Author: ws-nhotchkiss (Page 2 of 4)

What is your name, which degree did you earn, & what year did you graduate?

My name is Melissa Pierson and I received a master’s degree in school counseling in 2017.

What is your current occupation or role?

I am currently a middle school counselor at Kamiakin Middle School in the Lake Washington School District.

Why did you choose a program in the School of Education at Gonzaga?

While selecting graduate programs, Gonzaga stood out to me because of its sincere to commitment to holistic education. To me, the field of education is more than teaching basic skills like math or English. I believe education is a cornerstone of our democracy and has a responsibility to prepare students academically and socially for the opportunities they pursue in the future. Gonzaga embodies this belief and I knew the program would prepare me to

What, or who, influenced you the most at Gonzaga? 

Without a doubt my advisor, Dr. Addy Wissel, was my biggest influencer, supporter, and challenger the program. She challenged me to think critically about my role as a school counselor and helped me develop the skills to serve my school and community with honesty and integrity. Even after graduating from the program, Dr. Wissel still encourages me to seek opportunities to grow and learn.

What was your greatest lesson learned at Gonzaga?

The greatest lesson I learned and continue to learn from Gonzaga is the importance of taking care of myself in order to care of my school community. The role of a school counselor is rewarding and demanding and in order to serve community with a happy and grateful heart, I need to take care of my body, soul, and mind.

What is the most rewarding aspect of working in your field? Most challenging?

The most rewarding aspect of this field is being able to work with goofy middle school students all day, every day. They are the most honest group of people I have ever met, almost to a fault, but I get a surge of adrenaline every time I earn a new student’s respect. Just the other day a student told me I should play Fortnite because I’m cool enough. Even though video games are not a part of my self-care routine, I knew this invitation was a stamp of approval from this student.

The most challenging part of my job is the limit of support I can provide students. I spend a lot of my days working with students in crisis and it is challenging for me to accept the reality that the student’s crisis may not subside. As hard as it is to know a student’s trouble may not dissipate, I have the privilege of helping the student feeling safe and connected at school.

What critical issues do you see that need to be addressed in your field?

Critical issues that need continual attention in the field of education are mental health and addressing the ever-persistent achievement gap. There is so much meaningful work taking place in addressing mental health and the achievement gap. In addressing both topics, educators must first look within to understand their own biases and how their experiences shape how they teach and interact within the walls of a school. Personal reflection, understanding and compassion from the community, and commitment from out legislatures will continue to support this important work.

What advice do you have for future education professionals?

The field of education needs passionate, mindful, and caring adults to support the internal growth of students. Some days are blissful and other days may feel like you’re caring the world on your back. Find your accountability buddy to remind yourself why you chose to be an educator. My accountability buddy reminds me that I love the goofiness and earnestness of middle schoolers.

Dr. Suzann Girtz, School of Education Associate Professor,  has recently been recognized by the American Educational Studies Association Critics Choice Book Awards. Girtz, alongside her coauthor Dr. Keith Lambert, contributed a chapter to the 2017 winning recipient, titled Teacher Performance Assessment and Accountability Reforms: Impacts of edTPA on Teaching and Schools by Julie H. Carter (editor) and Hilary A. Lochte (editor).

The book earned publishing in 2017 and targets an audience including individuals of higher education, policymakers, regulatory bodies, and pre-service and in-service educators. It sheds light on the effect of edTPA (educational teacher performance), a rigorous exam created by Stanford’s SCALE, conducted by Pearson, overseen by the Professional Educator Standards Board, and required by Washington State Law. Essentially, prospective educators can maintain excellent standing during the entirety of a teacher preparation program, but will fail to obtain his or her teaching certificate unless the cut score for this exam is achieved.

In its analysis, the book presents diverse perspectives on the impact of edTPA and the conflict that exists for teacher educators struggling to understand edTPA while also preparing their candidates for the exam. Beyond that, the book dives into a historical overview of the neo-liberal interest and influence that has dominated the realm of public education.

Girtz has expectations for those involved in her profession to be advocates, and to communicate with state and federal bodies to help ensure that whatever regulatory decisions are made, that they are done so with proper understanding. It was toward this effort that she wrote her chapter. Her colleague from Whitworth University along with Girtz herself arranged and hosted a panel to inform legislative representatives about the effects of edTPA. They were invited to listen in on their constituents’ experiences and collaborate on ideas for future opportunities and possibilities. The two then wrote a chapter about that experience and how it worked to influence a future of justice.

Girtz discusses that in most cases, people exit the teacher prep program for a variety of reasons. However, this new need for an additional assessment now forces candidates to have their worked judged from afar, and for a cost-often impacting his or her presence in a teacher prep program.

“Candidates are expected to show that they are ready to enter the profession by doing this assessment, usually at the beginning – not end – of student teaching,” Girtz said. “For us in this book chapter – it is the assessment policy that we had the greatest issue with: the timing, the administration, the lack of acknowledging all of the other professionals’ judgements on the candidates’ performance, and more.”

For even longer than Girtz has been in the teaching field, an assessment has existed. But the edTPA was an attempt to increase validity and reliability of the results. She loosely compares it to a “bar exam for teachers.” The book tries to point out that it “disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable, while often selecting for characteristics that may or may not be most needed in our schools,” Girtz said. And regarding the teacher shortage, she argues that these new regulatory additions play a particular role.

“We have failed to lift up teaching as a desirable occupation in this culture, and every regulatory addition makes it seem less tenable, more costly and difficult, and simply less appealing as a career,” Girtz said. “If those additions were substantively shifting the classroom culture for the better, I would be the first to advocate for them. But this book paints a different picture.”

Girtz believes in vocal advocacy for any sort of significant changes to occur. Nonetheless, this book is used in various teacher preparation programs, outside of Gonzaga. She does believe that it provides a strong context for future work.

“Teaching is a joyful, challenging, fulfilling career that provides classroom opportunities as well as a host of others for a person looking for a career,” Girtz said. “Never has it occupied such an important role in our society. The perils of discouraging people from the field are numerous, and the way in which we do so is informed by a societal perception of teachers that will only change when people become more informed and vocal about the unintended impacts of well-meaning policies.”

What is your name, which degree did you earn, & what year did you graduate?

Hello! My name is Alexis and I graduated in 2015 with Master of Arts degree in School Counseling.

What is your current occupation or role?

I currently work as a High School Counselor at Kamiak High School in Mukilteo, WA (about a half hour North of Seattle).

Why did you choose a program in the School of Education at Gonzaga?

When I was entering into my senior year of under-grad at WSU (Go Cougs!), I began to research the School of Education, and specifically Counselor Education, it immediately felt like where I was supposed to be. The emphasis on developing the whole individual spoke to my soul as I am, by nature, a very self-reflective and personal development geared learner.

What, or who, influenced you the most at Gonzaga? Please share as much as you are willing.

I am having a hard time being concise, but in the spirit of Type A personalities I will break it into a list and try to be brief.

1. ADDY WISSEL! Okay, I have to be honest, I’m a total Addy fan-girl. The respect, appreciation, and gratitude I feel towards her exists on so many levels. She is a talented professor, dynamic advocate for change/growth, courageously humble, approachable, honest, silly, and just an all-around bad ass. I absolutely love her.
2. My other professors- I remember feeling a heart-wrenching sadness the day I graduated knowing that I wouldn’t get to see them on a regular basis. Michelle, Paul, Mark, Lisa, Tom, Patty, Kirsten, Crump, Mona (I hope I haven’t missed any)- it is an honor to know you and to have learned from you.
3. My cohort- My fellow peers became my family and helped shape me into the person and professional I am today.

What was your greatest lesson learned at Gonzaga?

Self-care is not a luxury- it is a necessity.

What is the most rewarding aspect of working in your field? Most challenging?

Most rewarding? Being not-needed. In other words, watching students grow and change to a point where they are able to accomplish things on their own that they either hadn’t done before or hadn’t known they could do.

Most challenging? As a Type A personality myself I am constantly working on taking on the unexpected (which there is a lot of) with a calm and grounded mindset. Because ultimately, it’s going to be okay.

What critical issues do you see that need to be addressed in your field?

– Resiliency: Helping students practice finding things to look forward to and be hopeful for on a regular basis. Hope is so powerful and can be a game-changer in getting us through the hard days… hard days, weeks, seasons, etc.

– Embracing “failure”: What I want more than anything is for students is to recognize that taking risks are what make a full and colorful life. There seems to be such a debilitating fear of failure in this day and age and I would love for my students to see that boldness and effort can lead to failure but the important factor is that they are trying.

– Joy: Can we please also start teaching joy as a necessity in life and not a luxury?  Joy is often seen as a point that will come “Once we’ve achieved this…” or “Once we’re at this point…” Joy and gratitude are the greatest feelings and we tend to pass up opportunities for both because they are not typically priorities or seen as being possible “right now”.

What advice do you have for future education professionals?

Give yourself grace and try not to take things too seriously. I mean the messy stuff. Laugh at yourself, be genuine, be transparent, and know that everyone is just trying to do the best they can.

This is the second part of a three-part series. To read part I, click here. To read part III, click here.

Gonzaga University’s “Sports and Fitness in the Digital Age” class has teamed up with Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals for an exclusive project to help Royals’ baseball players make a transition from the Dominican Republic to their United States affiliates.

The “Sports and Fitness in the Digital Age” class is taught by Gonzaga’s Director of Instructional Design, Justin Marquis. He was connected to the project through Dr. Jimmy Smith. Marquis teaches these students to use different skills that over time build on one another. For example, graphic design skills will help students use social media effectively, and then improve audio skills, interviewing, etc… Developing these skills paves the way for a final video project at the end of the semester. Typically, students choose something they enjoy and use that to create a video that promotes fitness and healthy lifestyle.

However, the final video project was adjusted thanks to this new collaborative opportunity with the Royals. This year, students will create videos for the Latin American baseball players filtering through the Dominican Baseball Academy and coming to the United States. The hope and aim of these videos is to help players better understand basic elements of American lifestyle.

“It’s a great opportunity for students because it gets them a real professional portfolio piece, and one of my objectives for the class is that they will walk out with a portfolio of real projects,” said Marquis.

Though students are responsible for the content and direction of the videos, Jeff Diskin, Director of Cultural Awareness for the Royals, gave a list of potential topics to guide them.

“There is a huge list of topics – like how to respond if the police pull you over, how to go grocery shopping, how to date – and the students have picked topics that are of interest to them,” Marquis said. “We allow some freedom to choose what they want, but now that they have a real client, it’s a lot of fun.”

From this list, students narrowed it down to eight topics to create videos: Safe and Unsafe Driving; Professionalism: How to be professional; How to Cook 5 Basic Meals; Popular Tourist Attractions; Overview of Affiliates; Drug Restrictions; Social Media; and Nutrition. The class divided into groups of about three students each and chose one topic per group.

In class, the students will learn how to interview. From there they learn how to storyboard, then to write a script and beyond. Their job outside of class is to conduct necessary interviews and carry out the filming production. After gaining the raw footage, the final production work is done in class.

“We reconvene once they have the recording to do the editing because that part will be hard,” Marquis said. “We’ll sit down and do the basic layout and do cuts and figure out how to add music, and add all the pieces that are challenging.”

This class aligns so well with this type of project because it is centered on a solid comprehension of social media skills. The focus is to prepare students to enter a line of work and be capable and confident in their social media abilities.

“I had a student last semester who sent me an email saying that he was interviewing for an internship and it was going badly, he was not getting this internship,” Marquis said. “But then the conversation turned to social media and he started talking about the projects we did in class and how we engaged in social media. He got the internship and it was awesome.”

“I believe that students coming out of Gonzaga are going to be more management-type students, particularly in this program,” Marquis said. “I want to give them a real understanding of what the tools look like. If somebody asks them, ‘What’s the resolution for the graphic?’, they should understand what that is and why it’s important.”

The Royals project combines the understanding and skills-based aspects of the “Sports and Fitness in the Digital Age” class. The students use Adobe Premiere, a professional video editing software, to create the videos. This means they get an experience using a professional tool while also acquiring the planning and project management skills required to complete these types of projects in the real world.

Besides management skills, the project promotes the development of leadership skills as well. The students participate firsthand in efforts to ensure that these baseball players do not face significant problems when they arrive to the United States.

“We are helping other people engage and acclimate to American culture,” Marquis said. “This is really a way of helping guide them.”

This project is also an exclusive one: Gonzaga is the only university involved. There are plenty more topics that need to be addressed, and the Royals are committed to having GU fulfill them over the upcoming years.

And Marquis believes that these videos have the potential to help other teams besides the Royals. It is not proprietary information, so he hopes these student-made videos will reach a wider audience.

“It never hurts to have your school associated with professional sports,” Marquis said. “In a sports administration and management program, to say, ‘Oh yeah, our students work with the Royals every year’, is pretty cool.