Teacher leader Academy recipients recognized
By Nancy Whitney
Staff Writer
Over half a million in funds were allocated, and Wylie ISD recognized aspiring administrators and faculty at a special meeting last week.
The Birmingham Land Trust fund allocations were presented by Dr. Jeannie Stone.
Funds will be distributed to areas including culinary, education, engineering, graphic design, health science, information technology and much more. A career counselor position will be added at each high school with a salary of $65,000. The Birmingham funds will pay for one of them. A family and consumer science teacher salary was also included at $55,000.
Ag students will receive two trailers, at a cost of $70,000, and travel expenditures of $80,000 have been allocated for Career and Technology Student Organization and leadership events. Both high schools will also receive 911 dispatch units and lab equipment at a cost of $52,000.
The Birmingham Trust was initially set up to solely benefit the students of Wylie independent School District in the areas of manual training and domestic economy. In 1950, the Birmingham’s added an additional trust that expanded the subjects to include advanced American history and chemistry. Approximately 20 classes, within the core subjects, are currently being supported, or benefit from grants given by the trusts.
Since its inception in 1940, total contributions to WISD through 2014 have totaled $11,522,876.
Melissa Heller, director of staff development, led recognitions of three teacher/administrator groups, ACE Academy, Teacher Leader Academy and Aspiring Administrator Cohort. Heller said that 12 teacher leaders who completed action research projects in the gold level were recognized.
“Projects focused on topics specific to their teaching assignment,” Heller said. “Topics ranged from the benefits of home visits with ELL students and parents, the impact of writing pen pals and how to better support teachers with using technology tools in their classroom.”
ACE Academy Silver recipients include Karrie George, Wylie High School; Paul Smith, Draper Intermediate; Ramon Lopez, Draper Intermediate and Kristen Kingston, Cox Elementary; Andrea Fox, Draper Intermediate; Whitney Blann, Watkins Elementary; Amy Elmore, Watkins Elementary; Pam Perkins, Cox Elementary and Emily Park, Tibbals Elementary.
ACE Academy Gold recipients include Andrea Fox, Draper Intermediate; Paul Smith, Draper Intermediate; Pam Perkins, Cox Elementary; Ramon Lopez, Draper Intermediate; Kristen Kingston, Cox Elementary; Emily Park, Tibbals Elementary; Tracy Halligan, Cox Elementary; Nancy Spaulding, Smith Elementary and Katie Branham, Smith Elementary.
ACE Academy is the district’s professional development design framework. There are two levels, silver and gold. There are 15 courses needed to complete the silver level award, which is in addition to their annual contract requirement.
To show mastery of the silver level, the applicant must present a lesson to a coaching circle, which includes a lesson design protocol. Once completed, the final exemplar lesson is submitted to forethought to be shared with other staff.
The final step in the application process for the silver level is completion of the online application that will be approved by the campus supervisor.
The gold level is considered a transformational level where you apply the knowledge you have gained from your collective professional learning throughout one’s career. Applicants choose from one of the following two course options in collaboration with their supervisor.
The Teacher Leader Academy celebrated their 8th district cohort who participated in the yearlong learning opportunity.
Teacher Leader Academy recipients include Michele Douthit, Tibbals Elementary; Sarah Stunkard, Dodd Elementary; Ramon Lopez, Draper Intermediate; Vicki Patterson, Dodd Elementary; Rebecca Wimpee, Wylie East High School; Katie Branham, Smith Elementary; Katie Hathaway, Smith Elementary and Barbara Radford, Wylie High School; Katie McLeroy, Tibbals Elementary; Dawn Tietz, McMillan Junior High School; Kasia Reese, McMillan Junior High School; Amy Light, Dodd Elementary; Ann Darby, Davis Intermediate; Sherri Chuang, Birmingham Elementary; Tracy Halligan, Cox Elementary and Kirstin Sloppy, Draper Intermediate.
Those involved in the Aspiring Administrator Cohort are teacher leaders who were recommended by their campus principal to work with district leadership to study the campus principalship and to support growing their own future campus leaders from within the district. Aspiring Administrator Cohort participants include Justin Mork, Christina Pinilla, Melissa Hefty, Brian Alexander, Felicia Hilliard, Kim Cross, Eric Davis, Michael Slaughter, Jason Ervin, Paige Dawkins, Misty Jenkins and Diana Menjivar.
All of the groups are geared towards teacher leaders and those that aspire to grow into leadership positions outside of the classroom, including future principals and central office administrators.
For more information on ACE Academy go to http://learningforward.org/, for Teacher Leader Academy information visit http://www.teacherleaderstandards.org/
In executive session, trustees addressed a grievance hearing- transfer student. Upon reconvening for open session, trustees had a split vote, with the request being approved four to three.
The regularly scheduled meeting was held May 18. See next week’s News for a complete story.
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