This newsletter covers what happened in December and will give you a heads up on what to look for in January and the months following.

In this issue (please note the links below will only work when viewing this newsletter in a browser):

Join us for the Academy’s Winter Meeting! This event is free, online, and open to all Academy members.

Monday, January 3 – Wednesday January 5

8 am – 2 pm Pacific / 9 am – 3 pm Mountain
10 am – 4 pm Central / 11 am – 5 pm Eastern

(After you register, you'll receive the Zoom link via email.)

This year’s Winter Meeting is an opportunity for you to create and strengthen relationships with fellow members, advance communication, and storytelling skills, and reinvigorate for the upcoming term!

I also look forward to integrating your perspectives into our work toward achieving the goals of the Academy’s strategic plan, developing this year’s upcoming conference with Virginia State University, and generating creative new strategies to broaden and engage our membership.

Please join us for this fun event!

This newsletter covers what happened in November and will give you a heads up on what to look for in December and the months following.

In this issue (please note the links below will only work when viewing this newsletter in a browser):

Recent Board Meetings

Remember, you can find out the Board’s current work by checking the Academy Board Meeting Agendas and Minutes posted on the Academy members’ page:

December 2021 minutes (not yet approved)

November 2021 minutes (not yet approved)

Summary of December Board meeting work:

In December, the Board

• Discussed ways to further include both new members and continuing members.

• Received updates on conference planning for the summer conference taking place May 24-27, 2022.

• Received updates on the winter meeting agenda for the winter meeting, January 3-5, 2022.

The Next Board Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 5, 2022 at 10:20am CDT. Note that this is DURING the Winter Meeting.

All Academy members are welcome to participate. You will be able to find the agenda for the meeting as well as the needed information to attend through Zoom on the Academy Member site.

[click to OPEN/VIEW a sharable pdf flyer for this event]

By clearly defining a skill or process and identifying the criteria that have the most impact on performance of that skill or process, it is possible to create a performance measure (rubric) for measuring performance. It is only through careful attention to both the design and application of performance measures that we can meaningfully and accurately assess (grow) and evaluate (judge) the performance of learners and growers.

Participant Benefits:

• Appreciate the relationship between performance, criteria, and measurement.
• Learn to apply a methodology for creating performance measures (holistic & analytic rubrics).
• Learn to write meaningful performance criteria.
• Explore the issues involved in implementing rubrics.

Facilitator:

Dr. Daniel K. Apple is the President of Pacific Crest, an educational consultancy that has provided development workshops for more than 20,000 educators.

Registration:

FREE to PE Expert Team Members
$50 for Academy Members
$250 for everyone else

To register for this event, please visit: https://fs20.formsite.com/pacificcrest/PM/

For more information, please contact: Dan Apple (dan@pcrest.com) 630-853-7535

The plans for the 2022 AoPE Conference are quickly coming into focus as the Academy Conference Planning Team has met with our hosts at the Virginia State University (VSU) in Petersburg, Virginia. VSU will host this joint conference as a piece of their ongoing Star 2.0 Metacognition Fellows efforts. We are happy to report that we believe this collaboration will bring a number of positive changes to our conference including increased attendance, new members, and collaboration with colleagues at VSU regarding their internal efforts to foster student success in specific ways. Many thanks to the members of the Metacognition Fellows and VSU for extending the hand of professional collaboration to the Academy. Academy member Chaya Jain is a faculty member at VSU and has helped to facilitate this valuable connection.

As a part of this collaboration the Conference dates have been moved from June into May of 2022 to best accommodate the end of semester schedules at many institutions.

The key dates are:

Pre-Conference Institute Monday, May 23 (topic to be determined),

followed by the

AoPE Conference Tuesday-Thursday May 24-26.

The conference theme and goals (listed below) have been collaboratively established and mesh with both VSU’s and the Academy’s Strategic Goals and historical focus.

Theme: Fostering Learner Success by Focusing on Self-Growth and Agency: Students, Teachers, and the Institution.

Conference goals:

1. Addressing Agency in Teaching and Learning
2. Methodologies and Measures for Learning and Self-Growth
3. Bridging Gaps between Teaching Styles and Learning Styles
4. Transformation of Mindsets in Learning and Self-Growth
5. Strategies for Learning Success during COVID

We are currently finalizing the contracts and financial details related to housing, food, and spaces. When those details are finalized, we will post the conference registration and housing fees on the Academy website. We hope to open the call for presentations and conference registration in early January. Conference Session Proposal details will be available on our website at that time. The call for presentations will be open until the first week of March. The joint committee is currently searching for experienced Keynote Speakers who can address our Theme while highlighting the need for all faculty, staff, administrators, and students to be enabled to engage in this work of fostering student success.

So, mark your calendars and look to the Academy of Process Educators (AoPE) website in early January for registration and proposal details!

One of the most powerful critiques of traditional educational methods is more than 2400 years old. Plato (Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, and writer) wrote The Republic as an extended analysis of the state and considered the kind of education citizens need in order for an ‘ideal’ state to be possible (which is still a concern two-and-a-half millennia later). Book IX of The Republic contains a section popularly known as “The Myth of the Cave.”

Here’s a wonderful and award-winning video adaptation of The Myth of the Cave (also available HERE):

The primary question would seem to be, How do we free our students?

But why do we assume we’re not also shackled in the cave, watching shadows on the wall?

How do you tell the difference between shadows and the things casting the shadows? How do you know when you’re watching shadows on the wall versus free and learning in and from ‘the real world’?

www.processeducation.org