MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
November 19, 2010
Dear Colleagues,
I would like to thank the board members who have rotated from their current roles as leaders: Betty Dore, (past president); John Niska, (president); Joseph Pitts, (south region director); Susan Stockdale, and Nancy Gillis (journal editors). New members are Bob Zeigenfuss, (president-elect); and Melanie Greene, (south region director); Debbie Haskell (west region director), and Ann Roberts, (east region director), and Kim Ligon (journal editor). While members have rotated off the board of directors, Betty has agreed to head up the nomination committee and John’s role is now past-president. We welcome the new members and appreciate those who have rotated off the board.
It was great participating with all of you at the NMSA Teacher Preparation Symposium earlier this month. We would like to thank the members of the Professional Preparation Board for putting the symposium together. The sessions in Baltimore were encouraging and thought-provoking. It was wonderful hearing from Dr. Allbritten at lunch and celebrating the success of two programs. Being able to meet prior to the conference gave us a concentrated effort to celebrate and share strategies related to middle level teacher preparation. Thank you for helping make the symposium successful. Those of you who presented have the opportunity to submit your work as either preceedings from the symposium or as members of POMLE you may submit your work for publishing in the Professor of Middle Level Education journal, Current Issues in Middle Level Education.
We appreciate the efforts of NMSA as we continue to prepare undergraduates and graduates to lead. We appreciate the leadership of the AERA SIG that focuses on middle level research and we look for opportunities to work together to encourage one another and build our capacity as middle level leaders. I have been working with the board of directors of NaPOMLE to address three areas of focus. The first area is to highlight the commitment of our members to middle level education. At the symposium we recognized two middle level programs and one of our colleagues. As we celebrate the good work of our colleagues individually and collectively, I hope we will be inspired to support one another and work together to recognize and celebrate our efforts.
A second area of focus I hope we will be able to develop is collaboration opportunities. Whether you work with colleagues at your institution or across institutions like the AERA Middle Level SIG teaming project, research on collaboration suggests that working with others allows us to be more productive, thorough, and is more fun. In the spring, a group of educators brainstormed ideas of how to work together better at the Southeastern Regional Symposium. Their report provides us with an opportunity to share ideas, strategies, and research experiences with one another.
A third area that I would like to encourage is communication. We have a challenge to support CMLA, graduate students, junior faculty, senior faculty, retired faculty, state and national efforts across the US and around the world as we support young people. With technology we have the potential to reach out to one another. Our website, state and regional meetings are rich sources of ideas and research that we are wanting to share with one another. Our intent is to use our website as a clearing house of ideas, experiences, and resources that professors can use to communicate with one another and share. In the spring, Georgia College and State University will host a regional symposium that celebrates our roots and provides us with an opportunity to celebrate, collaborate, and communicate our commitment to middle level education.
To that end I have initiated outreach committees to work with specific constituents and to help facilitate how we communicate, collaborate, and celebrate middle level education. Over the next five years our vision is to support regional, state, and local initiatives that highlight middle level education. We hope you will join us.
Your financial support has allowed us to support three regional symposiums, recognize programs and people. After the NMSA conference, I had a conversation with John Lounsbury about why we need to join together as members. The following is an excerpt from his letter.
PoMLE Holds the Key
A response to Nancy Ruppert, President of PoMLE
In your e-mail message of Nov. 9 about the Symposium you said you had raised with the Leadership Team of PoMLE the questions ”Why join PoMLE?” …I have had kicking around in my mind for several days some thoughts that are relevant to this issue and so I have taken the occasion of responding to your questions to clarify my thinking and put these notions in writing. So here goes with what has turned out to be a long answer to your short questions.
How can the progressive, child-centered gospel of the middle school be passed on to a new generation of educators and be a vibrant force in education? The answer it seems to me, is through the members of PoMLE! Teacher educators in teacher preparation institutions throughout our country are the ones that hold the key to the advancement of the middle school movement, for it is in their classes that the movement’s bible, This We Believe, will be studied. Teacher candidates in undergraduate classes and in-service teachers in graduate classes will cut their philosophical teeth studying the history of American education, including the middle school movement, pedagogy, curriculum development, human growth and development, the best that is known about learning, and other important elements of the teaching-learning enterprise as each relates to the middle school learner. And in so doing they will develop the personal philosophy of education that will direct their behavior as teachers. They will become architects of change, modeling student-centered and collaborative practices, influencing colleagues, and assuming leadership in professional activities. What better reason to be a member of PoMLE members than to be a torch-bearer in the most significant educational movement of the last century?
My hope is that we will grow in our membership (individuals can join for $25. and institutions can join for $75), our commitment, our collaborative efforts and in the ways we communicate. I hope you will actively join us as a member of NaPOMLE for the next calendar year as we celebrate leading the way.
Respectfully,
Nancy Ruppert
nruppert@unca.edu
President, NaPOMLE
Consider joining these working groups.
Membership |
Collaboration |
Advocacy |
Communication |
Nominations |
Conference Planning |
Bob Ziegenfuss |
Anita Dutrow |
Tom LoGuidice |
Debbie Haskell and |
Betty Dore |
Al Seed |