Reflective Planning, Teaching, and Evaluation for the Elementary School

Elliot Eisner described the role of a educational connoisseur in his book The Educational Imagination (3rd edition, 1994, Merrill/Prentice Hall). "The major distinction between connoisseurship and criticism is this: connoisseurship is the art of appreciation, criticism is the art of disclosure" (p. 215). He goes on to say that experience counts in the development of connoisseurship. "To develop connoisseurship one must have a desire to perceive subtleties, to become a student of human behavior, to focus one's perception" (p. 216). We'd like to believe that this book was written by two very enthusiastic educational connoisseurs.

JUDY EBY began teaching in 1969 and has been a classroom teacher, coordinator of a gifted program, a teacher educator (De Paul University, University of San Diego, and San Diego State University), and a mentor teacher in the Beginning Teacher Support Academy with the San Diego Unified School district. Now retired, she still enthusiastically pursues her role as a connoisseur of the best educational practices. She actively searches out and researches best practices and shares her experiences and perceptions with other educators. She offers her experience to school districts as an educational consultant, specializing in the development of reflective action and professional portfolios for teachers.

She also volunteers in children's literacy programs on both sides of the San Diego-Tijuana border. Her most treasured project is the Tecolote Centro de Comunidad, children's center in Tijuana, where she has created and runs children's library for the community. She also participates in before- and after-school programs on both sides of the border.

Because Judy knows that teacher educators deserve to have the ideas of someone currently immersed in teacher education, she invited DEBRA BAYLES MARTIN to co-author this new edition. Debra entered the education profession in 1980 as an intern teacher and completed a dual bachelor's degree in Educational Psychology and Elementary Education. Her Educational Psychology background included work with students who were deaf or hard of hearing, students with speech and articulation difficulties, and educationally challenged individuals.

As an elementary school teacher, Debra wrote and directed school musicals and dramatic productions and organized several after-school programs for students in photography, music, physical fitness, and other interest areas. Debra has been involved in teacher education at the university level for 11 years, teaching Reading/Language Arts methods courses and supervising student teachers. She received her M.A. in Reading from Brigham Young University and her Ph.D. in Language and Literacy Studies/Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Texas at Austin.

In 1996, Debra helped develop and direct a new teacher education program at San Diego State University (the Accelerated Block), and she still works closely with local school districts to determine ways the university can help schools address educational needs at local and state levels. In 1997 Debra was names Director of the SDSU Community Reading Center, which is part of the Master's program in Reading/Language Arts. Debra teaches graduate assessment and instructional intervention courses at the Center. Community members of all ages and backgrounds are assessed and tutored at the Center by credentialed teachers enrolled in the Master's program. Center clients make excellent literacy growth during tutoring and experience the warm ethos of care that infuses the program.

Debra is involved in a number of professional teaching and research organizations, regularly consults on a local and national level, and maintains an active research agenda. She studies how teachers learn to teach and regularly presents her research at national conferences and through professional publications. Debra is the author of a literacy program for illiterate adults and a handbook on creating professional teacher portfolios; she is currently co-authoring a series of instructional materials for young, at-risk readers.

Debra enjoys working with teachers, students, and parents at the Center, and welcomes opportunities to counsel students, advise them in independent projects, and introduce them to research processes in their own classrooms or at the Center. She was named Outstanding Faculty Member for the School of Teacher Education in 1999.