News – CEHS Curriculum Revision

NJ DOE Approves Changes to State Standards & Licensure

Since April 2014, the NJ Department of Education has been busy proposing and adopting changes to both the New Jersey Professional Standards for Teachers and the New Jersey Licensure and Regulations for educator preparation programs. As of May 5, 2014, changes to the Professional Standards are effective and as of June 4, 2014, the DOE adopted changes to the Licensure and Regulations.

The process, updates and links to files tracking changes to the standards and adopted changes to the licensure regulations can be found within the ‘Resources’ tab on this blog under ‘Standards and Regulations.’

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!

TLTC Summer Technology Workshops

Veroica Armour, the newly hired Instructional Designer in TLTC, recently shared an email with information on the TLTC Summer Technology Workshops being offered. For more information on the sessions, you can either visit the Computer Training Classroom Website or contact William Otskey, William.Otskey@shu.edu. Additionally, Veronica can be reached at Veronica.Armour@shu.edu. Veronica will also be at the EDST meeting on Friday, May 16th, if you’d like to speak with her in person.

The Teaching, Learning and Technology Center is again offering their annual summer technology workshops for faculty and staff. This year the theme is Step It Up With Technology. Don’t miss these informative sessions, all held in the Computer Training Classroom, located on the ground floor of the Walsh Library. Lunch is included, with a fitness towel as a gift for attending.

Online and Hybrid Learning Fundamentals – May 28, 2014

To meet the needs of all learners, new modes of instruction need to be explored. Online and hybrid learning are two modes of instruction that are hot topics in teaching and learning but the transition from face-to-face coursework and activities to alternate environments can be challenging. This session will focus on essential elements of online and hybrid course development including an overview of Quality Matters and the available resources for online and hybrid course development.

Register Here:

Introduction to Personal Lecture Capture – June 4, 2014

This session will provide faculty members with an overview of the Echo360 Personal Capture System at Seton Hall University. Participants will have an opportunity to view a personal capture being created, edited, and published. Discussion will include how faculty can request an Echo360 Personal Capture account, downloading, installing, and configuring the Echo360 Personal Capture software. Best practices will be covered via viewing a sample Personal Capture from the student’s point of view. Participants will have the opportunity to create a sample Echo360 Personal Capture recording prior to requesting their own account.

Register Here:

Go the Extra Mile with Blackboard – June 11, 2014

Go beyond the basics of Blackboard with this hands-on workshop. This workshop will show you how to incorporate media, utilize voice tools and manage student assessments through various Blackboard features. The day will conclude with a demonstration of Blackboard Collaborate, a webinar tool for synchronous online instruction, which will be available soon.

Register Here:

Audience Response and Classroom Engagement Tools – June 18, 2014

This workshop will involve a demo of the Top Hat audience engagement and participation software, which allows students to respond to class material both in and out of the physical classroom using virtually any device. Quickly create polls to elicit feedback from students so that you can gauge their understanding of course content. We will also demo the DyKnow software, which allows faculty to share and record presentations to share with students, quickly assess student understanding through polls and instant questions, as well as many other collaborative features. We hope you will join us to learn how to incorporate exciting new student engagement strategies in your courses.

Register Here:

Personal Computers: Back to Basics – July 9, 2014

We have had a lot of requests for a computer basics course, so here it is. This session will cover basics such as turning on your machine to shutting it down properly, how to work with Windows, how the internet works and browsing techniques. In addition, we will discuss where to save your files and how to protect them. This course will help you become more comfortable with a PC, its components and how to use it to your advantage. If you struggle with trying to figure out what you’re looking at and what’s happening, this course is for you.

Register Here:

E-Mail, Files, Software, How Do I Manage It All? – July 16, 2014

Are you frustrated with receiving tons of e-mail every day, the stream of new software is available every day, or locating that file that you were on last week? These are common dilemmas we all have to work through but how do you manage it all? This course will show you best practices for dealing with e-mail, how to set up a system for storing files you need and how to protect both of them. We’ll also delve into the realm of “cloud” drives and how they can help you with both work and personal files.

Register Here:

Spreadsheets 101: Using Excel – July 23, 2014

We will cover a whole myriad of Excel topics during this session so come prepared to work at learning how to properly use this software. Besides formulas, we’ll cover creating graphs, using database functions, data validation, linking spreadsheets and a lot more. It will be a full day with attendees executing these techniques to help make you more efficient with this powerful software.

Register Here:

Win a FitBit Wristband! – Attend a TLTC Summer Series Event to enter the raffle. Increase your chances by attending more than one event! Drawing will take place on July 24, 2014.

For descriptions and a list of more offerings visit the Computer Training Classroom Website or contact William Otskey, William.Otskey@shu.edu.

NJDOE – Updated NJ Professional Teaching Standards and AchieveNJ Update – May 2014

Dr. Martinelli, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs shared two updates from the NJ Department of Education.

Following is an overview of both communications from the NJDOE.

1. On April 1, 2014, NJ updated the Professional Standards for Teachers to more closely align with the 2011 Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) Model Core Teaching Standards. The overview from NJDOE as well as links to the full crosswalk between the NJ Professional Standards for Teachers and the InTASC standards are located on the Teacher Preparation page within this site.

2.. Peter Shulman, Assistant Commissioner/Chief Talent Officer, Division of Teacher and Leader Effectiveness distributed an update on May 6, 2014. It is an update on AchieveNJ and focuses on completing the teacher and adminstrator evaluations for the 2013-14 school year and also includes an update of SGO’s 2.0 for next academic year. This letter can be found in its entirety on the Standards & Regulation page within this site.

April 25, 2014 Curriculum Revision Meeting Notes

The following are the meeting notes and comments from the April 25, 2014 Curriculum Revision meeting.

Dean May took the lead on this meeting. She spent some time reviewing what we have done and discussed over the past year including:

Communicating and becoming familiar with the new CAEP standards
Identifying and mapping SPA standards, CAEP Standards, the new INTASC standards and the Danielson Framework to each other and cross-referencing them
Creating this blog for a single point of communication and resources
Gathering and compiling syllabi in one location within the blog for reference and communication
Visiting groups and presentations – Technology Advisory Committee and the Genesis and NJEA SGO presentations
Continuing work within Pass-Port and the Portals
Gathering feedback from students and alumni via focus groups and surveys
Evaluating and discussing how the current curriculum might be redesigned and realigned to better meet our students’ needs

Dean May provided several resources to help further the discussion and consider next steps. One of the excerpts provided was from the Journal of Teacher Education. The entire article on Core Practices and Pedagogies of Teacher Education: A Call for a Common Language and Collective Activity can be found within the Scholarship and Teaching section of this blog.

The dean noted that we are ending our year of information gathering and reflection. It’s time for programs to meet and establish some short and long term strategic goals for program continuous improvement. The short term goals should focus on essential steps before the start of the fall semester, while the long term goals should have interim steps and deadlines throughout the next academic year.

When programs have established their short and long term goals, we will look for common goals to maximize resource support. Programs do not have to pursue all of the same goals, but where there is a sensed need across the unit, we will work collaboratively.

March 28, 2014 Meeting Notes

This post is a little delayed. Apologies for the slow follow up to the meeting. Due to a number of different circumstances, this meeting had a smaller turnout of attendees and was basically combined with the EDST Department meeting.

Following are the main topic areas that were discussed and required follow up or next steps:

1. Genesis Overview – The faculty who were able to attend the Genesis presentation Wednesday, March 5th provided an overview and gave feedback on the session, Genesis as a student information database and inpout on the lesson plan format that is used within the Genesis system. Dr. Devlin-Scherer. Dr. Carr, Dr. Daly and Dr. Peskin all provided their feedback. If you were unable to attend the Genesis session or the Curriculum Revision meeting and would like more information, please feel free to contact one of those faculty members or stop by JH Room 434 for a Genesis folder/packet.

2. Alumni Survey – Final review and feedback on the Initial Programs and IDAT/SLMS Alumni Survey was requested from the faculty. That input was included in a draft that was emailed to faculty on April 4th for final approval. In the time between this meeting and posting of these notes, the surveys have been created in Qualtrics and are ready for electronic distribution to alumni who have graduated between 2010 and 2013. We are waiting to receive alumni contact information from the alumni office and then they will be distributed.

3. Pass-Port Portals – A spreadsheet was distributed and discussed with those in attendance. It included a starting point of what could be included in Portals 1, 2, 3 and 4 for each major and secondary education concentration. The request was made that by the end of the Spring 2014 semester each program provide feedback and input as to what assessments should be included in each portal. Specifically, Secondary Education was asked to identify key assessments for Portals 1 and 2 and ESED were to verify and validate Portals 1, 2 and 3.

4. Supervisor Training – There was feedback and a request from some faculty to look into providing training or an information session for the supervisors to ensure consistency and standardization of messaging and observations. Some of the topics discussed as possible topics for inclusion in the session were classroom management, what to observe and look for at each field observation, how to communicate in a respectful, kind and supportive manner with interns, lesson plan approval and review, and a method for improving communication between faculty, supervisors and cooperating teachers. Dr. Peskin, Dr. Mueller and Dr. Liberty volunteered to help coordinate this effort.

Professional Development offered from TLTC

Many of you probably received an email from Renee Cicchino, Sr. Instructional Designer in TLTC regarding a series of workshops being offered this semester to help with Online and Hybrid Course Development. There are a number of different sessions being offered, each on several different days and times.

The information for all of the sessions and how to register is provided below.

To register for any of these sessions, click here TLT Center’s Workshops and Special Events page

Echo 360 Personal Capture
This session will provide faculty members with an overview of the Echo360 Personal Capture System at Seton Hall University. Participants will have an opportunity to view a personal capture being created, edited, and published.

Tuesday, 3/18@2:00pm

Wednesday, 3/26@10:00am

Tuesday, 4/1@3:00pm

Wednesday, 4/9@2:00pm

Engaging Students Through Blackboard Collaborate Voice Tools

In this hands-on workshop, we’ll look at tools within Blackboard that current instructors use to engage students outside of the classroom. We’ll demonstrate how to use a Voice Presentation, a Voice Discussion Board, Podcasts and Voice Email, explore possible uses and discuss best practices.

Monday, 3/17@1:00pm

Thursday, 3/27@10:00am

Wednesday, 4/9@10:00am

Friday, 4/25@1:00pm

Mastering the Art of Effective Blackboard Discussions

This session will provide tips and tricks to establishing and running an effective discussion board in your online course. Topics addressed will include setting up a forum in Blackboard, netiquette, facilitation tips, assessment strategies, creating effective discussion questions, time management, creative uses, best practices and more.

Tuesday, 3/25@12 Noon

Monday, 4/14@10:00am

Thursday, 4/24@11:00am

Wednesday, 5/7@10:00am

Assessment Tools and Strategies for Online/Hybrid Courses

This workshop will involve a discussion of some of the available strategies and tools for assessing student activities in online/hybrid courses. Authentic assessment strategies and low stakes quizzes will be discussed, as well as best practices for implementing assessments. The new inline feedback for Blackboard assignments will be demonstrated, as well as Blackboard exams, rubrics, and SafeAssign. In addition, participants will be encouraged to share their assessment ideas with each other and to receive feedback.

Wednesday, 4/2@10:00am

Monday, 4/7@1:00pm

Monday, 4/14@2:00pm

Wednesday, 4/23@9:30am

Increasing Collaboration through Groups

Do your students work on group projects? Blackboard’s Group tool will permit them to collaborate anywhere and anytime, while enabling you to monitor not only the group’s progress, but the contribution of each member. This workshop provides a hands-on introduction to the Group tool.

Monday, 3/24@11:00am

Friday, 4/4@11:00am

Tuesday, 4/15@10:00am

Wednesday, 4/23@3:00pm

Making Online Course Content Accessible

The online environment has the potential to be a powerful learning space for all students but when the technology is “inaccessible”, it can also be a barrier for students with special needs. Including accessibility into your course planning is easy and essential. This workshop will identify strategies for creating accessible course content, including Word, PowerPoint, multimedia and Blackboard content.

Tuesday, 3/25@2:00pm

Monday, 4/7@3:00pm

Tuesday, 4/15@1:00pm

Monday, 4/21@2:00pm

Utilizing Open Educational Resources to Enhance Course Content

Open Educational Resources (OER) reside in the public domain and are free to use for teaching and learning. Within these repositories are a variety of multimedia, learning objects, tutorials etc. that offer quick way to enhance any topic. Websites such as National Geographic, Merlot, and Kahn Academy provide tutorials, multimedia, simulations and even assignments that can be easily added to any hybrid course, creating a richer learning experience.

Thursday, 3/20@10:00am

Thursday, 4/3@10:00am

Monday, 4/14@12 Noon

Monday, 4/21@10:00am

The Blackboard Grade Center

This session will focus on using the Blackboard grade center and all of the features which assist faculty with course grading. Using the Blackboard grade center is a valuable tool enabling faculty to enter grades, let the system calculate a final grade automatically and allows students to keep track of their course grade during the semester.

Thursday, 3/20@3:00pm

Friday, 3/28@1:00pm

Thursday, 4/3@12 Noon

Monday, 4/7@3:00pm

Beginning Blackboard

New to Blackboard? This course is for you. Come learn about the useful features of Blackboard such as uploading of different types of documents, using a discussion board, using assignments or safe assignments. Additional topics include using the course tools to send email, obtain a class roster or a photo roster and embedding video or audio files.

Monday, 3/17@3:00pm

Thursday, 3/20@12 Noon

Wednesday, 3/26@3:00pm

Friday, 4/4@9:30am

Online/Hybrid Course Development 101

Interested in developing an online or hybrid version of your course? This workshop provides participants with the foundation for developing quality online and hybrid courses. Topics include Quality Matters, chunking course content and steps on how to design a module/week or unit of a hybrid/online course. This session is 1hour, 30 minutes.

Friday, 4/4 @ 1:00pm
Friday, 5/2 @ 10:00am

Curriculum Revision Meeting Notes from February 21, 2014

Due to a number of factors, there was smaller attendance than usual at this meeting.

Pass-Port
A portion of the meeting was spent reviewing Pass-Port and evaluating the portal system. A spreadsheet was emailed to faculty with the current layout of assessments in each of the four portals. Faculty have been asked to review the key assessments for each major in each of the four portals and provide feedback and suggestions prior to the next meeting on March 28, 2014. By the end of the meeting, the goal is for ESED/DVSL to have assessments for Portal 3 identified and SCED to have Portal 1 identified, at a minimum.

Alumni Survey
The alumni survey for EDST inital program, SLMS and IDAT was reviewed at the meeting and emailed to faculty for review and feedback. The survey was last disributed in the Spring of 2012 to recent alumni. Dean May asked the department to review the survey, evaluate the questions and determine if there are any additional or new questions that would provide valuable data and information for the department moving forward. Feedback and suggestions for revisions to the survey are requested to be submitted prior to the March 28, 2014 meeting so a final survey can be approved at the meeting.

Outside Presentations and Vendors
There were two presentations and dates reviewed at the meeting.

Genesis – a web based student information system company was at SHU on Wednesday, March 5th to showcase their program. Several faculty and a number of the senior student teachers attended the session. There will be a follow up and information provided at the next meeting on March 28th.

NJEA SGO Session – Two members of the NJEA professional development will be joining us on Friday, April 11th at 10am to review and outline the Student Growth Outcome (SGO) mandate that was implemented in New Jersey this school year. We hope you can join us for this presentation.

Online/Hybrid Course Syllabus
A syllabus template for Online/Hybrid courses was presented at the meeting. It was also distributed via email to faculty for review and comments. Comments and feedback should be provided prior to the next meeting on March 28th.

Curriculum Revision Meeting Notes January 24, 2014

The Curriculum Revision meeting held on January 24, 2014 was focused on taking a step back and evaluating questions proposed by Dean May to refocus and consider where we are, how we got here and how to strategize where we are going.

The following are the questions provided as a prompt for faculty to discuss:

How has the job of teachers changed in the past ten years?

What have our programs done to address those changes?

• Were the things we did strategic and comprehensive or good patch work?

Do you think that students could explain the relationship between courses in the program?

Do they experience them as developmental interrelated pieces or as distinct, somewhat connected events? Where can a student, faculty member or reviewer find information explaining our programs?

As individual faculty, and as program faculty, what do you wish you could include or do differently that you have not figured out how to?

How has the answer to the question posed over a year ago–what should students be doing in the field when not teaching a lesson–been addressed?

• Would students be able to answer the question? Could they answer why we think the field experience is important beyond the lessons taught?
• Would the expectation be known to supervisors? In writing somewhere?
• How does that nonlesson learning in the field get processed, used, tied back to classes?

What is your greatest fear when thinking about curriculum updates in response to the educational landscape today?

This document has the questions along with comments/feedback from the meeting.

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.