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= Welcome to the 2011 Business Education Pre-Internship Wiki =

This wiki has been set up as a resource for the 2011 Business Education Pre-Interns in the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina.

All Business Education major and Minor Pre-Interns have been invited to be members as have the three Business Education instructors - Helen, Tracy and Rhonda. The group of Business Education teachers who have volunteered to be electronic mentors will also be invited

This wiki is meant to be a place where we will keep the EBUS 350 and 351 materials and assignments. It will also be a place where practicing Business Educators and our Pre-Interns can communicate, identify relevant resources and record our thoughts and opinions.

If you would like to become a member of this Wiki send me an email

Cyril Kesten cyril.kesten@uregina.ca

=This is the organizing email I sent which discusses the first week the students will be at Balfour Collegiate.=

I hope you have all had a great Christmas and are getting ready for a Happy New Year. I'm busy packing and putting the final touches on the workshop I am presenting in Malawi.

I have created a wiki for this class and have invited all of you to be members. You can find the wiki at: http://ebuswinter2011.wikispaces.com/

I've posted the syllabus there and I'll use the wiki to identify resources and to communicate with you throughout the semester. Please feel free to add anything you'd like to the wiki - you may also want to bring some of the stuff you added to the EBUS 300 wiki. At some point we'll invite the teachers we're working with to join the wiki too.

I'm attaching the syllabus to this email too. Don't worry about buying texts - you either should have them already or I will provide (you should have the eps text already - I'd like to know what you think of it.)

I won't be back in Regina until Friday, January 14, 2011. I am expecting that I will need the weekend to recover from jet lag. Our flight is from Johannesburg to Atlanta (17 hours), a 2 hour layover in Atlanta, Atlanta to Minneapolis (3 hours), a 1 hour layover in Minneapolis and then Minneapolis to Regina (2 hours).

You'll be attending the (E)Merging Professionalism Conference on Wednesday and Thursday, January 5 and 6. During one of those days Dr. Mulholland will be calling all of you together to have a planning meeting for the first few days at Balfour. Watch for her email or other announcements.

During the week of January 10 there are a number of things planned for your time at Balfour. You'll become acquainted with the building, meet teachers, students, administrators, staff and more. You'll hear about the work we will be doing with the literacy programs and EAL students. Hopefully logistical issues will all be worked out during those first few days - parking, coffee, places to hang your coats, etc.

I'd like you to do a few things during that week that focus on the work we will do in Business Ed.

1. There are some projects that will have you collaborate with the English majors which will allow you to use your tech skills. Find out about these and think about which of you want to be involved and how that involvement will play out. 2. I'd like you to find and introduce yourselves to the teachers who are teaching any Business Ed subject - CPT, Accounting, Life Transitions, Career and Work, etc. You don't need to 'run as a pack.' Spread out and cover the whole school. We're focusing on their second semester so you will need to start this activity with the school administration who will be able to tell you which courses are being offered and who will be teaching them. 3. We have committed to teach some aspects of Entrepreneurship to Ms Kuz's Arts Education students. I indicated to her that some of you (you can decide who wants this assignment) would participate in her Dance class and in her Visual Art class (two teams perhaps working together) helping her students develop a business selling their art. Please meet with Ms Kuz and begin the planning for this project. This classroom experience will be part of their second semester beginning in February. Take lots of notes! 4. I'd like you to begin to identify Business Ed content that you will be able to teach in other subject area courses. Look at curriculum guides, talk to teachers. We'll make final plans when I arrive at Balfour. 5. Survey the school and start thinking about how we can mount our marketing campaign for Business Ed courses. We'll have to confirm with the principal but start thinking about this. 6. Keep your eyes and ears open, take notes, think about what you are seeing, talk with the other students, with Val and eventually with me. Balfour is a big and busy school. It will take a bit of time for you to make some sense out of the complexity. Take this week to focus on just trying to get some handle on what is happening in that building.

You'll notice that there are specific assignments described in the attached syllabus. I will do the best I can to adapt the assignments to be in line with the work you are doing at Balfour and beyond. Remember my focus this semester is to improve your planning and teaching as well as your evaluation abilities. As long as your professional development can be documented the assignments can be changed and adapted to your particular situation.

I understand that I will have intermittent access to the internet and email. I am very curious about what will be going on and what your impressions are during that first week at Balfour. Please send me emails or post on the wiki. Your impressions and experiences are important and I hope you will share them.

Happy New Year and good luck - we're embarking on an exciting journey together.

Cyril

= First Email to Mentors, Students and Business Education Instructors =

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

There are so many new things happening this coming semester that I don't know where to start.

First let me say that I seem to have lucked out on both sides of this equation. I have a great group of students (don't let it go to your heads we still have lots of work to do) and I have what looks like a diverse, interesting and geographically widespread set of mentors. Its going to be a great semester.

For the mentors information. There are 7 Business Education pre-interns. Tyler Forrest, Brennen Schmidt, Jenn Thomas, Jessica Schmidt, Amy McFarlen, Katie Rosenkrantz and Chelsa Heywood. So far these students have taken 5 EBUS (Business Education) courses:

1. EBUS 250 - Orientation to Business and Vocational Education: I Overview of contexts, content, and teaching methods in selected areas of communications and information processing, with emphasis on current business and office processes 2. EBUS 251 - Orientation to Business and Vocational Education: II Overview of contexts, content, and teaching methods in basic business, economics, marketing, law, management, and entrepreneurship. 3. EBUS 270 - Fundamentals of Teaching Keyboarding Principles, processes, methods, and materials for teaching and evaluating keyboarding skills and applications. 4. EBUS 285 - Methods of Teaching Accounting Methodologies, evaluation processes and materials for teaching accounting, including use of computers in accounting courses. 5. EBUS 300 - Curriculum Content in Business Education The study of elements of curriculum design and conceptual frameworks for business education curricula. Analysis of business education curricula in several educational jurisdictions and development of original business education curricula.

They all have many courses from our Faculty of Business Administration - in fact some already have Bachelor's of Business Administration - they are working towards a degree we call BEAD - Bachelor of Education after Degree.

They also have extensive experience in generic teaching courses and at least two field experiences in elementary and middle years classrooms.

And each of them have their own unique backgrounds and interests - ranging from extensive work experience, athletics, national and international travel, families, and children. This group is not your typical third year (Juniors) coming for their first degree straight out of high school. In fact most of them will graduate immediately after their Internship next Fall.

This semester (Winter 2011) is called Pre-Internship and is focused on helping the students prepare for their semester long internship which will take place in the Fall 2011 semester.

Another exciting part of the Winter semester is the location and approach being taken for this pre-internship. As a special project the English Education professor (Dr. Valerie Mulholland) and I are taking all of our students to Balfour Collegiate for their course work. We will be integrating ourselves into the school and using that experience as the framework for pre-internship. Officially I am teaching two EBUS courses (Ebus 350 and 351) as well as EPS 350. Dr. Mulholland is teaching ELNG 350 and 351 - courses comparable to EBUS 350 and 351. there are 23 English majors and 7 Business Education majors participating in this project.

EBUS 350 - Instruction and Evaluation in Information Processing Components of Business Education An integrated study of instruction and evaluation theories and practices applicable to information processing aspects of business education.

EBUS 351 - Instruction and Evaluation in Basic Business Education Planning and implementing instruction and evaluation of secondary school basic business education subjects such as economics, law, consumer education, general business, and entrepreneurship.

EPS 350 - Principles and Practices of Secondary Teaching: II Principles and Practices of Secondary Teaching: II Making instructonal choices: a holistic view to teaching process and procedures for the secondary school teacher is fostered. Students study, practise and reflect in classes, labs, and high schools.

Fortunately seven Business Educators have volunteered to work as mentors with my students. They are: Heather Laturnas (Alberta), Ken Kuhn (British Columbia), Ann Kieser (Pennsylvania), Theresa Murray (New York), Amy Derr (Connecticut), Paula Johnson (Missouri) and Lindsay Kallas (Pennsylvania).

I will reiterate the ground rules.

1. I will ask all of you (students and mentors alike) to write a brief bio - Where are you? What do you teach? What are your interests? What would be nice to know about you? Whatever else you'd like to tell us. 2. I will set up a page on our wiki for these bios to be posted (I have invited everyone to be a member of the wiki) 3. I will be away in Africa (another whole story there) until January 15, if 'natural selection' hasn't worked I will become a match maker and create mentor/mentee pairs. 4. I will then ask you to communicate with each other occasionally/regularly/publicly/privately - in any manner you choose. The point of this is that my students will have the opportunity to work with/communicate with an experienced teacher about this new experience they are having. Mentors should receive at least two benefits - first they will have the satisfaction of helping and supporting the development of excellent Business Educators and perhaps more selfishly they will benefit from the lesson/unit/resources that my students will identify and create. 5. I will regularly ask mentors and students how things are going but I WILL NEVER ASK FOR EVALUATION - NEITHER FROM THE STUDENT NOR FROM THE MENTORS - if the relationship works that's great - if it doesn't work that's too bad but that's life. This is not a graded assignment. It is an opportunity which I will facilitate.

I will post a copy of this email on the wiki. You will also find the syllabus for the EBUS courses on the wiki.

Thank you all again for creating the potential of a great professional development experience for all of us.

Cyril