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You’re a principal who’s convinced that students benefit when their teachers collaborate. But one of your teachers thinks those “professional learning community” meetings are a total waste of time. He’s dug in his heels. What do you do?

The answer to questions like that one is the difference between those who get interviewed for principal’s jobs, and those who get hired. Which is why mock interviews are a key part of the WSU College of Education’s principal certification programs in Vancouver, Spokane and the Tri-Cities. At Vancouver, the  third and final year of the  program is a school-based internship that is packaged with “Pursuing the Position” activities: monthly seminars, frequent reflections, school visits by WSU faculty supervisors, and those mock interviews.

Some 175 principals and assistant principals have received their certification through WSU Vancouver. Every year the mock interview session brings some of those school leaders back to campus to help those following in their footsteps–and do a little socializing while nibbling Cougar Gold cheese.

This month, 21 interns were interviewed by 38 principals and assistant principals. Each mock interview lasted 75 minutes and included a review of the intern’s resume, sample letter of application, and update on major internship projects.

“The interview teams were three or four members each, simulating what an interview might be like for a school district position,” said program director Gay Selby, who explains at the end of this post how she would deal with that reluctant teacher described above. “The primary purpose of the interviews is give the interns feedback, which they get after nearly every answer.”

‘Even worth missing the first half’

Intern Susan Watson’s feedback on the feedback was glowing. She wrote: “My resume got 100 percent approval and I have a little tweaking to do on my letter of interest. I may feel ready for the new role of principal in my head and heart, but I have much to learn about how to communicate that readiness.”

Ryan Theodoriches, another intern and a Gonzaga basketball fan, described the experience as so great that it was “even worth missing the first half of the Zags game.”

The Vancouver principal interns also get to see the flip side of the process. They volunteer to interview WSU students who will soon be heading out to find their first teaching jobs.

In Spokane, the mock interviews have been happening for ten years.  Program director Jim Howard says he’s moved by the willingness of busy administrators, including school superintendents, to devote an entire evening each spring to give feedback to WSU principal interns.

The Tri-Cities program, like Spokane’s, lasts two years and the internships are simultaneous with the course work. “We do the mock interviews a little differently,” says Tri-Cities director Danny Talbot. “Our interns interview prospective teachers  along with principals and human resources people from the school districts–and then are interviewed themselves. It’s great practice. We do it spring and fall.”

Practice makes perfect at the undergraduate level, too. In Pullman, the Future Teachers and Leaders of Color organization offers mock interview sessions to prepare students for the teacher education program admissions process. This spring, organizers expected ten participants. Forty showed up.

Gay’s answer to the question

So how should a principal deal with a teacher’s resistance to professional learning community (PLC) meetings?  Here’s what Gay Selby would do: “I would start by asking him why the meetings aren’t helpful. Then I would tell him what assets I think he brings to the PLC and why his contributions are important. I would seek his commitment to attend the next meeting. Finally, I would ask if he would like me to attend as an observer–and then we would talk again.”

The elements of a good research poster session range from comfortable shoes (if you’re a presenter on your feet for hours) to free refreshments (great coffee, those miniature chocolate cupcakes). Even more important, though, is a catchy poster image.

This cartoon, with its message about different cultural perspectives, will be on the poster presented by Professor Gisela Ernst-Slavit at this Friday’s WSU 2011 Academic Showcase in Pullman. The title of her presentation: “Othering” in Elementary Social Studies: A Critical Analysis of Teacher Talk. Gisela’s research partner, doctoral student Michele Mason, won’t be on hand, but Michele explained their work for the WSU Today article, “Teacher’s word choices can reinforce stereotypes.”

Other College of Education presenters will be:

• Kristin Huggins: The Emergence of the Hybrid Teacher Leader to Facilitate District and School Reform
• Olusola Adesope with Tracy Lavin, Terry Thompson, and Charles Ungerleider: Meeting the English Literacy Needs of ESL Immigrant Students
• Brian French with graduate student Chad Gotch: Elementary Teachers’ Knowledge and Self-Efficacy for Measurement Concepts
• Brian McNeill with graduate students Arlene Carrasco, Laura Preciado, and Dan Neighbors: Indigenous Healing in Mexico
• Timothy Church, Brian French, Marcia Katigbak, and Fernando Ortiz with graduate Students Juan Alvarez and Nhu Mai: Are Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Personality Profiles Meaningful? Differential Item and Facet Functioning in the Revised NEO Personality Inventory
• John Wong and Bob Rinehart: Physical Prowess, Body, and National Identity: The Bruce Lee Story
• Susan Finley: The AHAS EPortfolio: Educational Technology for Highly Transient Students
• Sarah Ullrich-French with undergraduates Eric Anderies, Cassaundra Bergman and Timothy Rasmussen: Yes Wii Can: Undergraduate Student Mentors in a Physical Activity Intervention
• Robert Hougham: Palouse Pollinators: Growing, Learning and Being in Community
• Xyanthe Neider: Complicating Campus and Community Ecologies: Disruptions, Interactions, and Experiences of Students of Middle Eastern Heritages
• Richard Sawyer: Duoethnography as Dialectic Narrative Research
• Richard Sawyer: Educational Resistance at the Crossroads of Tension and Change: An Investigation of the Impact of Globalization in Southern Mexico and Palestine
• Jenny Lee (graduate student) with Timothy Church, Alicia Del Prado, Marcia Katigbak, Jose de Jesus Vargas-Flores, Joselina Ibanez-Reyes, Guy Curtis, Monica Whitty and Fernando Ortiz: Cultural Differences in the Content of Self-Concepts: Agentic and Communal Traits
• Dana Fairbrother (graduate student) with Timothy Church: Differential Prediction of Life Satisfaction Across Cultures
• Heidi Stanton Schnebly (graduate student): Writings from the Margins: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Voice, Presence, and Agency
• Jared Karstetter (undergraduate) with Kasee Hildenbrand and graduate students Lee Martin and Keith Schlect: Do Neck Strength Deficits Correlate to the Incidence of Concussion?
• James Johnson (undergraduate) with Lawrence Bruya and Dan Peterson: Childhood Nutrition Habits
• Loren Meador with Lawrence Bruya: Aggression Levels in Combat Veterans
• Jennifer Beller with Erika Lund (undergaraduate): Moral reasoning differences between intercollegiate athletes and kinesiology majors relative to doping in sport.

Overheard at WSU Spokane last weekend: “I like this conference. You get to talk.”

You get to sing, too — especially if you’re a professional performing artist like Veronique Medrano, who gave a rousing dinner-hour performance at the 7th annual Globalization, Diversity and Education Conference. Veronique is also a student at the University of Texas at Brownsville. She and her adviser, Elizabeth Sierra-Zarella of SUNY Farmingdale State College, gave a presentation titled El Arte de Memoría: Sexual Trauma, Existentialism, and Installation Art From the Borderlands. (You’ll find the entire schedule of presentations on the conference web page, and photos here.)

Personal communication and delightful surprises are hallmarks of the conference, which is hosted by the WSU College of Education’s graduate program in Cultural Studies and Social Thought in Education. Although small by the standards of academic gatherings, it definitely reflects the university’s  “Because the world needs big ideas” theme.

Conference chair Mike Hayes offers these thoughts:

“As I reflect on the 7th annual Globalization conference, I am struck by the tremendous energy that participants brought to the two days of meetings. Filmmaker and activist Jen Marlowe tapped into the raw emotion of Palestinian struggles in her films “One Family in Gaza” and “Peaceful Thoughts.” Animated conversations spilled out from the presentation rooms and into the breaks, meals and the hotel lobby, magnifying their effect. Who can forget Denise Taliafero Baszile’s performance that had the audience dancing to Bob Marley’s “Get Up Stand Up” as a reminder of our commitment to social justice. Not your usual academic conference fare, but what we have come to expect at the globalization conference.

“I have watched the conference evolve over the years, and I feel it is uniquely positioned to push education research and practice to the intersection of the head and the heart and create educational experiences for all students that are meaningful, fulfilling and just. I look forward to seeing everyone again at next year’s conference, and continuing our tradition of deep engagement with ideas that enhance education in our global society.”

Once visitors pull their eyes away from the engaging 5-year-old faces and the colorful learning materials that crowd Dee Baumgartner’s classroom, the next thing they’re likely to notice is the teacher’s energy. Mrs. B’s cheerful stamina is amazing, especially considering she’s been teaching kindergarten since 1968.

Everything she says to the students has a rhythm and purpose. Her methods are based on research findings — often ones that reinforce what decades of experience have taught her.

Dee, a WSU alumna (M.Ed. ’73), recently invited Dean A.G. Rud to visit her class at Pullman’s Franklin Elementary School.  (He accepted, and it was a delightful hour. Pictures here.)

Winner of the College of Education’s 2009 Miller-Manchester Teacher Mentor Award, Dee has helped many WSU teacher education students gain experience her classroom. On the day of the dean’s visit, elementary education student Laura Mathis was on hand.

Asked later about the influence of research on her teaching, she mentioned her participation in research grants that involved the teaching approach championed by Madeline Hunter and Bloom’s Taxonomy, a classification of learning objectives. “Both of these helped to lay a strong foundation of what makes teaching good, and the types of questions and activities that challenge students at all different levels of learning.”  Another major influence was her preparation, through WSU, for National Board teacher certification.

“My ability to write with children was influenced by the opportunity to be part of the Northwest Writing Project through WSU and the fine tutoring of Dr. Sherry Vaughn,” she said. “Right now, I’m delving into brain research by looking at Robert Marzano and John Medina.”

“I have truly reveled in (Medina’s) 12 brain rules. When I learn that repetition is really important to new learning, I make sure that I do two-minutes spots of review. When I learn about the need for using many of our senses when presenting new material to my students, I say ‘right on’ and get out Jello-flavored playdough to help students learn those tricky letter names.”

A lot has changed since she started teaching, Dee said. “That is probably what has kept me fresh and loving what I do. The greatest change has been the statement to my students of the ‘target learning’ for a particular lesson.  I always knew it, but didn’t communicate it clearly until recent years.”

In other words, she starts a lesson by telling the children what they will learn and asking if they understand that. To reinforce the lesson, she ends it by asking them to describe and then demonstrate what they’ve learned. And they do it. “Kindergarten students are amazing.”

When Molly Nelson was a kid, she liked to read. But unlike some of her classmates in WSU’s teacher education program, Molly didn’t notice the bumpy gold seal imprinted on the front of some of the books she picked up.

Now, the sophomore from Issaquah is keenly aware that the Caldecott Medal designates America’s best picture books. This semester, she read 12 medal winners as part of her Department of Teaching and Learning children’s literature course. In a class assignment, she had to pick one book and create a poster that captured its theme. Her choice was Gerald McDermott’s Arrow to the Sun.

“What I liked about this book was the design was really simple, but the colors were bold,” Molly said of the Pueblo Indian tale. “I did my best to re-create that.”

The future teachers put a lot of time into the assignment. While Clinical Assistant Professor Barbara Ward didn’t grade them on artwork, she was impressed with how attractive the posters turned out.

Barbara, a Pullman faculty member, modeled her “visual literacy project” after one used by Professor Terrell Young at WSU Tri-Cities. Both faculty members are former elementary school teachers. Both are researchers who are active in national and international literacy organizations. Both report that their students enjoy the literacy project, which teaches them how to evaluate books.

“I believe that if we foster a love of reading and an appreciation of quality literature in our preservice teachers, they will fall in love with reading again and feel confident in selecting books to use in their classrooms,” said Barbara. “I want my students to leave WSU ready to teach in a literature-based reading program.”

What do you do when you’re three and waiting for your mom to get an award? For one thing, you catch the eye of the closest person with a camera.  Pullman campus photographer Shelly Hanks snapped this shot of Sachiko Price at the recent MLK Celebration, where Paula Groves Price was honored with the Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Service Award for faculty.

Paula coordinates the Department of Teaching and Learning’s Cultural Studies and Social Thought in Education program.   Every summer she works alongside her husband Cedric Price, director of WSU’s physical education program, managing a week-long residential camp on the Pullman campus for Coeur d’Alene Tribe youth leaders.

For another picture from the ceremony, see our Facebook page.

More good news from cultural studies: The journal Education Review published a review written by graduate student Patricia Maarhuis.  It begins: “The Curriculum Studies Handbook (CSH), edited by Erik Malewski (2010), is a thick tome and proved challenging to review due to its complexity in both breadth and depth of topic.”

Patricia, who works in WSU Counseling Services, responded to congratulations by saying: “It’s a wonderful program and I’ve so appreciated working with Dr. (Pauline) Sameshima.  She has been very supportive (with high expectations!) throughout the writing and publishing process.”

Mari Stair, who is finishing her doctoral degree in WSU’s language and literacy program, is teaching in Japan this year thanks to the Nishinomiya-WSU College of Education Partnership. Mari is so enjoying the experience that she has asked for, and received, approval to stay on a second year.  She shares her excitement in the following letter.

Working as an assistant language teacher in Nishinomiya, Japan, is an amazing experience!  The schools are filled with considerate students and energetic teachers.

There is a strong focus on physical fitness, teamwork, precision maneuvers — and it shows.  School sports days are impressive.  This year, a city-wide sports day event was reinstated after a three-year renovation of historic Koshien Stadium. It was mesmerizing to watch twenty junior high schools perform in unison.

Each junior high school also has a singing contest, an all-day event held in one of several beautiful civic performance halls. I was astounded by the contest I attended.  Each class had one or two student pianists for accompaniment, while student conductors kept the tempo for each classroom’s choir.  Between performances, one class asked me to listen while they rehearsed out in the hall. The sound of their voices brought tears to my eyes, it was so pretty.

You must imagine what it would be like for American middle-school teachers if they each had to instruct their own students in PE and music in addition to regular content areas. That seems to be common here. Students wear school uniforms and everyone eats the same home-cooked school lunch together, which I think only adds to the level of harmony and attunement. This synchronicity obviously benefits physical and artistic performances, and may help overcome the challenge of teaching and learning in classrooms with 40 students.

Japanese English-language text books include information about the American civil rights movement. There are essays about our civil rights leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. The texts also cover important social issues from many other places around the world, as well as the spectrum of cultural diversity throughout Japan itself.

I am very grateful to get to work with this excellent city’s educational leaders.  Thank you WSU College of Education for the opportunity!

Thanks to Washington State Magazine, our college has an updated format for sharing news about alumni.  Better yet, our grads  have a way of sharing their own news.

Instead of posting the life/career updates on a College of Education web page, we’re using the magazine’s online class notes feature called “My Story.”  This works like a blog.  News posts about promotions, honors, new jobs, retirements and the like show up in the main “My Story” section.  Posts that are flagged College of Education also will show up in the Education Alumni list, as seen in the screen shot above.

If you are an alum or want to share news about someone who is, drop us a note at education@wsu.edu, and we’ll post the information for you on MyStory.  Alumni can also create their own MyStory accounts and post their own news — in which case, we encourage them to check the box that indicates their affiliation with our college.

Here’s some bright, shiny holiday season news from Debra Pastore, director of our program that supports teachers seeking certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

Writes Deb:

“National Board scores came out recently and again WSU did quite well. We had 104 first-time candidates, and 70 of them certified.  That puts us at a 67 percent certification rate.  Compared to the national rate (38-39 percent) and state of Washington rate (48-50 percent) for first-time candidates, WSU is a shining star.”

Deb credits the program’s faculty for the stellar results. “Our instructors are just amazing.”

State bonuses are one incentive that Washington teachers have for doing hard year-long certification work. But those bonuses are being challenged.  For an explanation and opinion on the subject, read:  Teachers ‘performance pay’ is promise the state should keep.