Words of 
Inspiration 

Announcements

Planning

Opportunities

Research and Creativity Activities

Eastern Connecticut State University logo

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT NEWS
Volume XI, Spring 2002

Two Weeks before Finals, Spring 2002 Edition - 
April 26, 2002

best viewed at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/020423.html
on the WWW; for past issues - Education Department News Index 

http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/newsindex.html
Education Dept. Homepage

Alumni News

Departmental Documents

Department Media

Departmental Searches


Words of Inspiration
the collection appears at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/words.html

"And how is 'education' supposed to make me feel smarter.  Everytime  I learn something new it pushes some old stuff out of my brain!"

Homer Simpson

posted on April 23, 2002

*****

Announcements

Welcome to the 27 entering students and their families who met Drs. Ricklin, Bland, and Stoloff during the Education Department orientation at Eastern Connecticut State University on Sunday, April 21.  If you shared your email addresses, you have been added to the Education Department e-mailing list for these newsletters.  Please encourage your teachers to participate in the Experiences for Future Teachers Using Technology project described below.

Of the 27 new students, 6 expressed interest in Early Childhood Education certification, 14 in Elementary Education, and 7 in Secondary Education.  These entering first year students were from
 
Amherst, MA
Bristol
Chaplin
Clinton
Farmington
Griswold
Madison
Manchester
Milford
Monroe
Montville (2)
North Haven
Oyster Bay, NY
Seymour (2)
Terryville
Trumbull
West Hartford
Westbrook
Winchester, NH
Windham
Woodstock

Welcome to the Education Department and to ECSU.  Please keep touch by sending any questions to David Stoloff - email:  stoloffd@easternct.edu.

*****

The Teacher Education Faculty Advisory Council Meeting Notes have been posted at
http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/dept/tefac040902.htm .  Please send comments and corrections to David Stoloff, email: stoloffd@easternct.edu .

*****
Education Department Faculty Meetings
usually on Thursdays, 12:30 - 1:45 in Webb Hall 115.

Thursday, May 2 - Education Unit Meeting

Planning for the State Accreditation Visit - May 5 - 8, 2002 - Dean Kleine
[Dean Kleine will sponsor a light lunch.]

If time allows, Education Department meeting agenda items -

end of the semester tasks - annual report, chair's evaluation
curriculum process - EDU 102, MS in ECE - reduction from 36 to 30 credits
Summer and Fall 2002 schedules

back to top
****

****

News from Mitch Sakofs -

We are planning a BEST training with our partners in Lebanon and Norwich, i.e., Joe Stefon (Norwich Principal), Bonnie Hanna (Lebanon Curriculum Director) and I are planning to conduct a BEST training for teachers in the Fall of 2002. Details to follow. I will discuss this further at our next faculty meeting.

****

****
Take a look at the Education Department Photo Gallery at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/photos2002.html

*****
Gathering Honors for the Education Department's pre-University Commencement Celebration,
Sunday, May 19

reported by Mitch Sakofs -

The following 7 individuals are to receive an outstanding student teaching award for their student teaching during the fall of 2001:

Sarah Jensen, ECE
Kristen Manware, ECE
Brian Martel, ECE
Julie Namnoum, ECE
Susan Rioux, El Ed
Jessica Schneider, ECE
Andrea Sinsigalli, ECE

*****
Other Events

Excellence Expo - Saturday, April 27 Excellence Expo, 12-4, Webb Hall & Library, ECSU
 

EDUCATION
Time:  1 -2
Room WH 113
Constructivism and Meaning Making Process
Faculty mentor:  Dr. Hari Koirala

Linda Edmonds
Constructivism and Sheltering Instruction for English Language Learners and Under Achievers

Tricia Geiling
A Personal Discovery Journey: Exploring Multiple Ways to Enrich the Mathematics Meaning-Making Process for Elementary School Students

Susan Sullivan
Creating Authentic Mathematics Through a Unit on the Solar System

Time:  1 -2
Room WH 307
Computers in the Classroom and the Curriculum
Faculty mentors: Dr. Leslie Ricklin, Dr. David Stoloff, Dr. Richard Reynolds

Jeff Burnham and Susan DeFeo
Nifty Nines:  A ThinkQuest Project

Vicki Buchanan
PowerPoint Presentations to Enhance Learning

Deborah Muska and Kevin Saucier
Education and Socio-Economic Status
 

Time:  2 - 3
Room WH 210
Innovations in Reading
Faculty Mentor:  Dr. Theresa Picard and Dr. Dan Rothermel

Kara Dolan, Amy Niblett, Charlene Ouellette
The What’s, Whys and How’s of Shared Reading

Sherena Campbell, Shaquan Strickland
An Interactive Shared Reading Lesson

Dorothy M. Drobney
A Survivor’s Guide to the Comprehensive Examination
 

Time:  2 - 3
Room WH 113
Site visits via PowerPoint
Faculty mentors: Dr. Richard Reynolds and Ms. Diane Cerreto

Darlene Mitchell, Kerry Browne, Rebecca Payette
Kentucky Do-Nothing Machine

Kara Jankavich, Kristin Therkelsen, Carrie Garceau, Bethany Lemos
Site Visits to the Windham Early Childhood Center

***

State accreditation visit - Sunday, May 5 - Wednesday, May 8.  Lots more details to follow.

***

On Thursday, May 16, Dr. Kathy Lake from Alverno College will return to meet with the Elementary Education faculty and the HPE faculty on preparing their documents.

back to top
****

ECSU - ThinkQuest for Tomorrow's Teachers Projects

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 .

back to top

****
Long Term Announcements

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

back to top

Planning
back to top

Past surveys of our graduates are available on the WWW  –

an analysis of the survey of teacher education program graduates 1996-98 http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/assessment/survey9698.htm

results of the survey of teacher education program graduates – 1996-1998 -
http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/assessment/surveyresults9698.htm,  and

results of the survey of teacher education program graduates – 1998-2000 -
http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/assessment/gradsurvey2001.htm

survey of interests in graduate programs –1999, http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/assessment/gradinterestsurvey1999.htm

survey of interests in graduate programs – 2001
http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/assessment/gradinterestsurvey2001.htm

back to top


*****
Research and Creativity Activities -
chronicling the ongoing progress of the Education Department at  Eastern Connecticut State University
  also found at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/rca.html

Fourth Report
3/1/02

As part of our participation with the ThinkQuest for Tomorrow's Teachers project, we have administered a survey to our student teacher candidates on their self-evaluation of their preparedness to use educational technology in their classrooms.  In the past 10 months, 104 certification candidates have assessed their preparedness based on the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards.

Based on this scale, KEY: Not prepared = 1, Somewhat prepared = 2, Prepared = 3, Well prepared = 4, the average ratings were all in the "somewhat prepared" range for all of these items, except an average rating lower than to 2 (1.8) for "Model and teach legal and ethical principles related to technology use" for the Fall 2001 student teachers.

A future edition's research report will feature whether any of these self-assessments on the ISTE standards were statistically different.  The table for this report may be found at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/rca020301.html .

back to top


Searches
back to top

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 for these positions in Educational Technology and Reading/Literacy.


Opportunities
back to top

***

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

Experiences for Future Teachers Using Technology (EFTUT)-
http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/yes/

Join us for Online Games, Activities, and Discussion Forums in Science, Math, and Language Arts!

Explore http://www.elasticmind.com/ where you can
· play pinball to learn geography,
· apply language arts with online word magnets, word searches, and animated text
· develop computer graphics and animated pictures.
Activities in the first column create animated text messages, activities in the second column create animated pictures.  The third column contains creativity games like  pinball, word magnets, seek-a-word, and refrigerator magnets, which allows an endless chain of magnet poems to be created and viewed. All the activities on this web site are the “create your own” type and can be emailed.  Try them out!  These are Java applets and may run better on a PC than a MAC.

Earn Olympic gold and learn science at the Bobsled Run http://www.wsnsports.com/game/game.htm .

Challenge your students with international mathematics and science quizzes at
http://getsmarter.org/index.cfm .

Visit the "web’s finest mathematics and science activities" at http://www.exploremath.com/ and http://www.explorescience.com/ .

Join a discussion forum of students and teachers collaborating in leading edge software to enhance education in Connecticut - http://www.elasticmind.com/wforum/intro.htm .

EFTUT is building a website featuring learning activities which are creative, customizable, entertaining, and sharable by email.  The website is open to the public.  We are seeking teachers who want to work with our developers and in-class consultants to evaluate these activities as teaching and learning tools.

Each school, a lead teacher and 5-10 students, will be eligible to receive a grant of $500 to support their school's educational technology activities.  Participants will also be invited to participate in a statewide workshop on the future of learning and teaching on June 1.  Selected high school students will be invited to an Educational Technology Camp at Eastern Connecticut State University, June 23 - 28, 2002, where they will earn college credit and skills in leading edge technologies for education.

For more information about this program, please visit our homepage at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/yes/ or contact David Stoloff at stoloffd@easternct.edu .

*****


Recently acquired media - in the Chair's Office or on the Web
back to top

General Education Committee's General Education Program Proposal

Wednesdays - A Compilation of Short Stories written by Eastern Connecticut State University Graduate Students

Educational Technology Resource Documents from the Connecticut State Department of Education.

American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) Public Policy Agenda - 2002.

The BEST Program Portfolio Resources 2001-2002: School Year

BEST 2001-2002 Rubrics.

NCATE State training information from January 29-30, 2002 meeting.

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.

*********
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.