Been a Minute! Sample Extended eLearning Design, Practice, and Tools Document

Hello dear readers! 

It's been a while.  Thought I'd use this platform to share out our language on extended elearning protocols.  In the real world - this is a living document for internal use.  You get a snapshot but it may help.  

Context for new readers - Brebeuf Jesuit is a highly integrated 1:1 high school in Indianapolis (800 students).  We run a 5 day modified block schedule - thus the references to Day 1, Day 2....Our students all have devices and are very used to online learning environments - particularly Google Apps for Education.  

Network - happy to help in anyway.  Email is jlamaster@brebeuf.org.

Be kind.  Be Well.

Brebeuf Jesuit Guide to Extended eLearning Design, Practice, and Tools

By Katie Colin and Jen LaMaster

Brebeuf Jesuit Expectations for Extended eLearning Days

This document is for an *emergency* situation where the entire school is required to go online for an extended period of time.  The assumption being with little time and preparation.

Since our Ignatian call is to relationship - we are going to ask that every Day 1 of an extended closure we follow the bell schedule and have live, synchronous *** lessons.  This will meet best practice of face-to-face interactions at least once a week.  All other Day 2-5 may be asynchronous.

●       As in all eLearning Days - on Portals the following information should be entered in the Class Summary section on every class page (this can be posted once for the extended time if you are directing students to GClassroom or other class site).  This is primarily for clear student, parent, and teacher communication.

○       Date

○       Where the class lesson(s) is/are posted

■       On activity page, clearly post the experience, assessment and when assignment is due

■       If student does not complete an assignment - assign a zero as you would with *normal* homework

○       Virtual office hours for questions (2 hours per Day 2-5 expected. Day 1 will be a teaching day following the standard bell schedule)

○       Method of communication with teacher for questions

○       As always…. These days not meant to flood students with busy work. Assign essential activities  – do not feel like you need to make something due for that you would not normally ask the students to complete.  Respect the time and needs of the individual student and yourself.  Use your best judgement.

●       Teachers should do some kind of synchronous*** (real time) lesson every Day 1 of the closure for during the regularly scheduled time the class would usually meet. (length of time optional)

See options below on tools available for free or through the school accounts. Examples - Google Meet, Zoom meeting, Recorded lesson with live text chat, a Q&A period using chat tool of choice, etc.  Use this time to:

○       Run live direct instruction

○       Q&A on assignments

○       Peer review or editing of work

○       Class watches a video together and chats on questions

○       Something that assures students you as the teacher are still around and engaged with them and their learning

○       Make very clear your expectations for how and when asynchronous*** (not real time - aka homework) classwork should be turned in.  Recommend agendas posted clearly and frequently. 

○       Due date times should be no later than 4:00pm

○       Assessments: Can take various formats, but must be formative, not summative. Think mastery learning, where we are measuring and checking and giving feedback on learning progress during the e-learning time, but not a final grade that can't be improved later

○       Teacher feedback should be quick and thorough to mimic as much as possible the face-to- face interactions we have when we are in the school building.

●       [Principal’s Team] will be monitoring and supporting you all.  Please remember our families and students are quite comfortable with feedback.  We will be in touch if we feel there is a kudos or concern.

●       We have full confidence in this faculty.  This is new territory so use your best professional judgement, support each other and our students, and take note/screenshots for the epic article we can write!!

*** Critical Vocabulary -

Synchronous - existing or occurring at the same time.  In EdTech speak means class happens in real time with everyone in a virtual environment together.  Examples - web conference or live chat

Asynchronous - not existing or happening at the same time.  In EdTech speak means that class activities happen when the student individually wishes.  Examples - a dropbox upload, online quiz due by certain time, emailed assignment.

Online Instructional Design – A Very Quick and Dirty Practical Guide

In a nutshell - online instructional design is not that much different than face-to-face instructional design.  The tools may be different but not the process.  The goal is never to flood students with busy work.  Content experience should remain centered, significant, and active.  The Chronicle of Higher Education ran a decent article on big picture thinking in online learning environments in this article.  The biggest take away for our purposes is Organize, Explain in Multiple Formats (visual, auditory, written), and Clarify Expectations right out of the gate.

The Chronicle article looks at instructional design from the lens of intentional instruction and time to plan.  This document is for an *emergency* situation where the entire school is required to go online with little time and preparation.  In these circumstances, a couple of things to remember:

●       Know your focus - what is absolutely necessary to cover in the time out of the building. Look at the curriculum as a department and identify your MUSTS (pare down and consolidate)

●       Remember that students are adjusting to this as well.  Some may be very stressed, others not so much.  Be compassionate and open to the experience.  Students are sitting at home with everything to do (family and school).

●       Speaking of open - encourage a growth mindset in yourself and your students.  The usual tricks and classroom activities may not work online.  This is a time for exploration, failure, and try again for ALL members of the community. 

●       Scaffolding is your friend.  Really consider all the step-by-step.  See below…

●       All learning accommodations are applicable in online environments as brick-and-mortar.

●       For more - check out this website on emergency preparedness in K-12 (it’s from a vendor so take it with a grain of salt) https://www.nextvista.org/advice/continuity/thinking.phtml

Many online instructional designers use Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction to frame their design.  I paired the Gagne pieces with the IPP below.

 Context - who am I teaching and what am I trying to accomplish in this lesson.

1.      Gain attention

2.      Inform learners of objectives

3.      Stimulate recall of prior learning

Experience - what content and activities can we experience together to accomplish our goals for the lesson?

4.      Present the content

5.      Provide “learning guidance”

6.      Elicit performance (practice)

Reflection - time to process new content and provide/receive feedback on performance

7.      Provide feedback

8.      Assess performance

Action/Use - when presented with similar or same circumstances can student replicate action to successfully meet the learning objective (proof of mastery)

9.      Enhance retention and transfer to the job

Evaluation – formal assessment of objective

Practice Options to Consider for Online Active Learning

(totally stolen from Carleton University https://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/online/design.html)

Strive for a variety of methods to appeal to a broad range of learning styles.  This individual, small group, large group activities.  Think formative (small, in-progress) and summative (large, end of unity) assessments.

·        Readings, including the textbook, articles, websites, books, or essays

·        Written material that you type up

·        Video lectures of yourself talking about a topic

·        Videos of someone else talking about a topic

·        Narrated animations

·        Humorous yet educational videos

·        PowerPoint slides the students view and read

·        Narrated PowerPoint slides with a voice-over by you

·        Posts you add to discussion forums - this is a particularly useful place to correct misconceptions or add information when the relevant time comes around

·        Real-time question and answer sessions held as synchronous review sessions using instant chat feature (available in many course platforms)

·        Questions that lead to directed reading and writing, such as well-framed discussion questions or essay questions within written assignments

·        Visualizations, interactive media and simulations, such as PhET's radioactive dating game, that the students use with direction from you

You do not need to create every element of the course content from scratch. Take advantage of the vast array of high-quality, readily available materials online and employ sources like the USGS, NASA, NOAA, art museums, the New York Times, free online textbook visualizations, Indy Public Library system, YouTube, pre-made lessons in EdPuzzle or your online textbook, The Library of Congress…. So many options.

People spend years in grad school learning and perfecting online instructional design – we do not have such time!!  For quick learning check out some of these places to go for ideas in online instructional design…

MIT Digital Learning Toolkit - https://dltoolkit.mit.edu/

Mesa Community College - https://ctl.mesacc.edu/teaching/designing-an-online-course/

Butler University - https://www.butler.edu/apdi/best-practices-online

University of Illinois - https://www.niu.edu/facdev/resources/onlineteaching/design/templates-and-starters.shtml

 Arrupe Virtual Learning Institute (formally Jesuit Virtual Learning Academy) - online, recorded webinars by discipline area for online learning student-centered activities.

A 5 Step Guide to Making Your Own Instructional Videos (by Edutopia) - https://www.edutopia.org/article/5-step-guide-making-your-own-instructional-videos

Tools available to Brebeuf faculty and students

●       GSuite

○       Google Hangouts Chat

■       https://chat.google.com/

■       Can chat with students individually in text format

○       Google Meets

■       Video call with students one-to-one or the entire class

■       Record the chat for later use (posting online or sending to students that missed the session)

■       How to video here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jhTTzFMZkY

○       Google Classroom

■       Keep your classes organized, post assignments/videos/tests

■       Google Classroom gradebook can be linked to your Portals Gradebook

■       https://teachercenter.withgoogle.com/first-day-trainings/welcome-to-classroom

●       Nearpod

○       Interactive lesson, allows teacher to post questions and students to post their answers live for the class to see (teachers can filter responses)

○       Ready to Run lessons available

○       https://nearpod.com/how-it-works

●       WeVideo

○       Teachers can record themselves talking in a postable video

○       Teachers can show PowerPoint and record themselves speaking while going through the PowerPoint

○       https://www.wevideo.com/hub#editor/1519322145

■       “Login with Google” using your Brebeuf email account

●       GradeCam

○       Online grading application for teachers

○       Your classes are already entered into the system (with students placed in the class) all you need to do is email Kaite for an invitation email

○       https://gradecam.com/

●       GIMKIT

○       “Gimkit is a game show for the classroom that requires knowledge, collaboration, and strategy to win.”

○       Create flashcards

○       www.gimkit.com

●       EdPuzzle

○       Make interactive video lessons

○       Ready to run lessons

○       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sNo1sBx63E

○       https://edpuzzle.com/about

●       Microsoft office 365

○       PowerPoint with narration - decent tutorial video for PPT 2016 is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlha2MaoJEk

■       Email Katie if you have forgotten you password

●       Adobe Creative Cloud

○       All teachers should have Adobe Create Cloud downloaded onto your device and already have accounts (using your Brebeuf email). If you have forgotten your password, select “Forgot Password” when logging in and reset your password accordingly.

○       Excellent tutorials at https://helpx.adobe.com/support.html?promoid=RGJ8NLP8&mv=other

●       New York Times

○       nytimes.com/passes

■       Use the above link to access your free subscription to NYT for faculty and students, please use your Brebeuf associated email address to gain access to the subscription.

●       Zoom - free version

○       Video conferencing

○       Able to share your screen (possibly a powerpoint) on the video call

○       https://zoom.us/

●       Other Miscellaneous subscriptions

○       Turnitin

○       PollEverywhere

Contacts

Primary Support

Jen LaMaster

Katie Colin

All Support Services are in contact with students and available to faculty as usual.  Please continue open channels of communication as you would in the building. ALL ACCOMMODATIONS hold for extended elearning. (actual contacts deleted for privacy)

A Few Extras We Could Not Find a Place For…

●       Please only assign work for days that your class would have met in the building.. 

●       No, you do not need to require something be turned in every class period.

●       Please use a tracking system of your choice to ensure student participation.  There is no required documentation from the IDOE but it is helpful to have participation checks, attendance in Day 1 lessons, or assignments as evidence we did the work.  For Day 1 attendance - or any other - print the roster off Portals Gradebook and use as “old school” record.. 

●       One issue that has arisen in Avon is students not understanding that these days are in fact school days.  Please remind students that we are continuing school - just in a new way.

●       Remember students may be *absent* due to illness or appointments.  You can set up the same policies as you would in your traditional classrooms for make-up work.

●       Speaking of absences - YOU might need to be absent as well.  Rather than try a one-size-fits-all policy - please email Jen LaMaster or Greg VanSlambrook if you have a pre-arranged absence or sick need during an extended eLearning event.  We will work with you on how to proceed. 

●       Thank you for your patience. 

From the Information Commons… Even More Resources

Need something to read?

eBooks and audiobooks are available through

●       Axis360 (kids and teens)

●       Overdrive/Libby

●       Gale eBooks

You can access these resources by going to IndyPL.org,  searching the catalog, and filtering for ebooks or audiobooks.  You can read or listen from your computer or download the apps to read on other devices.  (You are truly missing out if you don't have the Libby app on your phone or tablet!)

If you have little ones at home, check out this list of 500+ ebooks and video read-alouds for kids!

Need to do research?

●       All of the usual databases will be available for use.

Access these resources directly by going to IndyPL.org >> Research

Bored sitting at home?

Stream movies and TV shows for kids and adults

(You will need to create an account using your library card number)

●       Hoopla 

●       Kanopy

●       AcornTV (BritishTV) 

Read popular magazines online

●       Flipster

●       RB Digital

You can access these resources by going to IndyPL.org >>Books, Movies, and Music >> Download and Stream

Need your library card number?

Thanks to our new library management system, we are now able to remotely help you and your students with forgotten library card numbers.  Just ask us!

We're here to help!

Charity and I will be available via email and other platforms as needed to assist you and your students throughout our e-learning time.

Administrators!! Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Every year, the Principal’s Office participates in a 360 evaluation process.  An online performance survey is sent to the faculty and staff on a random administrator for feedback.  The survey is anonymous and asks various questions about our communication, leadership, and ethical character.  Last year, someone wrote on mine:

“Jen might benefit from teaching a class at Brebeuf, as her more regular encounters with students in the classroom could give her a whole new appreciation of the teachers she evaluates, as well as these teachers’ unique challenges in the classroom”

This statement really stuck with me.  This is a very fair suggestion but I didn’t know how on earth to make it happen.  And then we had no teacher for our Newspaper Publications course.  Okay anonymous commenter – challenge accepted!

**side note – I have never taught Newspaper Production in my life.

Tweet by @jdferries

Going back into the classroom, albeit for one class, was the best decision I’ve made since leaving the classroom 10 years ago.  I work with bright, talented, witty students in a hard-core project-based learning environment.  We use industry standard software (InDesign), write in various formats (news, op ed, sports, reviews), podcast, engage in social media, and all the great ed tech, student-centered buzzwords I’ve been writing on evaluations to others for years.  The class is led by student editors who do the heavy lifting of daily routines.  We have a large, open classroom functioning much more like an old-fashioned news room.  

And some days … it kicks my middle-aged butt.

Eight weeks in to the school year I’ve learned:

Living in a bell schedule again is hard

Every administrator I know accepts being late to meetings just happens.  Guess what?  You can’t be late for class!  Those teenagers will call you out faster than your own mother!  Your school have a tight tardy policy?  Just try and write up a 15-year-old for being late to class the day after you yourself was late…. Not cool.

Changes in the schedule really do mess things up

As administrators, all kinds of great ideas walk into the office that will disrupt the school day.  I fall under the “Let’s do it! What a cool experience that will be!” bandwagon.  And maybe it is worth it – but I have learned the hard way that too many altered schedules (and last minute changes) really is frustrating for classroom teachers and students.  We need to do better at discerning our somewhat whimsical time shifts.

Online grading is time consuming

I now know the joy of watching the spinning wheel of death while the online grade book tries to load.  It’s real.  It’s frustrating.  Teachers have a right to complain.

Designing meaningful lessons enhanced with technology is hard too

I teach a tech heavy course with a seriously concrete product at the end… and I have trouble sometimes integrating technology in meaningful ways.  If your school is like mine and incorporates a lot of walkthroughs – seeing deep integration is not going to happen every moment of every day.  Deal with it.

Kids surf the web every chance they get

Just like adults do in staff meetings J If your school’s evaluation has any check box about 100% of students being on task with their technology – delete that now!  I actually am fine with a little surfing – it’s natural and gives everyone a little break to reset.  I do step in when it’s causing a ruckus (four 15-year-old boys huddled at a desk snickering draws my attention every single time).  Otherwise I let them decide how to best use the allotted independent work time.  Can’t wait until my office mates come through for my walkthrough!

  

In short – like online trolling – it is so easy to be critical behind the safe walls of an evaluation form.  But the classroom is a real, living, messy place.  I challenge more admins to get back in the classroom, see what it is really like day-to-day and then reflect on evaluation documents and processes.  You will get serious street-cred from your faculty, hone your own skills, meet some really cool young people, and learn a lot about what teaching is actually like now-a-days.  It’s different from the last time you were here – trust me!

And I'm not just talking K-12 here... even higher education is testing these waters!

Faculty Formation: Yes, This Is For All Types of Schools!

One of the great joys of my day-job is running the first and second year faculty/staff formation program.  The good people at Merriam-Webster define formation as “the art of giving shape to something.”   So we meet as a cohort once a month to read, reflect, discuss, articulate, and shape ourselves according to our Jesuit heritage and our Brebeuf mission.

Yes, friends, it’s going to get a little Catholic Jesuit deep here… but the big ideas are still valid in ANY educational setting.  I would even go as far as saying critical to all settings – and quite noticeable when missing.

Claim Your School’s Mission

“Brebeuf Jesuit, a Catholic and Jesuit School, provides an excellent college preparatory education for a lifetime of service by forming leaders who are intellectually competent, open to growth, loving, religious, and committed to promoting justice.” (full mission and core values are here… it’s worth a look).

As my debate teaching husband would say:  Name It (a Catholic and Jesuit school); Claim It (provides an excellent college preparatory education for); Prove It (a lifetime of service by forming leaders); Conclude It (who are intellectually competent, open to growth, loving, religious and committed to promoting justice). 

It Starts With Orientation

I start with our two-day orientation program.  Day One is what I call “The Nitty Gritty” day… how to print stuff, online gradebooks, location of bathrooms, get keys… all that day to day stuff.  Day Two is “Mission and Identity” day.  I start with a brief introduction to the Society of Jesus and Jesuit education.  We then explore and catch new educators up to some of our of cura personalis initiatives (student stress lately) and then send the new faculty and staff off to the Freshman Day of Service activities with our Community Service Director.  Immediately claiming who we are… and how we are operate in our Catholic Jesuit learning environment.  

Formation Cohorts

For two years, all new faculty and staff are required by contract to participate in what we call the Magis Program.  Yes, you heard me… required by contract.  Everyone but Buildings and Grounds (who are welcome but schedules are hard to coordinate).  These cohorts serve two main purposes: they create groups of supportive colleagues in new setting and they act as personal learning cohorts on topics of mission and identity.  The structure of the program starts with information (Context), moves to practical application (Experience), then to Reflection (Retreat), one to deeper dive (Use) and finally to a capstone project (Evaluation).  Whhaaaaa… the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm is the structure of the formation program.  Craziness J

Structure Your Program Based on Your Mission, Teaching Paradigm, or Educational Foundation

Shape the mission of the school through its teachers and staff.  Make the mission alive in all aspects of the workings of the school and watch the awe and wonder begin.  Seriously… and it might even increase test scores!  

Here’s our program at Brebeuf as example.

Context:   

First semester focuses on larger issues of Jesuit education and history.

• Introduction to St. Ignatius and the Society of Jesus
• Pre-election – Read “A Pocket Guide to Jesuit Education” by Boston College found at https://www.bc.edu/offices/mission/publications/guide.html
• Watch “The Olive” by Fairfield Prep http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSvOPtq30Xw
• Discussion – table conversations w/report back

• School Life
• JSEA Profile of and Ignatian Educator
• Culturally Responsive Teaching - http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept95/vol53/num01/A-Framework-for-Culturally-Responsive-Teaching.aspx
• Use Chapter 7 “Transcendence” from The Soul of Education by Rachael Kessler.  Amazon.com link http://www.amazon.com/The-Soul-Education-Connection-Compassion/dp/0871203731/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345568253&sr=8-1&keywords=the+soul+of+education
• Panel discussion with veteran faculty on school life at Brebeuf – Instruction, Grading, Communication, Discipline

• Our Way of Proceeding
• JSEA Graduate at Graduation  http://www.jesuitsmissouri.org/files/edu/TheGraduateatGraduation.pdf
• Jesuit School Standards and Benchmarks Introduction (DRAFT)
• Brebeuf Jesuit Mission and Core Values https://brebeuf.org/mission-state-and-core-values/
• Discussion topics: Relationship b/t Church, the Society, the Archdiocese and the school; Jesuit education as counter-cultural; structure and purpose of education as apostolate.

Experience: 

Second Semester focuses on practical life in a Jesuit school.  The main objective being taking the theory/history into daily practice.

• The Classroom/Workplace as Holy Ground
• “The Classroom as Holy Ground” by Kevin O’Brien, SJ. From America  May 26, 2003.
• “Unfinished Houses” by John McLoughlin from America July 21, 2014 http://www.americamagazine.org/issue/unfinished-houses
• Discussion topics: Church;  Prayer (Individual, Communal, Spiritual Exercises) ; What is Holy Ground

• Care of the Person
• “Cura Personalis” by Peter-Hans Kolvenback, SJ.  From Review of Ignatian Spirituality, Number 114.
• “Care and Concern for Each Individual Person” Excerpt from Characteristics of Jesuit Education (JSEA) page 9 Original found at http://community.jsea.org/mod/resource/view.php?id=162
• “Choosing to Care” by Katy Ridnouer.  From the book Managing Your Classroom with Heart 2006 pg 9-18.
• Discussion topics with Student Panel: Cura Personalis – what it is and isn’t; how care is lived in action

•  Professional Growth
• Component 4: Growing and Developing Professionally” by Charlotte Danielson from Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching 2007.  Amazon.com link http://www.amazon.com/Enhancing-Professional-Practice-Framework-Teaching/dp/1416605177/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345568755&sr=8-1&keywords=enhancing+professional+practice+a+framework+for+teaching3
• JSEA Profile of an Ignatian Educator
• GC 35 Decree 2 “The Fire that Kindles Other Fires”
•  “Professional Training and On-going Formation” from Excerpts from Characteristics of Jesuit Education (JSEA) found here.
• Discussion topics: Tie into Diversity work in Cultural Competency;  Growth opportunities.

Reflection : 

All faculty and staff are required to participate in the Midwest Province retreat “Ignatian Themes” the summer after the first year of employment.  This is a 2 day retreat.  All funding for travel and registration is covered by the school.

Use: 

Year Two is a deeper dive into the theory and practice of Jesuit education and the formational documents of the Jesuit Schools Network (formerly Jesuit Secondary Education Association).

• Context and Reflection on Ignatian Themes Retreat Overview
• “Four Hallmarks of Jesuit Pedagogy:  Prelection, Reflection, Active Learning, Repetition” by Ralph Metts, SJ.  From JSEA.
• All of the IPP readings are on the JSN website .
• Veteran Faculty Speaker

• Experience
• JSEA Foundations “The Preamble"
• Key Questions:
• What techniques do  you use to install a sense of awe and wonder in your students/interactions?
• What techniques have you seen another use?
• What tensions/balance do your students/constituents struggle with?  How do you offer experiences to guide them to an Ignatian response? (see paragraph 11)
• Veteran Faculty Speaker

• Reflection
• “Foundations: Reflections on the Educational Principles of the Spiritual Exercises” by Robert R. Newton.
• Look at various forms of reflection (Examen, journaling, prayer)
• Key Questions:
• Review of Spiritual Exercise and relationship between Retreatant – Director – Creation and how it related to Teacher – Student – Knowledge
• The purpose of Jesuit Education “the knowledge, the love and service of God.”
• Why is reflection so key to learning?
• How do we engage the affect elements of learning?
• Veteran Faculty Speaker

• Action/Evaluation
• Read “A Fire the Kindles Other Fires” from GC 35
• Culturally Responsive Teaching (see handout from St. Ignatius San Francisco).
• Key Questions:
• How do we live this mission in action in our school?
• How do we live a compassionate response to the world, community, students, families?
• What frontiers are you called to?
• Review Ignatian Identity Review and how used to move school to Action/Evaluation
• Review the Five Steps of IPP Handout
• Intro the application project for the next 2 months

  

Evaluation:  

Participants are then charged to work with a mentor on intentional use of the IPP in their classroom or workspace.  This is the reflection they turn in to “graduate” from the program.

Rethinking Faculty Evaluation and Professional Growth

Full disclosure.... using this post to process an idea.  So if you are inclined to discuss - feel free to comment.  If you work with me  - don't panic.  My ruminations below are all in the idea stage!

Here we go :-)

Our current faculty evaluation system here in Indianapolis is about 10 years old.  In true Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP) fashion, the time has arrived to move into the evaluation stage. Is the process serving faculty needs?  Is the process encouraging the kind of growth we anticipated?   To give you content, our current evaluation program looks like this:

This model is built on the foundations of Marzano, Downey, Wiggins and McTighe.  Through a series of standards and indicators, evaluating administrators and faculty discuss successes and failures in the classroom... culminating in a year end meeting.  Evaluating the process, we find a weakness in meeting needs of new and experienced faculty - both who are lumped in same process.  We find that formal observations and informal walkthroughs work well for early career teachers who are new to our methods and expectations.  The indicators and focused discussion builds a foundation for them.  However, we are not seeing the growth process with mid-career faculty.  Veteran faculty quite frankly know the elements of day-to-day teaching but do not feel challenged to really innovate. In an nutshell, our challenge has become less one of evaluation (Are you doing your job?) and more one of professional growth (How can you better develop your craft?).

As Jesuit educators we a challenged by the 1^st Principle and Foundation “…we show reverence for all the gifts of creation and collaborate with God in using them so that by being good stewards we develop as loving persons in our care of God’s world and its development…”  As a public school educator I might have translated this to say “My gifts and interests are meant to be shared and I choose to share with my students so they can grow and care for the world.”  However you interpret – a challenge as an educator is to recognize and articulate professional gifts and limitations.  Once gifts and limitations are articulated, then a professional begins to desire opportunities for growth.  

Great, Jen… but what does this have to do with faculty evaluations in schools??

What if we separate evaluation from growth in our processes?  This is not all my idea… The IndependentSchool Management firm thinks the idea of separating is possible and even preferred. Taking a page from higher education tenure processes - what if we ask the deeper questions regarding life as a scholar?  Can I as faculty articulate my identity as a scholar?  What do I offer to my department/university that is unique to my gifts?  I strongly feel we should be having this conversation in K-12 to focus on growth rather than simple evaluation.

Taking this idea into my school context,  we create an evaluation around the Profile of an Education Educator plus some basic professional expectations to create an evaluation to quickly communicate “meets/does not meet” expectations for employment in our schools.  (For those wondering, Brebeuf Jesuit operates with year-to-year at-will employment agreements).  Maybe it could look like this:

Meeting expectations communicates that a faculty member has a job next year
(barring anything unexpected with enrollment and finances).  With evaluation out of the way, then faculty and supporting administrators could focus on the real work necessary for improving our learning experiences – professional growth.  Setting goals that stretch teaching methods, innovate assessment and just plain energize the classroom away from the fear of “will I have a job if this fails?” So, instead of checking the "do you lesson plan effectively" indicator, I am asking:

• What is your personal identity and mission as an educator?
• Why do you hold these values?
• How do you values support the mission of Brebeuf Jesuit as we develop students God-given talents as a responsibility and act of worship?
• How do you express your mission within your department?
• What do you need to bring these desires into the classroom?

Diving into the questions above through a process of self-reflection, dialogue and action might lead to deeper professional growth.  Growth that would encourage my desire that all our faculty discover the classroom as a place of awe and wonder and not just a paycheck.