This post is for our faculty supervisors and cooperating teachers as they enter the classroom and need access to their observation instruments for evaluating teacher candidates in the field. Please see the links below for the specific program you are evaluating:

Elementary Education
Special Education
Secondary Science
Secondary English
Secondary Social Studies

<a href=”http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfbxj94k_1007fpmcbvg9″>Elementary Education</a>
<a href=”http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B0R9Ezg5CXI6NzE4ODJiNmUtMTg0Yy00OGMwLThlYmItNWIwMDk3ZTQ4ZTUx&amp;hl=en”>Special Education</a>
<a href=”http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfbxj94k_1014d97s8sd9″>Secondary Science</a>
<a href=”http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfbxj94k_1021fgfzdhc9″>Secondary English</a>
<a href=”http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfbxj94k_1024hnwxhg2h”>Secondary Social Studies</a>

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On Thursday evening, October 29th, I have the opportunity to connect with professionals who hold a critical role in training tomorrow’s teachers: our faculty supervisors.  Each semester, after successfully completely a series of core courses in their discipline, teacher candidates apply for  placements in  P-12 schools.  Our very capable placement director, Veronika Winkler, expertly handles the applications and assigns each of the teacher candidates a classroom with a cooperating teacher and faculty supervisor.  Faculty supervisors and their cooperating teacher counterparts are not only necessary ingredients to the success of the teacher candidates’ classroom experience, they are essential mentors who offer tremendous guidance and direction to tomorrow’s school leaders.  We celebrate our faculty supervisors for all the support and direction they give our teacher candidates; helping them to develop into effective instructors ready for the challenge of 21st Century Teaching.  Here is the link to this very important presentation.

The Multicultural Student Leadership Institute is a Rider University organization aimed at fostering student connections with faculty and staff and the at large community.  To launch a year of new and innovative programming, the Multicultural Student Leadership Institute (MSLI) held a meet and greet networking dinner in late September.  Students, faculty and staff had the opportunity to discuss ways they could collaborate on diverse projects and develop mentorships during the 2009-2010 school year.  On hand was our newly appointed Dean, Sharon Sherman, to initiate discussion with education students and foster connections with staff throughout Rider and its surrounding community.   This October, the institute celebrates Unity Days 2009 with a variety of workshops for the campus community.  “Social Justice” is the theme for Unity Days with an emphasis on the crisis in Darfur, Sudan. For that reason, Unity Days’ keynote speaker will be Emmanuel Jal, former Sudanese child soldier, author and hip-hop artist. The events begin on Wednesday, October 14, continue on Thursday, October 15, and culminate on Monday, October 19. The events of Unity Days aim to bring together students, faculty and staff and to celebrate the diverse elements within the Rider community.

Thursday, September 10- Saturday, September 12th- Accreditation, Accountability and Quality: An Institutional Orientation and Professional Development Conference.  Attending this conference allowed participants from all over the country to share and collaborate on preparation strategies for institutional and specialty professional association reports and approaches to candidate learning.  In doing so, both myself and Sharon Sherman, our Dean, learned a tremendous amount about how we can take what we are already doing so expertly, training today’s teachers, and showcase it professionally in our review.  As a member of our teacher education team, you can study the presentations by taking this link to the site and clicking on download presentations.  Then choose which presentation(s) you wish to review and download it/them to your desktop or some other location on your computer.  Some key presentations include “Diversity Proficiency: Strategies for Candidate, Program, and Unit Success in Standard 4″, “Introduction to the Program Review Process”,  by Margie Crutchfield of NCATE,  “Reforming Educator Preparation: NCATE’s Transformation Initiative” and SPA related presentations according to your specialty area.  In particular, I found the NCTM presentation to be a well developed presentation applicable to all disciplines.  If you have any trouble viewing or downloading anything from this site, please contact me at scarbonaro@rider.edu.

Designing the Conceptual Framework- Challenges to 21st Century Teachers

This is our site for sharing  knowledge and concepts surrounding our vision and direction of the  School of Education at Rider University.  Our first collaborative think tank was held on Thursday, September 3rd and we developed tremendous ideas to shape our conceptual framework to meet the challenges of the 21st Century teachers.  Using an output model, our student assessments and training of today’s teacher candidates demonstrate a rich grasp of pertinent content knowledge and instructional strategies that will enhance and impact P-12 learners.  This site will feature technology training, relevant industry articles and published posts by our highly respected faculty.  Here is a link to our first developmental meeting presentation and a video explanation of our vision and focus.