Announcements Important Dates Planning Opportunities Words of  Inspiration

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT NEWS Volume XI, Spring 2002 Happy New Year Edition - 12/31/01 also found at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/011231.html on the WWW; Education Department News Index

Education Homepage Alumni News Departmental Documents Department Media Departmental Searches

   Congratulations and much thanks to Leslie Ricklin and Ken Dobush, as Departmental Chair and Assistant Chair, and many others for their excellent leadership of the Education Department during the Fall 2001 semester.  Please see the Fall 2001 newsletters at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/newsindexf01.htm for a sense of all of the efforts by department members to develop, plan, implement, and evaluate departmental curriculum to enhance already strong programs.
    During the Fall 2001 semester, the faculty received approval from Dean Kleine, the University Curriculum Committee, and the University Senate for the introduction of a Master of Science program in Secondary Education and an MS program in Secondary Education with certification and the revisions of the MS program in Reading/Language Arts and the Early Childhood Education certification program on the undergraduate level.  The proposed MS in Educational Technology received approval from the Connecticut State University Board of Trustees and is now under consideration by the Connecticut State Department of Higher Education.
    Education Department and Health and Physical Education Department faculty members continued the evaluation process for an anticipated State Department of Education program review visit during May 2002.  Faculty members from these departments and other faculty and administrators from around the campus continued to meet on a regular basis to prepare for a National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) program review visit in Spring 2003.
    Special thanks go to Dr. Ricklin for her service as the departmental leader responsible for ongoing communication with students, faculty, and administrators about these changes in our programs and our planning for the evaluation process.  Thanks to Dr. Dobush for his leadership, with Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Sakofs, Dr. Darren Robert in HPE, and others, of the ongoing NCATE evaluation process.  Thanks also to Dr. Dobush for his editor of these online newsletters during the fall semester and his suggestions for change which will be incorporated in future editions.
    And thanks to all of the faculty members, our administrative and academic support personnel - Paulette, Bethany, Dan, Alies, Brandon - and our students for their understanding, patience, and countless moments of random kindness to allow our community to continue to succeed during these tiring times.
    Best wishes to all of a very happy, healthy, peaceful, and fulfilling 2002.

Long Term Announcements

Offer of developing a resource list of Curriculum Library materials on a particular topic
Leanna Loomer in the Curriculum Library writes "if anyone in the Education Department would like a listing compiled on an area of particular interest or concern to them, please let me know and we will be happy to compile them.  This is the third year I have put together a list on disabilities for Ann."  Please contact Leanna Loomer at 54458, email: loomer@easternct.edu.

Online Educational Department meeting minutes and Departmental Goals for 2000-2001 are available at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/dept/deptminutes0001.html

The notes from the NCATE Writers' meetings have been posted at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/ncate/ncatenotes.html.
The Teacher Education Organizational Chart is available as a WORD document in the NCATE folder in the faculty COMMON folder on the Z: drive. Includes notes developed by Ken Dobush on the Ed. Dept. meeting on the Mission Statement on May 16, 2001.

Please visit http://www.blackboard.com/courses/EDU580/ to see the potential of threaded discussions and online courses. To sign on to BlackBoard, go to http://coursesites.blackboard.com/?bbatt=Y

Alumni news may be found at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/alumninews.html.
A goal of the Alumni News section of our Education Department website is to encourage our alumni to share their successes with our growing community.  We are striving to develop an alumni association for Education which would serve as a support group for our alumni as they continue their successful professional careers.  Please join us in this endeavor by responding to the Education Department newsletters and encouraging others to participate in the development of a community of educators who share a love of learning, teaching, and our evolving campus in Willimantic, CT - Eastern Connecticut State University.
 
 

Work is in progress on the updates for the ECSU Course Catalog. With all the changes in our courses of study, this has been a particular challenge that will be met in a timely fashion.

Summer schedules are now in to Continuing Education.  Please formalize this schedule by providing David with your preference times and dates for offering your courses.

In order to facilitate the writing of the state review, faculty members will be working during intercession. They are:

Dan Rothermel Education Handbook for students,
make sure secondary program meets 2003 regs

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.

Educational Department Searches for Tenure Track Faculty to Start in August 2002

The searches notices are also posted at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/search02.html, and available from The Chronicle.

Position: Educational Technology
Qualifications: Ph.D. or Ed.D. in educational technology or related field required. ABD near completion considered.
Position Description: The successful candidate will have at least three years of experience in teaching or coordinating educational technology instruction in PK-12 schools an/or in teacher education programs. Responsibilities include teaching preservice and inservice courses in computer applications in the classroom, curriculum development of online and on campus courses in educational technology, and leadership of outreach programs to regional schools. Duties will also include teaching other education courses, grant writing, and administration of leading edge project to prepare tomorrow’s teachers to use technology. Faculty members are expected to advise students and to engage in scholarly work and university service.
Respond to: Ken Dobush, Ph.D., Search Chair

Position: Reading/Literacy
Qualifications: Ph.D. or Ed.D. in reading/language arts or related field required. Emphasis on bilingual or ESL teaching preferred. ABD near completion considered.
Position Description: The successful candidate will be expected to teach graduate and undergraduate courses in reading/language arts; teach graduate coursed in the reading certification program; advise students at the graduate and undergraduate levels as well as supervise student teachers; develop professional relationships with area schools; and organize the summer reading clinic for reading certification students. Other qualifications include experience with miscue analysis and retrospective miscue analysis as evaluation and intervention tools; school teaching at the PK-12 and college levels; experience with diverse students populations; demonstrated interest in research, curriculum development, and school/university partnerships; and a commitment to a constructivist, meaning-based philosophical orientation and field-based collaborative approaches to teaching.
Respond to: Shirley Ernst, Ph.D., Search Chair

Please announce to potentially interested students and cooperating teachers in regional schools.

Faculty members in the Education Department at Eastern Connecticut State University are seeking certification candidates and middle school and high school teachers who would appreciate support for the development of Future Teachers Clubs or Young Educators Society (YES) Clubs in Eastern Connecticut and Hartford area schools.

We envision that certification candidates would visit schools about 10 hours a week during the Spring 2002 semester and collaborate with middle school or high school teachers and their students in the development or enhancement of these clubs.  Part of this involvement might be virtually, through a discussion board on a readily accessible website.  Participants will be selected for an early June weekend workshop on developing websites for curriculum support in the schools and for a late June weeklong residential Institute for Future Teachers using Technology at ECSU.

Certification candidates will earn a stipend for up to $1,500 for their efforts and their cooperating teachers will receive a stipend of $500 for their support of these projects.  Additional stipends will be available for participation in the summer workshop and institute.

If you might be interested in participating in this project, please contact Ms. Hannah Sellers (email: sellersh@easternct.edu) or Dr. David Stoloff (stoloffd@easternct.edu ).  Thank you for your consideration of
 
 

Thank you to Delar Singh, new faculty member in Special Education, for presenting the Chair's Office with Rocky the Singing Lobster. [Dan says that it is a Maine lobster.] Please come by to visit when you need a change of pace.

A lovely book of photos and text on Walden Pond - Walden Pond (New England Landmarks) by Bonnie McGrath (Photographer), reflections by Henry David Thoreau - a gift to the Chair's library by the Education Department. [Thank you, Ann Gruenberg and Leslie Ricklin - our Sunshine Committee members - and the entire department for your thoughtfulness.] Available for lending.

Final Report of the NEASC Evaluation Team.

Milken, L. (2000) Teaching as the Opportunity: The Teacher Advancement Program. Santa Monica, CA: Milken Family Foundation.

Print-out of Connecticut Minority Teacher Recruitment and Retention Program website at
http://www.state.ct.us/sde/der/info/minorityteacher/index.htm

Braus, N. and Geidel, M. (2000) Everyone's kids' books: A guide to multicultural socially conscious books for children. Brattleboro, VT: Everyone's Books. [A gift from the Education Department Sunshine Fund to the Chair's Library - THANK YOU!!]

Student Teachers' Poetry - ECE 465: The Role of the Teacher.

CT's Blueprint for Reading Achievement, CSDE, 2000.

CT Mastery Test Forum, Connecticut Public Television video.

Milne, A.A. (1926) Winnie-the-Pooh. New York: Puffin Books. (used to illustrate models of learning and teaching - particularly the Guiding Partner Approach)

Introducing an occasional addition to this newsletter of selected words of inspiration which you might find helpful for reflection.  Please consider sending in your own favorite selections as a contribution to an online resource of words which help one get through difficult times.

We start with a selection from George Bernard Shaw -

"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the
being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining
that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for
its own sake. Life is no 'brief candle' for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for
the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."

[quotes attributed to George Bernard Shaw by Dr. Gerald Lawrence, Windham Community Memorial Hospital orthopedist, in response to many accolades on the occasion of his retirement party on December 14, 2001]
 

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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.   Please invite others to receive this newsletter and be added to the Education Department e-mailing list by contacting David Stoloff.