|
Hello,
It's gardening season here in Cambridge, and those of
us with gardens are just beginning to enjoy the fruits of the seeds we
planted earlier this year.
At my house, my two-year-old son and & I have been in awe these
past few weeks as we've watched the pole bean seeds that we buried in
late May emerge from the soil as vines that are now creeping up and
around our small plot.
I confess this is my first foray with seeds and soil, and I wasn't sure
what to expect at the beginning. We set five or six seeds around each
pole, crossed our fingers, and proceeded with the basics: a good deal
of water, fertilizer, and nurturing.
Seemingly overnight, the seeds became three-foot-tall vines, growing in
directions I never expected, wending their way over to neighboring
poles, and even becoming loosely intertwined in a few spots, presumably
seeking extra support.
I couldn't help but think of our determined little vines as we prepared
this newsletter entitled "Seeds of Change." As you read on, you'll find
that we share stories about WIDE World participants from Binghamton,
USA, to Barranquilla, Colombia, who have spread innovation to many
other educators in their local settings by planting a single seed about
their own WIDE World experiences.
Seemingly overnight, WIDE World has -- with a good deal of local
enthusiasm, ongoing support, continual moderation, and attentive
nurturing -- moved from working with one to as many as 160 educators in
a single setting.
This edition of the newsletter is intended to celebrate the fruits of
all our educational labors, the seeds we sow, and the roots we lay,
with special emphasis on a few who are now enjoying the harvest.
All our best,
Shannon
| Reflections from Colombia: An Interview with Sandhya Klein |
 |
|
Last year, William Schutmaat Loew, Rector General at Colombia's Colegio
Americano de Barranquilla, completed a WIDE World online course.
Shortly afterward, he shared his enthusiasm for the experience with the
Colombian Ministry of Education. As a result, WIDE World met with
ministry officials and worked with them to develop a sustained,
wide-scale initiative that currently involves 160 educators in five
states and is ultimately designed to expand to all states.
This is the story of the developing initiative in Colombia,
as seen through the eyes of WIDE World's new International Account
Manager, Sandhya Klein.
* * *
Few people can say they spent the first day of their new
Boston-based office job on a remote coffee plantation in the Andes
Mountains of Colombia. But that's exactly how Sandhya Klein was
welcomed to the WIDE World family.
Our freshly-hired International Account Manager (wearing
white in the front row of this photo) eagerly joined executive director
David Zarowin on a five-day trip to kick off an exciting initiative
with the Colombian Ministry of Education.
The project involves an impressive 124 teachers and 36
administrators. The educators are distributed across five Colombian
states, so two separate kick-off events were scheduled in two different
cities -- Armenia and Bogotá -- to accommodate all of the participants.
At about 9:30 PM on the night before the first event,
Sandhya and David arrived at the first location in Armenia, a lush
setting with plantain trees, exotic flowers, and rolling coffee-growing
hills.
"It was late and dark, so I wasn't able to see my hands in
front of my eyes, much less the beautiful landscape around me!" Sandhya
explains. "We stumbled around the coffee plantation hoping to find a
person or our lodging for the evening, when finally we were greeted by
a soft glow in the distance. We knew we were in the right place when we
discovered the light was coming from 30 flat-screen computer monitors
that had been set up under an outdoor pavilion! This was the first of
many extraordinary moments . . ."
|
| A Collaboration in Bloom: WIDE World & Binghamton Public
School District |
|
|
After working together for a little more than two years, WIDE World has
engaged 85 Binghamton, NY, educators in its online and on-site
programs. Nearly 20 of those educators have taken more than one online
course ... and as many as eight!
Click the link below to read the Binghamton-WIDE World case
study and learn how WIDE World and the district have worked together to
implement a sustained, wide-scale initiative to improve curriculum
planning, classroom instruction, and ultimately student achievement.
|
| More Usable Knowledge from Harvard |
|
|
In the last few editions of this newsletter, we have shared a new
resource website from the Harvard Graduate School of Education called,
"Usable Knowledge." Many of you have let us know how much you
appreciate its practical articles about the ways in which Harvard
research is changing the daily work of educators worldwide.
Since you last logged on to the Usable Knowledge site, a new
book review has been added. The review discusses Online
Professional Development for Teachers:
Emerging Models and Methods, edited by Harvard professor Chris
Dede. The book offers a fresh perspective on the future of online
professional development, the key features of effective online
programs, and the current leading providers (including a chapter
focused on WIDE World!).
|
| Brushing Up on TfU |
|
|
Have you noticed your Teaching for Understanding book staring back at
you from the bookshelf lately?
Then you'll enjoy reading "Leading,
Learning & Teaching for Understanding," an article by WIDE
World course instructors Phillip Moulds and Mary McFarland.
The article, which appeared in a recent edition of Principal
Leadership Magazine, provides a refresher on Teaching for
Understanding, as well as a fresh perspective on the ways school
leaders can apply the framework to support collaborative,
inquiry-based, professional communities.
|
| What are you doing this September? |
|
|
Perhaps you've taken a WIDE course, and vowed to take another, but the
timing of the May semester just wasn't right for you ... Or, perhaps
you've never taken a WIDE course and have been waiting patiently for
just the right time ...
Here are three reasons to enroll now for the upcoming
semester, scheduled to begin on September 27th!
(1) You'll enhance your ability to design rich lesson
plans and to assess your students' true understanding!
91% to 97% of WIDE World course participants have reported a
positive impact on their teaching, citing such specific examples as:
improved approaches to lesson plan design, more thorough strategies for
student assessment, and more productive collaboration techniques for
learning with and from other professionals.
(2) You'll improve your students' attentiveness, the types
of questions they ask, and the depth of understanding they are able to
achieve in your classroom!
90% to 97% of WIDE World course participants have reported
improvements in student learning as a result of techniques learned in
the online courses, including: students demonstrate heightened
engagement, better quality work, and a greater sense of responsibility
for their own learning.
(3) It's easy to enroll!
Anytime between now and September 7, simply visit our
registration website and follow the prompts! (Hint: Enroll
with a team
of 3 other educators from your school and you'll not only maximize the
benefits of your online learning experience but also save a little on
your individual tuition!)
|
| See You in Denver! |
|
|
You've heard about this conference several times over the last few
months and it has finally arrived ... The National Staff Development (NSDC) Summer Conference
will take place in Denver, CO, in just a few days, from July
15th through 18th.
WIDE World's Research Director, David Eddy Spicer, and
Colleen del Terzo, District Director of Curriculum and Instruction in
Miami-Dade County Public Schools, will co-present at the Conference.
The title of their talk is: "Cultures of Learning: The Role of
Instructional Improvement and Distributed Leadership in Building
Effective Communities." Join us for this illuminating session or stop
by our booth in the conference hall -- we'd love to meet you!
|
| Contact
Us... |
|
|
Have a Teaching for Understanding story or fresh
idea for the newsletter?
We want to hear from you!
Email us at wideeditor@gse.harvard.edu with your
thoughts about themes, stories, or people that you believe we should
highlight in the upcoming months!
|
|
|
Ambassadors of Learning
|
|
|
|
Patricia León and María Ximena Barrera
In the context of education, the phrase "dynamic duo"
conjures up all sorts familiar pairings: Engagement and Understanding.
Reflection and Innovation. WIDE World and Professional Development
(!!!).
Around our offices, we'd add Patricia León and María Ximena Barrera to the list. Since they met in their home country of Colombia
in 1993, this dúo dinámico have become an international gateway to the
Teaching for Understanding Framework.
Typically, we profile individual educators in this column,
but Patricia and María Ximena have accomplished so many professional
milestones together over the last 14 years that it seemed only natural
to highlight their shared accomplishments.
Patricia and María Ximena, WIDE World co-instructors for Enseñanza
para la Comprensión 1 (Teaching
for Understanding 1) and Liderazgo
para la Comprensión 1 (Leading
for Understanding), first worked together at Bogotá's Colegio
Rochester, where Patricia was the principal and María Ximena the head
of the technology department. When Patricia and María Ximena joined
fifteen of their colleagues in a Teaching for Understanding (TfU) study
group, they could not have anticipated the effect it would have on
their professional lives.
After a year of exploring TfU ideas, testing out TfU
activities in their classrooms, and translating TfU materials into
Spanish, the study group was so inspired by the framework that it
created a foundation called
FUNDACIES to support professional development about TfU for
Colombian educators through seminars, collaborative analysis of student
work, and the sharing of lesson plans. The organization is still
flourishing today.
But the dúo dinámico didn't stop there.
They went on to establish several additional organizations
that support educators with the concepts of TfU in Colombia and around
the world. Through their own educational initiatives and online work as
the pioneering members of WIDE World's Spanish-speaking instructional
staff, this pair has worked with educators at elementary, secondary,
and post-secondary levels in over ten countries, including Colombia,
the U.S., Perú, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Salvador, Guatemala, México, Santo
Domingo, Paraguay and Spain.
"The most interesting part of our work is meeting teachers
and educational leaders from different places and in a variety of
working conditions," María Ximena explains. "Online, it is fascinating
to 'hear' the conversations between a primary teacher with minimal
resources from a rural area and the head of a department at a
university! Above all, we appreciate the fact that through the online
courses, every one of those educators is sitting in the 'first row,' so
all voices are heard and everyone can receive feedback."
WIDE World participants who've had the pleasure of sitting in
the front row of Patricia and María Ximena's online classes
consistently comment on how powerfully they convey their commitment to
the improvement of education and their enthusiasm for the work that
they do.
Participants have also observed that Patricia and María
Ximena not only teach about collaborative, inquiry-
based approaches to professional learning and classroom instruction,
but also model them -- through their strong working relationship, the
dúo effortlessly provide a living demonstration of the ideas they
introduce in the online courses.
"The best advice we could give others would be to talk from
their experience, be passionate with their work, take time to reflect,
and share successes as well as obstacles," Patricia says, noting that
it helps to work closely with a supportive colleague who motivates and
inspires you to grow. "María Ximena and I have combined our strengths
to minimize our weaknesses. Each day we feel we are learning from one
another and most of all we are never competing, but rather always
complementing, one another."
Learn
more about our Spanish courses, scheduled to begin in September!
AHA! MOMENT
"I taught a class of students who had failed Pre-Calculus
the semester before. In the beginning, I asked them to discuss their
understanding of each topic. At first, they were reluctant to reveal
their lack of knowledge. As we explored why the math worked the way it
did, they began to give opinions and try new solutions. Many said no
one had ever asked them their opinion of math. One student in
particular began to read ahead on her own and test new ideas. At the
end of semester, she wrote me a note saying no one had ever gone into
her brain and helped her find thoughts she did not know she could
have."
-- Cheryl Foreman, School Administrator, Jamaica
Read about our upcoming
courses, scheduled to begin on September 27! |
|
