Brenau University

Teacher Education Advisory Committee Meeting

November 11, 2014

Present:

Dr. Janet Grier, Dr. Sandra Leslie, Dr. BilliBromer, Dr. Eugene Williams, Dr. Tommye Thomas, Dr. Karen Henman, Dr. Rebecca Cooper, Dr. Ann Wheeler, Dr. Barbara Faulkner, Dr. Katherine Locey, Ms. Jill Goforth, Ms. Alynne Grace, Mr. Gefry Ventura, Priscilla Collins, Sarah Bell, Laura Harrington, Suzanne Gerrard, Kim Davis, and Casey Kozozemski. Sherri Garrett, Dr. Judith Perry, Caitlin Oglesby, and Dr. Linda Aikens-Young remotely via Zoom.

Dr. Janet Grier opened the meeting by welcoming everyone, thanking them for attending, requesting attendees to introduce themselves.

The minutes from theMarch 13, 2014 meeting were approved. There were no additions or corrections to these minutes.

Dr. Leslie greeted everyone and informed them of some of the new initiatives at Brenau.

  • Brenau will be opening a campus on Jacksonville and we will have Education programs offered there.
  • The construction across from the Jewell Building is for four new sorority houses. A new student center will be part of the second phase of construction.
  • Dr. Leslie also expressed gratitude to all of the schools and partners who helped us to place approximately ninety students in their schools for field experiences each semester.
  • One of the new pieces of technology Brenau has embraced is the Mondopad(used for this meeting). Additionally, the Mondopad allows meetings to be conducted with remote campuses

by use of video and audio features.

  • Brenau has entered a partnership with Anhui University in China where their students will study in China for two years, and then come to Brenau for their final two years of study in Early Childhood Education.
  • Additional strategies applied by the department in taking a global approach to student learning has been demonstrated by, Dr. Williams and Dr. Sorohan. They have taken education students to study abroad in Belize. Dr. Henman is also working on developing a study abroad program in Costa Rica.
  • Several Teacher Education changes include the introduction ofedTPA, a portfolio assessment of pedagogy scored by Pearson, NCATE/CAEP accreditation changes, and a required ethics exam for all future teachers to take and pass. Certification has become a tiered process, which includes the pre-service certificate for student teachers.

Sarah Bell of Gwinnett County Schools presented on the Georgia Milestone Assessment. Presentation attached.

  • The new assessment replaces the CRCT and has constructed response questions in addition to multiple choice questions.
  • Initially, teachers were most concerned that students needed adequate keyboarding skills to take the computer-based assessment. While the keyboarding skills were fine, they noticed that constructing answers posed a greater problem. Students missed parts of the question, answers were not well-organized, and/or they couldn’t explain or show his or her work.
  • Resources for teachers include content standards and sample questions from gadoe.org.

A breakout session was held where three questions were discussed by attendees. Facilitators and questions were as follows:

  1. Georgia Milestones Assessment (Dr. Tommye Thomas): How can we better prepare students in the school systems to meet the academic requirements of the Georgia Milestones Assessment?
  2. Ethics in Teaching (Dr. Eugene Williams): What are some specific resources and challenges to address in order to better prepare pre-service teachers in meeting the requirements and standards in ethics as mandated by the GA PSC?
  3. EdTPA Assessment (Dr. BilliBromer): Identify some of the commonalities or similarities of the TKES Observation and the edTPA Assessment. What are some effective ways to communicate the importance of these findings to school principals, teachers, and pre-service teachers?

The meeting adjourned at 5:35pm.