BranchED 2021 OER Summer Institute

Hello All! My name is Lara Ervin-Kassab and I am an assistant professor of teacher education at San Jose State University in California. My guiding question through my educational life is how do we learn with and from one another? My module topic is one of creating a protocol for educators to use when critically reviewing assessments, instructional plans, and/or apps for diversity, equity, and inclusion. This is grounded in Inclusive Pedagogy, but absolutely asks us all to consider intersectionality, technological pedagogical content knowledge, and how we include context (such as families, communities, etc.) into our planning,teaching, assessing, reflecting, and development of practice.  I've been an edtech educator and teacher leader for 20+ years, one of the things that helped me survive during the COVID online experience was creating an online community in which we supported one another at SJSU. I'd love to stay in touch Lara.Kassab@sjsu.edu. 

Welcome, Lara,

A protocol for critically reviewing assessments, instructional plans, and or apps for DEI sounds VERY useful! I am excited to see your module evolve.

Aubree

Greetings from Southern California! I am a Single Subject (i.e., secondary education) Asst. Professor and the Director of Clinical Experiences at Azusa Pacific University. The module I will be updating is for our Single Subject differentiated classroom course. I plan to focus on how to better instruct our Teacher Candidates on supporting students facing/having faced trauma. To help me survive teaching during COVID, I purposefully listened and asked our Teacher Candidates about the technology they were using in their remote student teaching placements and tried them out myself. I enjoyed learning from them and now use Jamboard in my own courses. My email is: mgross@apu.edu and would love to keep in touch and keep learning from everyone in this institute.

Hello All! I'm Robin Dodds, an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Special Education at Cal State LA. I am planning to develop a module for our teacher candidates on best practices to facilitate successful transitions from Early Intervention to Preschool for parents of children with disabilities from underserved communities. Checking in with students and focusing on application-based group work during the pandemic has been fulfilling for me in my courses. I'd love to make new connections for research and dialogue! my email is rdodds@calstatela.edu

Welcome, Robin,

Your module topic is so important, and I look forward to watching it evolve over the next several weeks!

Aubree

When we are next on campus face to face Maria, I'd love for a lesson on Jamboard. I've played around with it, but not had any indepth training.

Jessica

Welcome, Maria,

How interesting that you studied your students' use of technology during COVID. I can't wait to hear about what you learned, and I'm sure I'm not the only one!

Aubree

Hi! My name is Linda Woods. I also sometimes go by Linda-Raven Woods, which is my professional writing name. I hold an M.A. in English from Mississippi State University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Georgia College, and am working toward my doctorate degree in English. I teach at Alabama A&M University, The module I will be creating is designed primarily for the English 203 course I will be teaching in the fall, which is an introduction to World Literature. Since the course encompasses a study of mythology and because one of my primary objectives when I teach the course is that students learn the role that mythology plays in shaping a culture's identity, values, and belief systems (including our own) I wanted to create a module that would help students connect mythology to both real life applications and to understand how the basic archetypes and themes of myth (such as the heroic journey, for example) continue to influence all aspects of our lives and entertainment. Thus, my main goal will be to create a more dynamic and innovative way to teach the course that goes beyond just the rote memorization techniques of reading an assignment, learning a concept or vocabulary word, and then using standard quizzes and exams to simply find out how much they can recall. Instead, I want my students to gain a wider knowledge and appreciation for how myth impacts our everyday lives. As for surviving Covid, I have to confess that I actually discovered I love teaching online classes! True, there are some drawbacks (students tend to be more distracted, etc) but for me, I found a lot of the pros outweighed the cons. I love that I don't have to deal with a lot of the distractions and typical discipline issues of an in-person class (as you can probably guess, I teach a lot of freshman and sophomore classes, and an unfortunate reality is that the high school mentality is still very prevalent) nor do I have to stress as much about what I look like or what I'm wearing since the students typically only see me from the shoulders up. I find that eliminating so many of those small stresses (which add up!) really frees me to focus more on my content and teaching. I also love that the virtual platforms for online teaching make it so much easier to share media (no more hassling with projectors and classroom computers that may or may not work that day!). All in all, I have actually come to enjoy the online teaching environment and am not so sure I'm ready to go back to "the way we were" although I have heard we will be back to in-person classes by fall. In another way, though, it will be good to have that interpersonal connection again with the students. My contact email is linda.woods@aamu.edu. 

Welcome, Linda,

I think your module topic sounds fascinating! As a sociologist, I agree that mythology can tell us a lot about cultural values and influence them as well. I can't wait to watch your module develop!

Aubree

Hello. I'm Jessica Cannaday. I am a Professor and Single Subject Program Director at Azusa Pacific University.  I intend to create my module on Pedagogical Models, for our "Art of Teaching 2: A Pedagogical Models Approach to Instructional Design" course.   I didn't feel I needed something to help me "survive" teaching during Covid.  I have really enjoyed teaching in the format we are teaching right now. (Synchronous/Asynchronous online).  It has cut our 5 hour classes down to a 2 hour synchronous and then asynchronous activity course and that has been an excellent adjustment.  Candidates have really enjoyed that.  Although being able to go back to the face to face for more hands on learning is needed and will be beneficial, the shorter time frame has been very nice. 

jcannaday@apu.edu.

Jessica

Welcome, Jessica,

I cannot wait to get your perspective on the instructional design segment of this institute! We'll cover that on Wednesday. 

I also hope I get to hear more about how your candidates appreciated the COVID-related adjustments you made to your classes.

Aubree

Hello.  I am Leah Carruth from Angelo State University in San Angelo.  I am an assistant professor (associate this fall!) in teacher education where I teach early childhood, reading, and diversity courses.  The module I will create is for our beginning reading course and it will focus on Phonological Awareness as a whole with a portion focusing on second language learners.  I did well during COVID because I had good internet connections at home, a support system, and students who were good-hearted about the entire situation.  Going online was not a dream of mine, however, COVID has helped me learn more about online learning.  I would like to keep in touch and look forward to learning from each of you. leah.carruth@angelo.edu.  

Leah, our topics are related. Maybe we can brainstorm learning innovations together. Are you a fan of the PAST?

That sounds great.  I learned about the PAST recently and like that it has all the levels and the automaticity component with it.  

Welcome, Leah,

Congrats on earning tenure this fall!

I look forward to watching your module develop over the next several weeks.

Aubree

Hi Leah,

It is good to "see" you in here.

Hi Beth,

I was excited to see someone I knew here.  Hope things are going well and looking forward to the module you are making. 

Leah 

Hello all,
I’m Devin Beasley, the Lead Regional Faculty and Director of Teacher Ed. for the University of La Verne, Kern County Campus.
My module topic is twofold - helping teachers understand how personal biases or stereotypes affect learning and recognizing cultural learning differences and developing strategies to better support students of color.
My family is a source of my strength, motivation, encouragement, and fun. Having everyone home during COVID has really been helpful in surviving COVID – mentally and emotionally.
I’m not active on social media, but feel free to stay in touch – work email: dbeasley@laverne.edu or personal email: drdevinb@gmail.com.

Hi Devin, see you next week!

Welcome, Devin,

That is wonderful that your family helped you during COVID. I agree- I was grateful for the time, and we definitely grew closer.

I look forward to learning with you during the institute,

Aubree

Greetings, My name is  Betty Liverman and I am an education professor and assessment coordinator at Shaw University in North Carolina.  

I will be constructing a module the would help educators with the process of decomposing content standards and objectives, selecting appropriate assessment methods, designing assessments that align to content standard objectives, and creating assessments that support learning styles with technology enhancements. 

To survive COVID 19, my mental health received routine scheduled checkups.  It is important to provide regular maintenance or check-ups to your mental health. 

My email address is betty.liverman@shawu.edu or bjliverman@gmail.com.

Welcome, Betty,

Your module sounds very interesting and incredly useful. I look forward to watching it evolve over the next several weeks. 

Good for you regarding the mental health checkups! Yes, it is definitely important to provide regular maintence, as you said. 

Aubree

Hello All,

I am excited to join this group and look forward to learning with and from you all. My name is Beth Garcia and I am the Director of Teacher Preparation at West Texas A&M University. My research interests include Culturally and Linguistically Diverse students and Experiential Learning. My module topic is an overview of general methodology for pre-service teachers with an ESL component built into the course. Something that helped me survie teaching during COVID was Wine Chateu--a wine delviery service (LOL) and the ability to work and be able to certify teachers virtually.

My email address is elizabeth.garcia@wtamu.edu, and I would love to collaborate and keep in contact after the institute.

Beth-

We are on the same page with wine!

Let's talk varietals!

Amber

Sounds delicious.

Welcome, Beth,

I definitely relied on delivery services and subscriptions during COVID, too! Oddly, I drank less during the pandemic than before, but I couldn't have survived without food delivery!

Looking forward to getting to know you during the institute.

Aubree

My name is Anita Flemington, and I am a professor in teacher education at the University of LaVerne, located in Southern California. I teach candidates seeking a secondary credential. In addition, I also teach in the master of education program.

We are currently writing a new Bilingual Authorization program. I will be looking to create a module that will promote the creation of a more culturally responsive and anti-racist curriculum focusing on the Spanish bilingual program.  

There are three major bright points for me during this pandemic. First, my candidates were so patient with me, teaching me many new ways to present information. I learned so much from them during these past 16 months. The second is that I was co-teaching a course each semester. This was such an enriching process that kept me grounded. And the third was my family. I was so fortunate to have my daughter and granddaughter in my "bubble". I was able to spend each day, Monday through Friday with them at my house, watching my granddaughter navigate and progress using technology.

My email address - aflemington@laverne.edu

Hi co-teaching buddy! I look forward to continued collaborations.

Thanks! We are a good team!

Welcome, Anita! I hope this institute helps you carve out space to create supporting instructional materials for the new program you are developing. 

Literacy Tug-o-War

The intersection of critical literacy, balanced literacy and structured literacy is a contentious topic in reading instruction. I will be tackling this topic, and how to host difficult conversations around contentious issues realted to literacy. As the Chair of our Inclusive Education Program at University of La Verne, I value the empowering and essential nature of teaching our teachers to teach their students to think, and to make what they read matter. I also feel that many of our struglling readers need structured and explicit support with the foundations of reading. So an understanding of the tug-of-war of this topic is a necessary experience for all genreal and special education teachers. Usually teacher education faculty are on one side or the other, or leave out critical literacy altogether.

During COVID I was able to build arealtionships with students despite our distance. This supported the isolation of this extrovert. Lots of really good red wine and a fabulous life partner also helped.

I look forward to engaging with you all!

Amber Bechard, Univ. of La Verne (in Southern Californai)

abechard@laverne.edu

Welcome, Amber! I love the title Literacy Tug-o-War. Is that your module title?! I like how it invites the critical tension that you are suggesting in your proposed module. I'm excited to see it evolve. :)

I'm with you on the fabulous partner. COVID helped me see how lucky I am to have a family whose company I enjoy. 

Hi folks,

I'm Christian Bracho at the University of La Verne. I am an Associate Professor in the Teacher Education program, teaching courses for the single-subject credential candidates, as well as to our MAT students. I have taught a course many times now called "EDUC 442- Intermediate Teaching Strategies" that focuses on adolescent development, theories of learning, culturally-relevant teaching, and positive classroom environments. I think the course title in my mind is really "Teaching Diverse Adolescents" :)

In my proposed module, I want to draw on Hammond's 2014 book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, to help  teacher candidates understand the connections between the science of learning and cultural and linguistic diversity in the classroom. I plan to also use the work of the Alliance for Excellent Education, especially its report "Science of Adolescent Learning: Valuing Culture, Experiences, and Environments," to make the case for culturally-relevant teaching as a necessary framework for teaching adolescent learners. I also want to reframe my teaching of UDL by drawing on Kieran & Anderson (2018), who argue that "Using UDL principles without explicitly considering how cultural differences and perspectives affect learning may increase the disparity in student achievement for students of color." 

What has helped me survive teaching during COVID is getting a standing desk. It has made my body feel much better and makes me feel more physically engaged when teaching synchronously. I use my hands a lot! :) 

Feel free to contact me at cbracho@laverne.edu

Welcome, Christian! Based on your module plans, I'm excited to share with you the new BranchED Equity Rubric for Evaluating OER-it sounds like it will align well with your frameworks. 

Also, how neat that a standing desk has helped you. COVID has encouraged me to go on frequent walks, which has helped me a lot too.

Great to meet you, Christian. We also use Hammond's text...and the candidates (and I) love it! Looking forward to hearing how you will draw on her text.

- Maria Gross (Azusa Pacific Univ)

Greetings All,

I am Tiffany D. Pogue and I am an Associate Professor of Teacher Education at Albany State University.  Due to our world's current political, racial, and health contexts my module topic is about Employing a Pedagogy of Hope.  I think it's sorely needed by many of our students (and ourselves!).  

Meditation and mindfulness have helped me survive teaching during COVID so those things will also be addressed witnin the module.

I'd love to stay in touch with everyone beyond this institute.  My email address is tiffany.pogue@asurams.edu

Welcome, Tiffany! I agree that hope is the most important thing right now. Last year I read Kevin Gannon's Radical Hope and enjoyed it.

I'm looking forward to working with you over these next several weeks.

Aubree

Hi there! My name is Dena Sexton -- I am the Director of Clinical Practice at San Jose State University. In my context, this means that I oversee/support our student teaching courses, mentor and offer support to supervisors, and work on a variety of projects related to the field (e.g. residency programs, district partnerships) and emancipatory education projects. 

My module is focused on creating/integrating a set of prompts, tools, and strategies supervisors can use in the mentorship of teacher candidates to prioritize anti-racist/emancipatory teaching. This will include UDL, healing-centered and culturally sustaining approaches embedded in observation cycles as this constitutes the main focus for student teaching/supervision. 

The amazing community of supervisors and colleagues at SJSU, along with lots of humor at home, got me through this past year. And yes, let's stay in touch! dena.sexton@sjsu.edu 

Welcome, Dena! I am so interested in learning about emancipatory teaching practices through your module. 

I look forward to watching your module evolve over the next several weeks.

Aubree 

Hello, my name is Lourdes Viloria I am an associate professor at Texas A&M International University.  I teach Educational Administration graduate courses. However,  as a CoPI of the BranchED grant my role is to assist in the recruitment, retention and mentoring of new teacher candidates that will part of the BranchED transformation model. Therfore,  I will be creating a new course for my module- EDCI 3200 Survey of Content Knowledge and Experience.   Something that has helped survive COVID is living in rural Texas.

Welcome, Lourdes! I am curious to know how living in rural Texas helped you survive the pandemic. That is so interesting!

Greetings and Hello everyone!  I'm Rickey Harrell and I work as a lecturer and field coordinator for Texas A&M University, San Antonio's Educator Preparstion Program. 

My module will address the use of student assets (demographics) to drive instruction.

There were two things that helped me survive while teaching during COVID.  The first was my loyal dog, Nala who sensed when I needed a break and came to me to encourage play.  The second was the interactions with my students and co-workers. even though many of the conversations were virtual on via phone, that human interaction and sharing of ideas stimulatd me,

I'd love to hear from all of you and continue benchmarking as I'm always looking to grow and discover new ways of guiding and supporting my students. My email is rgarrell@tamusa.edu.

Welcome, Rickey! I love that your dog helped you survive the pandemic! Mine was sweet but interupted quite a few Zoom meetings! Lol.

Good Afternoon!

My name is Dr. Kara Ireland D'Ambrosio.  I teach at San Jose State University in California.  I teach Music Education Methods courses and Intergrated Arts in Elementary Education. My module topic will be Intersectional Content - focusing on intergrating content between music, drama, and dance with elementary classroom education (math, social science, ELA, SEL). The focus will be pedigogical and connecting to families/community. 

I have survived pandemic teaching by participating in online PD to become a better teacher with synchronous and asynchronous instruction and being a compassionate, flexible teacher with my students.  Taking time to connect with my students personally has helped me survive and so many were struggling- I was not alone.

Kara.IrelandDAmbrosio@sjsu.edu

Please keep in contact!

Welcome, Kara! I love your response about pandemic teaching makign you more compassionate and flexible. That's such a positive attitude. :)

Hello, my name is Carly Johnson and I serve as chair of the music department at Alabama State University and teach courses for both our undergradute and graduate music education majors. For my module topic, I am focusing on inclusive pedagogy through the teaching of analytical music content in our upper division music courses.  We are in the middle of reviewing and revising much of our curriculum in order to broaden the focus of study beyond the traditional perspective of mainly Western European art music spanning the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  The goal of my module is to further expand the representation of women and minority composers in the musical examples selected for study that are more representative and inclusive of the students attending minority-serving institutions.  The module will be able to be used in our foundational teacher courses for our music education majors as they prepare for admission to EPP and to take the Praxis II: Music Content exam.  I have three cuddly kitties at home who have helped with Covid survival.  My email address is cjjohnson@alasu.edu