflection. The key capacities for increasing quality
instructional effectiveness that were presented, reviewed
and evaluated were: Teacher as Assessor of learning, Teacher
as Instructional Leader/Facilitator, Teacher as Collegial
Partner, Teacher as Learner and Self-Assessor, Teacher
as Reflective Practitioner and Decision Maker, Teacher
as Inquirer and Researcher, Teacher as User of Technology
Tools and Teacher as Content Master and Teacher as Challenger
for Learning. Each participant reflected, responded in
writing, verbally shared their thoughts with the group
and created their own plans for growth in these areas.
Responses will be compiled and compared at the end of the
course for assessment of their areas of success and those
needing continued personal work.
Dr. Rich Huber and Marty Sugerik met with the participants
and presented to them an overview of the math and science
strands, the syllabi and the independent study model being
used this semester. In the science lab, Dr. Huber explained
the constructivist approach to teaching, using classroom
activities for the group to tackle. This inquiry based
learning/teaching philosophy has relevance for all learners.
It uses the premise that all participants are given the
opportunity to actively make sense of their own personal
experiences and are encouraged to find meaning and leaning
through their unique mental processes. Institute activities
reinforced this type of learning.
Dr. Rich Huber and Marty Sugerik also gave the participants
a review of the national standards for math and science,
which they were able to correlate with relative math and
science discussion topics. Liz Crace, a science teacher,
volunteered to participate during a math demonstration
using TI-85 calculators to show the group an inquiry lesson
using slope.
An overview of the final portfolio assignment and the
rubric for the constructivist approach to assessment was
presented by Diane Calhoun. The cohort was eager to learn
about this aspect of the course and then have it actively
demonstrated by recent alumni of the NC QUEST.
Michelle Hafey, a science teacher at Penderlea School
in Pender County and David Childers, a math teacher at
Union Middle School in Sampson County, spoke about their
experiences in NC Quest Cohort II during the fall of 2004.
They presented their portfolios to the newest group who
will be working to develop theirs on line for their May
9 celebration event. Both former NC QUEST students portfolios
were enjoyed by all.
On Saturday, Cohort III met for the second day of the
2005 Winter Institute. After breakfast, the group went
to the educational technology lab where Jeff Ertzberger,
Emerging Technology Lecturer, guided the group through
Taskstream training. Taskstream is a program where teachers
can create and share lesson plans, view the standard course
of study, and participate in online discussions about interesting
educational topics. Dr.Huber, Marty and Diane then guided
Cohort III in their first group discussion board on Constructivism
while using Taskstream.
After a salad sampler lunch, Diane Calhoun spoke about
collaborative analysis of the student work in middle grades,
student work analysis, and the study group process. Three
study groups were created by content emphasis. Liz Crace
and Brianne Hoff chose to study evolution and Nancy Keith,
Chynthia Siddons, and Rick Thomas elected to study water
quality. Mary Sparks chose to study weather and Doug Towle
is working with Marty on his area of emphasis for middle
school math. Before the 2005 Winter Institute came to a
close, the participants were given assignments; set meeting
times for their study groups and made individual instructional
appointments.
The instructional staff enjoyed their lively two days
with our newest group and wishes Cohort III the best of
luck throughout their experience with NC QUEST!
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Dr. Rich Huber, Dr. Ron Sizemore, Diane Calhoun, Marty Sugerik,
Mary Sparks, Brianne Hoff , Doug Towle, Liz Crace, Nancy
Keith, Chynthia Siddons, Rick Thomas
Mary Sparks, Nancy Keith and Chynthia Siddons discuss and note teacher key capacities
that they plan to build on during NC QUEST.
Dr. Rich Huber demonstrates "the heavy newspaper" science
demonstration to the participants.
Marty Sugerik instructs cohort III about the importance of
using technology , here with theTI-85 calculator, and the constructivist
approach to teaching math.
Dr. Karen Gerringer, Coordinator for Professional Development
from the UNC Center for Professional Development in Chapel
Hill along with Chynthia Siddons , an NC Quest participant,
do an inquiry based science activity.
Marty Sugerik and Doug Towle discuss interesting math topics
that will be the focus of Doug's NC QUEST study.
Dr. Ron Sizemore, Rick Thomas and Nancy
Keith discuss meeting times for the “water quality” study
group of NC QUEST. |
