Summer 2007 Schedule

Summer One Class Schedule

Mini-Term I


Monday – Thursday
8:10 – 8:45am
Self-Awareness Training
Milbank Chapel

9am – 12pm
ORLA4001
TH229

12-1pm
Lunch


1-4pm
ORLA5018
TH229

Friday
8:10 – 8:45am
Self-Awareness Training
Milbank Chapel

9am-12pm
ORLA6020
TH229

12-1pm
Lunch


1-4pm
Afternoon Activity
TBD


Mini Term II

Monday – Thursday
8:10 – 8:45am
Self-Awareness Training
Milbank Chapel

9am – 12pm
ORLA5340
TH229

12-1pm
Lunch


1-4pm
ORLA5029
TH229

Friday
8:10 – 8:45am
Self-Awareness Training
Milbank Chapel

9am-12pm
ORLA6020
TH229

12-1pm
Lunch


1-4pm
Afternoon Activity
TBD

Summer Orientation II -- June 23, 2007

2007-2008 Cohort
Summer I Orientation II
June 23, 1007
Thompson Hall 229

8:00-8:15 Check-in
8:15 Depart for Morningside Park
8:30-12:30 Team and Trust Building (Morningside Park)
12:45-1:30 Lunch (provided)
Letter writing Activity
1:35-2:05 Americorps Presentation
Sandy Hong
2:05-2:25 Career Services Presentation
Amy Menes
2:25-2:45 ACS/CIS Presentation
Yaowen Chang
2:45-3:00 Break and snack (provided)
3:00-4:00 Group Logo and Survey Design
Dr. Craig Richards
4:00-4:15 Closing

ECI Deadline Extended to June 7, 2007

On Monday all students will receive an email from the Hay group indicating that the deadline has been extended to June 7 (Thursday). If you have completed the ECI then you can rest happy. In the event that you want to follow up on some of your raters who did not respond in a timely manner then you can still send them an email to complete the survey.

IN SOME CASES WHERE YOU HAVE ONLY 1 or 2 RATERS IN A CATEGORY THEN CONSOLIDATE THE CATEGORY TO ‘OTHER’ SO THAT THE DATA IS COUNTED. IF THE SURVEY IS CONCLUDED AND YOU ONLY HAVE ONE RATER FOR A CATEGORY THAT DATA WILL BE DISCARDED.

ECI 360 Sent May 11

I received confirmation today that you should receive an email message from the Hay group with your ECI instructions today, May 11, 2007.

The administrators of the ECI warn that some email systems may send the message to your spam or junk mail folders. Please check carefully so that you do not miss this important message.

Orientation Feedback

We hope you had a chance to process the information from the orientation and are well on your way to completing the first assignment due for ORLA 5018. We processed your thoughtful feedback and also received a few great questions in the intervening week. Thank you for taking time to let us know how we can improve the orientation and address issues that will help you to be better prepared when you return to campus in June. We will continue to use this blog as a way to facilitate overall information distribution and we will use other venues as well where appropriate (e.g. ClassWeb postings and CubMail email broadcasts). If you have specific questions related to the courses please feel free to send an email through the ClassWeb message facility to either a faculty member or GA.

Here are some of the really valuable insights we took away from the orientation:

The Orientation

Your feedback indicated that you almost unanimously agreed (94%) that you were well received and that the ice breaker set a great tone for the day (97%). We are aware of the large amount of information that you were processing and wish that we had more time to spend in each of the sessions. We did allocate a little extra time in the morning which gave us an unexpected breather. Our experience shows time after time that if you try to do too much your best efforts lead to high anxiety. Your feedback indicated we had a good balance, that faculty were available and helpful (100%) and that our staff was responsive to your needs (100% with the highest 63% in strong agreement).

Areas for Improvement

Several suggestions indicate that you would prefer that information on syllabi be provided in advance and that you be given time to process it beforehand. We take these suggestions seriously and will look for ways to provide a timely introduction to materials. We also encourage you to continue to peruse the materials we handed out (Handbook and Internship Manual) so that you can formulate all your questions in this intermediate period.

We will continue to look for ways to accommodate our cohort members who are traveling great distances to attend the orientation. We appreciate the sacrifice you made and appreciate your suggestions for ways to make it better.

Remaining Questions

Many of you had remaining questions regarding financial aid. We will provide more detailed information during the summer regarding the Americorps grants and how to manage financial aid issues across the length of the academy. We encourage you to contact the financial aid office at Teachers College with your specific questions as we are not able to field many of the detailed concerns you may have.

We will also provide you with more detailed information on the certification process. Our office of certification will conduct a session on one of the Thursday afternoons during the summer intensive. We will also have a session with our Career Office and provide advance information regarding our February Career Fair.

Calendars

We encourage you to take time to prepare your own calendars carefully as time management is a valuable skill and the various responsibilities of SPA will challenge you to be mindful of multiple commitments.

Bios

Your brief bio will be added to our website with a photo of you during the first week of the academy. We realize that you may not see your entire self in the brief bios. We commissioned a public relations firm to author the bios so that they have the same look and feel as well as focus on the same common issues. If there are factual errors in the bios or information that you would like to modify in within the text limit you can send your modified bio to Whitney Bates (web2105@columbia.edu).


Future Events

Some of you asked if there would be future opportunities to meet current cohort members or graduates of the program. During the second orientation on June 23 we will have a panel of current cohort members available to offer their perspectives and field your questions. We are also pioneering a new feature of support this year with five members of our founding cohort who will be returning to join our staff as peer coaches. We will provide more information on their role during the second orientation as well.

We will also be introducing you to your small groups at the second orientation and providing you with more opportunity to meet the rest of your own cohort. Feel free to contact each other via CubMail in the meantime.

Forwarding Your CubMail

For those of you who check other email accounts more frequently than you do CubMail, here is information on how to forward your Columbia email to another account:

(from the CIS website)
Students are responsible for being aware of official messages sent to their Columbia email accounts. Teachers College expects that every student will receive email at his or her Columbia University email address and will read email on a frequent and consistent basis. However, you can forward your Columbia email to your Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo account or any other e-mail address. If you do so, make sure to check this account frequently. To set up email forwarding visit Columbia's website at http://uni.columbia.edu.

From there,

1. Select "Login to manage your UNI."
2. Click on "Email forwarding" under "Configure Email Settings."
3. Enter your UNI and password.
4. Select "Forward" from the menu at the top of the page.
5. Enter the complete email account of where you would like emails to be sent. [**Note: if you check that you would like to keep copies of email in your cubmail, you will need to log into your cubmail in order to delete emails.]
6. Click on "save."

360° Emotional Competence Inventory – Further Instructions

You will soon receive instructions from the Hay Group for completing the 360° Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI) as well as your username and password necessary to complete and monitor this assessment process.

As you know the ECI requires feedback from a number of individuals – these are referred to as “respondents”. Input from respondents facilitates a thorough and valid assessment of your Emotional Intelligence and highlights “blind spots” (differentials between self perceptions and perceptions of others) that require improvement. The number of individuals that need to be approached to serve as “respondents” may feel overwhelming and/or initially you may feel unsure who you should approach. The following frequently asked questions are designed to address any uncertainty and further clarify the ECI assessment process.

Who should my respondents be?
Below is a list of potential respondents. The list is designed to give you some ideas but is not exhaustive. Respondents can come from outside the “school” environment provided they relate to you in the capacities listed below. If you are unsure regarding an individuals’ applicability feel free to check this with Whitney Bates (web2105@columbia.edu). If you want to know the questions on the respondents’ survey you can click on the “Your Surveys” button to see the actual survey. The ECI survey is the same for all rater categories.

Respondent Categories and Examples:

Manager

• School principal
• Deputy principal
• School administrator
• Head of department

Direct report

• Classroom assistant
• Committee member

Peer

• Colleague
• Fellow graduate student

Other

• Close friend
• Partner
• Family members

Client/Customer

• Students (minimum age 16)
• Parents

The best feedback comes from individuals with whom you have had:

1. Frequent contact (multiple times per month or more)
2. Recent contact (within the past six months)
3. A long working relationship (one year or more)
4. Diverse contact (from a variety of work-related settings)

A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself if you could answer the ECI questions on behalf of the potential respondent. If the answer is YES then they could probably do the same for you. Since the respondent will complete the exact same survey as you it is possible to review the questions prior to selecting respondents by clicking on “Your Surveys” and then Emotional Competence Inventory-v2 and ECI Comments Form.

How many respondents do I need?

There are a number of rater categories to make the instrument easy and flexible to use. It is not necessary to use all categories. Focus on the categories that are most relevant to your circumstances. Note that if you wish to receive feedback from a specific given category, you will need to have at least the minimum number of “valid” respondents in that category. For example, the minimum number of “valid” respondents in the direct report category is 2.

The list below summarizes the recommended number and minimum number of “valid” respondents for a particular category:

Manager
Recommended number: 1
Minimum required: 1

Direct report
Recommended number: 5 to All
Minimum required: 2

Peer
Recommended number: 5
Minimum required: 2

Other
Recommended number: 5
Minimum required: 2

Client/Customer
Recommended number: 5
Minimum required: 2

It is advisable to nominate 5 respondents per category because some individuals may fail to respond in a timely manner and/or be “disqualified/dropped” if their survey data is deemed incomplete. Selecting approximately 5 individuals will likely yield a sufficient number of “valid” respondents.

Can I select more respondents in the future?

Yes. If you are uncertain about whether a particular respondent is appropriate, you can select the ones you are certain about now and add others later. Just keep in mind that the due date is the same for everyone, and any raters you add later will need reasonable time to complete the surveys by that due date.

Points for Clarification – How to respond to the following questions:

What is your level in the organization?
In the Demographics Survey when asked “What is your level in the organization?”
Response: individual contributor (and add entry/middle/senior depending upon your level of experience)

What is your functional area?
In the Demographics Survey when asked “What is your functional area?”
Response: other

How do I track whether my respondents are responding?
You can view your survey status by clicking on “Your Respondents” and then selecting from the left sidebar. Because rater confidentiality is protected, you will see how many, but not which specific people have responded in each group. The Hay Group will send periodic reminders to those raters (as well as participants themselves) who have not yet completed the required surveys. Please do not use the “send reminders” feature on the web site; The Hay Group will do this for you.

We hope this information will facilitate your completion of the ECI. Contact Stephanie Cook at the Hay Group for any technical issues stephanie_cook@haygroup.com

Pictures on ClassWeb

Faculty appreciate having photos associated with your profile on ClassWeb.

To change your profile information of ClassWeb:
1. Log in
2. Click on the "profile" tab toward the top of the screen
3. Choose the "edit profile" link on the left hand side of the screen.
4. When finished, make sure that you submit your changes. :-)

*You must add a picture to your profile in order to have a picture displayed in the course section of ClassWeb.

The Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI) 360

What is Emotional Intelligence and Why is it Important:

Studies show that emotional intelligence (EI), the ability to identify and manage emotions in both self and others, is the best predictor of success in life. Its predictive value is greater than IQ plus technical skills put together. Recent UCLA research indicated that only 7% of leadership success is attributable to intellect; 97% of success, in fact, comes from trust, integrity, authenticity, honesty, creativity, presence, and resilience.

Learning about Emotional Intelligence during the Summer Principals Academy
This summer, as part of the Summer Principal’s Academy experience, you will be taking a Seminar in Leadership (ORLA 6020). A major part of the seminar is a segment dedicated to Emotional Intelligence led by Dr. Robin Stern (Instructor). These sessions of the course, held every Friday morning, will introduce you to the basics of emotional intelligence (EQ) and how this framework can be used for your own professional development. Through a combination of guest lecture, reflective practice, and group process, you will become familiar with your strengths and challenge areas, explore your core values, build upon your vision and design a performance growth plan that will improve your ability to model “star” leadership and transform your lives and school.

Emotional Competence Inventory 360’ Assessment:

In order to achieve the aforementioned it is important to obtain a comprehensive, baseline assessment of your current EQ. Consequently in the next few days you will be getting an email communication from the Hay Group about the Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI). The ECI is a 360’ degree instrument (meaning that in addition to your own responses to questions concerning your emotional intelligence, others in your personal and work life are invited to respond) that taps a variety of competencies and composes your very own “emotional intelligence profile”. You will ultimately use this profile to close the gap between your current leadership style and the ideal style to which you aspire.

The Hay Group email will provide instructions about selecting and contacting those individuals whom you choose to evaluate your emotional intelligence by completing the relevant sections of the ECI. You will be asked to select up to 20 people who know you and your work very well. It is crucial that you get a well-rounded group of respondents, those you had amicable relationships with and those that presented challenges for you. The results of your ECI are for you and your own professional development only, so the more honesty you can get from those you ask for feedback, the more you will grow in this process. Further, the quality of the instrument will be enhanced by the number of respondents

Questions/Queries
If you have any further queries or questions please contact Prof. Robin Stern (rbin@aol.com).

GOOD LUCK AS YOU MOVE FORWARD WITH THIS VERY EXCITING PROCESS OF SELF DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT

Forgotton Passwords for UNIs

Students who have forgotten their Cunix password need to go to 234 Horace Mann in person, present their Teachers College picture ID and request to have the password reset.

OR

If they are unable to reach the campus they can send a request for a password reset via fax to 212-678-3358 - They should add ther TC picture Id and their UNI to their request
AFTER the password has been reset, they need to go to http://uni.columbia.edu , click on forgot password and choose a new password.


Patrizia Magni, Ed.D.Academic Computing Services (CIS), Box 43Teachers College, Columbia University(212) 678-8212 -- magni@tc.edu

ORLA 5029 Supervision of Teaching & Learning

Here are two clarifications from the faculty of ORLA 5029:

Re: DVD/video of your teaching
The video should be no shorter than 20 minutes and no longer than 40 minutes.

Re: Supervision textbook edition
For those of you looking to purchase the Supervision textbook from an alternative source (other than the TC bookstore), you should know that we are using the 7th edition of that text.

Summer Housing Opportunity at Manhattan School of Music

Attention SPA Cohorts

I received word on Friday that the Manhattan School of Music now has available rooms for the summer – one of their prior commitments pulled out at the last minute. Our students enjoyed the rooms there in past summers. The dorm is a new construction (<10 years old) across the street (Broadway, 134 Claremont) from our campus, it is air conditioned. Their rates are favorable:

Double *
Rate/week - $225
Per Diem Rate, Pro rata part of week ** - $35

Single, Any size
Rate/week - $260
Per Diem Rate, Pro rata part of week - $40

*The double rate is charged only during the time when two paying occupants reside in the room. The single rate applies at all other times.
**All residents/guests must stay for at least one week. If a resident stays for at least one week and leaves a full week then the per diem rate will be applied.


If you would like to explore this opportunity I suggest that you contact Cathleen Raynis at your earliest convenience:

Cathleen Raynis
Director of Student Life
Anderson Hall, Manhattan School of Music
212-749-2802 , x4525
craynis@msmnyc.edu

I am attaching two documents related to securing a room there.

Important Updates Re:Upcoming Orientation

A few notes in regards to our quickly-approaching orientation:

- Please come prepared with your school and cooperating administrator contact information for the upcoming school year. Karren Dunkley will be compiling this information for your coach, so it is important that we have the correct and most current information on file. We will be collecting and verifying CA information on Saturday, so be prepared!

- The "Welcome Sessions" offered by the Office of Admissions are separate from the SPA orientations. The "Welcome Sessions" or "Admitted Student" sessions are optional and for all students accepted to the college. The two SPA orientations we will be having on 4/28 and 6/23 are mandatory, specifically for our cohort members and conducted by SPA staff. Hopefully this distinction is clear to everyone.

- We are preparing to issue TC IDs this Saturday. Both the ID center and security office are making special accomodations for our group. Given this, while we will do our best to get IDs to as many students as possible, priority for IDs will be given to students coming from outside the NYC Metro Area. Students from the NYC area not receiving their IDs on Saturday are encouraged to return to TC at a later date to do so. Thanks in advance for your cooperation and understanding.

My Buddy

If you would like to be assigned a buddy match from the 06-07 cohort and have not already received one, please contact Whitney Bates at web2105@columbia.edu as soon as possible so we can give you a match.

Thanks!

4/28 Orientation and Other Information

Upcoming Orientation
We are thrilled about meeting all you of on Saturday, April 28th. We look forward to seeing you all there.

• Where: Teachers College
  525 W 120th Street
  (between Broadway and Amsterdam)
  Grace Dodge Hall, Room 277
• When: Saturday, April 28th, 8:00am – 4:00pm
• How: Directions to TC -- http://www.tc.columbia.edu/abouttc/visit.htm?id=Directions

--> Be sure to check the MTA webpage for updates about possible weekend service changes [http://www.mta.info/nyct/service/subsrvno.htm]. In general there has been limited or non existent express service for the 1, 2 and 3 lines on the weekends. Please take this into consideration when alotting time to get to TC. (Nearest Subway Stop – #1 Train at 116th, Columbia University)

What else?
Computers
You will need to bring a laptop that is equipped with wireless capabilities. You will need this computer for the orientation and it will also be a good opportunity to test out your network capabilities prior to the summer sessions. We will also be providing training on ClassWeb, the Teachers College course platform.

Courses
You will meet your professors, who will introduce you to the courses you will be taking this summer.

Coaches
You will be meeting your internship coaches during lunch, which will be provided by the Summer Principals Academy.

Textbooks
The following is a list of required texts for this summer’s courses. These books will be available for purchase at the Teachers College bookstore the day of orientation. There are certainly alternative sources for purchasing these books. We encourage you to share any bargains you find. You do not need to bring any textbooks to the orientation.

ORLA 4001 Introduction to School Leadership and Decision Making

• Hoy, W. K. & Tarter, C. J. (2004). Administrators Solving the Problems of Practice: Decision making concepts, cases and consequences, 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Pearson.
  
• The Jossey-Bass Reader on Educational Leadership - 2nd Ed. (2007). San Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass (A Wiley Imprint) **Note: the first book will be the primary text used in the class, however, the 2nd is an excellence source for supportive scholarship on school leadership and several readings will be required during the summer sessions.

ORLA 5018: School Leadership for Adult Development

• Drago-Severson, E. (2004). Becoming adult learners: Principles and practices for effective development. New York: Teachers College Press.
• Drago-Severson, E. (2004). Helping teachers learn: Principal leadership for adult growth and development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.
• Wagner, T., Kegan, R., Lahey, L., Lemons, R. W., Garnier, J, Helsing, D., Howell, A., & Rasmussen, H. T. (2006). Change leadership: A practical guide to transforming our schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Wiley.

ORLA 5029 Supervision of Teaching & Learning

• Glickman, C., Gordon, S., and Ross, J. (2004). SuperVision and instructional leadership. A developmental approach. 6th edition. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. ISBN: 0-205-38079-4.
• Platt, A. Tripp, C., Ogden, W., Fraser, R., The Skillful Leader: Confronting the Mediocre Teacher. Acton, MA: Ready About Press (2000). Order from Research for Better Teaching: 1-978-263-3280. $39.95 + 15% s+h. Deliver in the NYC area takes about one week.

ORLJ 5340 Basic Practicum in Conflict Resolution

• Fisher, R., Ury, W. and Patton, B. (1981). Getting to yes: Negotiating agreement without giving in. New York: Penguin Books

ORLA 6020 Emotional Intelligence: Social-Emotional Competency for Educational Leaders

• No required texts.
  

Purchasing Textbooks at Orientation
Bring Personal Checks & Credit Cards (no cash)We have made special arrangements with the duplicating department so you can purchase course reading packets after orientation on Saturday. Personal checks and credit cards will be accepted.

**Friendly Reminder: You will be getting information from Teachers College about Admitted Students’ weekends. Please note that SPA program orientation days are required and are in addition to the TC information weekends.

Additional Financial Aid Information
FAFSA - necessary informationIt was brought to our attention that you need some basic information about the credit hours per semester to complete financial aid forms. To that end the following information applies.

• Summer I - 13 points
• Fall – 3.5 points
• Spring – 3.5 points
• Summer II - 13 points

The internship counts for additional COE credits due to the internship hours so that you maintain your eligibility during those terms. This will be explained in detail during the summer.

**Helpful contacts:
Phone contact: Carol Pitter, Academic Secretary - 212-678-3726

Email contact: Whitney Bates web2105@columbia.edu

Financial Aid: Genise Reid greid@tc.edu 212-678-3736

Correction - Tuition and Fees

The tuition and fees posted on a previous blog was incorrectly stated. The tuition and fees for the 2007-2008 cohort are $34,085 which represents the 33 credit academic program and associated fees. The previously posted quarterly installments of $8,521 was correctly stated. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

SPA Alumni Honored!

ICCCR

The International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution

THE 3RD ANNUAL

Morton Deutsch Awards for Social Justice

Thursday, April 5th, 2007
5:00-7:00pm
179 Grace Dodge Hall
Teachers College, Columbia University

~Free and open to the public~wine & cheese reception to follow~

2007 Recipients

Distinguished Scholar-Practitioner Recipient

John T. Jost, Department of Psychology, New York University

System Justification: How do we know it's motivated?

Student Recipients

Jeremy Beard, Carrie Dattilo, Jessica Madden-Fuoco, Rory McCourt,
Martha Zornow

Summer Principals Academy, Teachers College

"Proposal to Establish the Keith Haring Academy of Vision & Empowerment"

Honorable Mentions

Audrey Sasson, School of International and Public Affairs

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers vs. Taco Bell: The Role of Skillful Framing in Creating Social Change

Julia Maskivker, Political Science

Gender Matters: Towards One Possible Explanation of Female Suicide Bombings

Save These Dates

April 28, Saturday, 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. - program orientation Part I
June 23, Saturday, 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. - program orientation Part II
June 25, Monday - first day of classes
July 13, Friday - Cooperating Administrator (Principal) invited to Teachers College for Workshop
August 3, Friday - last day of classes

Summer 2007 FAQs

*AmeriCorps*

Teachers College Summer Principals Academy has a unique program in collaboration with AmeriCorps to provide funding for students who participate in the SPA and who serve in a high needs school for the next two years. The program, for those who work in a qualified school, will provide up to two AmeriCorps Awards ($4,750 per year) contingent upon completion of yearly teaching or administrative service and meeting program requirements. AmeriCorps awards can be applied toward tuition or loans that were used to pay for tuition of approved programs. More information will be provided during the summer regarding receiving AmeriCorps funding.

*Loan Forgiveness*

If you have a Federal (FFEL) or Direct Stafford Loan and you’re teaching full time in a teacher shortage area, you may be eligible for deferment (postponement of repayment) if you borrowed before July 1, 1993. If you borrowed on or after July 1, 1993, you might be eligible for forbearance (a temporary postponement, reduction, or suspension of payments). If you have a loan from the Federal Perkins Loan Program, you might be eligible for loan cancellation for full-time teaching at a low-income school or teaching in certain subject areas. To find out more, refer to http://studentaid.ed.gov/, click on the “repaying” tab. Then, click on the “cancellation and deferment option for teachers” link and the “Stafford loan deferment/forbearance provisions” link and/or the “canceling a Perkins loan” link.During the four terms you are enrolled in the SPA you will maintain part-time student status and your loans will be classified as in deferment. We will have further details of how to insure your status by filing a Certificate of Equivalency (COE) during the summer.

*Registration*

The SPA office will handle your course registration since all members of the cohort take the same classes. Do not register online! Your classes will be reserved for you by our office.

You will be registered for the following courses this summer:
ORLA 4001: Introduction to School Leadership and Decision Making
ORLA 5018: School Leadership for Adult Development
ORLA 6020: The Pro Seminar in Leadership
ORLJ 5340: Basic Practicum in Conflict Resolution
ORLA 5029: Supervision of Teaching and Learning

*Tuition/Fees*

The tuition due dates should not be ignored. You will be expected to pay tuition as indicated. SPA tuition is based upon a per-credit rate that is in place for courses at TC. The program cost is $34,085 which includes the 33 credit program of studies and associated student fees. You will be expected to pay the tuition in four equal installments as set up by the Student Accounts Office in the following payment schedule.

Payment Schedule:
Due Beginning of Summer Year 1 of Cohort (6/15/2007) - $ 8,521
Due End of Summer Year 1 of Cohort (9/1/2007) - $ 8,521
Due During the Academic Year of Cohort (1/15/2008) - $ 8,521
Due Beginning of Summer Year 2 of Cohort (6/15/2008) -$ 8,521

Students paying tuition after the due date will be charged a late fee. Tuition payments can be made by check (made out to Teachers College) and submitted to Student Accounts, or you can pay by credit card using the touch-tone service or on the web.The Teachers College Fee is included in the program fee for SPA students. The only added fees are: 1) if you choose to pay by the deferred payment plan, the College charges an additional $50 2) fee for late tuition payment. Please check the website for more information.

*Housekeeping Items*

TC Admitted Student Weekends (May 4th & 5th or June 15th & 16th)

We encourage you to take advantage of activities at the TC Admitted Students weekends. We understand work engagements make it difficult for most of you to attend many of the Friday events; however, if you are able to attend, we highly recommend it.

*Immunization/Health Coverage*

Please submit the appropriate immunization record in a timely fashion as requested. If you do not submit your record it will result in a hold on your registration for the fall term. You should receive this information from the Office of Insurance and Immunization Records. You will also receive information about health insurance coverage. Note that SPA students do not need to submit a waiver to avoid the health insurance fee. Only students with full-time status during the fall or spring semesters are subject to this requirement. If you find that the fees have been charged to your account, please contact Peter Casey at casey@tc.edu or (212) 678-3006.

*Laptop Requirements*

You will be required to have a laptop with wireless connection capabilities. Recommendations and additional information on laptops are available on the TC Computing & Technology website. Your laptop will have to be registered with TC for security purposes. There will be representatives available from TC’s computing and information systems office during registration on June 23rd to process laptops. Plan to bring your laptop to classes every day as there will be activities related to them woven into every lesson.

*Additional Information*

You will receive weekly emails with a link (http://spa2007.blogspot.com/) where updated information will be posted by the SPA office. You are encouraged to check this site often, but the weekly emails will serve as friendly reminders.We also suggest that you browse the Teachers College website for information on a variety of topics. Here are some suggestions:

Admitted Students: http://www.tc.columbia.edu/admissions/admitted.htm
*This page is comprehensive

Office of Financial Aid: www.tc.columbia.edu/admissions/finaid.htm

Students Resources: www.tc.columbia.edu/users/students.htm

Office of Housing and Residence Life: www.tc.columbia.edu/housing

Student Activities & Programs: http://www.tc.columbia.edu/stlife/detail.asp

March Update

March Update

Admissions update: Admissions decisions have been sent to the incoming 2007 cohort. The cohort is a really talented group of educators with passion and desire to improve urban education. The cohort is represented by candidates from as far away as Japan and sport the highest median undergraduate GPA ever. We are looking forward to greeting everyone at our April 28 orientation.

Financial Aid: Financial aid and scholarship award letters will follow admissions decisions by approximately one week. Please make sure that you have filed a FAFSA for both the 2006-2007 and the 2007-2008 academic years.

Housing: If you plan to secure housing in New York City please be aware of the tight housing market that exists. The Principals Academy's reservations on Teachers College housing expires on April 1st, 2007. If you are in need of housing please contact us as soon as possible so that we can assist you in your hunt.

Registration for Classes: The Summer Principals Academy is conducted as a cohort program where all students take the same classes together. For this reason you will not need to register for classes - your registration will be done as a batch process for the academy. All admitted students will receive information for activating their PIN and access to TC's Class Web so that you can access important class information when you come for orientation on the 28th of April.

Student Accounts: The academy is recognized as a flat fee program at TC and will therefore be billed to students in four equal installments. A complete schedule of payments will be included in future posts and will be detailed in your financial award letter.

A Note About Summer Housing

Dear TC Community,

Although it's hard to think of warm weather and sunny skies at the moment, it's time to begin planning for Summer Conference Housing. Summer Conference Housing is the perfect solution for thosewishing to stay in New York City only during the summer months (mid-May through mid-August). This category of housing is available for anyone affiliated with Teachers College.

What does Summer Conference Housing at Teachers College offer?

• Fully furnished rooms with central air-conditioning in our "New Residence Hall" conveniently located at 517 W. 121st Street
• All rooms feature high speed internet connections and cable TV connections (guests who wish to use these services should bring their own electronics).
• A 24 hour security desk and helpful building staff
• Optional linen service at no extra cost (bed linen and towels)
• In building features: 24 hour computer lab, laundry facilities, vending machines, a conference room, and a TV> lounge
• Reasonable rates that are significantly less than a NYC hotel

If you know of someone coming to TC who is in need of summer only housing or if you or someone in your department is hosting a group during the summer, this option may be perfect for them! Please share this information with them and encourage them to apply early as applications are accepted on a first come, first serve basis and spaces fill up quickly. For more information and to view pictures of a model summer conference housing room, please visit our website at: http://www.tc.edu/housing/detail.asp?id=Summer+Conference+Housing. The application to apply for Summer 2007 is also available via this website. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at: rothberg@tc.edu.

Sincerely,
Amy M. Rothberg
Area Director - North Campus

Welcome to Our Weblog!

Welcome to the Summer Principals Academy blog exclusively for our Summer 2007 cohort! Please check back frequently as we will continue to update this page with information regarding the program.