As we are prepping for the 2022 Annual Meeting in New Orleans next March, perhaps you are planning your itinerary and thinking of how to spend time when you are not attending AACTE22 sessions. AACTE staff stumbled upon some interesting information about the city and found there is a lot more to New Orleans than one would think.
Have you tried using video in your methodology courses? As the place where student teachers connect theory to practice, methods courses are perfect for video—whether you teach in person or online.
Many teacher ed programs relied on video for remote instruction during the pandemic, but some used it long before 2020—and for good reason. Research shows that video plus feedback improves student skills. In methods courses, video gives you a way to
Timothy Boerst and Meghan Shaughnessy
Working in teacher education programs at the University of Michigan and Boston University, we are well-versed with practice-based teacher education, including the usage and importance of video to connect the university classroom and K-12 schools. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, video has been crucial in engaging with our teacher candidates in practice-based work.
At the AACTE 2021 Annual Meeting in February earlier this year, we shared how we used video in our work as teacher educators over the 2020-21 academic year. Our presentation, “Using Video to Learn to Do the Work of Teaching When Schools are Closed,” highlighted the ways in which we used video at the University of Michigan to support practice-based work when methods courses were conducted online. While we have robustly used video in our programs for over a decade, the last year forced us to explore new possibilities.
We may be in the dog days of summer, but why not beat the heat by accessing these new AACTE resources?
ARP Funding Toolkit – Learn how members can collaborate with their local district partners to allocate ESSER funds toward strengthening the educator workforce.
Consortium for Research-Based and Equitable Assessments (CREA) – Discover how AACTE, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is evaluating cut scores and how they can be refined to attract, rather than exclude, potential candidates.
AACTE Webinars – Explore the latest in the AACTE Webinar library. In July, AACTE is featuring three webinars: “Discover How to Make the Most of AACTE Connect360,” “Growing and Sustaining White Racial Justice Allyship in Education,” and “Combating Racism in Educator Prep: Justice and Joy for BIPOC Individuals.” Did you miss a webinar? No problem! You may also explore our on-demand webinar library for any discussion you may have missed.
Don’t miss your opportunity to pilot test PlanWise™ tool, a Chrome Extension developed by ETS and focused on delivering formative assessment practices and strategies.
AACTE, in collaboration with ETS, is excited to provide all of its members with this exciting opportunity. The PlanWise™ tool meets teachers where they are in a number of ways, such as providing suggestions for formative assessment strategies to teachers and teacher candidates while they are lesson planning in Google Docs. After an initial pilot with K-12 teachers, novice teachers noted the value and the utility of the tool in identifying a variety of new formative assessment strategies and indicated that the strategies increased their use of formative assessment with students.
This article originally appeared in Diverse Issues in Higher Education and is reprinted with permission.
Teacher diversity is invaluable for all students. Having a teacher of color at the helm of a classroom benefits all learners, both academically and through deep and enriching social emotional connections. However, according to The White House’s fact sheet for The American Families Plan, while teachers of color can have a particularly strong impact on students of color, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that only one in five teachers are people of color, compared to more than half of K-12 public school students. That is why President Biden is calling on Congress to invest $9 billion in American teachers, addressing shortages, improving training and supports for teachers, and boosting teacher diversity.
Why teacher diversity matters
Representation in the classroom matters. Having a diverse teacher workforce connects cultures, sets high expectations, and reduces implicit bias. Far too often, students of color feel isolated, underrepresented or mistreated, which leads to lower graduation and higher dropout rates. Decades of research has demonstrated that teachers of color can help close access and opportunity gaps for students of color while being vital to the well-being of students of all races. With a teacher of color leading a classroom, students of color see themselves represented and identify with them as role models. A diverse teacher workforce not only supports a student’s academic and social and emotional outcomes, it can lead classroom students to consider becoming educators themselves.
A panel of experts who have dedicated their careers to the pursuit of equity in education will present AACTE’s first webinar produced for a “White Racial Justice” informal affinity group as part of AACTE’s in Combating Racism in Educator Preparation series. Join your like-minded peers and attend the webinar, “Combating Racism in Education Prep: An Introduction to Authentic, Action-Oriented Allyship as Educators” on July 14 at 2:00 p.m. ET.
Through the panelists’ diverse background and experiences, the presenters will introduce language, frameworks, resources, and strategies for the audience to use in their learning and reflection to be anti-racist educators and learn discussion and advocacy techniques to use in their professional and personal lives.
This is an opportunity for anyone who is an educator or education advocate to learn more about and/or re-energize and re-frame the conversation on creating equitable educator preparation programs that prepare teachers to enter the country’s schools armed with not just an understanding of how we got here, but also with strategies to be advocates for themselves and their students who may have less institutional agency.
House Appropriations Committee Set to Move on Education Spending Bill
While many Members of the Senate traveled home this week for a scheduled state work period, Members of the House of Representatives kept things moving on Capitol Hill setting funding levels for the FY2022 appropriations bills.
The House Appropriations Committee voted on allocations for each of the FY2022 appropriations measures which are moving through the House with hopes of meeting the September 30 deadline. Referred to as 302(b) allocations—these numbers reflect how much money is available for each of the 12 appropriations bills. Essentially, this is the House Democrats’ opening offer for proposed funding levels for FY2022. The Senate has not yet taken a position on 302(b) allocations for their versions of the bills and that could delay movement down the road.
The pandemic has impacted every dimension of the human spirit. Therefore, the recent session of the Holmes Program Summer Webinar Series was timely. When I signed up for the session titled, “Practicing Radical Self-Care to Thrive in Scholarship and Life,” I wondered what was radical self-care and why was it essential? The presenters’ knowledge, skills and dispositions eventually answered the question resoundingly with their stories and activities.
Kimberly-White Smith, dean of the LaFetra College of Education at the University of La Verne, reminded us of the critical context we are currently experiencing. Many of us are engaged in activities that have us navigating different spaces and experiences, especially doctoral students with a clear goal to graduate. Therefore, in the session, we were exposed to tools that will allow us to monitor our trajectory as we continued our scholarship.
The deadline is approaching for the AACTE 2022 Outstanding Dissertation Award. Applications can be submitted through the online submission system now through August 20. This award includes a $1,000 cash prize, as well as special recognition at AACTE’s 74th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA, March 4-6, 2022.
The Outstanding Dissertation Award, overseen by AACTE’s Committee on Research and Dissemination, recognizes excellence in research (or its equivalent) that contributes to the knowledge base of educator preparation or of teaching and learning with implications for educator preparation.
Have Connect360 questions? The AACTE Quick Start Guide provides step-by-step instructions to maximize your experience with Connect360. Discover how to
View the Connect360 Quick Start Guide to get involved with AACTE’s new online community today!
Also, mark your calendar to attend AACTE’s webinar tutorial, “Discover How to Make the Most of AACTE Connect360,” on Thursday, July 8, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. EST. Explore this new members-only resource, walk through how to access its many features, and gain resources to better acquaint yourself with Connect360. Learn more about the webinar tutorial in this recent blog and register in advance to reserve your seat!
