Book Review: The Joy of Teaching: Effective Strategies for the Classroom

Excerpt: Woven throughout his book, the joy Hazel found in the vocation of teaching rises above all other content, ergo the title. Hazel begins in the first chapter with the joy and the rewards of teaching by observing that our call to teach provides a means toward self-actualization as well as a way to serve God\u27s people. Many enter the field of teaching with hearts and minds centered on care for others as well as a desire to make a difference in the lives of students. Through many of the over one hundred stories collected during the research for this book, Hazel speaks to the inherent joy many teachers find as the most compelling reason to remain in education. Regardless of the age level taught, the teachers\u27 stories in Hazel\u27s book expose the intrinsic rewards of the vocation as an essential reason we have responded to the invitation to serve as educators

Preservice Teacher Application of Differentiated Instruction

Successfully implementing the practice of inclusion by differentiating instruction depends on both the skills and attitudes of general education teachers. New general education teachers who are entering the field are particularly vulnerable to the demands and stress of the profession, and teacher education programs must prepare preservice teachers to meet the needs of all students by teaching the skills needed to make appropriate lesson adaptations, accommodations, and modifications. This study investigates the manifestation of differentiation for special education students in work sample lesson plans written by preservice teachers working toward an elementary school credential. The research examined the nature, characteristics, and types of instructional adaptations included in the work samples prepared by a sample of preservice teachers resulting in six distinct themes and recommendations for teacher education programs

Promotion to Dean: 7 Best Ways to Guarantee Failure

Solid faculty members with longevity at a Christian college often find themselves in new roles. This can be the result of their own choice or sometimes even coercion, such as when failed searches or limited financial resources “force” faculty into these new roles

Book Review: Taking Every Thought Captive: Forty Years of the Christian Scholar’s Review

Excerpt: King’s introduction provides the answer to the most compelling and perhaps perplexing question that comes to mind when one picks up a book of articles published from 1970 through 2010. Why? After all, in the day of search engines and electronic data banks, it does not require much of a hunt to unearth older and out-of-print articles. Furthermore, in the academy we often overlook anything with a publication date beyond ten years ago simply because it becomes “historical” and newer scholars have offered alternate perspectives while building upon the contributions of our more distant colleagues, as they should. However, King makes it clear that his purpose lies in the pursuit of the finest contributions over the last forty years, hence the purpose of this collection of articles bound into a single edition. According to King, Christian Scholar’s Review published over 600 manuscripts during that time period, and he has chosen twenty-four to include in this volume. With that understanding, one might assume the book holds a treasure trove of the very best in Christian works

Book Review: Those Who Can, Teach: Teaching as a Christian Vocation

Porter’s title, Those Who Can, Teach, leads one to believe that the book contains essays on the merits or caliber of the professoriate and the academy

Collaborative Clinical Practice: An Alternate Field Experience

Teacher education in the 21st century is encountering increased scrutiny, added pressure, and escalating external regulations but does not have practical and immediate solutions for improving programs. While reforms in teacher education call for additional and improved clinical practice for candidates, through strengthened partnerships with local schools, the relationship between higher education and P-12 institutions often remains complicated and weak. Further, the current economic climate, coupled with increased pressures on local school administrators, continue to make secured placements for clinical practice extremely difficult to find and works against the intent to meet state and national requirements for teacher education programs to improve relationships with neighboring schools. With accrediting organizations and regulations that direct teacher education programs to expand relationships with the schools in which candidates are placed, teacher educators find themselves caught between the long-term work of developing formalized university-school partnerships and the immediate objective of improving the clinical practice experience for candidates. Personnel in placement offices endeavor to secure assignments for clinical practice and, due to a shortage of placements, candidates often accept any placement offered. While all teacher educators would prefer excellent cooperating teachers, and many are exemplary, candidates may end up under the tutelage of in-service teachers who do not model strong teaching methods. While teacher educators are acutely aware of this, just as they are aware that not all candidates have optimal preparation to begin clinical practice, a shortage of placements means that not all candidates will learn under the best conditions. An excellent clinical experience depends on several factors beyond the cooperating teacher’s professional skills, including the dispositions of the cooperating teacher and the attitude and preparation of the candidate as well as compatibility of personalities. Ensuring quality learning of teacher candidates within the clinical practice becomes a challenge for professors, university supervisors, and cooperating teachers if one of the many factors falls short in expectations. Additionally, in cases where strong relationships do not develop between the candidate and cooperating teacher due to factors such as personality incompatibility, the absence of meaningful teamwork deprives the candidate of an opportunity to develop a critical 21st century skill: collaboration. In response to the difficulty of finding clinical practice placements, and in an attempt to improve the clinical practice experience for candidates, the researcher paired teacher candidates during their first clinical placement. The goal was to analyze how a collaborative approach affected learning and the candidates’ perceptions of the support that they received during the practicum experience. The candidates, all adult students in an MAT program, received clinical assignments through the placement office, based on authorization level, and were placed with any cooperative teacher in the field who agreed to take two student teachers at one time for a part-time placement. The primary purpose of the study was to develop an alternative model of clinical practice that would result in increased candidate learning and support. Pairing teacher candidates (dyad) in one placement allowed them to learn from each other and to receive support through feedback and encouragement

Book Review: The Role of Religion in 21st-Century Public Schools

Excerpt: Jones and Sheffield have collected essays that speak to a broad range of interests surrounding the topic of religion in public schools. From Jones’s commentary on the emotional underpinnings and historical context of the role of God in classrooms of children, to an account of the limitations of the establishment clause, and past a couple of reports on prayer in schools, the work takes readers through a course of chapters that touch upon many of the themes most popular in arguments about religion in school. Twelve unique chapters written by a diverse group of scholars grant the collection a plurality of perspectives that often eludes books centering on the most personal part of our existence that structures our view of all we hold sacred. Clearly, arguments in favor of or opposed to the inclusion of religion in our educational system involve passion not often matched in other debates, but Jones and Sheffield have amassed and presented work that represents mostly solid thinking on the role of religion in our schools

Book Review: Cross Purposes: Pierce v. Society of Sisters and the Struggle over Compulsory Public Education

Excerpt: Contradicting the unappealing cover and stodgy title, Abrams has crafted an engaging and revealing narrative connecting politicians, Klansmen, Masons, the Vatican, educators, parents, and citizens into an account that borders on intrigue but also elucidates and interprets the birth and defeat of a movement that resulted in landmark legislation. The book moves far beyond an explanation of Pierce v. Society of Sisters and provides an inside look at the major players and the motivations behind the Oregon School Bill. Readers witness the unbridled bigotry and hubris of the individuals supporting the School Bill in the early 1900s in Oregon and perhaps will wonder how it could have possibly unfolded as Abrams reveals. While this account begins and ends in Oregon, the short life of the School Bill, and its eventual overturn in the Supreme Court by way of Pierce v. Society of Sisters, in fact the path of the bill and its influence journeyed to another continent and reached into the future

Grace (Chapter One in Faithful Teaching: Values and Themes for Teaching, Learning, and Leading Purposeful and Principled Education)

Excerpt: There was a large coatroom in the back of the class, perfect for storing the boots and coats required in the winter days of my third year in school. It also served as a great place to hide if math was not of particular interest. Mrs. Callahan, realizing she was missing a difficult and resistant math student, kept teaching as she made her way to the door of the coatroom to take the hideaway, Arthur, by surprise. She pushed the door open, and as she entered to sweep aside the hanging coats in order to reveal the missing student, Arthur, who had tricked her, came out from his hiding place behind the door and swiftly closed it, locking a startled Mrs. Callahan on the other side. Craning our necks toward the back of the room, all 29 of us watched in stunned silence as our imprisoned red-faced teacher demanded, through the window of the coatroom door, that Arthur let her out. Frozen by the fear of what he had just done, Arthur stood rooted to the gray linoleum and began to wail at the top of his lungs. At just the right time, the custodian came by with his ring of keys and unlocked the door freeing Mrs. Callahan. What happened next reflected nothing other than pure grace. Mrs. Callahan scooped up the sobbing Arthur and held him close until he stopped crying, and we all listened as she told this very challenging child that she loved him still. No yelling, no threats, no sitting in a chair facing the corner. A prolonged silence followed this simple gift of grace that remains, to this day, one of my strongest memories of God\u27s unmistakable presence and influence in a public elementary classroom

Evidence of Cultural Competence Within Teacher Performance Assessments

Professional integrity and changing demographics in the public school system in the United States coupled with standards for teacher preparation require that preservice teachers possess knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to work with diverse populations. Using the TeacherWork Sample, a plan for instruction serving as a teacher performance assessment, the research examines the document for evidence of cultural competence. Student descriptions, reflections, and lesson plans provide evidence of preservice teacher dispositions and attitudes toward diverse students. The research revealed that work samples fell into four distinct categories depicting different levels of competence ranging from static to proactive. Data collected generated a rubric suggesting the placement of preservice teacher work on a continuum of development in the area of cultural competence