Thinking about Summer and Fall Work...

This week I started planning for the end of my sabbatical, since summer courses are starting in two weeks. I am teaching two sections of a special education law course this summer so I set up the syllabus for that course this week, and started working on the Canvas page. This week there was an opportunity that came across my desk for an Op-ed writing workshop in June. I have never really written Op-Ed articles, instead sticking mostly to research, practitioner, or parent articles, so decided to apply for this. My statement on what I would like to examine as I think about writing Op-Ed pieces was:

“As a K-12 special educator and professor of special education, I am interested in the equity of schooling for all children—and more specifically students identified with a disability. Topics that I would like to look at include: neurodiversity and inclusivity of language (opposed to ableist, pathologizing, and dehumanizing language) used to discuss disability, opportunities for equity in education and employment of individuals.”

The statement had to be 50-100 words so I couldn’t elaborate on any of the thoughts above. I was awarded one of the five funded workshop fees that my university advertised so I am happy with that.
​
This week I also read a book, “Better feedback for better teaching: A practical guide to improving classroom observations.” I read this book thinking about the supervisor training that the university provided and how to potentially improve this and improve supervisory skills in the process. There were several ideas that I highlighted in this book to bring up when planning on improving our practices in effective feedback during pre-practicum and practicum student teaching. One was vetting supervisors through pre-scored videos and checking observation evidence and feedback. Another is adding some guided questions to our current state document for observation. I also wondered if the state could be doing this work to provide training rather than each institution doing their own and having master scorers identified in the state that can then build capacity elsewhere. My thinking also led me to wondering if at the teacher preparation level, we are looking at observations differently than building administrators (who would be doing the observations once the student leaves us and is employed) are. I wondered if a more universal approach to observations could take place between supervisors in teacher preparation and school district administrators. Again, here a state-wide model may work best, or could a teacher preparation institute invite local principals in partnership schools to go through professional development in unison with teacher preparation supervisors?

I highlighted and wrote down many ideas while I read this book just to get conversation happening next semester at my university. One other idea, out of the many that I thought about, was on the use of video and guiding students’ reflections by identifying snippets of the video for them to reflect on. This could help them see what a supervisor calls out as an area needing improvement. The book really emphasized not having the student-teacher watch the whole video because it doesn’t focus their attention and without guidance on where to look, they could identify the incorrect places during the lesson that need some attention. I think this a practice the pre-practicum experience could really use and it could have a direct impact on candidate performance. It could also serve as an audited spot-check on supervisors, and a quick check on their guided feedback skills. This is something I will bring to my school of education’s assessment or dean’s council team in the fall as a conversation starter.