Welcome to the Fall Semester 2000.  We look forward to a busy and educational semester.  New faculty - please give me (David) your email address so that I might add you to our email list for this newsletter and other faculty announcements.

1) New faculty orientation is Tuesday-Wednesday, August 29-30. There is a Reception for New Faculty at 5 pm on August 29, south of Webb Hall in the tents.

2) The Fall 2000 Faculty meeting is Thursday, August 31, 2000, 10 am in the Betty Tipton Room.

Please let us meet in WH 115 at 9:30 am in WH 115 for our opening Education Department faculty meeting to greet the new faculty and begin our review of the goals for the academic year.

3) Education Department meetings have been scheduled in Webb Hall 115 on Thursdays from 12:30 - 1:45 for the Fall Semester.  Our first whole faculty meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 7, 2000 from 12:30 - 1:45 - all full-time faculty are expected to attend. We will discuss maintaining the following schedule of meetings and select committee members:

1st Thursday of the month - whole faculty meeting (required meeting for all, other committee membership are voluntary and selected by the committee of the whole)

2nd Thursday of the month - CARE Committee meetings

3rd Thursday of the month - unit meetings - 1) ECE and 2) the other programs

4th Thursday of the month - Graduate Studies Committee meeting.

4) Education Department - New Faculty 2000-2001:

Please let's welcome these new colleagues:

Tenure-track - Learning and Teaching
Ken Dobush, WH 143

One-year full-time appointments:

Julie Alexandrin - Special Education, WH 148

Diane Cerreto - Early Childhood Education, WH 146 (sharing Dr. Sudha Swaminathan's office while she is on part-time medical leave)

another ECE faculty member is being hired - I will add the name to this list after  I have heard it is official

Please also note that Dr. Hari Koirala has moved his office to WH 154.  Unfortunately, Dr. Elsy  Negron-Wrang has left ECSU.

5) News from Richard Reynolds in Australia may be found at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/australia.html

Hari Koirala is planning to move into WH 154 (Dr. Negron-Wrang's former office).  New faculty member, Ken Dobush, is planning to move into WH 143.  Diane Cerreto is planning to try sharing Sudha's office in WH 146.   Julie Alexandrin may be assigned WH 148.  There is also an office in Banner House for an additional faculty member, as well as the desk behind the  file cabinets in the department office.

Please let David know if you have any comments on these arrangements.

1) The Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers Using Technology (US Department of Education grant) with ThinkQuest (http://www.thinkquest.org) and 4 other teacher education programs - Western Michigan, Knox College in Illinois, City College of New York, and the University of the Pacific - continues to plan for training of teacher education faculty to implement a Guiding Partners Model of student learning and teaching in the classroom.  There are current plans for two ECSU  faculty to  attend a training program near Chicago on September 22-24 (Friday - Sunday) and for five ECSU faculty to attend the ThinkQuest International Conference in Cairo for further training (Thursday, November 9 - Wedneday, November 15, including travel trip).

Monday, August 28 - thank you, Ken, for considering serving as this project's co-director and joining David to attend the Chicago meeting on 9/22-24 and to be one of the five to go to Cairo.  Thanks, Shirley, for considering going to Cairo.

If you are interested in participating in this project, please contact David Stoloff.

After consulting with Dean Kleine and Associate Dean in Continuing Education, Carol Williams, we are not planning to offer EDU 200, ECE 215, EDU 210, or EDU 360 during Wintersession 2001.  They have not had sufficient enrollment in the past.

We are planning to offer

EDU 509 - Field Experience in Elementary Ed. Grad Program, TBA

EDU 553 - Computers in the Classroom and the Curriculum, TWR, 1/2-4, MTWR, 1/8-11, TWR, 1/16-18, 4-7:45 p Instructor - Stoloff, WH 307.

If you would be interested in facilitating EDU 509 or offering additional courses, please let David know by September 8.

We are also planning to host the Winter Institute for Future Teachers, which promises to draw 150 middle and high school students from the region for a day of workshops on preparing to become teachers.  WIFT is scheduled for Saturday, January 20, 2001, from 9 am - 4 pm.  Please let David know if you might be interested in participating and/or offering a workshop.

Excellence that Delivers - the 2000 ECSU Viewbook and Application - featuring Jeff Trawick-Smith and Wendy Ernst.

Notes from the 2000 Creative Advance - "Attracting and Retaining the Best and the Brightest in a Public Liberal Arts University for the 21st Century."

Self-Study for Reaccreditation, NEASC Report.  Fall 2000.

The Education Department has been authorized to begin the process of searching for 3 tenure track faculty members for Fall 2001.  The following tentative committees have been organized:
 

Early Childhood Education Jeff Trawick-Smith, Chair Ann Gruenberg Sudha Swaminathan

Science Education Hari Koirala, Search Chair Leslie Ricklin Dan Rothermel

Special Education Ann Gruenberg, Chair Ken Dobush Mitch Sakofs

Please let David know if you have any questions on the membership of these committees.

Here are the draft announcements for these positions:

Department: Education
Position: Early Childhood Education
Qualifications:  Ph.D. or Ed.D. in Early Childhood Education or equivalent.  ABD near completion considered.
Position Description: The successful candidate will have significant experience in schools or other programs serving young children and families.  Expertise in one or more of the following areas is preferred: literacy, primary education, and foundations of early childhood education.  Commitment to an integrated curriculum, including children with special needs in general classrooms, and a multicultural perspective is required.  Other responsibilities include team teaching in an integrated teacher preparation program (preschool to third grade), collaborative research with other faculty, involvement in the creation of professional development sites in school and centers, and participation in the planning of a new child and family research and demonstration center to be built on campus. Candidate is expected to advise students and engage in scholarly work and service.
Respond to: Jeffrey Trawick-Smith, Ed.D., Search Chair.

Department: Education
Position: Science Education
Qualifications: Ph.D. or Ed.D. in Science Education or equivalent required.  ABD near completion considered.
Position Description: The successful candidate will have experience in teaching science education in schools or other programs serving children and families.  Primary role involves teaching science education courses to students in Elementary, Middle, and Secondary Education Teacher Certification Program.  Other responsibilities include supervising the A*SEER/NASA Center on campus, representing the University on outdoor education boards of directors (e.g., Camp Hemlock), and grant writing to fund curriculum development projects for science/math education. Candidate is expected to advise students and engage in scholarly work and service.
Respond to: Hari Koirala, Ph.D., Search Chair

Department: Education
Position: Special Education
Qualifications: Ph.D. or Ed.D. in Special Education or equivalent.  ABD near completion considered.
Position Description: The successful candidate should have current expertise working in schools with children who have challenging conditions in a rapidly changing field and cultural sensitivity.  Primary role involves teaching special education courses to students in the Elementary, Middle, and Secondary General Education Teacher Certification Program. Candidate is expected to advise students and engage in scholarly work and service.
Respond to: Ann Gruenberg, Ph.D., Search Chair.

Please let David know if you have any questions or suggestions for revisions on these announcements.

Besides all of the courses that faculty facilitate on campus and online and all of the oncampus governance and search committees we are involved in, Education Department faculty and staff are planning to be involved in the following projects during the next academic year.  Please send David additional projects that are not listed here:

1) Preparation for NCATE accreditation

2) Design of the Child and Family Resource Center

3) Hartford Pre-School Technology project with UTC and Hartford public schools.

4) Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to use Technology (PT3) grant project to use constructivist approaches and technology with ThinkQuest to create classroom applications

PDS relationships with
5) Norwich,
6) Killingly,
7) Lebanon,
8) Windham, and
9) Region 11 - Parish Hill High and its feeder schools.

Curriculum development -
10) MS in Educational Technology program,
11) MS in Mathematics Education,
12) revisions of the ECE programs,
13) RLA 520,
14) EDU 110 and as a GER course.

15) Curriculum development discussions - GST, UNI, and CAP/STEP

16) Teacher Cadet program in Hartford Public Schools

17) Summer and
18) Winter Institutes for Future Teachers and other outreach to high school students during the academic year.

19) Young Educators Society's webpages and online course

20) 10th annual Children's Literature Festival in Spring 2001

21) BEST Portfolio assessments

The second meeting of the NCATE Writing Group was on July 18, 1-2:30 in WH 159;  notes on that meeting may be found at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/dept/ncate718.html.

Notes on the first NCATE organizational meeting - Wednesday, June 21, 12 - 2, in WH 159 may be found at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/dept/ncate621.html .
 
 

The Education Department's new fax no. is 860-465-5099.  The machine is in WH 124.  Please use this number when you re-order your business cards.  Please also note that our email addresses changed to Username@easternct.edu on August 5.  The former address - username@ecsu.ctstateu.edu, four characters longer, will remain activate for a few months more.

United Technologies Corporation in Hartford has awarded the Education Department at ECSU a grant of over $175,000 to collaborate with the Hartford Public Schools and its Early Childhood Education Division on the implementation and evaluation of computers in three pre-schools in Hartford.  Congratulations to the grant proposal writing team of Jeffrey Trawick-Smith, Sudha Swaminathan, June Wright, and Dean Kleine for this groundbreaking, signature project for ECSU, the Hartford Public Schools, and UTC.

Summer Institute for Future Teachers, July 4 - 28, 2000 began well with 47 high school students from throughout Connecticut.  See David or Dina Wright, Project Director this summer, often found in the Ed. Dept. Office, for more details.

Diane Cerreto has accepted a one-year appointment in Early Childhood Education.   Diane has been an adjunct faculty member in ECE at ECSU and a veteran teacher in the Windham Public Schools.  Congratulations and thanks for all of their efforts to the search committee - Jeff Traw, Ann, and Sudha.

Julie Alexandrin has accepted the one-year appointment in Special Education, starting in August 2000.  Ms. Alexandrin has been an adjunct faculty member in our department, teaching EDU 200, and is a doctoral student at UCONN.  Congratulations and thanks for all of their efforts to the search committee - Ann Gruenberg, Chair;  Sudha Swaminathan, Mitch Sakofs.

Ed. Dept. in a Consortium received PT3 Catalyst Grant
The Education Department is part of a consortium with the City College of New York, the University of the Pacific, Western Michigan University, and ThinkQuest [http://www.thinkquest.org/] that was awarded a US Dept. of Ed. - Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology Program (PT3) of over $600,000 per year for the next three years.  ECSU's component will be about $10,000 for initiating the use of ThinkQuest in regional schools and in our teacher education programs.

A press release announcing our partnership with ThinkQuest may be found at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/thinkquest622.html .  More information on this project from David, particularly after the project organizational meeting in late July.

Ed. Dept. Annual Report available on web and on paper
I have placed a paper copy of the draft Annual Report in the position announcement folder outside my door - WH  129 and have shared a copy with the faculty.  A WORD draft document may be downloaded from

http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/dept/dept9900.doc

2)  Special Section - How we spent our summer vacations

A selection of documents describing how we spent our time during the summer vacations.  Faculty, students, and staff are invited to send in items to be posted in this seasonal news setting.

a) Preliminary ThinkQuest Implementation plan
 http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/thinkquestplan8200.html

b) Notes on the STEP/CAP Program and the Education Department's involvement this summer may be found at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/stepcap062600.html .

c) Notes on the visit of Ed Harris, Superintendent of Schools, Region 11 - Chaplin, Hampton, Scotland - on Wednesday, June 28, 11 - 2 may be found at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/region11062800.html .

d) Notes by David Stoloff on a visit to Louisiana Tech University may be found at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/latechvisit.html .

3) Recently acquired media - in the Chair's Office

Jonathan Kozol's Ordinary Resurrections (departmental gift to the Chair's Library - thank you).

Other available documents are listed on the Education Department Documents page at
http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/dept/documents.html
 

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Please contact David Stoloff at (860) 465-5501, email: stoloffd@easternct.edu if you have any questions or comments on this newsletter.