Instructions for Week 8 Written Assignment Creating a 21st-Century Teacher One of the challenges of creating highly qualified teachers is that we must continually update our skills and strategies to serve students in an ever-changing educational environment. Currently, we have already in the system many teachers who may not be prepared for the challenges ahead. Even new educators just emerging from teacher preparation will encounter situations that were not predicted when their training began. What are some important ways teachers of today can prepare for the classroom of tomorrow? Your assignment is to design a prospectus to effectively demonstrate the need for a short workshop or training program (your choice) to provide information and skills to prepare teachers to best serve students in the next decade. The following items need to be included in your prospectus: Title: Give your program an original and descriptive title Cover Letter: This is a letter directed to a decision maker. Write a cover letter that is compelling and effectively makes the “case” for the need for the training described in your prospectus. Rationale: Write a rationale for the program. The rationale includes the issues that demand training for teachers and provides research demonstrating the reasons these issues are educationally significant. The rationale should also include why funding should be expended in support of this training program. Your role is to provide, as the expert consultant you are, the reasons teachers need to learn skills and concepts that will prepare them to teach in the classroom of the future; it provides information about “Teaching 2030”. Aim for information and education to prepare teachers for the new realities. Address in your training at least three different areas in which teachers will update or acquire skills. Program Description and Outline: Describe the program fully. Write this to convince decision makers of the value of the content of your training. First develop the objectives of the program. Remember objectives describe what leaners will be able to do when they complete the program. Then, include an outline of the program, including timeline, topics and activities. For example, if you include a session on “creating an inclusive classroom” you need to describe how long that session should be, what the participants will do, who the instructors or speakers might be, what books, web sites, research, or technology might be used, and where in the program this session will take place. You also need to include samples of learning activities that can be used to help participants accomplish the objectives of each session. You need not create lesson plans for this section; your goal is to communicate the content that will be covered in the program. This section can be written in outline form with complete sentences describing each of the elements in the outline. Budget/Cost: Decision makers will need to have a general idea of the costs of implementing your proposal. In this section of your report explain and describe expense items. You need not produce a detailed account (you need not provide budget line items) but you do need to provide enough detail for leadership to determine whether they wish to invest in the program. As a minimum describe general expense categories. Assessment: Explain how you will evaluate the program for effectiveness. You may include samples of survey or interview questions you will use. Review the research articles you find that discuss how to effectively evaluate program effectiveness to ensure your assessments align with the research. Communication: To accomplish your program, how will you present your ideas to important stakeholders, such as administrators, school board members, community members, potential funding sources and teachers/ educators? Consider specifically two kinds of communications 1) communications to the entity (perhaps a charitable foundation, a college president, a school superintendent or a corporate donor) who might approve or fund your program and 2) communications to the teachers you wish to recruit to participate in your training or workshop. Suggested number of pages for each section: Cover Letter: 1-2 pages Rationale: 3-5 pages Program Description and Outline: 5-7 pages Assessment: 2-3 pages Communication: cover letter plus 3-5 pages describing plan for other communications (not including attachments and samples) Include a title page and references pages as well (recommended page counts do not include attachments, title page and reference list).