Words of  Inspiration  Announcements Planning Opportunities Research and Creativity Activities

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT NEWS Volume XI, Spring 2002 Finals Week of Spring 2002 Edition -  May 10, 2002 best viewed at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/020510.html on the WWW; for past issues - Education Department News Index  http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/newsindex.html

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From: Dr. Dimitrios S. Pachis
Vice President for Academic Affairs

Re: Credit Requirements for Master’s Degree Programs in Teacher Education

Date: May 10, 2002
 

The Department of Education requested, and the Curriculum Committee approved, the reduction of credit requirements from 36 credits to 30 credits for the following Master’s degree programs:

The Education Department faculty provided appropriate justification for this change.  I approve the change to become effective with the start of the 2002-2003 academic year.

All students in the program should be informed of the change in program requirements.  New students accepted in these programs for Fall 2002 must follow the new program requirements.  Students who are matriculated prior to Fall 2002 would have the option of completing the requirements of either the old or the new programs.

Please provide the necessary assistance to the Education Department to ensure that the changes are implemented fully.

Thank you.

[Please note that the MS in Early Childhood Education program is also going through curriculum revision and should be approved as a 30 credit program in time for the Spring 2003 semester.]

Dean Kleine and Dr. Ernst, chair of the search committee, have announced that Ms. Ingrid Enniss has been hired as full-time, tenure-track faculty member starting in August 2002.  Ms. Enniss is a doctoral candidate at Wayne State University and anticipates a completion date of December 2002.  Her dissertation is in the area of reading comprehension, as is her MA, which is also from Wayne State University.  She is currently a lecturer at Wayne State, teaching both graduate and undergraduate courses, and has assisted in running the counseling and testing center.  She has taught in Guyana (Linden and Georgetown).  Ms. Enniss’ teaching experience at the university level at an institution, which has the same philosophical view of literacy as we hold at Eastern, is a real strength.

"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them"--Walt Disney

posted on May 10, 2002

The Education Department faculty members are proud to announce the following awards for outstanding achievement which will be celebrated at the hooding ceremony:

for Outstanding Achievement for Service to the Department

Dorothy Dobney
Allison Marie Padegimas
Susan Sullivan
Genny Wald

for Outstanding Academic Achievement

Laura Carlisle
Dorothy Dobney
Linda Edmonds
Barbara Horn
Diane Jennings
Joan Silva
Vicki Schmidt
Susan Sullivan
Terry Suprenant
Rachel Thayer

for Outstanding Student Teaching

Dana Ballou
Cindy Govoni
Sarah Jensen
Kristen Manware
Brian Martel
Julie Namnoum
Susan Rioux
Jessica Schneider
Andrea Sinsigalli

On Thursday, May 16, 9:30 am - 1 pm, Dr. Kathy Lake from Alverno College will return to meet with the Elementary Education faculty and the HPE faculty on preparing their documents.

1) Please contribute to the annual report.  It may be found be going to the Education Department folder on the Z: drive (the Z: drive may be the G: drive on your newly configured network).  Please open the

Common folder
annual report folder

and then open the document labelled - annualreport2002eddept .

Your contributions are due by May 31.  Thanks.

2) Please evaluate the service of David Stoloff as department chair.  The evaluation form will be sent you as a WORD attachment.  Please return your evaluations to Paulette Mares for compilation by June 10.  Thanks.

A request from Institutional Research -

Please share news about the plans of graduating seniors.

If they are going on to graduate school, please provide the graduate's name, undergraduate major, graduate university, location (city, state), field of study and degree program sought, and any information on scholarships and/or fellowships.

If they have been accepted for employment positions, please provide the graduate's name, undergraduate major, company, location (city, state), position, salary.

Please email the information to David, who will compile it for the department.  Thanks.

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 .

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

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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

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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 .

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.

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 .

Institutional Overview and Response to Standards, Self-examination report on Teacher Preparation Programs at ECSU, March 2002.

Portfolio Responses for BEST program, 2001-2002.

Precondition Report for the Education Unit - April 2002, NCATE document

Handbooks for the Development of Teaching Portfolios 2001-2002 - Connecticut State Department of Education - most subjects

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.

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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.