August 27, 2025 • 19 mins
Ashley O'Neil and Julie Cunningham, hosts of the Teach Wonder podcast, discuss the Educator Institute, a new project at Central Michigan University's Center for Excellence in STEM education. The Educator Institute began this summer when a group of educators and Center staff created a professional learning community who then developed an educator observation tool. This tool is intended to scaffold reflection on equitable classroom practices in STEM education. The tool will be piloted by members of the learning community, Center staff and pre-service teachers who work with children in the maker space at the Center. You are invited to join us on our journey this fall as we make meaning out of our experiences with the tool in our learning community.
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Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:00):
Okay, now we're recording.
(00:08):
So welcome to teach wonder. Yes,welcome to teach wonder, a
podcast hosted by
Ashley O'Neil (00:17):
Ashley O'Neil and Julie Cunningham. Welcome back
to teach wonder. So we've beendoing this podcast for a while.
We've hosted dozens ofinterviews heard from so many
voices and perspectives. And ifyou're new here, we encourage
you to go back through ourlibrary and listen to some of
those fantastic conversationsbefore we get into today's
(00:41):
episode, a bit about us. Thispodcast is hosted by myself,
Ashley O'Neil and JulieCunningham. We're both staff at
the Center for Excellence inSTEM education. The center is a
student, family and teacherfocused space at Central
Michigan University. We hostafter school programs, field
trips, family events and summercamps for K 12 students. We also
(01:02):
work with teachers, with teacherworkshops in the summer and
ongoing support for them duringthe school year. And we work
with pre service teachers whoare current CMU students. This
podcast is a way for us toconnect with educators and
interested folks in a way that'snot constrained by schedule or
location. Basically, we're ondemand and in your ears. This
(01:22):
podcast is focused on teachingpractices, challenges and topics
that are at the intersection ofour work with students, current
teachers and pre serviceteachers. We're starting this
semester with a conversationabout our latest project, the
educator Institute. We'll talkmore about what it is, why we're
doing it, and why we think it'srelevant to you during this
episode. But first, some quickcontext. We've always been
(01:46):
invested in future teachers atCMU. Currently, that investment
looks like our STEM educationScholar Program. These CMU
students get access to themakerspace, the physical room in
which we host most of ourprograms. They get time working
with K 12 students, access toPD, an opportunity to attend a
national conference, a financialgift to support their education
and a community here at CMU,over the last few years, the
(02:09):
center participated in an NSFgrant that worked on intentional
collaboration between thefaculty who teach these future
students, basically getting someshared language and practices to
be discussed, modeled andpracticed explicitly in the
classes that these students havenow supported in part by some
strategic planning funds fromthe College of Education and
Human Services, we're able toexpand that investment in the
(02:31):
STEM education scholars throughthe educator Institute. This
means we're including currentteachers in the conversation and
the work to prepare these futureteachers for the classroom. In
this episode, we're going togive you all the details of this
institute, and we're also goingto explain how those themes and
topics are going to be the basisof our podcast this semester. So
if you're interested incuriosity, student agency,
(02:53):
building respectfulrelationships, the challenges of
doing this and the constraintsof the classroom, as well as a
deep dive into debriefinginteractions with students for
the intention of all of uslearning together, you're in the
right place. Without furtherado, here's our conversation
today.
Julie Cunningham (03:20):
If we went to the educator Institute
reflection, like, how muchbackground do we want about why
we're doing Institute the waywe're doing
Ashley O'Neil (03:30):
it? Yeah, I'd like to get that recording of us
today, if possible.
Julie Cunningham (03:34):
Yeah, but I mean, like, the the pre service
teacher part comes out of that.
I mean, that's a several yearold like project that fed into
the NSF grant with faculty.
That's where the really, the preservice teacher part comes from.
And then I think the in serviceteacher piece comes about
(03:57):
because a there's got to be away to mesh the two types of PD,
the pre service and in service.
B, if in service teachers don'tplay a role or understand what
pre service teachers arelearning, then it's hard for pre
service teachers to practicewhat they're learning in service
(04:19):
classroom, and then see, we'vetried to get away at the center
from any type of PD that isn'tisolated. It's isolated. So, I
mean, those are all of those arenot really simple,
Ashley O'Neil (04:41):
no. And I think, like the mechanics are
interesting, and I think thatoverview is sufficient, right to
say, we've, we've always hadthis ongoing work, it the
educator piece started from theNSF grant. But I think the
biggest, or the maybe moreinteresting thing for people to
understand is that bigger, why?
Which is that we see, right?
Edge. Teaching is difficult. Itis complicated, and we see that
(05:04):
we're at this uniqueintersection where we have a
bunch of students in this spacein an informal way. So we can
practice some of these. I hatethe word undergirding, but these
like support skills that are soimportant in a classroom that
have nothing to do with ascience lesson or an ELA lesson,
but your science and your ELAlesson depend on those skills,
(05:26):
so you can practice them herewithout the content layered on
top of it, right? And we workwith teachers, and we work with
pre service teachers at auniversity, but we're out in
school, so I think we're in thisweird like we're in the middle
of this Venn diagram where wework with all these populations,
and as all of us are formerclassroom teachers, we see all
of the skills that students canpractice here, but if they don't
(05:49):
know that, that's what they'repracticing, if we're not
explicit to say, you know thatinteraction that you did, this
is how it serves you. See thatmove that you did. See the move
I did. See how I didn't sayanything in that moment. See how
I waited. Like, without thatexplicit piece, the students
could say, oh, this place wassuper fun. We had a great
interaction. And then they gointo their classroom, and they
(06:10):
haven't embedded those practicesintentionally into their own
toolkit. So I think part of itis making sure that we're being
really clear to say, like,that's a that's a good that's a
teacher move. That's a toollike, see that you did that.
Let's do that again and then.
And then it becomes somethingthey pull out of their pocket.
Otherwise they're gonna say,Yeah, Sarah was a great teacher.
We had a good time with her. Shewas super fun. We did Makey
(06:31):
makeys, and that's what theyremember, versus look at the way
that Sarah seamlessly did that,and how she negotiated that and
navigated this. And I could dothat too, in that way,
Julie Cunningham (06:43):
well, and we know that if we're not explicit,
we're not people who arelearning don't know how they can
get to be expert at it, right?
They only just see that someoneis expert at the teacher move,
but they don't know how to getthere themselves if we don't
make the decisions clear thatallowed us to get there the
(07:05):
decisions that we made in makingthe teacher move, if those
aren't clear and explicit tosomeone learning they don't
know.
Ashley O'Neil (07:15):
And so this idea that being a teacher is really
at its very like most elemental,it's a making a million
decisions in a day, right abouta ton of different things that
have impact the learning of ofthe students in your classroom.
And so we think about it thatway, this educator Institute is
really about us working withcurrent practicing teachers to
(07:38):
think about what those decisionslook like, and come up with a
way to reflect on thosemeaningfully and consistently
with language that makes sense,and then sharing that with our
pre service teachers to say,hey, practicing teachers see
these things as crossoverskills. Here, here are some ways
you could reflect on them andthink about interactions that
(07:59):
you've had and decisions thatyou've made, or you've watched
other people make, and what theconsequences or impacts were of
those decisions. And
Julie Cunningham (08:08):
then additionally, we've layered on
that those decisions should bemade in with a equity, equity
lens, right in an equitable way,and so making sure that
everybody that participates inthe educator Institute has the
same definition of equity, or asimilar definition of equity,
(08:28):
and is committed to usinglanguage and practices that
promote equity in a classroom,which
Ashley O'Neil (08:37):
is really where, like a rubber meets the road in
a classroom, right? If you havea student who's you jive with
organically, right, you getalong really well. Their sense
of humor matches yours. Theykind of are self sufficient in
lots of ways, right? That is astudent which you may naturally
be inclined to make decisionsthat work for both of you,
right, that are mutuallybeneficial. But if you have a
(08:58):
student who isn't similar to youin some way, or whose underlying
motivations aren't as clear toyou, right or as a sometimes
their responses may challengeyou in some way, shape or form.
That is the space where your ownlack of understanding or your
own work in some of theseplaces, will come through, and
(09:20):
then you're kind of perpetuatingsome of these imbalance
structures that we see inclassrooms that aren't
beneficial for anybody. So it'svery true. One of my questions
for you, and we can both talkabout it, but one of the things
that we're doing, and youbrought this up earlier, is we
don't do these kind of isolatedone off PDS anymore. We kind of
have an ongoing community. Someof these folks have been with us
(09:43):
for years in different ways, butthey've been with us for years,
and I think we're committed tothis kind of learning community
together. We don't try tostructure things so like you are
disseminating information assome sort of authority, or I am,
or whatever, but we'redefinitely in this learning
community. And. That word has orthat phrase has meaning in
(10:03):
schools. But to you, what does alearning community mean to you?
Because we've made this likewe're doing this, and we make an
effort to do it. So what does itmean to you? And why is it so
Julie Cunningham (10:14):
important? Oh, I I think one of the reasons
it's important is because we allcome to the table with knowledge
and expertise. My currentknowledge is not being a
classroom teacher, right? It'sbeen a number of years since
I've been not that I haven'tworked in education this whole
time I have, but that I'veactually been a classroom
(10:34):
teacher. And so if I'm notwilling to defer to those who
are in the classroom as theexperts with their own students,
then I have no business being ina professional development
workshop, right? I mean, and sojust to acknowledge that we all
(10:55):
bring things to the table andthat all of our backgrounds
matter and that all of ourexpertise matters, I think
that's one of the basic premisesto the professional learning
community, and I find it muchless of a like guessing game
about what everybody's needsare, or like me trying to say,
(11:17):
well, here's what I thinkteachers are going to need From
this that seems ridiculous.
Like, who am I to say? Here'swhat I think somebody's gonna
need from this series ofworkshops, right? I mean, I
think it does allow me a spaceto say here, here are the
strengths that I bring to thetable, and so we don't just show
(11:37):
up and not have an agenda atall, but on the other hand, we
leave plenty of time foreverybody's voice, and we leave
plenty of time for flexibilityin the schedule, and we leave
plenty of time for outcomes thatare shared and that everybody
(11:59):
can use after they walk awayfrom the workshop. So I think
that's the value to aprofessional learning community.
I also find it to be reallyrefreshing, because it's it's
tough to be the expecteddisseminator of information to a
group of your peers, right? It'sa different, definitely a
(12:21):
different scenario that you'rewalking into to sort of be
expected to, like, show up andbe on the stage for two or three
days and to have all theinformation, which is really
kind of a ridiculous premiseanyway,
Ashley O'Neil (12:40):
yeah. And I also think that, I mean, we feel, I
feel really strongly I agreewith everything you said. And I
think I feel really stronglythat learning is an active
process, not a passive one. Andso any of that, like
disseminating of information, isnot really us practicing what we
believe is really learning andtransformation of thinking,
(13:02):
right? And so the only way foreveryone in the room to be
active is if everyone'sstrengths are brought to the
table. And it is, it is more ofa conversation or more of a
group effort, versus us givingyou a PowerPoint and you taking
notes on like, the bulleted listof like tenants that we're
really excited about, we'drather talk about them. CO
create that list, maybe disagreeon them, experience things
(13:24):
together. Yeah, what is yourhope? Like? We just started
this. So this formally started,I mean, like Julie has said,
it's been in progress. There wasa prior Grant was with faculty
that included pre serviceteachers, and trying to think
about the people who areteaching pre service teachers at
(13:45):
this university. How are wedoing that with some sort of
like consistency and sharedlanguage? And now we're thinking
about current teachers, but itofficially launched this summer
with us meeting with thoseteachers. We met three times.
Now we all have, kind of ourplans for the school year, and
we have times and ways thatwe're meeting again during the
(14:08):
school year and kind of workingon this together. But what is
your future hope? What couldthis look like?
Julie Cunningham (14:14):
Well, I think that so. One of the premises of
the educator Institute is thatwe work. We have worked for a
number of years with in serviceteachers, and we have worked for
a number of years with preservice teachers, but it's
almost like unless we contrive away for them to meet. It's
really been two parallelsituations. So the idea behind
(14:36):
the educator Institute is thatinitially, right now, the work
that the in service teachers didthis summer will inform one of
the tools that the pre serviceteachers use to reflect on their
time in the MakerSpace. Sothat's sort of like the first
crossover. Now the pre serviceteachers might not really
(14:58):
understand the value. You ofthat at this point, they haven't
met the in service teachers, andthey'll be asked to sort of
pilot a new tool, which willrely on us making clear to them
why that's a value. So that willbe this fall. But then
eventually, I'd like to get to apoint where we have pre service
(15:23):
teachers being mentored by inservice teachers, and maybe not
exactly one on one, becausesometimes logistics are very
difficult between classes andclassrooms and between travel
time and already. Pre serviceteachers do have times in which
they need to be out inclassrooms, observing, but some
(15:46):
sort of a more direct mentorshipbetween the pre service teachers
and the in service teachers, andthen eventually relationships
built between them. So ifthey're both working towards the
same goals or the same outcome,the same types of information
and the same types of classroominstruction, then those would be
(16:11):
perfect classrooms for our preservice teachers to make
observations in to pre studentteaching to student Teaching.
There should be some commonlanguage, some common
expectations between them, andas much crossover as we can get
between the two programs. Yeah,that sounds
Ashley O'Neil (16:33):
ambitious and exciting, right? Idealistic?
Yes, yes. But I think that ifthat's what we're moving toward,
and we make a lot of ourdecisions with that in mind,
even if we get a fraction ofthat this year and it comes down
the road, that'd be prettyexciting. Is there anything else
you wanted to share and say aswe move forward into this? I
(16:54):
don't,
Julie Cunningham (16:55):
I don't think so. I mean, I think that I was
really pleased with our workthis summer, I think we had a
great professional learningcommunity. People really showed
up and did the work and werevulnerable and took feedback and
(17:15):
had discussions and perhaps evenminor disagreements at times and
walked away. All of us betterteachers because of it. And
additionally, we came out ofthis summer with a tool that pre
service teachers will be able touse as they work with children
this fall. And so they're goingto pilot that tool as well as
(17:38):
the in service teachers and usas facilitators. So I think
that's a pretty exciting outcomeand a great shared experience.
Ashley O'Neil (17:47):
And we are also going to pilot that tool in our
own way, and we're going tobring you all along for the
ride. So the rest of this fallseason will be us digging into
the themes and tenants of thetool that was brought up. And I
know we say tool, and you'relike, what are we talking about?
But we're really thinking aboutsome reflection questions and
some intentional ways for us tolook at our classroom when it's
(18:09):
happening, and then us to thinkabout our classroom after the
fact, and eventually, us tothink about as we're planning in
our classroom also. So we'llbreak down those different
tenants, some of them we'vetalked about on the podcast
before, some of them will benew. And then we are also going
to do our own work of observingourselves and each other in this
space and then bringing you realexamples and deconstructing some
(18:33):
teaching moments andinteractions with students, and
breaking down some of our owndecisions and what we did, what
we would do differently, or whythat worked in the way that it
did. So we're excited for thisfall season. The format will
look just a little bit differentas we're following this tool,
but we hope that we'll all do alot of learning together as we
go. This has been anotherepisode of teach wonder. Thank
(18:57):
you for listening. If you'reinterested in learning more
about the center. You can checkus out on social media or find
our website. The links areavailable in our bio, or search
for the Center for Excellence inSTEM education. You.
Okay, now we're recording.
(00:08):
So welcome to teach wonder. Yes,welcome to teach wonder, a
podcast hosted by
Ashley O'Neil (00:17):
Ashley O'Neil and Julie Cunningham. Welcome back
to teach wonder. So we've beendoing this podcast for a while.
We've hosted dozens ofinterviews heard from so many
voices and perspectives. And ifyou're new here, we encourage
you to go back through ourlibrary and listen to some of
those fantastic conversationsbefore we get into today's
(00:41):
episode, a bit about us. Thispodcast is hosted by myself,
Ashley O'Neil and JulieCunningham. We're both staff at
the Center for Excellence inSTEM education. The center is a
student, family and teacherfocused space at Central
Michigan University. We hostafter school programs, field
trips, family events and summercamps for K 12 students. We also
(01:02):
work with teachers, with teacherworkshops in the summer and
ongoing support for them duringthe school year. And we work
with pre service teachers whoare current CMU students. This
podcast is a way for us toconnect with educators and
interested folks in a way that'snot constrained by schedule or
location. Basically, we're ondemand and in your ears. This
(01:22):
podcast is focused on teachingpractices, challenges and topics
that are at the intersection ofour work with students, current
teachers and pre serviceteachers. We're starting this
semester with a conversationabout our latest project, the
educator Institute. We'll talkmore about what it is, why we're
doing it, and why we think it'srelevant to you during this
episode. But first, some quickcontext. We've always been
(01:46):
invested in future teachers atCMU. Currently, that investment
looks like our STEM educationScholar Program. These CMU
students get access to themakerspace, the physical room in
which we host most of ourprograms. They get time working
with K 12 students, access toPD, an opportunity to attend a
national conference, a financialgift to support their education
and a community here at CMU,over the last few years, the
(02:09):
center participated in an NSFgrant that worked on intentional
collaboration between thefaculty who teach these future
students, basically getting someshared language and practices to
be discussed, modeled andpracticed explicitly in the
classes that these students havenow supported in part by some
strategic planning funds fromthe College of Education and
Human Services, we're able toexpand that investment in the
(02:31):
STEM education scholars throughthe educator Institute. This
means we're including currentteachers in the conversation and
the work to prepare these futureteachers for the classroom. In
this episode, we're going togive you all the details of this
institute, and we're also goingto explain how those themes and
topics are going to be the basisof our podcast this semester. So
if you're interested incuriosity, student agency,
(02:53):
building respectfulrelationships, the challenges of
doing this and the constraintsof the classroom, as well as a
deep dive into debriefinginteractions with students for
the intention of all of uslearning together, you're in the
right place. Without furtherado, here's our conversation
today.
Julie Cunningham (03:20):
If we went to the educator Institute
reflection, like, how muchbackground do we want about why
we're doing Institute the waywe're doing
Ashley O'Neil (03:30):
it? Yeah, I'd like to get that recording of us
today, if possible.
Julie Cunningham (03:34):
Yeah, but I mean, like, the the pre service
teacher part comes out of that.
I mean, that's a several yearold like project that fed into
the NSF grant with faculty.
That's where the really, the preservice teacher part comes from.
And then I think the in serviceteacher piece comes about
(03:57):
because a there's got to be away to mesh the two types of PD,
the pre service and in service.
B, if in service teachers don'tplay a role or understand what
pre service teachers arelearning, then it's hard for pre
service teachers to practicewhat they're learning in service
(04:19):
classroom, and then see, we'vetried to get away at the center
from any type of PD that isn'tisolated. It's isolated. So, I
mean, those are all of those arenot really simple,
Ashley O'Neil (04:41):
no. And I think, like the mechanics are
interesting, and I think thatoverview is sufficient, right to
say, we've, we've always hadthis ongoing work, it the
educator piece started from theNSF grant. But I think the
biggest, or the maybe moreinteresting thing for people to
understand is that bigger, why?
Which is that we see, right?
Edge. Teaching is difficult. Itis complicated, and we see that
(05:04):
we're at this uniqueintersection where we have a
bunch of students in this spacein an informal way. So we can
practice some of these. I hatethe word undergirding, but these
like support skills that are soimportant in a classroom that
have nothing to do with ascience lesson or an ELA lesson,
but your science and your ELAlesson depend on those skills,
(05:26):
so you can practice them herewithout the content layered on
top of it, right? And we workwith teachers, and we work with
pre service teachers at auniversity, but we're out in
school, so I think we're in thisweird like we're in the middle
of this Venn diagram where wework with all these populations,
and as all of us are formerclassroom teachers, we see all
of the skills that students canpractice here, but if they don't
(05:49):
know that, that's what they'repracticing, if we're not
explicit to say, you know thatinteraction that you did, this
is how it serves you. See thatmove that you did. See the move
I did. See how I didn't sayanything in that moment. See how
I waited. Like, without thatexplicit piece, the students
could say, oh, this place wassuper fun. We had a great
interaction. And then they gointo their classroom, and they
(06:10):
haven't embedded those practicesintentionally into their own
toolkit. So I think part of itis making sure that we're being
really clear to say, like,that's a that's a good that's a
teacher move. That's a toollike, see that you did that.
Let's do that again and then.
And then it becomes somethingthey pull out of their pocket.
Otherwise they're gonna say,Yeah, Sarah was a great teacher.
We had a good time with her. Shewas super fun. We did Makey
(06:31):
makeys, and that's what theyremember, versus look at the way
that Sarah seamlessly did that,and how she negotiated that and
navigated this. And I could dothat too, in that way,
Julie Cunningham (06:43):
well, and we know that if we're not explicit,
we're not people who arelearning don't know how they can
get to be expert at it, right?
They only just see that someoneis expert at the teacher move,
but they don't know how to getthere themselves if we don't
make the decisions clear thatallowed us to get there the
(07:05):
decisions that we made in makingthe teacher move, if those
aren't clear and explicit tosomeone learning they don't
know.
Ashley O'Neil (07:15):
And so this idea that being a teacher is really
at its very like most elemental,it's a making a million
decisions in a day, right abouta ton of different things that
have impact the learning of ofthe students in your classroom.
And so we think about it thatway, this educator Institute is
really about us working withcurrent practicing teachers to
(07:38):
think about what those decisionslook like, and come up with a
way to reflect on thosemeaningfully and consistently
with language that makes sense,and then sharing that with our
pre service teachers to say,hey, practicing teachers see
these things as crossoverskills. Here, here are some ways
you could reflect on them andthink about interactions that
(07:59):
you've had and decisions thatyou've made, or you've watched
other people make, and what theconsequences or impacts were of
those decisions. And
Julie Cunningham (08:08):
then additionally, we've layered on
that those decisions should bemade in with a equity, equity
lens, right in an equitable way,and so making sure that
everybody that participates inthe educator Institute has the
same definition of equity, or asimilar definition of equity,
(08:28):
and is committed to usinglanguage and practices that
promote equity in a classroom,which
Ashley O'Neil (08:37):
is really where, like a rubber meets the road in
a classroom, right? If you havea student who's you jive with
organically, right, you getalong really well. Their sense
of humor matches yours. Theykind of are self sufficient in
lots of ways, right? That is astudent which you may naturally
be inclined to make decisionsthat work for both of you,
right, that are mutuallybeneficial. But if you have a
(08:58):
student who isn't similar to youin some way, or whose underlying
motivations aren't as clear toyou, right or as a sometimes
their responses may challengeyou in some way, shape or form.
That is the space where your ownlack of understanding or your
own work in some of theseplaces, will come through, and
(09:20):
then you're kind of perpetuatingsome of these imbalance
structures that we see inclassrooms that aren't
beneficial for anybody. So it'svery true. One of my questions
for you, and we can both talkabout it, but one of the things
that we're doing, and youbrought this up earlier, is we
don't do these kind of isolatedone off PDS anymore. We kind of
have an ongoing community. Someof these folks have been with us
(09:43):
for years in different ways, butthey've been with us for years,
and I think we're committed tothis kind of learning community
together. We don't try tostructure things so like you are
disseminating information assome sort of authority, or I am,
or whatever, but we'redefinitely in this learning
community. And. That word has orthat phrase has meaning in
(10:03):
schools. But to you, what does alearning community mean to you?
Because we've made this likewe're doing this, and we make an
effort to do it. So what does itmean to you? And why is it so
Julie Cunningham (10:14):
important? Oh, I I think one of the reasons
it's important is because we allcome to the table with knowledge
and expertise. My currentknowledge is not being a
classroom teacher, right? It'sbeen a number of years since
I've been not that I haven'tworked in education this whole
time I have, but that I'veactually been a classroom
(10:34):
teacher. And so if I'm notwilling to defer to those who
are in the classroom as theexperts with their own students,
then I have no business being ina professional development
workshop, right? I mean, and sojust to acknowledge that we all
(10:55):
bring things to the table andthat all of our backgrounds
matter and that all of ourexpertise matters, I think
that's one of the basic premisesto the professional learning
community, and I find it muchless of a like guessing game
about what everybody's needsare, or like me trying to say,
(11:17):
well, here's what I thinkteachers are going to need From
this that seems ridiculous.
Like, who am I to say? Here'swhat I think somebody's gonna
need from this series ofworkshops, right? I mean, I
think it does allow me a spaceto say here, here are the
strengths that I bring to thetable, and so we don't just show
(11:37):
up and not have an agenda atall, but on the other hand, we
leave plenty of time foreverybody's voice, and we leave
plenty of time for flexibilityin the schedule, and we leave
plenty of time for outcomes thatare shared and that everybody
(11:59):
can use after they walk awayfrom the workshop. So I think
that's the value to aprofessional learning community.
I also find it to be reallyrefreshing, because it's it's
tough to be the expecteddisseminator of information to a
group of your peers, right? It'sa different, definitely a
(12:21):
different scenario that you'rewalking into to sort of be
expected to, like, show up andbe on the stage for two or three
days and to have all theinformation, which is really
kind of a ridiculous premiseanyway,
Ashley O'Neil (12:40):
yeah. And I also think that, I mean, we feel, I
feel really strongly I agreewith everything you said. And I
think I feel really stronglythat learning is an active
process, not a passive one. Andso any of that, like
disseminating of information, isnot really us practicing what we
believe is really learning andtransformation of thinking,
(13:02):
right? And so the only way foreveryone in the room to be
active is if everyone'sstrengths are brought to the
table. And it is, it is more ofa conversation or more of a
group effort, versus us givingyou a PowerPoint and you taking
notes on like, the bulleted listof like tenants that we're
really excited about, we'drather talk about them. CO
create that list, maybe disagreeon them, experience things
(13:24):
together. Yeah, what is yourhope? Like? We just started
this. So this formally started,I mean, like Julie has said,
it's been in progress. There wasa prior Grant was with faculty
that included pre serviceteachers, and trying to think
about the people who areteaching pre service teachers at
(13:45):
this university. How are wedoing that with some sort of
like consistency and sharedlanguage? And now we're thinking
about current teachers, but itofficially launched this summer
with us meeting with thoseteachers. We met three times.
Now we all have, kind of ourplans for the school year, and
we have times and ways thatwe're meeting again during the
(14:08):
school year and kind of workingon this together. But what is
your future hope? What couldthis look like?
Julie Cunningham (14:14):
Well, I think that so. One of the premises of
the educator Institute is thatwe work. We have worked for a
number of years with in serviceteachers, and we have worked for
a number of years with preservice teachers, but it's
almost like unless we contrive away for them to meet. It's
really been two parallelsituations. So the idea behind
(14:36):
the educator Institute is thatinitially, right now, the work
that the in service teachers didthis summer will inform one of
the tools that the pre serviceteachers use to reflect on their
time in the MakerSpace. Sothat's sort of like the first
crossover. Now the pre serviceteachers might not really
(14:58):
understand the value. You ofthat at this point, they haven't
met the in service teachers, andthey'll be asked to sort of
pilot a new tool, which willrely on us making clear to them
why that's a value. So that willbe this fall. But then
eventually, I'd like to get to apoint where we have pre service
(15:23):
teachers being mentored by inservice teachers, and maybe not
exactly one on one, becausesometimes logistics are very
difficult between classes andclassrooms and between travel
time and already. Pre serviceteachers do have times in which
they need to be out inclassrooms, observing, but some
(15:46):
sort of a more direct mentorshipbetween the pre service teachers
and the in service teachers, andthen eventually relationships
built between them. So ifthey're both working towards the
same goals or the same outcome,the same types of information
and the same types of classroominstruction, then those would be
(16:11):
perfect classrooms for our preservice teachers to make
observations in to pre studentteaching to student Teaching.
There should be some commonlanguage, some common
expectations between them, andas much crossover as we can get
between the two programs. Yeah,that sounds
Ashley O'Neil (16:33):
ambitious and exciting, right? Idealistic?
Yes, yes. But I think that ifthat's what we're moving toward,
and we make a lot of ourdecisions with that in mind,
even if we get a fraction ofthat this year and it comes down
the road, that'd be prettyexciting. Is there anything else
you wanted to share and say aswe move forward into this? I
(16:54):
don't,
Julie Cunningham (16:55):
I don't think so. I mean, I think that I was
really pleased with our workthis summer, I think we had a
great professional learningcommunity. People really showed
up and did the work and werevulnerable and took feedback and
(17:15):
had discussions and perhaps evenminor disagreements at times and
walked away. All of us betterteachers because of it. And
additionally, we came out ofthis summer with a tool that pre
service teachers will be able touse as they work with children
this fall. And so they're goingto pilot that tool as well as
(17:38):
the in service teachers and usas facilitators. So I think
that's a pretty exciting outcomeand a great shared experience.
Ashley O'Neil (17:47):
And we are also going to pilot that tool in our
own way, and we're going tobring you all along for the
ride. So the rest of this fallseason will be us digging into
the themes and tenants of thetool that was brought up. And I
know we say tool, and you'relike, what are we talking about?
But we're really thinking aboutsome reflection questions and
some intentional ways for us tolook at our classroom when it's
(18:09):
happening, and then us to thinkabout our classroom after the
fact, and eventually, us tothink about as we're planning in
our classroom also. So we'llbreak down those different
tenants, some of them we'vetalked about on the podcast
before, some of them will benew. And then we are also going
to do our own work of observingourselves and each other in this
space and then bringing you realexamples and deconstructing some
(18:33):
teaching moments andinteractions with students, and
breaking down some of our owndecisions and what we did, what
we would do differently, or whythat worked in the way that it
did. So we're excited for thisfall season. The format will
look just a little bit differentas we're following this tool,
but we hope that we'll all do alot of learning together as we
go. This has been anotherepisode of teach wonder. Thank
(18:57):
you for listening. If you'reinterested in learning more
about the center. You can checkus out on social media or find
our website. The links areavailable in our bio, or search
for the Center for Excellence inSTEM education. You.
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