Department of Special Education
Department Meeting
8/28/15
In attendance: Casey, Katy; Collet-Klingenberg, Lana; Collins, James; DeVore,
Simone; Gwalla-Ogisi, Nomsa; Kolb, Sharon; Schultz, Tia; Stevens, Amy; Stuart,
Shannon; Toms, Ozalle; Troemel, Eileen
Absent: Robinson, Rowand; Winchell, Brooke
1. Convene – Welcome – Lana thanked Rowand again for his three year service
to department as chairperson and the good work he contributed during this
time
2. Round Robin - Summer, Goals/Priorities for year
a. Team building games
b. Five agreements handout
3. Accomplishments and goals for each member
a. Sharon – Keynote in London; Sweden partnership emerging with
counselor ed and a school counselor at RiverBluff in Stoughton
b. Amy – Co-teaching work in Janesville continues (does a newsletter for
the teachers on co-teaching); Interested in some research/writing
around the WIFOR related to intervention classes and our students’
pass rates
c. Katy – Working on inclusive methods courses as moving away from
assessment courses; also working on grad methods and fieldwork;
looking for input from instructors of characteristics courses; will have
Gas assisting with CSD testing; continuing with selfadvocacy/determination research
d. Ozalle – Faculty Senate secretary this year; LC coordinator; getting
ready for fourth year review; finishing up changes to 325 with focus
on LD
e. James – Continuing as Transition Coordinator; working with Lana on
development of idea for post-secondary program for young adults
with ID.
f. Nomsa – Putting the student teaching handbook online; working on
creation of an overall program handbook with policy included; also
hope to put it online; teacher prep grant work, looking for interest in
applying
g. Shannon – Grad level training in autism certificate and supports
online for South Africa; Autism play delayed; Undergrad level, revamp
of Phase 3 with a focus on writing in the narrative statement on
edTPA
h. Simone – Working on Phase 3 for EC, will collaborate with Shannon’
Getting paper on attitudes in EC prep and professional development
revised and submitted by end of September. Dreaming about a center
based on collaboration with ComDis and utilizing trauma-informed
care principles
i.
Tia – 50% this fall, utilizing leave with new baby and other life
changes; worked on a paper with Shannon and Ozalle this summer;
piloting 485 partnering with the Office of Field Experiences; ABA cert
has 17 new students.
j. Eileen – Working on student employee handbook, supporting Nomsa
in putting student teaching handbook online; supporting department
to continue to utilize existing systems and resources to effectively
advise our students
k. Lana – Focus on transitioning into chair role; here to support faculty
and students; working on updating online 205 for going through QM
again this year; still working on social network research with learning
communities; had a paper co-authored (led) by James submitted this
summer; submitting Purple book for promotion to professor
4. Announcements and Budget Update
a. Moved edTPA date due to how dates were in WINS for Phase 4, now
using November date
b. Feds have ended the modified test ruling, so many students who
previously qualified for accommodations on state and district tests
will no longer be able to take modified tests
c. Guest parking – 24 hours notice
d. Internships – four emails concerning them, discussed which of them
should be approved. Lana to follow up with Nomsa and field office
based on faculty feedback.
e. Library funds – catalogs in Eileen’s office; order items useful for our
students
f. Copier – make sure to print in black and white. For some (esp Mac
users) this means going into your print settings and saving black as
default. Ask if you need help with this.
5. Departmental Activities
a. Meetings – we will have fewer; on average one department meeting
and one grad meeting a month; information will be shared via email
between meetings
i. If something comes up, we will call a meeting if necessary;
otherwise use email or talk in the office
ii. Going to use Smart School Teams book for some meeting
formats
b. Committee assignments
i. Discussed who is best fit on each committee – Eileen to submit
to Jody in Deans office
c. Advising processes
i. Meetings set up with minor and undergrad advisors to
streamline our process
ii. We can no longer have faculty log in and have students enter
scores (FERPA)
d. Modeling professionalism
i. Titles – students are being more informal
ii. Use the title when referring to other faculty with students
iii. We can use first names
iv. We need to let students know unless someone has given
permission to use their first name, they should be using their
title and last name.
v. When we need to vent, we need to do so behind closed doors.
e. Student staffing process
i. Send sheet around
ii. There’s supposed to be follow up and touch base again, but this
doesn’t always happen
iii. Chair and professor(s) are supposed to be develop a plan with
the student.
iv. Need to keep the form in the student’s file or in the chair files
v. Update procedure and include in handbook for faculty
vi. Student advisor should be included in the process
vii. To keep privacy, do we need to adjust the procedure
viii. Lana will initiate a conversation with the Dean of Students
1. Need to remind her our procedure was approved
through legal
ix. Tia, Katy & James would like to work on it.
x. WINS has a place to note interactions
xi. Student teacher contracts are in their file. Student workers
also have access to those and transcripts.
Action – Set up a meeting with Tia, Katy and James (Eileen)
f. Fun stuff – monthly lunch, birthdays, treats, thank you dinner for
David G.
i. We want to do a monthly lunch – it will be informal
ii. Birthdays – No more assigned treats for birthdays; instead
general snack sign up. Twice a month sign up for treats
iii. Would like to do a dinner for David Gordon – Lana will follow
up.
iv. Sunshine fund – Shannon will do it. Will do sunshine for
student workers as well. Contributions to SSF will be as
needed.
g. Hiring - Kelly is officially a lecturer this year. She’s teaching four
classes, not doing any service or advising. We don’t know if we are
going to be allowed fill her position. David’s position is also up in the
air. Deans office is working on it.
i. Related – There will be a search in ECE ; Simone would like it if
someone from our department be on the committee
Action – Volunteer from SPECED to be on ECE search (speak
with Simone)
Lunch –
6. Curricular Revision Process
a. What has been problematic
i. 462 is offered 1st semester senior this is a year after 326.
Suggestion made and agreed upon by the faculty to move it to
2nd semester junior year, swapping it with 406.
1. 465, 410, 458, 360, 487, are the other classes in the
Junior 2 semester
2. 406 would go to 485, 440, 473, 475, elemmid 425
Action – change plan to swap 406 & 462 (Eileen)
ii. 321, 322, 325 – we have three different titles for classes at this
level. We should be consistent.
1. Characteristics and Interventions of (fill in the section)
– Action – course proposals for 322 and 325 title
changes (instructors w/ Rowand or Lana’s guidance in
using Course Leaf)
iii. Minor program – update according to the changes
1. Cheat sheet for minors for all the different levels
iv. 473 – new phase 3
v. Goal for this year – see how courses are aligning within our
program
vi. Revising grad program to cover what ComDis is dropping
b. Anything with CD in the title has to change.
7. What our Supervisors Need to Know (Nomsa)
a. Feedback from students about supervisors who are unable to give
feedback based on our curriculum
i. If we put together a half a page of bullet points to send to
Nomsa to put into a document to share with supervisors.
ii. Get to Nomsa by September 4
Action - Observation form is online, modified. Nomsa will email
to us. All faculty to give feedback for what supervisors are to be
looking for in observations (Nomsa; faculty).
8. Standards in our Syllabi (Sharon)
a. CEC standards were handed out. Sharon filled them out for her
classes. Action - She’s asking the other faculty to do the same to their
courses. Submit to Sharon by Sept 8 (Sharon; faculty)
b. Would like to bring this back to the September 16 meeting for
discussion and analysis.
c. There is a great deal of confusion concerning which standards we are
following from CEC.
d. Key elements in the syllabi, but to review our program, go through the
breakdown of more specific standards
e. Amy will do 458
f. It would be good to have these in the syllabi for Spring 16 syllabi.
g. List inTasc and include CEC
h. Are we still going for CEC certification?
i. To have these noted in the syllabi, it helps if someone needs to take
the course, it helps them to pick it up easier.
j. Is there a CEC inTASC crosswalk? Probably.
k. If we do CEC they will fit into the inTASC
9. Sharing re Programs
a. ECE – started a redesign of the curriculum, pride in the process of the
new curriculum.
b. UG majors – curricular redesign is making our program better;
student performance in edTPA good; challenge our students;
challenge – firming up our field experiences,
c. UG minors – challenges to the minors with the curricular changes; for
those out of COEPS – students are able to take things in almost any
order.
d. Grad Licensure
e. Grad PD – numbers are the challenges, action research work was
excellent,
10. The Future of the Summer Institute (Amy & Shannon)–
a. CCBD in WI is starting up again. it would be interesting to collaborate
with them
b. We should host a conference the first week in August
c. Pre for 1, conference for 1, post for 1
d. Because the PDP funds have changed, we have to realize we aren’t
going to have the numbers we used to have.
e. Marketing is really good for UW-Lacrosse
Action – talk to media and marketing about how we can better market
our programs (Lana & Shannon)
11. Goal Setting (Department level, continued from COEPS retreat, relate to
program goals)
a. Curricular alignment – go through alignment, scope and sequence of
our curricular in relation to our new design
b. Use of technology – course to go through assistive technology – where
in our courses do we want to plug in? All students will be having
exposure to the WADI. Include in all three characteristics to include
this.
c. Fine tune our curricular adjustments
d. Formalizing our staffing process
e. Internationalizing the curriculum. We need to be more cognizant and
explicit of this.
f. Outreach projects – alternative college experience for students with
intellectual disabilities, ECE collaboration with comdis, trauma
informed care – to write grants to provide these services.
Action – Write up goals and relate to UWW and COEPS SPBC and share
with faculty at a later date (Lana); Meet with Deans to discus project
ideas (Lana with James and with Simone)