WELCOME and THANK YOU for reading! This newsletter covers what happened in August and will give you a heads up on what to look for in September and the months following.

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

Upcoming Board Meetings

Second Tuesday of the month at 6:30 – 8:00 pm Eastern
Sept 12, Oct 10, Nov 14, Dec 12
Zoom information is available on the Member’s site

(Psst! You can visit the Academy Calendar on the Member's site and click to add the board meetings to your personal calendar!)

Some folks have asked me why a Theater and Public Speaking Professor would be so interested and invested in the concepts of Process Education. Seven years ago, I had to ask myself why I would I join this board and, more recently, eventually agree to lead it. After all I was contemplating talking early retirement and would be free to explore things I loved that had been left behind...

How to Develop Performance Measures for Complex Skills

The PE Academy will host two workshops in September of 2023 where we will apply the Methodology for Developing a Performance Measure. During each of the two sessions we will use the methodology to develop initial content for two performance measures. Please register and join us for one or both sessions!

Conference Planning Committee volunteers!

If you're willing to lend a hand, please let Patrick know!

This article will feature a different learning skill each month and instead of talking theory will ONLY give ideas for targeting/strengthening that learning skill for ages 2 to 102! Remember that you can find ALL the learning skills in a free interactive tool.

Rephrasing: restating—illustrating what was heard by honoring and then enhancing the message (also known as paraphrasing)

This monthly column shares a small idea or low-stakes practice that everyone can try out whether in a classroom setting or other learning context. Remember that all current Academy members have free access to the e-Faculty Guidebook through the Member’s site!

STRATEGY: Using an Expert Profile

An expert profile gives a concise, vivid synthesis of behaviors demonstrated by experts in a particular field. Expert profiles should be meaningful to a general audience as well as to professional practitioners, providing a basis for understanding the special characteristics exemplified by experts in the field...

FROM: 2.4.3 Development and Use of an Expert Profile

This column features one or two Academy members each month, until we run out of members. And then we'll just get more! The point is that we're curious about each other and few people enjoy reading professional bios. Each member is asked the same set of questions:

• 3 books you love and why
• The best class you ever took and why
• The class you would most want to teach, if you could choose
• One piece of advice you'd give to a teacher about to begin a teaching career

3 books I love:

• Desert Wisdom: Sayings from the Desert Father by Yushi Nomura
  Since my youth, I have been interested in how various cultures use storytelling and sayings to pass wisdom from generation to generation. Although the Desert Wisdom sayings are centuries old, they resonate with those striving to find their identities and positively impact their communities. The illustrated sayings are a basis for introspection and reflection on how to live a better life. As one Abba (father) said, "living a rich life requires that we rejoice always, pray constantly, and, in all circumstances, give thanks." This book is a treasure of life lessons I have enjoyed, applied, and shared many times over the past two decades. Desert Wisdom remains relevant, even today.
  
  
• The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
  A New York Times best-seller, The Water Dancer, is historical fiction that follows the life of a young boy, Hiram Walker, who was born into slavery during the Antebellum South. He is the son of a white Virginia tobacco plantation owner and an enslaved Black woman. Hiram possesses an incredible photographic memory but cannot remember his mother, who was sold by his father when Hiram was a very young child. He became involved in the Underground Railroad using his power of “conduction” or memory and storytelling. I love The Water Dancer because it incorporates history, cultural mores, and storytelling to illustrate a life experience and its impact on generations. This novel debuted at number one on The New York Times fiction best-seller list.
  
  
• A Pre-View of Policy Sciences by Harold D. Lasswell
  I chose to share A Pre-View of Policy Sciences because it has significantly impacted my thinking and operation as a facilitator, researcher, and leader. Lasswell defines policy science as a social science dealing with making high-level policy, as in a government or business. It is an interdisciplinary study of principles and operational processes, examining the development and implementation of public policy. A public policy sciences viewpoint includes context, problem-orientation, and multi-methods. It embodies a decision process model that differs from other policy sciences and intellectual activity. It distinguishes itself based on seven power outcomes: intelligence, promotion, prescription, invocation, application, termination, and appraisal. Lasswell's seven-stage model of decision-making exerted a powerful influence on public policy studies. It established a framework for theorizing decision-making and public policy. Due to my interest in public policy formulation, the decision process model became integral to my dissertation survey research design. My policy focus resulted in my published dissertation "The Decision-Making Processes of Trustees in Public Two-Year Colleges." I continue to use the decision process model in project planning and facilitation.

The best class I ever took and why: 
During my freshman year at Freedman High School, I took a social studies class from Dr. Davenport, who stressed his expectations for participants to function as college students. It was the best class because it set a foundation and expectation for future life experiences. The teacher required us to not only read our local newspaper every day but to read at least one other news publication per day, as well. Those readings became the basis for our class discussion and analyses of events and how they impacted our communities.  

The class I’d most want to teach if I could choose: I would teach a class for aspiring female leaders from diverse industries called The Risks, Rewards, and Ruminations of Leaders who Make a Difference. Structured in a Decision Seminar format, the course would embody essential leadership skills while engaging each aspiring leader in creating the framework for each person’s leadership journey. 

One piece of advice I’d give to a teacher about to begin teaching: I advise a new teacher to read and reflect on The Courage to Teach by Parker Palmer. This book is powerful because he speaks from the heart and emphasizes the importance of deeply engaging students, recognizing the importance of identity, and maintaining integrity in teaching, not just technique. While written for teachers with good and bad teaching experiences, the book is a revelation for any new teacher seeking to teach passionately and effectively. Finally, I would ask the teacher to reflect on how you can carry Palmer’s guidance into the classroom and exhibit the courage to teach despite the challenges.

3 books I love: (I'm going to break the rules and go for 4. Many, many books have influenced my thinking over time. Choosing 3 was impossible. Here are my picks:)

• Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs by Abelson, Sussman, & Sussman
  I call my favorite book in computer science, SICP, and it was the textbook for the first course in computer programming at MIT. SICP could easily fuel a graduate course. It had a huge influence on improving my design skills and for breaking down the conceptual walls built by mundane computer languages.
  
  
• Faculty guidebook: A comprehensive tool for improving faculty performance edited by Beyerlein, Holmes, & Apple
  The most comprehensive and practically useful book on learning, teaching, and supporting both I ever cam across is the Faculty Guidebook. It's articles could each define a book or, sometimes, only a chapter in a book. It's definitely exciting reading for a learning nerd like me.
  
  
• Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History by Stephen J. Gould
  We've had at least 5 extinctions in the history of life on our planet. Each one opened up opportunities for particular lines of DNA. Interestingly, before the extinctions was the Cambrian explosion, the rapid expansion and experimentation with the basic forms of animal life. Stephen J. Gould writes beautifully about the scientific clues provided by the Burgess shale, and closer to home, the large number of successes needed by our DNA line to lead to us. Makes me feel small and very lucky.
  
  
• Coaching with the Brain in Mind: Foundations for Practice by Rock & Page
  I fell in love with coaching more recently and for the big picture of what's possible, I recommend Rock & Page's work. The title is a pun on the very mysterious emergence of the mind from the brain. Going beyond this interesting reality, how one supports development of the minds of others and self, the book discusses many truths not part of the standard conversation on teaching.

The best class I ever took and why: 
The best class wasn't about the subject matter, Modern Algebra, the abstraction of algebraic systems, proof methods, learning, and teaching taught by Phil Montgomery, PhD. He completely changed my mind about teaching and learning in a graduate math class I took for fun, but found myself struggling in. He taught us learning-to-learn mathematics, individualized the instruction, and challenged us beyond our self-imposed limits. He then introduced me to other mathematicians who were exploring how to teach and learn mathematics more effectively.  

The class I’d most want to teach if I could choose: I have been able to choose the course I most wanted to teach. It is a 2-week faculty course that teaches faculty how to give meaningful, impactful, and welcomed feedback in their classes. It has changed the way my school teaches and enhanced the experiences of many students.

One piece of advice I’d give to a teacher about to begin teaching: Only one piece of advice? That narrows it down. Forget the 20 years of teachers who taught you (except for the worst and best). and learn from the Learning to Learn book, practice, and improve repeatedly until you retire. Teaching is the most rewarding thing after family that I've ever done. (Learning to Learn: Becoming a Self-Grower by Apple, Morgan, & Hintze)

During the Board meeting on August 8, the following took center stage:

• Finalizing the Memorandum of Understanding with UINDY for hosting the 2024 PE Conference, from June 10 to 13. We are now working on putting together the Conference Planning Committee.
  
  
• Our Treasurer, Matthew Watts, reported on last year’s budget and shared the plan for 2024.
  
  
• Discussion took place about the Winter Meeting and its format without a final decision.
  
  
• A name change was proposed for the Academy to the International Academy of Process Educators. There is additional discussion on the board forum (please feel free to chime in!)

Including (BUT NOT LIMITED TO)
workshops you'd like to attend!

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