This year, Shorewood partnered with Dr. Beth Giles and Christina Stefonek from UW-Madison's School of Education to run a pilot class called Action Research. This class provided 13 teachers Shorewood teachers with an action research experience in lieu of their SLO (Student Learning Outcome; a key piece of teacher evaluation) and teachers earned three credits through UW-Madison for taking the course.
Each month, these teachers met for 2.5 hours to discuss action research and teaching practices through the lens of equity. The teachers each selected a topic related to equity in their classroom, and focused on collecting and discussing data, modifying their actions, and coming to a conclusion. View participant teacher Roxanne Tibbits’ research project here.
Their final step was a presentation of their work at the Teacher Research Forum which took place on June 14th from 9am-12pm at UW-Madison's "Wisconsin Idea Room" in the Education Building. Teachers had the opportunity to share their research and findings in a "science fair" style event that was open to the public.
“The work that was done by these individuals is very powerful and it would be great to see more of our teachers get involved with this course in the future,” says Shorewood’s Director of Curriculum and Instruction Tim Joynt.
At a recent School Board meeting, Joynt shared that the feedback from participating teachers was positive and that the consensus was the class was powerful and advantageous. He plans to work with Dr. Giles to see how the District can continue to provide and grow this program in the coming years.