How to Conduct an Effective Mentor/Intern Co-teaching Forum

1. How to Conduct an Effective Mentor/Intern Co-teaching Forum PDS Liaison Workshop Worcestor Room GUC Tuesday, August 6, 2013 Ron Siers, Jr.

2. Expectations & Goals • How to promote and secure time for the Forum from Principals. • Augment collaborative and communicative skills • Learn the importance of value congruency for mentors and interns • Learn why co-teaching & co-planning are effective pedagogy • Learn what mentors and interns need and want • Conceptualize the roles of the mentor • Discover a new liaison tool kit • Acquire resources, information and confidence for delivering a quality mentor/intern forum at your PDS • Have fun, laugh, learn and eat

3. Stockdale Paradox (Collins, 2001) • All Good-to-Great Organizations embrace the Stockdale Paradox. What is it and how does it apply to my role as a PDS Liaison? • You must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, AND at the same time have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.

4. Growth Opportunities • Data Analysis (Mentor & Interns) revealed that miscommunication and a lack of understandingof roles and expectations were major causes of problems during the Internship. • How can we improve interns’ and mentor teachers’ common understandingof roles and expectations during the Internship? • How can we improve communication between interns, mentor teachers and university faculty during theinternship? • Thus… • Thus…

5. Administrative Buy-In • Meet individually with Principal • Present Co-Teaching data & value of the Forum • Use multiple methods of providing information (i.e. PP, handouts, newsletter, website, etc.) • Provide on-going updates to Principal as the program is implemented.

6. What Principals Can do to Promote Co-Teaching and the Forum • Publicly share rationale for Co-Teaching and the Forum (Benefits for K-12 students, Mentors & Interns) • Share academic achievement data from St. Cloud study. • Provide opportunity for Co-Teaching pairs to give updates (i.e. faculty meetings, newsletter, website). • Allocate PD time for education on Co-Teaching • Provide time for Co-Teaching pairs by relieving them of non-instructional duties. • Educate school and community members about the PDS partnership & success of Co-Teaching.

7. Now …The Forum 2013

8. Relationship Building • One Liaison will role play an Intern • One Liaison will role play a Mentor

9. Pair CommunicationDiscuss & Determine • What type/frequency of communication would we like to have with each other during the internship? • How will we ensure regular communication with each other during the internship? • What is the best way to give each other feedback during the internship? (RSSE)

10. Pair CommunicationDiscuss Responses to the Following Co-Teaching Statements • I am comfortable telling my Co-Teacher what I need. • I find it difficult to express my opinions when my Co-Teacher doesn’t share them. • I tend to postpone discussing touchy topics with my Co-Teacher. • I find it important for tasks to be clearly defined and distributed when Co-Teaching.

11. Pair CommunicationDiscuss Responses to the Following Personal Statements • I am comfortable being told by others what they need from me. • I express my opinions, even if others disagree with me. • I become defensive when I am being criticized. • I am able to resolve problems without getting emotionally intoxicated.

12. Millennial Generation

13. Millennial Expectations & Technology (Carter, 2012) Millennial Generation 1982 – 2013 (79 million) (Interns) • Generation X 1961 – 1981 (Small Cohort) (Mentors) • Boomer Generation 1943 – 1960 (80 million) (Mentors) • Traditionalist Generation 1925 – 1942 Millennial Interaction with Multiple Technological Resources • Unfamiliar with life before networking technologies. Consider themselves to be technologically savvy (Carter, 2012). • No experience with life before cell phones, instant messaging, Internet applications, Facebook, Twitter, IPods, IPhones, IPads, & handheld technologies (Howe & Strauss 2000; Raines, 2003, Carter, 2012). • Learning occurs through social collaboration. • Social networking & Social negotiation are the norm (Howe & Strauss, 2000; Carter, 2012).

14. Values & Self-Discovery Exercise

15. Values & Self-Discovery Exercise • Quickly go through the handout and place an x in the appropriate column for each value. • This is a personal activity and there are NO right or wrong answers. • It doesn’t matter if it is something that you currently possess or do or if it is something you want to improve on. If it is important, place an X in the column. • Now, only look at the X’s you placed in the “Very Important” column. • Choose 3 that represent the values that are most important to you at THIS moment, realizing you choices do not define you for life. • Reflect & then discuss your reflections with your co-teaching partner.

16. Triangular Personal Value Congruency (Siers, 2013) Thoughts or Dreams Words Actions

17. Communication is the Key to a Great Co-Teaching Partnership • Chit Chat • Deeper Communication & Uncomfortable • Issues • How Do You Toss Your Slippery Eggs? • Be Careful That You Do Not: • Save your “slippery eggs” for a long time and hurl them! • Throw your “slippery eggs” hard & fast because you can’t hold on to tough issues! • Avoid people so that you don’t have to toss your “slippery eggs.” • Wrap your “slippery eggs” in so many layers of expectations & apology that no one is sure you have tossed them.

18. Communication: Learning to Address Difficult Issues Outstanding Co-teaching Award Recipients • Mentors & Interns will alternate Role-Playing the individual issues on the next slide. • 1 minute for each issue.

19. Communication: Learning to Address Difficult Issues

20. Collaboration Self-Assessment Tool (CSAT) • 1 Minute Partner Discuss: What is the Difference between Cooperation & Collaboration? • Collaboration: A philosophy of interactions with the focus on the process of working together (Myers, 1991). • Cooperation: Stresses the Product of such work (Myers, 1991). • Individuals become more effective collaborators by evaluating their role in the process. Kathryn Dahlberg Teresa Heck Nancy Bacharach

21. Teaching Challenges: Why Co-Teach • Landmarkresearch in 1996: 50% of new teachers leave the profession within the first 5 years of teaching (Darling-Hammond & Schlan, 1996) • ClinicalExperiences are Needed that allow interns to learn from expertmodeling of practice alongside teachers who show them how to teach in ways that are responsive to diverse learners (Darling-Hammond, 2006) • Co-TeachingModel has great promise for transforming the educational landscape (Bacharach, Heck, & Dahlberg, 2010)

22. What is Co-Teaching? It is an attitude: we are both teaching

23. Definition of Co-Teaching • Co-Teaching is defined as two teachers working together in a classroom with groups of students; sharing the planning,organization,delivery and assessment of instruction as well as the physical space. • Both teachers are actively involved and engaged in all aspects of instruction. (Bacharach, Bergen-Mann & Washut Heck, 2010)

24. Sharing Responsibility • Communication is the Key for: • Co-Planning • Co-Instructing • Co-Assessing Kathryn Dahlberg Nancy Bacharach Teresa Heck

25. St. Cloud’s Initiative • October 2003-2008 - 5 year U.S. Dept. of Education Teacher Quality Enhancement Partnership Grant • Looked at co-teaching in student teaching • Collected 4 years of data (qualitative and quantitative) • Training and support for cooperating teachers and university supervisors Bacharach, N., Heck, T., & Dahlbeg, K. (2010). Changing the face of student teaching through coteaching. Action in Teacher Education, 32(1), 3-14.

26. Type of Student Teaching Reading Proficiency • Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) • Compares Traditional and Co-taught student teaching settings • Statistically significant in each year with sufficient data (3 of 4) • Significance between co-taught and traditional student teaching highlighted

27. Type of Student Teaching Math Proficiency Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) Compares Traditional and Co-taught student teaching settings Statistically significant in each year with sufficient data (3 of 4) Significance between co-taught and traditional student teaching highlighted

28. Co-Teaching Benefits for Students:

29. Co-Teaching Drawbacks for Students

30. Co-Teaching Benefits for Student Interns

31. Co-Teaching Benefits for Mentor Teachers

32. Co-Teaching Myths & Realities

33. Co-Teaching Myths & Realities • Myth 1:Interns must be left on their own to sink or swim. • Reality 1: Interns are supported to become a licensed professional. • Myth 2: Co-Teaching inhibits the development of classroom management skills. • Reality 2: Support given so Interns can eventually take the lead.

34. Co-Teaching Myths & Realities • Myth 3:Interns do not get enough solo teaching time with Co-Teaching. • Reality 3:Interns must have opportunities to teach alone. This must be demonstrated. • Myth 4: It take too much time to Co-Plan. • Reality 4: True in early stages. Yet, deeper understanding leads to increased academic performance.

35. Co-Teaching Myths & Realities • Myth 5: SI who Co-Teach will never have full responsibility of the classroom. • Reality 5: SI will lead the planning, organization, assessment, and human resources. • Myth 6: Co-Teaching does not provide “real world” experience. • Reality 2: Diversity requires Interns to be able to Co-Teach with Special Education, ELL, Title 1 teachers, as well as paraprofessionals.

36. Co-Teaching Myths & Realities • Myth 7: Co-Teaching does not work at the secondary level. • Reality 7: Effective for larger classes and greater diversity of classes. • Myth 8: Co-Teaching can only work if both have the same teaching style. • Reality 8: Interns must be able to partner with different styles and respond appropriately.

37. Increased Intern Self-efficacy • Transformational Mentor Teachers positively impact the Self-Efficacy of Student Interns during the Internship experience in Professional Development Schools (Siers & Gong, 2012; Gong & Siers, 2011) • Positive impact in efficacy in classroom management, instructional strategies, and student engagement (Siers & Gong, 2012; Gong & Siers, 2011) • p< .05

38. Translation… • Co-teaching matters • Co-teaching works • Co-teaching is good pedagogy • Co-teaching affects student outcomes

39. SU Co-Teaching Pedagogy

40. What does co-teaching look like? Four basic models 1.Supportive teaching- one teacher is the lead instructor while the other teacher provides support for individual students and observes particular behaviors. Strategies: graze & tag, proximity, conferencing, strategic pull-out, 1-on-1...

41. Co-teaching models continued… 2.Complementary Teaching - when one co-teacher enhances the instruction provided by the other co-teacher. Strategies: record & edit, demonstrations, simulations, activity/lab set-up & break down, technology assistance, modeling, planted question...

42. Co-teaching models continued… 3.Parallel Teaching - when two or more people work with different groups of students in different sections of the classroom. Strategies: tiered instruction, stations, cooperative learning, literature circles...

43. Co-teaching models continued… 4.Team teaching - both teachers are actively engaged in instruction and management of the class. • Strategies: role playing, modeling, cooperative learning, think-alouds, staged argument

44. What is Your Role? Intern or Mentor?

45. Interns with Interns & Mentors with Mentors • Independently list characteristics • Mentor/intern partners share list • Discuss as a whole group • Big idea- What kinds of things should a mentor teacher do?

46. Interns with Interns & Mentors with Mentors • Independently list characteristics • Mentor/intern partners share lists • Discussion as a whole group • Big idea – What are the qualities of an intern ready to improve her/his craft?

47. Student Intern Focus Group DataMonday, March 25, 2013 Successful Student Intern • Flexible • Organized • Possess Classroom Management Skills • Honest • Knowledgeable ** • Listens to Feedback and Advice • Punctual • Takes Initiative **

48. Student Intern Focus Group DataMonday, March 25, 2013 Successful Mentor Teacher • Flexible ** • Caring • Gives Honest Feedback ** • Experienced • Helpful & Supportive • Open Minded • Organized **

49. Mentor Teacher Focus Group DataMonday, June 3, 2013 Successful Student Intern • Self-Motivated • Takes Initiative & is Proactive ** • Holistic view of Teaching • Sees a Career rather than a Job • Knowledge of Pedagogy ** • A Passion for Content & Teaching • Challenges the Status Quo

50. Mentor Teacher Focus Group DataMonday, June 3, 2013 Successful Mentor Teacher • Flexibility & Realistic ** • Provides Space for Lead Role in Teaching: Proper Balance • Model the Way • Well-Planned & Organized ** • Give Honest & Open Feedback & Communication ** • Determine Personal Value Congruency