Friday, February 24, 2012

Reflection of AIW Regional Collaboration Day, February 17, 2012

Approximately 680 educators representing 36 buildings in 15 Heartland districts are currently improving their instructional practices through involvement in Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW). For each of the past four years, teachers incorporating authentic pedagogy into their instructional practices have gathered in the middle of winter to collaboratively score and discuss teacher tasks, student work and actual classroom instruction through DE-sponsored events. AIW offers teachers opportunities to reflect on their practice, through research-based criteria within a framework, while gathering feedback from colleagues, all in order to change what goes on in the classroom toward the benefit of improved learning for all students.

On Friday, February 17, Heartland sponsored its first AIW Regional Collaboration Day (and the fifth as part of statewide efforts). More than 250 K-12 educators attended the full day at Stilwell Junior High School in West Des Moines. They gathered in similar content areas, by grade band, and, through the facilitation of a Heartland-area AIW teacher-leader, scored tasks/assessments, pieces of student work and reviewed video clips of instruction brought by presenting teachers seeking feedback. In addition, several individual participants were captured on video offering thoughts on the practices of authentic pedagogy; some teams were recorded while scoring and discussing artifacts from classrooms. The video recordings will be compiled into an informational DVD for agency and LEA use.

The Heartland AIW coaches welcome your questions or comments on AIW. Please direct your feedback to an AIW team member listed below.

Becca Lindahl, blindahl@aea11.k12.ia.us
Teresa Bellinghausen, tbellinghausen@aea11.k12.ia.us
Mary Schmidt, mschmidt@aea11.k12.ia.us
Sue Ford, sford@aea11.k12.ia.us
Linda Moehring, lmoehring@aea11.k12.ia.us

No comments:

Post a Comment