Briefly describe your future or current teaching assignments grade level (elementary school) or subject area(s) taught (middle and high school), student demographics, district and school characteristics (e.g., size), and community/neighborhood context.

Introductory Paragraph

Briefly describe your future or current teaching assignments grade level (elementary school) or subject area(s) taught (middle and high school), student demographics, district and school characteristics (e.g., size), and community/neighborhood context.

Fostering Direction Developing Shared Purpose

This section addresses the concept of the moral imperative of teaching. Fullan and Quinn state that educators must first understand their own moral purpose and be able to combine personal values, persistence, emotional intelligence, and resilience. This is essential because their moral purpose will be reflected in all their decisions and actions (p. 18). To clarify ones moral imperative, Fullan recommends that educators answer the following questions (p. 19):

What is my moral imperative?
What actions do I take to realize my moral imperative?
How do I help others clarify their moral imperative?

Begin this section with a description of the moral imperative of teaching supported by the courses textbooks and articles listed in the syllabus Reference section.
Conclude this section with a discussion of developing a shared moral purpose among you and your colleagues that guides your collaborative instructional planning process.
Fostering Direction Developing Shared Learning Goals

In the section entitled Goals That Impact What Matters Most, Fullan and Quinn state that (t)he problem is not the absence of goals in districts and schools today but the presence of too many that are ad hoc, unconnected, and ever-changing (p. 19).

Employing Fullans recommendations for developing a limited number of goals (see pages 21 24):

Identify and briefly describe three school-wide general learning goals (e.g., citizenship, collaboration, initiative taking) and how they may positively impact student learning.
Then describe the collaborative process with your colleagues resulting in the identification of the goals and their school-wide implementation within your school context described in your opening paragraph.
Creating Collaborative Cultures Developing School and Parents Collaboration

In this section, describe the process you and your colleagues could employ to develop effective collaboration between your grade level (elementary school) or department (middle/high school) and parents.

Begin this section by defining the nature of effective collaboration with parents.
Conclude this section by describing ways to develop effective collaboration within your teaching context described in the opening paragraph.
Creating Collaborative Cultures Developing Teacher Collaboration

In this section, describe how you and your colleagues could create a collaborative school culture that supports improved instruction and student learning in the school context you described in the opening paragraph.

Deepening Learning and Securing Accountability

In this section, begin with a description of the Lesson Study process in which teachers collaboratively plan, teach, observe, and revise a particular lesson.
Next, describe employing the Lesson Study process with your grade level colleagues (elementary school) or department colleagues (middle/high school) within the school context you described in the introductory paragraph. Clearly identify an instructional objective or objectives, appropriate instructional pedagogy and assessments, and proposed instructional modifications directly based upon anticipated assessment results designed to improve subsequent instruction.
APA