To Be:
Faith Integration and Interdisciplinary Work
The following is an overview of my Faith Integration and Interdisciplinary Work. Artifacts listed below to support my claim of being a mindful educator in the areas of integration; faith, collaboration and interdisciplinary work. Links to evidence will appear when hovering over various items within the list.
Faith Contextualization Reflection
Reflection: Transitioning from a career in public education to working within MNU's community of faith allowed me the opportunity to realize my role as a Christian educator more fully. Developing my Integration of Faith in Teaching helped me intentionally align my faith and professional practice. While our department continues the Student Teaching Sending Service and induction ceremony tradition I established before my last rank advancement submission, I focused our department's collective efforts on better understanding faith integration after transitioning to the chair role. I developed a Faith Integration Department Plan. This plan led to the investigation of the attributes of Christ as our master teacher. From this study, we established our fifth conceptual framework pillar. This pillar is entitled Faith, Service, and Calling: Being grounded in Christian faith and recognizing God's call on their lives, leaders pursue the ministry of teaching while serving the least, the last, and the lost. This pillar includes an overview of candidate faith integration knowledge, skills, and dispositions. This tool supported faculty in developing faith integration learning goals across all program courses and the revision of evaluation.
Faith Integration Resources
Statement of Faith
Philosophy of Christian Education & Faith Integration
Dr. Jill has always shown a commitment to students and to the profession. She is a true model of a Christian educator that cares. I could not ask for a better instructor for student teaching. She is the best fit for this course in the department. Period. I appreciate this instructor and how she demonstrates Christ's love to her students. I always felt that I could ask her a question, if I did not understand what we were supposed to do for the assignment. The instructor shows the love of Christ everyday. She was able to model what an effective teacher looks like. As a student, I can tell she truly cares for my well-being. Cultural Diversity, Spring, 2015 |
I truly felt like this professor cared for me as a person as well as a student. She always took time to ask us about our week and our day, and ALWAYS made it a priority to pray for us. I had a really hard semester and I confided in her and she prayed over me and the situation I was in and helped me through my difficult time She was very responsive to questions and comments always wanting to hear what we has to say about the content. My favorite thing was that she took a huge interest in our lives and really exemplified Christian values. She gave us plenty of opportunities to participate and use the technology we were learning about. -Spring, 2015 Technology Integration |
I had a wonderful experience with Dr. Jill Gonzalez-Bravo and this class. I only have wonderful things to say about her as a professor! One of the reasons I was able to stay strong throughout the program; great professor! She got to know all of her students, not only as a class but on a one on one basis too. She really connected with her students and It showed. |
Interdisciplinary Work Reflection
Reflection: Working with colleagues across campus on grant proposals, new hires, workshop presentations, and consulting projects has refined my professional collaborative practices. While my portfolio highlights a variety of interdisciplinary collaborative department, university, and community works, one of the efforts I have most enjoyed is chairing committees. Several committees were previously established within our previous program structure (the School of Education Initial Programs Committee, Teacher Education Department, and the Teacher Education Content Committees); however other committees were essential to ensure program fidelity. The restructuring/splitting of our department between the traditional and professional and graduate studies program, combined with the need to seek advanced accreditation and apply the new national standards, I realized a significant gap. There was no avenue for the unit head to support advanced program directors in meeting state and national accreditation requirements. To reconcile this gap, I established quarterly SOE Advanced Directors Meetings.
This newly established committee, combined with opportunities to chair external committees such as the KSDE Evaluation Review Committee, Kansas Association of Teacher Educators, and the Educators Rising Executive Committee, provided opportunity for me to better connect with leaders and researchers not only across campus, but across the state. Such efforts have refined my networking abilities, informed decision-making, enhanced leadership skills, and shaped initiatives here at MNU. A recent initiative that has required me to work across advanced and initial program faculty and admissions teams, was the development of the School of Education's Recruitment and Retention plan. The framework for this plan arose from my past work with TEACHKC and the Kaufman Foundation. My connection to this organization allowed me to meet with a team of recruitment and retention consultants and researchers. Currently, I am working with MNU's SLATE leadership team to secure data that will better inform our evaluation of plan strategies.
This newly established committee, combined with opportunities to chair external committees such as the KSDE Evaluation Review Committee, Kansas Association of Teacher Educators, and the Educators Rising Executive Committee, provided opportunity for me to better connect with leaders and researchers not only across campus, but across the state. Such efforts have refined my networking abilities, informed decision-making, enhanced leadership skills, and shaped initiatives here at MNU. A recent initiative that has required me to work across advanced and initial program faculty and admissions teams, was the development of the School of Education's Recruitment and Retention plan. The framework for this plan arose from my past work with TEACHKC and the Kaufman Foundation. My connection to this organization allowed me to meet with a team of recruitment and retention consultants and researchers. Currently, I am working with MNU's SLATE leadership team to secure data that will better inform our evaluation of plan strategies.