GRADUATE PROGRAMS IB TRAINING HELPS TEACHERLEADER to ASK BIG QUESTIONS and MAKE MEANINGFUL CONNECTIONS Megan Curts MS ’14 and Brooke Kandel-Cisco
Megan Curts MS ’14 and Brooke Kandel-Cisco Lauren Wendling MS ’15 is drawn
Amy Gaisser ’15, Master’s in Effective Teaching and Leadership
to the intersection of university and
(METL) and International Baccalaureate (IB) Education alumna,
community. During her studies at
enrolled in the IB program even before her first day as a teacher. As
Butler, Wendling worked for Best
a pre-service teacher of English learners, Gaisser was interested
Buddies International, organizing
in studying IB education because she saw the applicability
programming at Indiana high schools
of IB strategies for her students. She explained, “While I was
and universities. Wendling mentored,
interviewing at various Indianapolis schools, I began to research
instructed, and coordinated
IB and its philosophy. I appreciated how IB instruction values
volunteers so that those volunteers
students’ experiences and cultures.” Gaisser began to study the
could better work with and advocate
student-centered and inquiry-based methods as part of her METL
for people with disabilities. In part,
coursework.
her interest in the interactions between school and community
During her four IB education electives, Gaisser appreciated the small class sizes and her supportive, accessible professors, Susan Adams and Brooke Kandel-Cisco. Within her Butler cohort, she found mentors who helped her navigate her first years of teaching seventh-grade English learners at Southport Middle School. Gaisser said her IB training strongly influences her unit planning. She explained, “The key concepts of IB help to unify my units of study. The big ideas help students make connections to other lessons, other content areas, and their lives.” Her lessons frequently incorporate opportunities for students to explore and reflect on those big ideas. Gaisser explained that during these times, “Students are able to make connections, hear others’ perspectives,
led to her enrolling in the Master’s in Effective Teaching and Leadership (METL) program. Initially, Wendling felt like she did not have much to contribute during class discussions because she wasn’t a traditional educator. Quickly, though, she came to view herself as an educator. “During summer cohort classes, I started to see myself and my work differently. I am an educator even though I don’t hold a teaching license,” she said. For her capstone thesis, Wendling created an opportunity to engage her community. She invited people with intellectual or developmental disabilities to serve as her co-researchers by taking pictures to document how they related to their community and then meeting to discuss those photos. “In researching how people with disabilities interact with their community, I found there was no research actually done by people with disabilities. There was no research conducted from an insider perspective,” she said. By collecting and workshopping photos, these researchers worked to provide that previously missing insider perspective.
and ponder the relevance of what we are learning.” Partly because
This past fall, Wendling began her doctoral studies at Indiana
of those regular times of reflection, Gaisser’s units are cohesive and
University, pursuing a doctorate in Higher Education and Student
clear.
Affairs. Wendling also works as a graduate assistant at Indiana
Gaisser’s daily work with students often utilizes IB strategies. She draws on her IB education to help create provocations to draw her students into lessons. “Posing a broad question and asking students to answer helps them to make those meaningful connections.” Gaisser noted that using IB strategies has helped her to foster a classroom culture that encourages students to share their thoughts and to think beyond themselves. In this way, she embraces and honors the diversity of the English learners. Gaisser said, “Although my school isn’t an IB school, IB philosophy definitely shapes my teaching philosophy and benefits my students.”
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METL ALUMNA EXPLORES the ROLE of UNIVERSITIES WITHIN a COMMUNITY
University-Purdue University at Indianapolis’ (IUPUI) Office of Community Engagement where she tracks the many ways the university interacts with the Indianapolis community. Wendling found that her experiences in Butler’s METL program have been useful as she began her doctoral studies. She explained, “I often find myself talking about what I learned during METL, especially things I learned from the K–12 educators in my cohort.” After earning her doctorate degree, Wendling hopes to work in higher education, continuing to encourage and investigate how universities can and should work within their greater community.