Welcome to the first week of classes for the Fall Semester 2000.  Classes start on Wednesday, September 6, 2000.

1) 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.

Items for this first faculty meeting:

a) Introductions

b) Review and Revision of Departmental Goals

c) Discussion of Departmental Goals and 2000-2001 Projects

d) October 6 mini-conference

e) NCATE update

f) Committee Membership

g) Time Certain (1:30):  Search Committees Discussions

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.

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

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.  Ken Dobush and David Stoloff are planning to  attend a training program near Chicago on September 22-24 (Friday - Sunday).  They and three other ECSU faculty to attend the ThinkQuest International Conference in Cairo for further training (Thursday, November 9 - Wedneday, November 15, including travel time).

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

David Stoloff and family will be participating in the Relay for Life, a fund-raiser for the American Cancer Society on Saturday-Sunday, October 14-15, 2000 at Windham High School.  If you would like to contribute to this fund-raiser, please talk with David.

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 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

The draft announcements for these positions are posted at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/search01.html.

A message about searches from Dean Kleine:

"Please announce to your faculty: The advertisements for faculty openings Fall Semester 2001 have already appeared in the Boston Globe and will appear in The Chronicle of Higher Education and Black Issues (in Higher Education) next week.  The Boston Globe is online and in print.  The early placement of the advertisements and the recent flurry of recruiting conferences/events should produce a viable pool of candidates.

Thank you for your assistance in moving the School of Education and Professional Studies searches forward.  Please convey my appreciation to your colleagues who have assisted in completing search plans and advertisements in a timely manner.  I look forward to meeting your candidates."
 

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

22) Aero*Space and Environmental Education Resource Center (Connecticut NASA

The second meeting of the NCATE Writing Group was heldon 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.

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

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.