Book+Overview

Overview - Beth

Why are we writing this book? Who is the audience? What do we hope they take away from the book?

**__Overview__** The purpose of this book is to share information that can be used in various types of collaboration settings for preparing new teachers, including partnerships among preservice teachers (interns), elementary teachers (mentors), principals, district level administrators, community college faculty, university faculty, and university administrators. We hope that all readers can find a place where they fit in the collaboration scheme because all are important. To meet the needs of these various stakeholders, each chapter includes general information and research regarding collaboration in each of these situations. Interwoven throughout the chapters are specific examples from the Professional Development School program at Emporia State University. The authors are faculty members at this university and live collaboration on a day-to-day basis. We are constantly in touch with interns, mentors, principals, fellow faculty members, and community college colleagues. Forming and nurturing these connections has become as common to our daily work as preparing lecture notes and grading assignments. It seems funny to say, but this book on collaboration grew out of collaboration. Our literacy faculty chose to apply for the International Reading Association Certificate of Distinction. This rigorous application process facilitated faculty discussions about what, why, and how we prepare new teachers. Through our work in this process and the receipt of the IRA certificate, we were again reminded that our teacher preparation program is unique and valuable. Along the way, an idea emerged that forms the heart of this book. Collaboration in teacher preparation is the key. Of course, collaboration is not a new idea, and we do not claim to have a corner on the market of working together. We do believe that collaboration must occur among a collection of partners in order to ensure that new teachers are prepared to face the many challenges of teaching in their own classroom. We know from experience that forming these collaborative relationships takes time, effort, and dedication. Our goal in this book is to share best practices from the field of teacher education research along descriptions of how we have applied these best practices in our teacher education program. We make no pretense of assuming that what we are doing is right or the best, even with the recognitions we have received. We are constantly in the process of tweeking bits and pieces of our program to best meet the needs of interns, mentors, faculty, and all of our partners. However, what we are doing to promote collaboration works for us and we hope the information, ideas, and descriptions we share will work for others who seek to develop partnerships at various levels. The program we will describe throughout this book is a professional development school program. We have come to realize this term has different meanings, depending on your role in the education community. For our purposes, a professional development school model is based on a partnership between the teacher education program at a college or university and a school district. This partnership exists for the main purpose of preparing preservice teachers, but other benefits often emerge as the program unfolds. At the national level, the professional development school concept began in _____ and has been an active part of our teacher education program for seventeen years. During that time, the collegiality between the university and the school districts has included interns, mentors, and faculty members jointly participating in social events, inservice presentations, research projects, presentations at state, regional and national professional conferences, journal and book publications. We learn from each other, and take this learning to new levels as we continue to cultivate partnerships. The schools benefit from the universities, and the universities benefit from the schools. Mentor teachers and researchers model teamwork for interns. Methods instructors and mentors create assignments and experiences that provide invaluable learning opportunities for interns. The connections formed from such intricate collaboration represent a network of mutual benefits. Some connections come more easily than others, but the mentors, principals, and faculty are dedicated to making the professional development school experience valuable for our interns. Such hard work has paid off with recognition for the professional development school model at Emporia State University (see Figure 1). We feel a little awkward in sharing these accolades and do not mean to brag in any way or give the impression that we know it all. At the same time, we want readers to know that the descriptions used in this book are based on a program that has been recognized as outstanding. When our program receives recognition, it’s given not only to the university and faculty, but also to our partners in the schools along with our interns. As we have worked together to define the purpose of this book, one important idea has clearly come through our discussions. This is a book about creating partnerships, not a book about one strong program. Not everyone has the opportunity to partner with a nationally recognized teacher education program, but educators can foster a partnership at some level that can influence the experiences of preservices teachers. We encourage classroom teachers to consider how a partnership with an intern or student teacher can be enriching for both. School principals can partner with a university faculty member to provide inservice at the school. Community college faculty can partnership with university faculty to help give students a seamless transition into a teacher education program. Partnerships can sustain and support the task of preparing future teachers.



Figure 1. National Recognition of Teacher Education at Emporia State University · The Association of Teacher educators awarded the 2002 Distinguished Research in Teacher Education Award to ESU for the Multicultural/Diversity Assessment Project · In 2006, ESU was one of four postsecondary institutions in the nation to be identified as an Exemplary Model Teacher Education program by Arthur Levine in his national study of teacher education programs published as //Educating School Teachers//. · In the November 2007 issue of //Edutopia//, published by the George Lucas Foundation, ESU was identified as one of 10 schools of education in the nation “blazing the trail to better practices.” · The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education awarded the 2008 Best Practice Award for Collaboration with Community Colleges to ESU for the ESU and Butler Community College collaboration. · The Association of Teacher Educators awarded the 2008 Distinguished Program in Teacher Education to ESU for the Olathe Professional Development Schools. · In 2009, the International Reading Association honors the ESU elementary teacher education program with the Certificate of Distinction in recognition of outstanding reading preparation of elementary teachers.