Instructional Professional Development (IPD) Subcommittee

Update to the Steering Committee March 22, 06

IPD Subcommittee has met twice now.  The first meeting was face to face, hosted by Kathryn Schwartz, SAO, and involved mostly getting acquainted, who we were, who we represented, and how we could contribute.  We began a discussion of what our expectations and goals were and set a date for a virtual meeting.  The second meeting was a teleconference set up by Kent Foster, Microsoft, in which we continued the discussion of goals and expectations.  Details can be found on our website at http://opas.ous.edu/Committees/IPD.html.  We've asked Jo if there was some way to post and attach documents to an electronic whiteboard in preparation for the face to face meeting in April.

At the April 21 meeting at PSU, to be hosted by Carla Faini, MESA, we are all to bring an action plan with clearly defined goals and how to measure success.  We will continue the discussion of  the creation of a needs assessment potentially with a target audience of middle school teachers: 

  1. What are their needs for science, math and technology? 
  2. What are their professional development interests? 

Microsoft could then do some research with other states to find out how other states are dealing with these issues. 

Some questions posed by Carla will need to be addressed.  A couple of these include: 

  • How can we measure the interest level of teachers in teaching project-based engineering concepts in high school?  Many teachers complain about being forced to deliver specific content for standardized tests.
  • Who will participate in any professional development that we may want to offer? 
  • Who will fund it? 
  • Would teachers pay to attend or be paid to attend? 
  • Are there currently any districts offering professional development with engineering componenets? 

Based on the outcome of this April meeting, we will then be ready to invite others to join us.

Thanks to Winnie Miller for this information.

For questions or information regarding this webpage, please email Jo Oshiro or call (503) 725.2910.