|
|
August 3-5, 2006
In August, the five science and two mathematics cohorts of KSTF Teaching Fellows met in Chicago, Illinois. As in years past, the primary focus of this meeting was lesson study. The summer meeting also included some major structural changes to the schedule as we addressed the growing needs of our fellows. One big change that occurred at the summer meeting was the addition of a variety of formats and content topics designed to offer a greater number of choices for the fellows' different professional needs and compliment their work on lesson study.
The meeting began on Thursday morning with a welcome from KSTF's Executive Director, Angelo Collins. Following the welcome, Dr. Carol S. Weinstein, emerita professor from Rutgers University, conducted a workshop for all fellows on classroom management designed to support improved student understanding, based on her book Secondary classroom management: Lessons from research and practice. The fellows received and read this book prior to the summer meeting.
In addition to Dr. Weinstein, we were joined at the meeting by Mike Lach, Acting Chief Officer of Mathematics and Science for the Chicago Public Schools, who gave a keynote address on the challenges of beginning teachers. KSTF Young Scholars Dr. Mark Olson (2005) and Dr. Laurie Rubel (2006) attended the meeting as well. Dr. Olson gave a workshop to the science fellows on using demonstrations in science classrooms. Dr. Rubel's workshop for the mathematics fellows addressed connecting mathematics to social justice issues.
We were also pleased to have three expert teachers at the summer meeting who worked with the fellows throughout the weekend on issues related to content and pedagogy. Their guidance was invaluable as a way of pushing the fellows to think more critically about their teaching.
A large part of this summer meeting was spent on lesson study. During the previous academic year, all of the 2002, 2003 and 2004 Fellows taught the lesson study sequences that they had planned at the 2005 Summer Fellows' Meeting. They used the lesson study time at this meeting to review, in their study group, videotape of themselves teaching the lessons and copies of student work. By doing this they were able to engage in in-depth discussions of and reflection on their teaching. Opportunities to study their teaching with other fellows is central to the iterative process of lesson study and leads to a reworked instructional sequence that the fellows commit to teach again in the coming academic year. The 2006 Science and Mathematics Teaching Fellows began the process of lesson study at this meeting by investigating what it means to understand a scientific or mathematical concept and by studying the planning of instructional sequences.
In addition to lesson study, each fellow had the opportunity to attend panel sessions on early career teaching issues ("Surviving Student Teaching,""What I Wish I Had Known Before My First Year of Teaching" and "Becoming a Professional: Beyond Year One"), facilitated by current fellows and KSTF supported opportunities ("Mentoring Grants," "Teaching Materials Grants," "Classroom Observations," and "Presenting and Publishing"), facilitated by KSTF staff. Sessions were also scheduled for fellows to participate in roundtable discussions about different teaching issues and to reflect with fellows from different cohorts on the events of the meeting.
On Saturday, Charley Sabatier (2005 Science Fellow) conducted a workshop for those interested in the CASTLE (Capacitor-Aided System for Teaching and Learning Electricity) curriculum. This workshop was followed by a presentation by Anne Watson (2004 Science Fellow) and two of her former students who presented work that they have done on a sustainable greenhouse project. This workshop and presentation, along with the sessions described above marked a major change in the summer meeting, with fellows taking a more active role in sharing their work.
At the close of the meeting, on Saturday evening, the fellows shared their work and experiences with fellows from other cohorts.
Processing... Please Wait
|
|
|