RPDS Council Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Salisbury University ~ Worcester Room
In attendance: SU: Paul Gasior, Diallo Sessoms, Kelly Fiala & Sandy Pope
Representing Wicomico Co:
 Beaver Run & Willards Elementary: Betty Hamblin (SU), Beth Keyser (BRES) & Mary Stavely
(WES)
 Chipman Elementary: Mary Lou Fineran (SU)
 Glen Avenue Elementary: Susan Webster (SU) & Amanda Evans
 Delmar Elementary: Sis Givans (SU) (also Choptank & Sandy Hill in Dorchester)
 Fruitland Intermediate & Primary: Marita Barnes (SU), Jon Shearer (FIS), Susie Jones (FPS) &
Heather Charlton (FPS)
 Pinehurst Elementary: Amy Porter (SU), Hillary Jump & Katie Byrne
 Pittsville Elem/Middle: Kim McCormick (SU)
 Prince Street Elementary: Sharon Huston (SU) & Ginny Mogan
 Bennett Middle: Penny Caldwell (SU)
 Parkside High: Ann Ashe (SU) & Erin Raymond
 James M. Bennett High: Pat Dittrich (SU), Kim Pinhey, Cheryl Doughty & Carol Chester
 Salisbury Middle: Ellie Ennis (SU)
 Mardela Middle/High: Rick Briggs, Cathy Ramey & Kaitlyn Dwyer (SU, intern)
 Wi Middle: Debbie Daughtery-Ball (SU) & Kathy Malone
Representing Worcester Co:
 Buckingham & Showell Elementary: Gray Jack (SU) & Kristin Pike (SES)
 Stephen Decatur High: Mandi Wells
Representing Somerset Co:
 Greenwood & Princess Anne Elementary: Bob Carlisle (SU) & Elizabeth Marshall (PAES)
Representing Dorchester Co:
 Choptank & Sandy Hill Elementary: Cathy Hanson (CES) & Carol Coulbourn (Sandy)
 North Dorchester Middle & High: John Furey (SU), Crystal Carpenter (NDMS) & Erin Fitzgerald
(NDHS)
Representing Caroline Co:
 Denton Elementary: Shanetia Clark (SU), Patsy McClellan & Debbie White
Representing Anne Arundel Co:
 Piney Orchard Elementary: Chris Price (SU)
Representing Talbot Co:
 Easton Elementary: Willie DiLaura (SU) & Amy Walstrum
Guest:
 Allison Matthews, UMES
51 total in attendance
I.
Welcome – Mr. Paul Gasior & Dr. Kim McCormick announced that they would be leading the
Council meeting due to an emergency in the Siers family.
a. Dr. Kelly Fiala was introduced at the new Associate Dean of the Seidel
School.
OVER
II.
Doctoral Program Update – Dr. Kim McCormick
a. Dr. Judith Franzak has been hired as the new doctoral program director and she will
begin her position in June.
b. Applications have been received and are under review. Anyone interested in applying
please visit the doctoral website at www.salisbury.edu/educationspecialites/edd for
more information.
III.
Noteworthy News
a. ECED/ELED Intern Gallery Walk – Dr. Kim McCormick
i. April 29, 2014 – Great Hall of Holloway Hall (3:30 – 5:30 pm)
ii. Interns will be distributing “Save the Date” postcards to principals and mentor
teachers.
b. Summer Graduate Courses – attached you will find two documents advertising courses.
Feel free to distribute the documents to your faculty accordingly.
c. 18th Annual RPDS Conference – Information can be found on our website at
www.salisbury.edu/pds and click on “RPDS Conference.”
i. May 1, 2014 – James M. Bennett High (4:00 – 7:00 pm) Please circulate this
information to the mentors and interns in your school.
1. New format – Keynote Speaker (Mr. Aaron Deal; 2003 Maryland
Teacher of the Year), dinner, awards & door prizes!
2. Awards - Time to nominate people for Outstanding PDS Awards! To find
the nomination form & directions, visit our website or click HERE.
a. Awards include: Outstanding PDS…
i. Mentor
ii. Intern Supervisor
iii. Liaison
iv. Site Coordinator
v. Co-teaching Pair
b. Nominations will be accepted until midnight on Friday, April
11th.
3. Registration – Conference registration opens on Wednesday, March
12th – Friday, April 25th. Click HERE to register for the conference.
4. Door Prizes – Send an email to Stacie Siers at sesiers@salisbury.edu by
April 25th if your school is willing to donate a $25 door prize.
ii. The changes to the conference were in response to data collected from PDS
stakeholders after last year’s conference. In an effort to honor the requests that
were made the conference time has been shortened by one hour with
professional development provided through a keynote speaker. There will be no
break-out sessions or intern gallery walk. Various teacher education programs
will be hosting separate gallery walks on SU’s campus, such as the early
childhood and elementary gallery walk scheduled for April 29th. Other dates are
forthcoming. ALL interns are required to disseminate the results from their
action research or student impact study at the school where they conducted
their research. Liaisons & site coordinators will assist the interns with
arranging an appropriate venue for dissemination.
d. National PDS Conference & Maryland PDS Conference -see the bottom of the minutes
for a list of PDS partners attending and presenting at both conferences.
e. Riall Lecture – Dr. Alfie Kohn, nationally known author and provocative commentator on
education policy. Click HERE for more information.
i. Date: Tuesday, April 8th
ii. Time: 7:30 pm
iii. Holloway Hall auditorium
IV.
Seidel School Strategic Plan Input – Paul Gasior
a. The Seidel School is currently developing a strategic plan that would incorporate all 4
departments (Teacher Education, Education Specialties, Social Work & Health and Sport
Sciences.) The strategic plan will guide decision-making within the school. In order to
serve all departments and their partners, a survey is being created for the following
audiences:
i. partners in schools
ii. people who hire our graduates
iii. alumni
iv. current students
v. SU faculty and staff.
b. At this point we just want to make you aware of the initiative and as one of the
aforementioned groups, you may be asked to complete the survey.
V.
Networked Improvement Community (NIC) Initiative – Paul Gasior
a. SU applied to be part of this initiative through American Association of Colleges for
Teacher Education (AACTE). If we are selected as one of the 10 schools to participate we
will be asking our partner schools for assistance in achieving certain goals.
b. This NIC aims to address the problem of alignment between the teacher workforce and
the demographic make-up of the P12 population, particularly in relation to increasing
the percentages of Black and Hispanic male teachers. Currently about 80% of P12
teachers are white, middle-class women. The P12 student population is much more
diverse; over 40% of students are non-White. Additionally, in over 40% of public schools
there are no teachers of color at all. According to data collected from AACTE members
through the Professional Education Data Systems (PEDS), of the total number of
Bachelor’s degrees awarded in 2009-2010 to teacher candidates, only 6% were awarded
to black candidates and about 4% to Hispanic candidates.
VI.
Teacher Education Department & the 4 Credit Model – Dr. Diallo Sessoms
a. The Teacher Education Dept. anticipates moving to a 4 credit model for the Fall of 2015
affecting the early childhood and elementary programs. Once the model is approved,
PDS sites will experience an increase in the amount of time candidates and interns are
placed in schools throughout their program.
b. Dr. Sessoms discussed the model and the expected changes. Increasing the clinical
experience of methods candidates to reflect national trends as well as input from PDS
stakeholders. Also, candidates will be able to complete a fall internship depending on
how they plan their courses. This will alleviate overloading a particular PDS site with
interns. The new 4 credit model will include 1 credit diversity courses that will be piloted
fall 2014. All methods courses will be enhanced to reflect new standards and updated
assignments. The new model will allow for STEM experiences for all students prior to
entering the program. There will be a 1 credit STEM experience as well as updated
science requirements that require students to take a 3 or 4 credit STEM related course.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
Feedback from the Field – Dr. Kim McCormick
a. As part of a request by CAEP (SU’s accrediting body), Dr. Kim McCormick led a discussion
to gather information from PDS stakeholders regarding current and aspirational
characteristics of high quality clinical educators. The following questions were asked to
the Council:
i. What are the current characteristics of P-12 clinical educators selected to work
with candidates in teacher preparation programs during 2013-2014?
ii. What are the aspirational characteristics…
b. A t-chart was created and data was collected by Dr. Kelly Fiala to be submitted to CAEP.
Mentor-Intern Forum – Dr. Kim McCormick
a. Shared that the mentor-intern forum initiative is gaining momentum. Council members
were provided with two documents highlighting feedback and data from the first two
mentor-intern forums that were conducted by Dr. Ron Siers on SU’s campus. (see
attached)
b. Mardela mentor, Cathy Ramey & intern, Kaitlyn Dwyer provided their testimony to the
benefits of the forum and how it has positively impacted their internship experience.
Mardela principal, Rick Briggs, provided the administrative point of view on how the
forum is a proactive approach that cuts down on the type of avoidable issues regarding
expectations and how the forum sets up both mentor and intern for a successful
internship.
c. Dr. McCormick continued by sharing the quantitative data and informed the Council
that SU will continue to offer two forums a year, and we will be expanding the model to
include elementary schools in the future. Until then, site coordinators and liaisons
should incorporate as many mentor-intern forum strategies as possible into their own
on-site orientation/forum. Some key concepts to include:
i. Providing a time prior to the full-time internship where mentors and interns
jointly attend the orientation/forum.
ii. Allowing mentor-intern pairs to participate in the following 3 activities.
1. Values & Self Discovery Exercise
2. Mentor Attributes
3. Intern Attributes
iii. Resources can be found on the website at:
http://www.salisbury.edu/pds/Council/council.html
Other – Cheryl Doughty
a. Tracker Trivia – JMB site coordinators, Cheryl Doughty & Carol Chester along with
liaison Pat Dittrich shared a new way to help mentors and interns become more familiar
with the Intern Checklist while having fun doing so. JMB uses the game during their
mentor-intern orientation/forum to encourage discussion and questions regarding the
artifacts and requirements during the internship experience. (see attached)
National PDS Conference Presenters – Las Vegas, NV – March 27 – 30, 2014
SU Faculty & Staff:
 Stacie Siers
 Ron Siers
 Keith Conners
 Joel Jenne
 Kim McCormick
 Paul Gasior
 Gray Jack
 Star Weaver
 Patty Dean
PDS Partners:
 Jennifer Beamer (Piney Orchard Elementary)
 Debbie Wilkins (North Salisbury Elementary)
 Ron Wainwright (Parkside High)
 Beth Shockley-Lynch (Snow Hill Elementary)
SU Interns:
 Erin Nooney
 Adrienne Buffington
 Laura Devlin
 Kara Tolson
Maryland PDS Conference – Stevenson University – May 3, 2014
SU Faculty & Staff:
 Stacie Siers
 Kim McCormick
 Gray Jack
 Ron Siers
 Sara Elburn
 Claudia Burgess
 Chin-Hsiu Chen
 Althea Pennerman
 Joel Jenne
 Pat Dittrich
PDS Partners:
 Melissa Reid (Buckingham Elementary)
 Students from Salisbury Middle School
 Erin Fitzgerald (North Dorchester High)
 Pam Lipka (Berlin Intermediate)
SU Interns:
 Erin Nooney
 Jon Benjamin
 Kaitlyn Dwyer
Meeting adjourned at 5:30 pm