Annual Retreat of the Professional Development Schools Consortium 2009 September 25, 2009 8:00-3:00 Erie 1 BOCES Center, West Seneca NY Attendance: 21 Cooperating Teachers, 8 Principals/Administrators, 32 BSC/NCCC Faculty, 14 Students, and 3 Others attended the meeting for a total of 78 attendees. I. Welcome Leslie Day welcomed all attendees to the retreat and asked them to fill out the globalization surveys. The ACEI award was given during this time. PDS Representative John McGowan presented the award to Pamela Weinrieb, librarian at Westminster Charter School for her efforts to create a multi-cultural library collection. Leslie Day recognized the faculty, principals, mentoring teachers and teacher candidates in attendance. First time PDS attendees were asked to stand and introduce themselves. These included Laura Klenk, Nancy Kenny, Carrie Max, Kimberly Vaughn, Ashlee Amoia, Michelle Laesser, Jolie Pilsbury, Marisa DeBacco, and Deepa Govindaraj. Dr. Nancy Chicola, EER Chair, made opening remarks thanking the attendees and introducing globalization as the department’s key focus this academic year. II. Announcements and Reports Rachel Barnard, graduate assistant, gave the website report indicating that the number of PDS website visitors is continuing to increase. There were no reports from CEURE or the Educational Foundations department. Dr. Satasha Green from the Exceptional Education department issued an invitation to the Council for Exceptional Children Annual Convention. PDS Advisory Council slate nominees Maureen Gambino and Kelly Pershyn each shared about themselves and their interest in serving on the Advisory Council. Maureen Gambino shared that she has worked in Grand Island schools for 12 years and serves as a mentoring teacher. Kelly Pershyn shared that she works at William Street School and uses the Minerva Project in her classroom. III. Keynote Speaker: Deepa Govindaraj After being introduced by Leslie Day, keynote speaker Deepa Govindaraj shared her presentation on globalization. Govindaraj is a graduate of the University of Buffalo and a co-founder of the Minerva Project. She shared her undergraduate experience of declaring a major, describing her desire for “education that teaches me about the world where I live constantly.” She majored in Liberal Arts and created the Minerva Project to fulfill the need for learning. She described how globalization is not a newconcept, but an ancient process that has recently been sped up through technology. She encourages everyone to “look back to look forward.” She stated that people often define diversity in terms of what we can see, not how we think, and cautioned against drawing caricatures without going beyond. She emphasized the human in humanities and encouraged teachers to be constantly learning, like their students, reminding that students need to see their teachers as learners. She discussed teaching diversity with a historical perspective, emphasizing the difference between action vs. lecture, and permeable vs. parochial. She illustrated her points with clips from the television show The Office (“Diversity Day” episode) and the 1982 film Ghandi. Following the presentation, Leslie Day reminded attendees to return their globalization surveys and dismissed them to the breakout presentations. After lunch, the globalization taskforce led a presentation and work groups for our next steps. IV. Next Meeting Our next meeting will take place on November 6, 2009 at Court Street Elementary in Lancaster at 8:00. We will vote on our Advisory Council Slate nominations. Please print these minutes out for your PDS records. Thank You. Check out the PDS website: www.buffalostate.edu/pds WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! Do you have a best practice research project to share on our highlights page? Are your teacher candidates doing something great? Please send contributions to [email protected] Respectfully submitted by Rachel