 Hello and welcome to our presentation keys to making new teachers. I'm Nancy Remler. I am a former teacher and teacher educator for Georgia Southern University. My subject matter is English language arts and I help prepare secondary teachers for Georgia's public school classrooms. Hello. My name is Natanya Cortes. I am a first year teacher at Rome High School. I do ninth grade literature and I specialize with ESOL. Hello, I am Janelle Smith and I am a teacher educator at Georgia Southern University. I previously have nine years of classroom experience in Georgia and have now moved to work with elementary and secondary students who are aspiring to be educators in the state of Georgia. This year a team of teachers and teacher educators, the three of us included, created a teacher education resource titled Keys to Teaching Success. It's a digital open text funded by a grant provided by Affordable Learning Georgia. Since 2013, Affordable Learning Georgia has worked to reduce the cost of course materials for college students. Initially it focused on utilizing library materials offered through Georgia's Galileo system. But 10 years ago, inspired by Rice University's launch of OpenStacks, Affordable Learning Georgia transitioned to offering grants for the creation of new materials and the adaptation of existing materials. The organization soon found that many faculty were writing original content. In fact, that's what this team did. Faculty in the university system of Georgia can apply for grant funding in support of the development and assessment of open educational resources. Now in its 22nd round of grant opportunities, Affordable Learning Georgia has supported almost 700,000 college courses and has saved students $105 million in textbook and material costs. This team saw an opportunity to help pre-service teachers reduce the cost of becoming teachers. Many people fail to realize that teacher candidates incur multiple expenses to prepare for the profession. Tuition alone is considerable, but textbooks and materials add to that cost. Field placements and certification exams add another layer to the cost of preparing for a modestly paid career. In fact, many teacher candidates leave their programs prior to completion because of the stress and expense of their training. In fact, a 2022 study in symposium on teacher burnout by the Carl Vinson Institute includes within its list of recommendations establishing strong instruction and mentoring programs for beginning and struggling teachers. Keys to teaching success can serve as one initial support step for those preparing for the profession and it can be used to support mentorship programs as well. When discussing the potential of the project, the team began to look at the requirements for teacher educators across all programs from art, PE, music, special ed, elementary, middle grades and secondary to include initial preparation programs at both the undergraduate and master's level. In beginning this discussion, we focused on the different required Georgia evaluation systems, which include the Georgia professional standards for ethics, intern keys, and the professional behaviors and dispositions assessments. These assessments and evaluation tools are used across all programs within the state of Georgia and the data is reported to the state and to stakeholders within our discussions. We wanted to be able to maximize the ways in which we can reach teacher educators through this open source. Intern keys is one of the most important evaluation tools for our teacher educators to demonstrate growth throughout their program, as well as preparation for their professional career. We wanted the resources to be broad enough to affect all teacher educators throughout the state and at all levels. The resource not only can serve teacher candidates during their initial preparation program, but it can also be used as a tool in the beginning stages of their professional career as a resource to look back to for tips, tricks, advice and examples. We wanted the resource to be interactive, to include examples, scenarios and to continue to be available through a platform without any login or sign in. We also wanted the tool to be available to look at multiple perspectives and scenarios throughout the state of Georgia. In this way, we grew our team from faculty to include recent graduates, university faculty across different programs and at different levels of preparation to encompass rural and urban perspectives and examples within our narration and images and different content areas to include professors in the mathematics, English and science backgrounds. Specifically, we focused on the intern keys for CAPS. This is a measurement tool that is used to evaluate students beginning in the junior year through senior year of progression. The intern keys or CAPS keys are modeled directly off the TEEKS or teacher keys evaluation system that is used in public school systems throughout the state. In this way, teacher preparation is scaffolded to include the same language, vocabulary and indicators from teacher preparation through the initial years and developing years of one's teacher group. The performance standards of intern keys and the associated rubrics are taken directly from the teacher candidate assessment on performance standards or CAPS. Additional indicators at the profession level have been added for some standards and to ensure that we are preparing our students for all levels of their preparation. The rubrics between TEEKS and intern keys are not modified. It is expected that many of our students will begin at the junior and senior level still at the developing range because they are beginning as educators and working towards a trajectory of being proficient. Teacher candidates sometimes are also expected to be at a minimum of needs development and that is natural as someone beginning in their career. The language and consistency throughout the years helps students to grow from year to year and develop toward the proficient level. As we talked about gathering our resources and developing this platform and chapters, we focused on some of the most important intern keys standards which were identified through Chapter 9 and Chapter 10, professionalism and communication which we as professionals had found the least amount of print and non-print resources to support our teacher candidates. As a first year teacher, I wanted to express the need for the open resources. It is not only helpful for teachers in preparation for the first year teaching but also those already entering the profession. As a new teacher, I am continuously seeking out as many resources as possible to help me be successful for my first year. At my school especially, we started this year short of a superintendent, a principal and two administrators. To say the least, the rest of the administrators we had had an increased load of responsibilities. While I know I can still seek guidance from my administrators and colleagues, I find it extremely valuable to have external sources of guidance when I prepare for my teacher's evaluations. Earlier this month, our department sat down with an administrator for our teacher's pre-conference and we learned critical information including the days we will be observed, when we will have our mid- and end-year conferences and how to set up a professional goal. Since this conversation, I've had to walk-throughs in the classes that I serve as a push-in teacher, but I have not had any observations in my own sheltered classroom. So with that, I know that it can be challenging for administrators to evaluate teachers and their day-to-day interactions. When I reflect on my teaching at the end of the day, I am well aware of how I delivered lessons to my students, how I may have appropriately or could have improved the communication with my students and parents. And there are days where I know that I could do better as a teacher. And so I think the need for these open resources can be valuable as we become more well-informed and about how to evaluate ourselves. This can help us proactively react to and improve our role as an educator. So Natanya gives us one strong example of how this resource can support her experience as a new teacher. But building this open resource renders other positive outcomes as well. We've already noted how it seeks to reduce the cost of becoming a teacher, a job that earns them modest salary at best. Also, this project fostered collaboration among teachers and teacher educators from across the state. We had representation from various parts of Georgia, various experiences and disciplines in the field, as well as different ethnic and social backgrounds. And that collaboration builds a statewide professional community and our intellectual investment in creating this resource gives it a strong chance of persisting and growing. Also, this project allowed new and pre-service teachers to engage in a grant-funded endeavor, which was a valuable form of professional development for them, during which they also added to the professional development of peers entering the profession behind them. So this resource has kind of a pay it forward spirit to it. The published resource is applicable across grade levels, across disciplines. So any pre-service teacher in Georgia would benefit from it. And that would be teachers in traditional teacher preparation programs, which we represent, as well as those in alternative preparation programs that don't exist within universities or colleges of education. Georgia, I think, is like many states in that it recruits new teachers from other professions. And so by getting a master of arts in teaching, more seasoned professionals might be entering a new career and this resource could support those pre-service teachers, as well. And because you, our audience, are attending a conference about open educational resources, you already know how these kinds of texts are adaptable. So if a teacher preparation program in another state wanted to use keys to teaching success, it could do that. It could take the content that it needs and adapt it to the standards or expectations of that state. So even though this text was designed to assist teacher preparation programs in Georgia, it actually can have a much wider reach. We constructed this resource in the spring and summer of this year, 2022, and we are piloting it this fall. Janelle Smith and I drafted the segments of this text, and then our other Georgia Southern colleague, Heather Scott, created the assessment instrument. We divided up the segments or the chapters and we distributed them to the different team members. There were seven of us altogether. So each chapter was reviewed by at least two people who represented different levels of experience. So if a pre-service teacher was reviewing a draft, there was also a seasoned teacher reviewing that draft so that multiple perspectives could have some input in the revised version of it. Janelle and I solicited feedback on our manuscript using a rubric adapted from Swauffield's Critical Friends Protocol, and that enabled us to assess what was working well with each manuscript as well as what needed revision. The rubric asked the reviewers to assess each chapter's purpose and main idea, the voice and how accessible that voice was, development and organization of ideas, the relevance of the content to pre-service teachers and new teachers needs, the potential for reader discussion and interaction, and then of course the technicalities like the small editing matters. Once all of the reviewers submitted their feedback, Janelle and I made revisions and adjustments according to their recommendations, and now the published version of it exists in a LiveGuides platform that's being piloted in the Undergraduate Secondary Education Program at Georgia Southern. So here is the finished work as it exists currently. As we noted, we began by addressing standards nine and 10, so all content thus far focuses on professionalism and communication, but when you click on each subheading, a dropdown menu appears listing the topics aligned with each professional standard. Users can select the content they need at the time. Each segment includes a text that explains behaviors and decisions expected from a teacher candidate. Each segment also includes discussion questions and short assessments to help teacher candidates gauge their understanding of those concepts. I'll show you the ethics page just as an example. The ethics segment is pretty lengthy, so we've organized it so that for each ethical topic, we have an explanation, several examples of violations, and then a brief assessment and answers. Some segments, such as the professional appearance segment, also includes images to highlight the professional choices and decisions relevant to that teacher expectation. So in this section, we offer guidelines, the reasons behind the rules, and analysis of one teacher's professional choices, and then examples for teacher discussion. Keys to Teaching Success is written in a professional but accessible voice that addresses an audience of any Georgia teacher candidate. So even though this resource resides on a Georgia Southern server, it's not written only for Georgia Southern students and faculty, we've designed the discussion questions and assessments in such a way that they can be used in courses, professional development events, or even used for professional improvement plans as the project continues, we'll add more chapters. As Nancy had said, one of the valuable aspects of building these resources was the feedback and to ensure that our words, our examples, and our scenarios were clear to our students at different levels. Personally, as a writer, I found that sometimes we have the best intentions and our words, whether written or spoken, do not always come out as clear to our audience as we wish. And the feedback cycle allowed current and graduated teacher candidates to give us feedback and for us as authors to make corrections in our clarity and word choice. We continue to solicit feedback on these resources as we implement them across the secondary education program at the undergraduate level during this fall 2020 year at Georgia Southern University. In the SCED 3121 Junior Level Introductory Force, these resources were used to onboard students for their first program field experience. They were used before students went out in the field for background information that included professional attire in the classroom, communication with professionals, both written and oral collaboration, and academic use of language by teachers and students. At the senior field experience level for SCED 4739, we also looked at the same section regarding professionalism and communication. The adaptability of the chapter allowed us to discuss this in face-to-face meetings as to actionable items that our seniors can take on the first day going into the classroom. As they were at a different level of preparation in their program, they were able to access the same material to set personal goals and think through experiences they would have in the first weeks of their program. In SCED 4231, a senior level content course, we focused on academic language used by students and by teacher candidates throughout the semester. The use of these two sections regarding academic language allowed our teacher candidates to compare and contrast academic language used by teacher candidates, as well as academic language used by students in the K-12 classroom and focus on their continuing role and progress as teacher candidates. As Nancy mentioned, we have used these resources and we have also collected data from our teacher candidates in the junior and senior level courses. Presented to you here are three circle graphs that highlight the evaluation by teacher candidates as to the effectiveness of the tools. In each, you see that there's 4.3% marked ineffective, which was two students who marked each section ineffective. Yet in looking at their responses to the survey, they both had very positive comments written in as to the effectiveness and use of the examples. Therefore, as researchers and presenters, we feel that the very ineffective scores are outliers and do not truly reflect the perspectives of these teacher candidates. Otherwise, we see that in all examples, we have approximately 70% noting that the resources were very effective and approximately 25% stating that the resources were effective. This is a very high evaluation where we are pleased with the perspective of the teacher candidates on the use of these materials in their teacher preparation program. Similarly, as we look at the data from our seniors, these seniors focused on the chapter 10 resources, again on academic language for students, academic language for teachers and communication with supervisors. At this rate, we see that the teacher candidates scored over 50% very effective on the academic language sections and 71% very effective for the communication with supervisors. In this case, our data shows again that the information is being received well by our teacher candidates and found to be effective resources in moving forward through both the junior and senior years of the program. More importantly for us as educators and looking at the words of the teacher candidates themselves, many times the candidates focused on the scenarios and examples that were provided in the open platform. One of the great aspects of the platform was that it allowed us to include images, scenarios and texts that was broken up in tables instead of long paragraphs of information. Many teacher candidates commented on the readability of the resources, the ways in which the platform allowed them to see all of the different subsections across the page and the variety of resources and scenarios. Not only did they comment on the alignment between the material and expectations of the university but also the alignment of the material and the Georgia evaluation system for the ethics system. So the students explicitly made comments between the alignment of this material and their evaluation tools. Other students also commented on the resources being available to them as they go through the program. And one of the ways in which this can be further used is to provide remediation for teacher candidates as they struggle throughout the program. At Georgia Southern, we have a teacher support system process that provides examples and resources to teacher candidates when they are struggling in field cases. And by allowing teacher candidates to go back to particular sections, read and process the scenarios, we hope that this resource will build in the importance for teacher candidates and also provide them the scenarios and experiences to think through their own placements and their own situations in classrooms. I served as a manuscript reviewer for the Keys to Making New Teacher Project this summer after I graduated from the student teaching program and right before I became a first year teacher. And this project helped me greatly with reviewing performance standards nine and 10. And I found that I have been more aware of how well my actions have aligned or it could better align to be at the exemplary level for each standard. I found it very beneficial to review the standards before I began teaching because there had been a lapse of time since I reviewed the standards in depth during my student teaching. And I hope that new educators can use the open education resources in a similar manner that helps them grow and self-evaluate. And I hope to continue making use of these resources and I hope to approach it in the three steps outlined. So first I want to set up an open conversation with myself and how I'm doing as a teacher. You know, I know what I am doing in my classroom and what I could be doing better. And these resources can set those guidelines in a more clear and succinct manner as to what I could and could be doing better as a teacher. Once I evaluate myself, I'd like to specify goals and areas of improvement. And I would also like to follow up, maybe scheduling different times throughout the semester or school year where I can reevaluate, go back to these resources and continue to improve my role as an educator. All of these assessment data reveal that the potential for growth of this project is very strong. There's much opportunity to build on the text for the two standards that already exist, but ultimately our goal is to create a resource standard by standard until we have content that addresses all 10. I am currently writing a continued grant funding proposal for the next year with designs to write tech supporting standard one, which is professional knowledge and standard seven, a positive learning environment. But beyond that next round for this writing process, there's also room for expansion to develop text to address the other standards. So this resource will grow over time. Obviously we will be adapting it, but it's also available for adaptation for other users. And that's a review of Keys to Teaching Success. Thank you so much for attending our presentation. We've included a QR code so that if you'd like to access the resource right now, you can just use that link. If you have questions about our presentation or about Keys to Teaching Success, you can send questions to me at the email address on this screen.