Professional Development – CEHS Curriculum Revision

Meeting Notes – Friday, May 16, 2014

While there was not an official curriculum redesign meeting, a portion of the EDST department meeting was dedicated to content relevant to the curriculum revision work.

Dean May provided an overview and information that Genesis, the student data management company, is going to enter into a long term arrangement with CEHS. All students and faculty in the EDST department will have access to the data sandbox that was developed on a trial basis for use this past Spring semester. We are contacting Genesis about coming to campus on Monday, June 23rd for a more in depth training and look at the data available. This is the same date as Pirate Adventure.

A large amount of time was dedicated to discussing and looking at the feedback from the ESED and SCED focus groups that took place at the end of the Spring 2014 semester. The PowerPoint presentation was distributed by the dean via email after the meeting. Dates for development of both short and long term goals for both programs were also communicated via email.

As part of the development of short term goals, the dean communicated the missing pieces for the Pass-Port portals to be developed for the Fall 2014 semester. This included items for ESED Portals 1, 2 and 3 and SCED Portals 1 and 2. Rubrics and assessments need to be completed by June 15.

The remainder of the meeting focused on EDST department business. Enjoy the activities and events related to commencement this weekend. We are looking forward to a productive summer and a great start to the Fall semester!

Genesis Software Overview – Student Data and How to Use it to Inform Instruction – March 5th at 2pm

One of the results of the Technology Advisory Committee SHU hosted in January was feedback that new teachers are not familiar with the data that is available to them and how to use that data to better inform their instruction and improve student learning.

As a result, we reached out to Genesis, a Web-Based Student Information System for New Jersey Schools, to come to SHU and demonstrate their software and system. This will enable us to better understand what data our students will have access to when they are hired in the field.

This document provided an overview of what the Genesis Student Information System is and what data is collected and can be evaluated in the system

Jan Russak, the Chief Technology Officer at Genesis will be coming to CEHS on Wednesday, March 5, 2014 at 2pm to provide us with a look into Genesis. The information she will be providing will help answer some of the following questions:

– What is a modern (circa 2014) Student Information System and what can it contain & do?
– How does the information get there and who maintains it?
– What information does the State of NJ collect (NJ SMART) and how can a Student Information System provide it?
– What tools do teachers have access to?
– Security, student data and personal responsibility
– How can you use what you have access to to inform your teaching and interactions with your students?

This is the first step in building a relationship with Genesis. Ultimately, we would like to develop a partnership where we are able to provide access to Genesis accounts and data that is available for use in the teacher preparation courses.

Please join us on Wednesday, March 5th from 2:00-3:30 in the 4th Floor Media Lab.

NJEA Professional Development – Friday, April 11 – Mark Your Calendar

Mr. Michael Cohan, Director of Professional Development for NJEA, will be joining us here on campus in the fourth floor media lab. He will be providing CEHS, along with potentially some of our colleagues from Arts & Sciences, a 90 minute session on SGO’s in NJ. Topics to be covered inlcude what SGOs are, how they impact teachers in NJ, what the impact is on students and student learning and what it means for our faculty and student teachers in terms of preparing to teach in NJ’s schools.

The program will be on Friday, April 11th from 10:00 to 11:30am in the CEHS Media Lab on the fourth floor. We hope many of you will be able to join us for this event.