Announcements Important Dates Planning Opportunities Words of  Inspiration

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT NEWS Volume XI, Spring 2002 Second Week of Spring 2002 Education - 1/28/02 best viewed at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/020128.html on the WWW; for past issues - Education Department News Index

Education Homepage Alumni News Departmental Documents Department Media Departmental Searches

A grant for the United Technologies/Hartford Public Schools Preschool Technology Project (http://www.tech4prek.com/) for $150,000 from United Technologies will be awarded in the first quarter of the year to a team of Education Department faculty lead by Professors Jeffrey Trawick-Smith, Hannah Sellers, Leah Barbuto, Sudha Swaminathan, June Wright, and Dean Patricia Kleine, and other staff from ECSU, and teachers and administrators in Hartford PreSchools.

This project serves preschool students and teachers in the following Hartford Public Schools - Barnard Brown Elementary School, Moylan School, Naylor School, McDonough School, Maria Sanchez School, Sand School, and West Middle School.

Congratulations, Jeff, Hannah, Leah, Sudha, June, Dean Kleine, and all of the Hartford teachers and administrators and project staff, on this accomplishment.

Congratulations to the entire Education Department and university community for their support of the recently approved Master of Science in Educational Technology.  Please see http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/edtech.html for details on the program.

Thursday, January 31 - WH 115, 12:30 - 1:15 - departmental meeting to approve mission statement, objectives, bylaws, motto; faculty photo day;  1:15 - 1:45 - committee meetings to organize Spring schedule and goals

Thursday, February 7 - WH 115, 12:30 - 1:15 - meeting to discuss assessment with Barbara Wright, assessment coordinator;  1:15 - 1:45 - working session on using assessment information for curriculum and practice revision

Rand Cooper of the Hartford Courant [e-mail: cooper@uconect.net] "is doing an article for the Hartford Courant (Northeast Magazine) on Connecticut's great professors. Right now I'm working up a list of those educators - at the undergraduate level, in all subjects, at both private and public institutions - who not only ably teach their discipline, but are known as truly amazing teachers. Those professors whose students years later mention them as formative influences; who win the high praise of "You have to take a course with X…" Connecticut's Dream Team professors, in other words.

I wouldn't quote you on this, of course, but I was hoping you might be able to list some professors whose names come up when people talk about the very best -- the "you gotta take so-and-so" -- courses and teachers at Eastern. Who has that reputation there (and in what departments)?"

From Dean Kleine - "Please send nominees from our 'dream team' to D. Bachman" -  bachman@easternct.edu .

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"Please announce in your Core II and Graduate Classes that I have set dates and times for student teacher information sessions.  Students who plan on student teaching in the Fall of 2002 must attend one of these sessions.  Sign-ups can be found on the door to my office, Room 145 Webb Hall.

FYI, here are the dates, times, etc.

Mon, Feb 4, from 3-4 in Webb 115
Tues, Feb 5, from 3-4 in Webb 115
Weds, Feb 6, from 12 - 1 in Webb 115"

   Faculty members and students from Eastern Connecticut State University are participating in a US Department of Education grant to Prepare Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology with ThinkQuest
[ http://www.thinkquest.org] and 13 other universities throughout the US.  This project's homepage may be at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/dept/pt3.html .
    During Wintersession 2002, these projects were developed during EDU 553 - Computers in the Classroom and the Curriculum -

Ocean Commotion - http://library.thinkquest.org/T0211101/

Life in the Rainforest - http://library.thinkquest.org/T0211100

    During the Fall 2001 semester, Dr. Shirley Ernst and Dr. Ken Dobush coordinated in their courses the development of websites to be used as either K-12 curriculum resources or as resources for professional develoment for teachers and teacher education students.  The following is a listing of these exemplary projects -

Children and the Environment - http://library.thinkquest.org/T0210540/

Family Issues - http://library.thinkquest.org/T0210541/

The Circle of Life:  Helping Children Move Through the Emotions with Literature - http://library.thinkquest.org/T0210542/circlelife/

Kids and Culture - http://library.thinkquest.org/T0210543/

Raising Self Esteem - http://library.thinkquest.org/T0210544/

The Rainforest Adventure - http://library.thinkquest.org/T0210742/

Transportation - http://library.thinkquest.org/T0210800/

The Digestive System - http://library.thinkquest.org/T0210841/

Please feel free to click on these links for the Fall 2001 projects and links for last year's projects found at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/dept/pt3.html#project .   These projects may represent some first steps towards electronic portfolio assessment for our students and our teacher education programs.

If you have any questions on ECSU's project with ThinkQuest, please contact David Stoloff or other members of the project team - Hannah Sellers, Jeanelle Bland, Branko Cavarkapa, Jaime Gomez, Edmond Chibeau, Shirley Ernst, Ken Dobush, Leslie Ricklin, and Dan Rothermel.

Long Term Announcements

Message from Barbara A. Butler, Interim Head of Technical Services and Collection Development Officer, J. Eugene Smith Library:

"The Library has obtained an online version of the Kraus Curriculum Development Library. The database is available from the Library's database site located at:

http://www.easternct.edu/library/library1/atoz.htm

Please use this resource and give us your reactions."

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.
 

Alumni news may be found at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/alumninews.html.

News from Leah Barbuto -
"Jen Lillis has been offered a long term teaching position in a Kindergarten in Enfield.  She has 23 children and of these, 5 have special needs, and she has one aide.  She shared with me that as soon as her certification goes through, she will receive regular teacher's pay.  She said that she is glad that she took [the] advice and did the four-week practium in an inclusive kindergarten even though she could have been waived.  It helped her during her interview to have had recent experience in the area for which this school district was looking."

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.

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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 this project.

Handbook of Teacher Education, developed by Dan Rothermel and a team of faculty consultants.

NCATE (2002).  Professional Standards for the Accreditation of Schools, Colleges, and Departments of Education.

NCATE (2002).  Continuing accreditation & beyond.

From Dan Thompson, University Assistant, Admission Advisement  - While browsing the other day I came across this article on the effects of technology upon the concept of "Fair Use."  I thought that those of you who are placing more of your course materials on the Web may find this both interesting and useful.  The article comes from the January 12, 2002 edition of Education Policy Analysis Archives.  It can be found at the following link:  http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v10n4.html

A quote from Marc Prensky, author of Digital Game-Based Learning,
"Digital Natives ... have developed new cognitive habits and thinking patterns that are very different  from those of the "Digital Immigrants" who came before, and they require very different types of learning.   Digital natives are what I call those people, aged roughly 40 and under, who were brought up with a host of new technologies and experiences from Sesame Street to the Walkman, to video games and GameBoys to MTV, to CD's, to MP3, to pagers, to digi-cams, to the Internet, etc etc.  A big part of our current education problems stem directly from the fact that the Digital Immigrants -- who comprise most of our teachers and trainers -- are not very fluent in the language the Digital Natives speak."
http://www.elearningpost.com/elthemes/prensky.asp

Faculty Handbook.

Our Reading/Language Arts, Webb Hall 113, has been enriched with past issues of Phi Delta Kappan, Academe, Syllabus, Converge, Journal of Teacher Education, and other resources.  Please feel free to use and encourage your students to use these materials.

The Condition of Education 2001 in Brief.  National Center for Education Statistics, US Department of Education.

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

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of  brotherhood...I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.

                             Speech at Civil Rights March in Washington, 28 August (1963), in New York Times 29 August
                             (1963), p. 21
 

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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.