Assignments

Assignments so far (just in case you can't access Telesis)   =Ecology and Environmental Science=
 * Grading Policy**

You are enrolled in three, two-credit courses (U29-523 Plants and People; U29-524 Ecology and Environmental Science; U29-525 Biological Evolution). A letter grade will be assigned to you for your performance in each of these courses. The grade in **U29-524 Ecology and the Environment** will be based on the following:

Participation-10%
 * To achieve a grade of ‘A’ in participation, we expect 100% attendance and full participation in all scheduled activities.**

Assignments-20%
 * Consider the content of each lecture and activity in this course. Choose 1 activity and 1 presentation that had information that was most unfamiliar to you. Discuss and write 2-3 learning objectives that you think underlie** __**EACH**__ **activity and presentation. Show how these relate to the ‘big idea’ or the essential questions around which the course is organized. You can choose the activity and presentation from the same or different days.**


 * Each assignment should be no more than 3 pages and should be submitted on Telesis by Tuesday, July 28, 2009 @ 5PM.**

Content Test-40%
 * Your content grade for each course will be based on the number of correct responses on the post-test questions out of the total for each course.**

Project-30%
 * Tyson instructors will provide Final Project details.**

=Evolution= Grading Policy

You are enrolled in three, two credit courses (U29-523 Plants and People; U29-524 Ecology and Environmental Science; U29-525 Biological Evolution). A letter grade will be assigned to you for your performance in each of these courses. The grade in U29-525 Biological Evolution will be based on the following:

Participation-10%

To achieve a grade of 'A' in participation, we expect 100% attendance and full participation in all scheduled activities.

Assignments-20%

Consider each of the lab experiments in this course. Write a 1 page narrative to describe each of the labs you would prefer to conduct in your classroom. Please select a minimum of 2 labs.

1) Explain why you chose those particular labs and how they relate to your standards-based curriculum.

2) Explain your preferences according to following criteria, which you are not limited to:

Your own teaching style Your understanding of the content The learning levels/styles of your students Your interest in the content The plausibility of performing the experiment in terms of your own resources

Content Test-40%

Your content grade for each course will be based on the number of correct responses on the post-test questions out of the total for each course.

Project-30%

Leadership Project

Theoretical Background to the Study of Emerging Leadership

Traditional models of leadership in schools focus on the roles of various administrators and individual teachers who navigate the hierarchical structures of schools (Silva, Gimbert, and Nolan, 2000). They describe leaders as those individuals who are responsible for implementing and enforcing policy decisions of the state, superintendents, or local school boards. To those working most closely with children in schools, leaders are those who can respond to the unexpected and use their authority to make decisions, quickly. To others, the leaders are those who can interpret the experiences of children and teachers in schools, to the general public. However specific the definition of the role of various administrators as leaders is, the result has not led to an improvement in the intellectual achievement of children in schools. This realization has led to new models of school leadership (Fullan, 1994; Wheatley, 1994), ones that reinforce the importance of defining teachers as leaders. These models view leadership as distributed among the stakeholders (Wagner, 1998), a function of learning-communities (Darling-Hammond, 1997); and integral to the role of teachers as well as district administrators (Howe & Stubbs, 1996).

All of these new theoretical and empirical models of leadership have in common the recognition that leadership is a relational, not an individual, phenomenon; it resides in the interpersonal networks among the member of the group, faculty, the workforce, and the nation. (Donaldson, 20020 Donaldson defines leaders ads those who mobilize others to think, believe, and behave in a manner that satisfies emerging organizational needs, not simply their individual needs or wants. Implicit in Donaldson's theoretical model is the quality that a leader attends to a purpose that contributes to an improved society. Mark Gerzon (2001) suggest another theoretical framework for leadership, one that defines leaders as those who can think outside of their own best interest and the best interest of another to find a solution that advances instead, the possibility that all can benefit.

Each of these models supports the theme that it would be beneficial for teachers to be instructional leaders (Grossman, [|et.al]., 2001). They suggest a teaching force that can engage with the larger issues confronting society and envision how a strong science curriculum could support the next generation to become effective problem solvers.

How do you view educational leadership in your classroom, school, community, country?

Guiding questions:

Describe the qualities of leaders.

How do you see these qualities embodied in your colleagues, locally, and in leadership nationally?

How do you embody these qualities?

What examples of leadership have you observed that both affirm and contradict your beliefs?

Which of the above theoretical models (or others not summarized above) do your beliefs about leadership most closely align?

Write a narrative describing your philosophy of educational leadership.