OCTEO Conference

I have just returned from the Ohio Confederation of Teacher Education Organizations (OCTEO) conference in Dublin, Ohio. This conference is attended by representatives from the fifty-one colleges and universities in Ohio that have teacher education programs. The attendees are usually deans and chairs of the education departments, as well as professors, field coordinators, and licensure specialists/officers. The conference includes keynote speakers, breakout sessions, and organizational meetings.

Since the conference discusses current and future laws and policies regarding educational programs, it often becomes quite heated and political. There are many changes on the horizon for teacher education in the near future, however, the Ohio Board of Regents and the Ohio Department of Education do not seem to have any clear answers to the myriad of questions that were asked regarding the new Residency Program which will be in effect during the 2011-2012 academic year, or the Transition Residency Year Program, effective 2010-2011, that replaces the previous entry year Praxis III requirement.

Tom Bordenkircher, Associate Vice Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, was in attendance and addressed during many of the meetings which I attended. He was quite bombarded by questions, but as previously stated, could not provide definitive answers to issues involving the future of teacher education in Ohio. Since many doctoral students are pursuing positions in higher education, I would encourage them to get involved in these issues. Being on the faculty encompasses so much more than just teaching, researching, and advising students. Professors must keep current with the numerous changes that are part of academia and our state department of education.

On a more positive note, I had the pleasure of presenting research that I conducted during the fall 2009 semester with a fellow colleague. Our presentation was entitled "Faculty to Faculty Collaborations and Student to Student Mentoring: Preservice and Inservice Teachers Using Electronic Journals to Dialogue about the Foundations of Literacy Instruction". The presentation described a collaborative project developed by myself and a full professor and completed by undergraduate preservice teachers and graduate inservice teachers enrolled in their respective literacy courses at Baldwin-Wallace College in the fall 2009 semester. My co researcher and I established critical colleague pairings between the preservice and inservice teachers. The critical colleagues were expected to read and respond/react to professional journals on the topics of literacy instruction. They were then required to dialogue via electronic journal with their critical colleague. We shared our findings of the study which included analysis of the dialogue and the mentoring relationships established between the participants.

The presentation went very well, with a lively interactive audience, and again stressed the importance of writing in teacher education programs. It is amazing how topics do overlap when they are truly your passion. Several audience members recommended that we submit our research for publication, so we will be sending a manuscript to The OHIO Journal of Teacher Education. Another audience member from southern Ohio also told me yesterday at breakfast that she will try to replicate our study in her institution. That positive feedback seems to make all the hard work and hours spent coding data and preparing for a presentation worthwhile.

I hope that some members of our class will consider attending the OCTEO conference in the future. It is held each October and April and is also a great opportunity to network. I was able to chat with Dr. Tricia Niesz at breakfast, caught up with Sandra Pech, a former doctoral student from Kent State, and saw Dr. Joanne Arhar leading many meetings. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend Tricia and Joanne's presentation since it was at the same time as mine. However, I hope to hear more about their study between Kent State University and St. Joseph Academy in Cleveland, as well as keep informed in decisions that will affect teacher education in the state of Ohio.