Contact: Rick Peterson, Manager of News Services, 920/832-6590
For Immediate Release January 27, 1999
New Lawrence University Education Initiative Encourages Teacher
Collaboration
APPLETON, WIS. -- A collaborative community effort aimed at finding
self-help solutions to today's educational challenges will be launched Feb.
4 with the first in a series of eight planned teacher "exchange sessions."
Dubbed TIE -- Teacher Idea Exchange -- the initiative is open to all
Appleton public and parochial elementary school educators. The program is
designed to improve channels of communication among specific grade teachers
in discussing problems and working toward solutions in an informal,
self-directed forum.
The TIE program is an outgrowth of an idea Lawrence University
Associate Professor of Education Stewart Purkey has been toying with for
several years. It draws its inspiration from the notion that teachers are
the experts on their own professional lives and given the opportunity,
support and trust, will come together and identify the individual and
collective problems they face in their classrooms.
Teachers in grades K-6 in all 28 Appleton elementary schools have been
invited to attend idea exchange sessions, which will be held at Riverview
Country Club. Sessions will pair teachers in kindergarten and first grade,
second and third grades, fourth and fifth grades, with a separate session
just for sixth-grade teachers. Each group of teachers will meet twice, once
in February and again in April. The topics of discussion, coordinated by a
peer, will be determined by the participating teachers themselves. The
session require no preparation or follow-up tasks.
While the current program centers on K-6 teachers, Purkey hopes to
expand TIE to include middle and secondary schools teachers next year.
The TIE initiative is supported by the Mielke Family Foundation, Inc.,
The Post-Crescent and Lawrence University, which together have committed
nearly $40,000 over the next three years toward the program.
According to Purkey, the TIE program is grounded in the belief that
meaningful change needs to begin at the grassroots level to be effective.
"Too often professional development programs fail to meet the needs of
teachers as they perceive them," said Purkey, who holds the Bee Connell
Mielke Professorship in Education at Lawrence and has coordinated the Mielke
Summer Institute the last three summers. "They're imposed on teachers from
above or from the outside. Many start with the assumption that teachers
need to be fixed or they need an 'expert' to tell them how to do things
differently.
"This program starts with the premise that teachers can solve their own
problems, but they need an opportunity to come together in a setting that is
conducive to the necessary dialogue and exchange of ideas."
A country club was chosen as the setting for the exchange sessions
because of its association as a frequent site for meetings between
professionals and chief executives with their colleagues.
"We think teachers deserve the same treatment and respect," said
Purkey.
The TIE program has earned the support and endorsement of Tom Scullen,
superintendent of the Appleton Area School District, Bill O'Brien, executive
director of ACES, and Marcia Engen, president of the Appleton Education
Association. Vira Stoner, a former English teacher at Appleton West High
School, is serving coordinator of the TIE initiative.
"Ultimately this is a program run by teachers for teachers," said
Purkey. "It's an effort by Lawrence to contribute to the quality of
education in the community by putting the idea into motion. But it's up to
teachers to make it work.
"The financial support of the Mielke Foundation and The Post-Crescent
and the endorsement of top area education leaders should be seen as strong
evidence of community-wide support for teachers and education in the Fox
Valley."
The complete TIE two-session schedule includes: grades 4-5, Feb. 4,
April 8; grades 2-3, Feb. 11, April 15; grade 6 Feb. 18, April 22; and
grades K-1; Feb. 25, April 29.