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QTL News & Best Practices

QTL Instructors Plan Enhancements for 2006
January 2006
RALEIGH, NC -- Almost two dozen QTL™ instructors, partners and other educators gathered at The Capital Center for Quality Teaching and Learning this week.

The three-day event brought staff and certified instructors together to find out about program updates, to share successes, and learn a few new tricks. Among those attending were instructors who deliver the QTL program in North Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas and Mississippi.

Rachel Porter and Vonda Ferguson listen to instructions on synching data through Alphasmart devices.

Theresa Bell (foreground) synchs up with Person County QTL instructors Ann Fox, Andrew Clayton, Miriam Morgan and Sheila Mitchiner.

Botetourt County QTL instructor Trevor Ruble and Susan Herring of The Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning on the geocache trail.

One highlight of the gathering was a seminar on GeoCaching presented by NCDPI instructional technology consultants Acacia Dixon and Karen Creech. They demonstrated how teachers can use GPS devices to take students on geocache searches.

Participants plugged information into the global positioning devices and searched for 'treasures' planted for them to find. They learned how the popular high-tech pastime can be an effective tool for teaching subjects from math and science to social studies and geography. The activity will become part of the program for some QTL participants in the year ahead.

In other sessions during the three days, instructors shared collaborative projects their teams have completed, and discussed both success stories and challenges they've faced in leading QTL sessions.

"This is an opportunity for instructors who are implementing the program in their own districts to come together and share some of the issues," says QTL Director of Instruction Tamara McCulloch. "And it's an opportunity to share the effect the program has had on their districts, and most importantly, on the students."

"This is our Professional Learning Community," says QTL Director of Programs Janice Johnson. "This is a critical opportunity for them to share experiences across state lines, in wealthy and poor systems, in large and small districts."

"I really enjoyed the session," said Sheila Mitchiner, a former Person County QTL instructor who now manages instructional technology demonstration projects for the North Carolina Technology Association (NCTA).

"It's so important to see what others are doing, and then to talk about what comes next."

What comes next is a busy year for QTL staff and partners, with upcoming projects including:

• NCTA projects using federal funding for technology and professional development are well underway in Moore County and Johnston County.
• Four different versions of the QTL program are being offered in several states.
• A Level Two QTL program being developed in cooperation with Rutherford Learning Group's Learning Centered Schools will pilot in Botetourt County in March.
• Development of the Capacity First model of QTL continues in partnership with Learning Centered Schools and Murphy's Whole Faculty Study Groups.
• New Teacher Induction sessions designed for Trade & Industrial Education teachers are being scheduled in Arkansas and North Carolina.
• An intensive Professional Learning Centers model of QTL is being developed with Murphy's Whole Faculty Study Groups.
• Implementation of QTL continues in Centers across North Carolina.
• Two Virginia districts (Botetourt County and Lee County) will send the remainder of their staffs through QTL and look to implementation of the next level.
• Additional specialized sessions will be offered for Virginia ITRTs.
• QTL will be offered to Arkansas teachers, first through partnership with East Arkansas Community College.
• QTL's first Georgia school, Thompson Middle School in Centerville, will wrap up the Whole Faculty Study Groups portion of its Capacity First program and begin sending teachers through QTL this summer.
• Mississippi QTL programs will get back in gear after a fall disrupted by hurricane aftermath.
• A two-day Leadership Seminar in Dyersburg, Tennessee in February will mark QTL's initial foray into that state.

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