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SCPOMLE Minutes for 2016 Annual Meeting
Prepared by SCPOMLE Secretary, Bea Bailey
South Carolina Professors of Middle Level Education (SCPOMLE)
Annual Meeting Minutes
for
March 4, 2016
Myrtle Beach, SC Convention Center, Room 202/204
Members Present
Bea Bailey, Judy Beck, Gray Bradles, Nate Carnes, Emma Savage Davis, Amy Ellisor, Laura Kaufman, Lienne Medford, Deborah McMurtrie, Gary Senn, Randy Stowe, David Vawter, Tony Williams, Michelle Vanderburg, David Virtue
Guests
Linda Allen, Kiersten Baker, Janie Goodman,Baron Holmes, Rita Mantooth, via Skype
David McDonald,Todd Scholl, Derek Tellie,
Welcome & Introductions(SC PoMLE Officers)—Gary Senn, Acting President and Past-President
Gary Senn, Past President, acting on behalf of President, Kelly Costner, who had to resign, opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. He also introduced the officers. They are as follows:
Past President and Acting President: Gary Senn, USC Aiken (term expires 2016)
President-Elect: Bridget Coleman, USC Aiken (term expires
2016)
Secretary/Treasurer:Bea Bailey, Clemson (term expires 2016)
Representative, Private Colleges/Universities: Amy Ellisor, Columbia State University
(term expires 2017)
Representative, Public Colleges/Universities: Nate Carnes, USC (term expires 2017)
Representative, At-large: Toni Williams, USC (term expires 2016)
Representative, At-large:David Vawter (term expires 2016)
9:15 Reports from Stakeholders
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SCPOMLE Minutes for 2016 Annual Meeting
Prepared by SCPOMLE Secretary, Bea Bailey
- SCAMLE--Linda Allen. She explained how she was able to support our group with registration and lunch. She also introduced our new SCAMLE President, David McDonald, current principal at Northwest Middle. They offered an overview of the conference highlights. They both affirmed their desire to work with SCPOMLE in meaningful ways.
- AMLE--RitaMantooth. Rita shared the I Love Middle School poster. She also touted the AMLE Hilton Head summer leadership conference.
- AMLE SPA Coordinator--Lienne Medford. Lienne reminded us of the fairly new Higher Education Symposium, October 9, in Austin Texas at the annual AMLE conference. The proposals are due May 7. She also shared news about the AMLE SPA. 30 programs went through review and 20 were recognized. The final round of using the 2001 standards is now over. The new 2012 standards still need some work. Our AMLE SPA is working with CAEP to help us catch up. Only 18 states have AMLE approved programs.
- MLTEI Baron Holmes—Baron explained the history behind MLTEI. Our SCPOMLE will assume its general leadership. He alsoshared some statistics for our review. Baron is concerned about the low number of middle grades teachers we are preparing as well as how they should best be prepared: should larger schools prepare more of these teachers or should smaller schools continue to help with the task as they are able? He suggested that teacher cadets get more exposure to middle school teaching. We discussed with Baron the need for specific middle level education—not something that is a second option for secondary majors or upper elementary. Comparisons with other states suggest that maybe South Carolina is not making teaching as a profession as attractive as it could be. There are no unions. There are few incentives in college like recruiting out-of-state teacher candidates by waiving the out-of-state tuition costs. Quite a bit of discussion focused on the need to have only one required content area certification at the middle grades undergraduate level since it is difficult for students and institutions to provide programs of study to accommodate the dual concentrations. Discussion led to the idea that SCPOMLE should resolve to ask South Carolina to change the ruling for undergraduate certification. A vote was taken after Bea Bailey called for it and Lienne Medford seconded it. The motion carried. The final vote was FOR the resolution with a 10-3 vote.
- SCAMLE Journal—Deborah McMunt. Deborah, filling in for her colleague Michele Vanderburg, shared updates on SCAMLE’s journal and invited submissions and reviewers.
- Middle School Journal – David Virtue. David shared insights about his editorship of our Middle School Journal and encouraged us to submit articles. He is also working with Taylor and Francis to bring more visibility and currency to our journal by enhancing its indexing and formatting.
- NAPOMLE--Gary Senn. Garygave a brief overview of NAPOMLE’s role and efforts. He encouraged all members of our board to become members.
- CERRA--Todd Scholl. Todd gave an overview of CERRA efforts throughout the state along with website links that we could explore that share aggregated data about teacher retention. He also suggested we contact Dr. Jennifer Garrett at . He mentioned the Educators Rising initiative that begins in after-school middle grades programs to encourage future teachers. He also mentioned the yearly CERRA recruitment fair on state fair grounds, May 10, in Columbia. He agreed to send PowerPoint.
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SCPOMLE Minutes for 2016 Annual Meeting
Prepared by SCPOMLE Secretary, Bea Bailey
Discussion with Updates from each InstitutionFacilitated by Amy Ellisor, Nate Carnes, & Gary Senn. Colleagues engaged in a lively Gallery Walk experience in which we discussed within small groups and then larger groups our concerns and possibilities for a host of current topics as we also suggested possible solutions to noted problems. The topics included Praxis II Issues, Add-on Licensure, Read to Succeed, Content Area Literacy, and Other Pressing Concerns.
Moving forward with SCPOMLE—Gary Senn. Garyled a discussion with our group about how best to strengthen SCPOMLE, especially ways to make the group more connected, visible and involved with SCAMLE. Suggestions included the following:
- Strengthen our visibility and connections with technology such as Twitter
- Work to change the perception of middle school, and
- Recruit teachers from outside the state.
Networking. Our committee agreed to update our contact information so that it includes our contact information, our school affiliations, our content area foci, and areas of research interest.
Research Agendas. Members briefly shared their research agendas.
CARW--Baron Holmes. Baron shared a PowerPoint (that he will send) and handout with the top 10 expectations for CARW. He shared that he is working in Greenville District Schools to give shape to all literacy plans, using Shanahan’s model. He shared statistics about the reading levels of South Carolina students on various measures. He suggested that we work with South Carolina’s 250 middle schools as they develop their literacy plans.
Around 12:15 our membership recessed for lunch, provided by MLTEI via Schools to Watch.
Discussion Topics—Facilitated by Gary Senn
- Video Capture Project / Insight Education-- Amy Ellisor.Amyand Kierston Baker, a teacher candidate at Blythewood Middle via Columbia College shared how they are using Video Capture to support their student teaching program. The presenters explained the ease with which they can use i-Phones,lapel mikes, swivels and rovers to capture Best Practices. The film can then be uploaded and trimmed and shared with Insight Education. A dashboard of options enables reviewers to “bookmark” key passages and offer comments as desired at appropriate intervals.
- Advocacy for POAMLE—Lienne Medford. Lienne goes to AMLE conference every year and participates in the POAMLE sessions. She and the organization realize the need for more advocacy for middle grades education, especially for the issue of single content certification for middle grades teachers and the problems it causes for CAEP reviewers as well. She shared that there will be proposal accepted until May 7 for presentations at this yearly meeting.
Old Business New Business
- Grant Proposals. One suggestion was to work with Read to Succeed to develop PD modules with fees attached to help middle grades teachers and schools with implementation of Read to Succeed.
- Tax ID Number with SCAMLE as the Fiscal Agent. Bridgett Coleman is working with Linda Allen to get a tax I.D number. This will entail among other tasks a revision of our current bylaws.
- AMLE Conference – NAPOMLE Best Practices Roundtable Session. The call is on the organizations website.
- Election of Officers (President-elect, Secretary/Treasurer, Representatives)
- Past president—Gary Senn
- President-Elect—Lienne Medford
- Secretary Treasurer—Bea Bailey
- At Large Member—David Vawter
- At Large Member—Deborah McMurtie
- SCPOMLE Executive Board Meetings. These meetings will be held electronically on the last Thursday of April,May, September, November, January, and February.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.