The Institute for Learner Centered Education Newsletters

TOPIC: AUTHENTIC TASKS AT CONFERENCE

Volume #5, Edition #26__________Date: July 5, 2004

 The 12th summer constructivist conference is set to begin July 26th. For those unable to attend, please review the teams, tasks and facilitators who will be present and resolve to join us in 2005. A complete list appears below.

 

The Collaborative that sponsors the conference, and the Institute which is a partner, are not only non profit; none of the officers accepts stipends for running either organization. To continue the successful conferences and year-round activities, requires the support of people like you.

The conference has been internationally acclaimed for its unique format which includes few formal presentations and requires professional educators, parents and students to work on teams to develop a product or plan that will actually be used in their home school district. Teams from New Zealand, New York City, and throughout New York State have taken the conference format and created their own annual conferences based on the model that was created at Grand Island New York when the first conference was held in 1995.

 

Team and Facilitator

Task

Akwesasne Mohawk Board of Education

Sandi Cornelius

  How do we create a "product" that    will enhance educators' knowledge of contemporary native people?

 

Broad Run High School,

Virginia

Jennifer Bishop

 

 

    How can the school improve student willingness to read and build reading into the school day?

 

College of St. Rose Alannah Fitzgerald

 

  How do we use assessment to inform instruction, policy, and community partnerships?

 

Colonial Fun Park

Blanche Jimenez

 

How do we design standards based lessons that relate to Potsdam's Colonial Village Fun Park?

 

Granville

Peg D'Arpino

        

How can we identify materials for diverse learners that meet state Math standards?

Hudson Falls

Bruce Bonney

 

How can we design a plan addressing the external audit to bring back to the district?

 

 

Institute                          STRATEGIES

book

Sonia Basko

 

How do we take 250 constructivist classroom strategies and edit them for use in a book of strategies?

Institute Student Feedback

Greg Littell

 

What information do teachers and parents want to know about student thinking and attitudes and how can we gather this information

 

Institute

Touchstone

Carol Amberg

 

How do we design lessons   around the Pete Seeger website?  How do we create and design lessons around a Jackie Robinson Website?

 

Institute Youth Symposium

 

What kind of a plan will create a spring Youth Symposium?

 

Leading Edge

Jack Drury

 

How do we develop an activities manual?

 

Lisbon MS Teachers

Steve Abelson

 

How do we expand our middle school team concept for  5 - 8 staff?

 

Lockport

Emmet Belknap Middle School 1

Frank Pickus

 

How do we maximize the effectiveness of a consultant teacher model at the middle level?

 

Lockport

Emmet Belknap Middle School 2

Diane Mirro

 

 How do we look at the best practices, and investigate tools and instructional strategies, to share with staff to maximize all student achievement, using the results of a survey of classroom practices now in place?

 

Lockport HS

Marianne Murphy

 

How do we investigate root causes of attendance, failure and retention in 9th grade?

 

Malone Leadership Team

Bob Dingman

 

How do we design a plan to transition from our last year with the CSR grant?

 

Malone Parents

Suzanne Miller

 

What do we do to maintain and improve upon our parent involvement plan?

 

Massena Middle School Parents

Ted Werner

 

How do we develop a parent involvement plan for Leary Junior High?

 

Niagara University STRATEGIES book

Toby Marr

 

How do we connect research in support of strategies for the "Strategies" book?

 

Potsdam Study Committee                                       Charla Jennings

 

What are viable options for our district among programs such as International Baccalaureate, Blue Ribbon (NCLB) Schools, Mid States Assessment, and/or other programs?

 

Potsdam Middle School

Elaine Rice

 

How do we develop literacy across the humanities? How do we create a vocabulary and writing program to use in English, Social Studies and Language?

 

SLU Diversity

Cathy Washabaugh

 

In a report to the President of St. Lawrence University, what would we recommend the university can do to improve the comfort level of any and all groups who might be enrolled at St. Lawrence University, but do not feel completely comfortable that they are being accepted into the university community?

 

SLU Education class

Jim Waterson

 

What kinds of support must an administrator provide to staff members undertaking a task?

 

SLU – TEAC

Jim Shuman

 

How can we adapt our outcome measures in teacher education to align with accreditation procedures?

 

St. Regis Falls Literacy

Bob Delisle

 

How do we plan for staff development to facilitate initiatives begun with the CSR grant which focuses on literacy education and its impact on other disciplines?

 

St. Regis Falls Parents

Dick Horwitz

 

How do we evaluate our accomplishments from this year and set goals for next year regarding our parent volunteer handbook/application/training?

 

Student Newspaper

Jenn Whorrall

 

How do we publish a daily conference newsletter?

 

Student Performance

Robin Thompson

 

How do we create poetry and coordinate it with creative dance?

 

Student Video

Vic Del Negro

 

How do we create a daily conference video?

 

The Child Care Team

Krystal Stowe

 

How do we have fun while our parents are busy working?

 

 

Troy-Doyle Middle School        1

Debbie Larrabee

 

How do we design a unit of study addressing competencies, standards, differentiated instruction and cultural access to literature?

 

Troy-Doyle Middle School

2

Pat Baldauf

 

How do we create a character education program that addresses PBIS?

 

Urban Assembly and Academy of History and Citizenship for Young Men

Jan Peters

What kinds of strategies and structure work best at a school for young men?

 

The author welcomes comments, feedback, reactions of any kind to the thoughts expressed (above).

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

The Institute is currently registering the limited number of teams that will be enrolled for the 2004 summer conference. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teaches are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org or, e-mail a request for information.

Copyright (c) 2004, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All
rights reserved.

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