The educational needs of students and teachers have changed dramatically over time. That’s why the University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) is re-envisioning our teacher education program to better prepare teachers for the challenges they face in a 21st century classroom. We call this re-envisioning the Teacher Education Redesign Initiative (TERI). As the leading public research institution in the state, we’re uniquely positioned to improve teacher development by connecting ongoing research to TERI.
TERI began in 2010, when CEHD became one of 14 higher education partners across Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota working within the Bush Foundation’s Network for Excellence in Teaching (NExT) on a 10-year project. TERI thinks differently about teacher education by focusing on classroom diversity, building alliances with students’ parents and partnering with schools.
Focus on Diversity
Research shows the school-based factor that has the most effect on student success is the quality of the teacher. TERI’s mission is to produce high-quality teachers who are motivated, aware, knowledgeable and skilled to relate to and effectively teach students from culturally diverse backgrounds.
Understanding diversity in the classroom is necessary to help increase high school graduation rates, reduce disparities and close the achievement gap. One required class for TERI students, for instance, is called Cultures, Schools and Communities which addresses the social and cultural dimensions of working in today’s schools, led by professors Peter Demerath and Michael Goh. Teacher candidates explore a wide range of challenges and dilemmas facing educators including the multiple identities students bring to their classrooms such as race, culture, class and gender, to name a few.
Build Alliances with Parents
TERI also trains teachers to work with others who are invested in a child’s education, especially parents. From our research and practice, I recommend three tips for both parents and teachers to promote school success.
Tips for Parents:

1. Communicate: Don’t be afraid to talk with your child’s teacher–teachers are trained and expected to communicate with their students’ parents. While parents may feel uncomfortable taking this step, discussions with teachers can help break down barriers.
2. Support: Learn what in-school goals the teacher has established and ask how you can support the learning goals at home.
3. Contribute: Offer your expertise–from your profession, from your culture–by visiting the class or inviting the teacher to your home.

Tips for Teachers:

1. Listen: Teaching is not always about planning and instructing. Listening and paying attention to students and parents is just as important.
2. Partner: Treat parents as partners who are willing to engage and support learning both in the classroom and at home. A common misbelief is that all learning has to occur at school. From our research, we know that often more learning is happening at home than we think.
3. Let go of assumptions: Do not put students or families into boxes based on the color of their skin or the clothing worn to school. Get to know them on an individual level. In TERI, we teach adaptive expertise, which is the ability to adapt to a situation and to different types of people. Our teachers are trained to exhibit adaptive expertise in a variety of classroom situations, including working effectively with students learning English, students with special learning needs, and using the latest instructional technology to enhance learning.

Partner with Schools
In addition to working together successfully with parents, TERI prepares teachers to be leaders within their school. We have very high performing students in TERI–we teach them to be advocates and leaders. Conversely, school administration can become more mutually supportive by acknowledging teachers’ day-to-day leadership. By fostering an environment of collaboration, schools can support teachers by helping to turn their ideas into action. Administrations that value collaborative initiative help ensure quality teachers are attracted to this critical profession.
By thinking differently about teacher education, TERI prepares future teachers to have a long-lasting, positive impact on the children of Minnesota.
Misty Sato
Director, TERI
Associate Professor, Teacher Development and Science Education
Department of Curriculum & Instruction
Endowed Chair, Carmen Starkson Campbell Chair for Innovation in Teacher Development
College of Education and Human Development
Read Misty’s Bio

Minneapolis Public Schools On-campus Interviews for alumni and current student teachers.
March 26th, 28th, 29th
STSS Interview Center, 524
Deadline to submit: Friday, March 15, 2013 at 3:00pm
The employer is interview for:
Special Education – multiple areas
World Languages – multiple areas
Bilingual / Bicultural Elementary
Social Studies
Physical Education
Health
Early Childhood
Science
Chemistry
Physics
Math

At the College of Education and Human Development great efforts are taken to make sure that our teacher candidates are given the best education and support in and out of the classroom. Part of that process includes Supervisor Workshops conducted by the Educator Development and Research Center.
On February 1st, a cold Friday morning, 29 University supervisors representing Elementary Education, Science Education, Social Studies Education, Second Languages and Cultures Education, Physical Education and Health Education, Early Childhood Education, and Special Education met to discuss and practice mentoring skills to support student teachers.
The introduction to for coaching candidate’s teaching practice was led by Dr. Tiffany Moore. As part of our developing induction system for our new teachers, supervisors and cooperating teachers will be prepared in the same framework used by mentors for new teachers.
Dr. Elizabeth Finsness, Coordinator, Curriculum and Assessment, also presented and reviewed strategies for supervisory support of candidates completing their edTPAs.
This was the fourth session of a five workshop series for new supervisors of teaching candidates.

As part of the University of Minnesota’s Teacher Education Redesign Initiative (TERI) teacher candidates are taking part in classes known as the Great Lessons; taught by Dr. Peter Demerath and Dr. Michael Goh. On Wednesday, February 6th, 2013 students gathered in St. Paul for Great Lesson #8: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. The focus of the session was to prepare the teacher candidates for the curricular vision of teaching, develop empathy for students, and to develop a culturally relevant pedagogical framework for teaching practice.
The idea that teaching is a profession that requires continued growth and learning was an idea that resonated with students. Social Studies teacher candidate Pete McKown reacted to the lesson after class, “Perpetual learning empowers teachers to continue growing, leading, and perfecting their art of teaching.”
Andrea Kay had a similar takeaway from the class about getting through the struggles of being new to the teaching profession, “There is a cycle in teaching because it is a profession (just like law or medicine) and I should feel comfortable that I won’t be a novice forever; I will be able to look back at my frustrations and see that they were resolved in some way or another.”

Photo by: Terry Kleinbaum, Pillsbury Faculty
Co-teaching specialists Amy Jo Lundell and Stacy Ernst were pleased to contribute to Pillsbury Elementary whole faculty staff development on January 15, 2013. Grade level teams met to co-plan to co-teach, discuss the benefits of the collaborative work, and get to know each other better as colleagues.

On December 7th, 2012 CEHD and the EDRC hosted a TERI Partner Network Day. A Keynote Panel consisting of David Law (Assistant Superintendent, White Bear Lake), Michael Bradley (Principal, Minneapolis), Marsha Baisch (Interim Director, St. Paul), Amy Corrigan (Teacher & District Liaison, East Metro Integration District), and Stacy Ernst (TERI School Partner Network Coordinator, UMN-TC) discussed the subject “Year Three: Deepening our Collaborative Work in the Partner Network.
The 130 attendees also participated in a variety of breakout groups with a wide range of topics:

• Mentoring with Co-teaching: Cooperating teachers’ and University Supervisor’s experiences and feedback
• Reciprocal Relationships – Working sessions to improve clinical placement processes & communication in preparation for 2013-14
• Getting Connected: Recruitment and Employment Pathways in Partnership
• Caught in the Middle: TERI liaison, University supervisors, Cooperating teachers as Clinical Faculty in the Hybrid space
• Voices from the field: Cultural Liaison perspectives on practices leading to over-representation of African American children in suspension, expulsion, and special education
• Teacher Performance Assessments: The edTPA and common assessments for all UMN-TC teacher candidates
• We need tutors! We need field placements! How to engage the U’s students for Service-Learning in P-12 settings
• What’s this about a”Guarantee?” – Mentoring in the Induction Continuum: New Teacher Support in TERI

December 7th Full Description and Agenda

As part of the 2012 NCATE accreditation visit to the University of Minnesota and the College of Education and Human Development in November 2012, members from the both NCATE and MNBOT made a trip to Earle Brown Elementary and Roosevelt High School to witness our school partnerships in practice.
Thank you to Earle Brown and Roosevelt for hosting the examiners.

Event purpose:

• Connect directly with our school partners regarding recruitment, marketing, and employment strategies
• Showcase CEHD’s employment services, supports, and interview space available for schools and districts
• Learn more about our distrcit partners’ recruitment and employment needs, and
• Highlight CEHD’s faculty, program expectations, students’ experiences/assessments, service learning, recruitment, iPads, and more.

Attendees:

• CEHD faculty and program coordinators
• Minneapolis Public schools (Six Human Resource personnel)
• Brooklyn Center Public Schools (the superintendent’s assistant)
• Columbia Heights Public Schools (two principals and an HR staff member)
• White Bear Lake Area Schools (The HR director and staff members)
• East Metro Integration District (The superintendent and both principals)
• St. Paul Public Schools (Five HR recruitment/employment advisers)
• EDRC Staff
• The Dean’s Senior Management Team

Two informative tools that were presented were:

• The Top 10 Qualities which make the UMN-TC’s CEHD Teacher Candidates unique
• GoldPass – A University database to help connect students and alumni with employers, volunteer organizations, and internships across the country.

Angie Soderberg – Coordinator, Student/Professional Service

TERI Partner Network Co-teaching specialists offering face to face workshops at PDS school sites. New online workshops are also available to district partners beginning August 2012. District partners are invited to contact Stacy Ernst (sernst@umn.edu) for more details.

CoteachingWorkshopsFall2012.docx

East Metro Integration District site team meeting underway with CEHD faculty at TERI Partner Network Crosswinds, Summer 2012.

Many PDS site faculty met to discuss placements and partnership possibilities for 2012-2013.