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MSU-Wipro STEM & Leadership Teaching Fellowship Program

Course Website: https://teamone.msuurbanstem.org/

Course Email: msuurbanstem@gmail.com

Instructors and Contact Information:

Dr. Punya Mishra
Email: punya@msu.edu
Website: punyamishra.com
Twitter: @punyamishra
Skype: punyamishra
Dr. Akesha Horton
Email: akesha@gmail.com
Website: akesha.com/site/
Twitter: @akesha
Skype: Akesha1
Candace Marcotte, MAET
Email: canmarcotte@gmail.com
Web: candacemarcotte.wordpress.com
Twitter: @canmarcotte
Skype: missmarcotte
Kyle Shack, MAET
Email: shackkyl@gmail.com
Web: kyleshack.com/
Twitter: @ShackKyle
Skype: shackkyl
Rohit Mehta, EPET
Email: mehtarohit87@gmail.com
Web: mehtarohit.com
Twitter: @rohitmeta
Skype: mehtarohit87

Office Hours: By Appointment

Face-to-Face Meeting Dates: We will be meeting at the University Center, 525 S. State Street, Chicago. Parking is available nearby (usual Chicago rates apply: Click here for more information ) and those are your responsibility.  We will typically start at 9 AM and will go until around 4 PM. Every Friday will be a half day.  Please remember that lunch is your responsibility, so feel free to bring your own or explore choices close by.

 

Summer Weekday Meeting Dates: July 9 – July 23, 2014
Fall/Winter Saturday Meeting Dates: Sept 13 & Dec 6, 2014
Spring/Summer Saturday Meeting Dates: March 7, May 16, & July 8, 2015

PLEASE NOTE: You HAVE to be present at these face to face sessions.

Program Overview:

As a MSU-Wipro STEM & Leadership Teaching Fellow, you will set new directions for STEM learning in Chicago by advancing your expertise as a teacher-leader in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics).

Table of Contents:

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

PROGRAM COURSE TOPICS

OUR PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH

MAJOR ASSIGNMENTS

EVALUATION PHILOSOPHY

GRADING STANDARDS

IMPORTANT PROGRAM POLICIES

 

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

This program’s goal is to help you grow your leadership skills to facilitate innovative STEM instruction both within classrooms and school-wide. At the end of the year, we hope you will have a toolkit of strategies, ideas, products and practices to enhance the quality of your schools’ STEM instruction by integrating content, pedagogy, and technology in creative ways.

Through integrated face-to-face and online learning experiences, you will develop the capacity to design transformative, innovative, multimodal learning experiences. You will also learn how to create active learning communities of practice – for students as well as for your fellow teachers.

PROGRAM COURSE TOPICS

The MSU-Wipro STEM & Leadership Teaching Fellowship Program integrates three courses (9 credits):

CEP 805: Learning Mathematics with Technology (3 credits)

  • This course introduces psychological and disciplinary perspectives on teaching and learning mathematics, with a focus on teacher education and professional development. Teaching and learning mathematics for understanding – with a special focus on urban contexts – will be explored, as well as the role of technology in allowing for multiple representations of mathematical ideas, modeling, and authentic learning environments.

CEP 806: Learning Science with Technology (3 credits)

  • This course introduces contemporary conceptual perspectives from educational psychology and teacher education on important issues of learning science. It explores possibilities, ideas, and issues associated with teaching science within the urban context, as well as how K-12 teachers use Internet resources (e.g. simulations, databases, communities) to facilitate science learning.

CEP 815: Technology and Leadership (3 credits)

  • This course introduces professional development strategies for teaching STEM in urban contexts. Project management, planning, and evaluation are explored, as well as relationship building and developing leadership in urban schools and school districts.

This three-course, integrated seminar brings together a study of technology, teaching, learning, and leadership. While the three courses are explained separately, in reality they will be one year-long experience.

That said, we see the emphasis of the summer and fall to be on STEM while the spring will have a greater focus on issues related to leadership, specifically ways to manage your own learning and development in a world of rapid technological change as well as fulfiling the role of technology leaders in your school/district.

Note: There is no set level of technological proficiency that all students are expected to reach by the end of the fellowship.  Instead, each of you is expected to take the initiative to seek out opportunities to develop your technology knowledge and skills in ways that allow you to experience significant growth throughout the fellowship program.

OUR PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH

  • Learning by Design. Our instructional approach involves real world, hands-on engagement with tools, pedagogies and their relationship to core constructs in the STEM disciplines. In this we are driven by our cutting-edge research on the internationally recognized TPACK (Technology Pedagogical Content Knowledge) framework.
  • Deeply connected to classroom practice and standards. Our approach is driven by the needs of real teachers as they wrestle with problems of practice. In this we focus both on powerful big ideas even while keeping state and national standards (such as Common Core standards) in focus.
  • Multiple levels of conceptual integration across modes of delivery. We have extensive experience in designing both face-to-face, hybrid and online courses. We seek to find the appropriate balance between these different modes of interaction for maximal support for the broader pedagogical goals of teacher professional development.
  • Innovative use of technology. Our program is not about the latest and greatest tools but rather aims to help teachers thoughtfully repurpose existing tools at their disposal to meet student-learning goals. We seek technology integration in STEM pedagogy as being a developmental trajectory that goes from Replacement to Amplification to Transformation.
  • Development of learning communities. Our teacher learning professional communities extend well beyond the time spent in specific programs or courses. These affinity groups span across the world and all participants in our programs automatically become part of this larger community and can avail of the collective expertise of the group.

MAJOR ASSIGNMENTS

There are 5 major assignments this summer which are explained on separate pages on this website.

  • Roots of STEM e-book
  • iImages
  • zFrank video for a 5th grader
  • DreamIT project
  • Reflection paper

EVALUATION PHILOSOPHY

Students who enter the MSU-Wipro STEM & Leadership Teaching Fellowship Program bring a vast and powerful array of expertise to our learning community. Each of you is expert in many things. However, we know that many students enroll in these courses because they don’t feel especially expert in technology integration just yet. You may be taking this course because you want to develop foundational technology skills. Rest assured — this is the program for you.  Alternatively, you may already feel quite proficient with a wide range of technologies, but are involved in this program to develop your tech skills even further. Rest assured, this is also the course for you. As adult learners, we are most interested in your growth — and you will be evaluated on the basis of how far you go, not on the basis of where you started. This doesn’t mean that different standards apply to different students. On the contrary. We hold each MSU-Wipro STEM & Leadership Teaching Fellow to a very high standard of academic and professional excellence. We expect each of you to push your limits — whatever those limits are — and to contribute your own, unique learning experiences and perspectives to our learning community. We expect each of you to write well, and in accordance with the elements of style outlined in the APA manual.  We expect each of you to meet deadlines.  We expect each of you to ask good questions. We expect each of you to seek out answers by leveraging all of the resources at your disposal. We expect each of you to adhere to professional standards of academic integrity, to respect the work of your peers and to offer thoughtful, constructive suggestions that sharpen our collective understanding and focus.

GRADING STANDARDS

Assigning grades is not an easy task and we want to be fair to each and every one of you (both individually and collectively) in our grading. We understand that each of you came into the program with different skill levels with respect to technology and that we cannot expect the same kind of work from each of you. We factor in where each of you have started from and where you are today in our grading. Important details to remember for all assignment submissions:

  • All work should be spell-checked, grammar-checked, proofread for clarity, organization and adherence to the elements of style outlined in the APA manual (see Chapters 3 and 4, pp. 61-124) BEFORE submission.
  • Meeting the minimum requirements outlined by a rubric will not guarantee full points on any assignment. Full points are earned by those who go above and beyond the minimum requirements.
  • Allowing for the resubmission of assignments for improvement of evaluation grade is at the instructor’s discretion.
  • Grades and feedback on assignments will be provided in your MePage and Feedback Notebook.  You may use the comment function in Google Docs, as this notebook will be an ongoing conversation.
  • ALL online assignments are due on the date specified by 11:59 PM Central Standard Time UNLESS otherwise specified in the assignment directions.

Social Media Presence/Publicly Sharing Work

Social Media Requirements

  • Online web portfolio
  • Facebook Account and participation in the private Facebook created for the MSU-Urban STEM & Leadership Program
  • Twitter Account
  • Account to create and access Google Drive files
  • YouTube or Vimeo Account

MSU-Wipro STEM & Leadership Teaching Fellowship Program requires students to create work and share work publicly on the web. Sometimes, this work will be in draft form. Sometimes this work will be openly reviewed by peers who will provide thoughtful and respectful feedback. Usually, work will be hosted on students’ blogs. Often, we ask students to share links to their work with their professional learning network via Twitter.

We ask students to engage in this type of public activity for several reasons germane to our philosophy. Sharing work in draft form with others instills a design mindset; showcasing professional learning on the web highlights skill development for multiple stakeholders in the student’s professional learning network; using multiple technologies to explore, create, and share work helps students to develop advanced skills and dispositions for technology integration in learning contexts. Participation in these activities is essential. Managing your online presence and identity, however, is an important part of this process.

As an MSU-Wipro STEM & Leadership Teaching Fellow it is important to consider the online identity that you create for yourself. To participate in our learning community, your work has to be publicly visible. However, you are encouraged to think carefully about the degree to which you want your work to be identifiable as your own. Many students create Twitter handles and URLs for their blogs that include their real names. [e.g., @canmarcotte or canmarcotte.com] Others choose to create an online persona for their work because it makes more sense for them [e.g., @techsavvyteacher or techsavvyteacher.wordpress.com]. This option is a way to remain anonymous to the world, but to also participate actively in your courses. Many students create accounts for third-party tech tools using an email address that is separate from their work email address. Many students keep personal information out of their blog posts. If you teach students, please think about the extent to which you make their identities public through your own choices around online identity too.

All fellows should think critically about the personal/private boundaries that they need to establish, and make choices accordingly. You can choose anonymity.

Should you opt for a more private option for your online identity, the only place where your identity and online addresses will be linked is on the program website, where all of your projects will be linked to you.  We expect all students to be respectful of one another.

Importantly, all instructor feedback is given to students privately. Constructive suggestions, grades, and all other communications are conducted in a private Feedback Notebook, via Email and in Desire2Learn’s grade book.

Attendance/Participation Policy

Preparation and Participation : It is important that you come to class prepared and participate as much as possible. There will be daily reading assignments. You are expected to complete all readings and be prepared for discussion before class. Evaluation of your reading will be based on your contributions to class discussion and the degree that you incorporate ideas from readings into your projects and class activities. Participation is also an essential part of this course. Your learning as well as the learning of others is inextricably linked to the quality of your participation.

Participation includes:

  • Attentive participation in class discussions during which you respond to the ideas raised in the readings and during class
  • Active collaboration with your colleagues during course work and quickfire challenges
  • Consistent contribution of information, materials, resources, and assistance to others

Attendance is an essential and intrinsic element of the educational process. It is especially important for students in our fellowship program for four reasons:

  1. The hybrid design of this program depends on student attendance, face-to-face, throughout the year. The following weeks of the program include online instruction, paired with a few more scheduled face-to-face meeting dates. Students who enroll in this selective program should plan, in advance, to be present on every scheduled meeting day for the face-to-face portion of the program.
  2. During the face-to-face portion of the program, activities are designed to take advantage of the affordances of face-to-face instruction. This means that activities are collaborative, interactive, and capitalize on chances for students to learn with a cohort of peers in an enriching discussion-based environment. If students do not attend, they compromise the integrity of the programmatic activities and the ability of their colleagues to gain the most from their learning experiences as well.
  3. There are only 16 face-to-face class meetings during the face-to-face portion of this program. Missing just one of these meetings means that students miss a significant portion of the course — too much time, in fact.
  4. The integrity of our cohort depends on full cohort participation. We work to build community because community enhances learning outcomes, and it enables our students to develop enduring professional networks that can sustain them and enrich their professional lives for years to come. To build community, we need all students present, every day.

For these reasons, unexcused absences will result in serious academic penalty. It should be noted that two unexcused absences will result in a final grade of 2.0, or lower, depending on academic performance. A 2.0 is the minimum grade point that the University will accept for graduate credit.

It does occasionally happen that special, unexpected circumstances arise that require students to miss a day of class. These circumstances are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. We ask that you contact your instructor immediately in the event of an emergency  if it becomes clear that you will not be able to attend class. Grade penalties may apply to any absence, but the decision to grant a special case permission to miss a single day may be given. This is at the discretion of the program directors and will be based on the unique circumstances of each case.

IMPORTANT PROGRAM POLICIES

Instructor and Student Communication Policy:  You should expect email reply from instructors within 24 hours about the course. If we email you, we would like you to respond within 48 hours. If an out of office assistant is on indicating that you are unavailable, we will certainly take that into consideration. If we are unable to respond within 24 hours, we will turn on the out off office as well.

Late Work Policy:  In hybrid courses (especially those with a significant amout of online interaction) it is easy to get behind on your assignments. For some assignments activities build upon others so it is imperative that you complete all the assignments on time. You have plenty of notice with your assignments (all due dates will be in a shared assignment tracker), so be prepared for last minute glitches and minor illnesses. We are all adults here and our expectations are that we will all meet our responsibilities and schedules despite minor setbacks. Also, as all of us who work with technology know, you should anticipate computer troubles. Things like erasing your files, losing your files or media storage, and/or computer problems should be considered possible events when trying to complete your work so give yourself plenty of time to submit an assignment (and yes, maintain regular backups of all your work, during the semester and after!)

That said, we understand that sometimes life gets in the way and things don’t go according to plan. In situations like this communicating with your instructor as early as possible is the best thing to do. We try not to be punitive in our responses but it must be made clear that the final decisions on grading and assessment of late work is the responsibility of the instructor and will be done on a case by case basis. Clear communication is key to facilitating an arrangement for successful completion of assignments.

MSU Grading:Because CEP 805, CEP 806, and CEP 815 are integrated into a single rather than three separate experiences, we do not grade each course separately. The average of the grades you receive on your coursework will equal the average of your official course grades. For example, if the average grade on your coursework is 3.5, your official MSU transcript will show a grade of 3.5 for all three courses. Or, if the average grade on your coursework is 3.7, your official MSU transcript will show grades of 3.0, 4.0, & 4.0.

MSU Minimum GPA Policy:MSU, the College, the CEPSE Department, and the fellowship program all have a policy that requires MA students to maintain a minimum cumulative GPA. “If, upon completion of 18 or more graduate credits, the student has not attained a grade–point average of 3.00 or higher, he or she becomes ineligible to continue work toward the master’s degree in the College” (From Academic Standards, University Graduate Policy – Education, p. 1).   (SeeSpartan Life: Student Handbook and Resource Guide and/or the MSU Web site:www.msu.edu.)

MSU Minimum Course Grade Policy: According to MSU policy, students cannot receive credit for any course with a grade below 2.0. You will have to take an extra course if you earn below a 2.0 grade on any course. In particular graduate programs the number of 2.0 grades acceptable for credit may be expressly restricted and/or levels higher than the 2.0 minimum may be established for the fulfillment of degree requirements. (In the fellowship program, no 2.0 grades can be applied toward your degree)

Academic Honesty Policy:“The principles of truth and honesty are recognized as fundamental to a community of teachers and scholars. The University expects that both faculty and students will honor these principles and in so doing protect the validity of University grades. This means that all academic work will be done by the student to whom it is assigned, without unauthorized aid of any kind. (See General Student Regulation 1.00, Scholarship and Grades, for specific regulations.) Instructors, for their part, will exercise care in the planning and supervision of academic work, so that honest effort will be positively encouraged” (From MSU General Information, Policies, Procedures, and Regulations, p. 24). (See also theAcademic Integrity webpage.)

Accommodations for Students with Disabilities:(from the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities (RCPD): Michigan State University is committed to providing equal opportunity for participation in all programs, services and activities. Requests for accommodations by persons with disabilities may be made by contacting the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities at 517-884-RCPD or on the web at rcpd.msu.edu. Once your eligibility for an accommodation has been determined, you will be issued a Verified Individual Services Accommodation (“VISA”) form. Please present this form to me at the start of the term and/or two weeks prior to the accommodation date (test, project, etc.). Requests received after this date may not be honored.