Education: the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty. -- Mark Twain

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Position announcements - please visit http://www.ctreap.net - for the Connecticut teaching position listings.

Dr. Zadranyn Gordon, Principal of Hartford Public High School, is seeking Secondary Mathematics Teachers. - shared by Mary-Grace Shifrin

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1) Upcoming events and announcements -

During the Summer Orientation, Advisement, and Registration special sessions for pre-education students, I met with 162 incoming first year students interested in teacher education.  There were a good number of candidates for early childhood education, elementary - with several interested in math as their other academic major, secondary education - with the largest group interested in history/social studies.  Several hadn't known that they needed to complete an academic major other than education for certification.  Several were also concerned to hear that psychology majors were best prepared for the early childhood education program, not for the elementary education program.  I discussed the cross-endorsement options for elementary and ECE teacher candidates that was of interest for a good number.  I also shared the "frequently asked questions" information sheet (http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/dept/questions.html) with them and invited them to visit the Education Department for further information in the fall.  I hope that my participation in SOAR this summer will prepare students to seek further advisement and keep in touch with us and the Education Club during their first years at Eastern.  David Stoloff

Fall calendar dates -

Diversity seminar is scheduled for September 28, 2007, 3:30 to 6:00 p.m. in the Johnson Community Room, J. Eugene Smith Library.

2) The Summer Institute for Future Teachers began on Sunday, July 8 with 27 high school students and their families from throughout Connecticut participating in our opening session.  Dr. Delar Singh is the program director this year and is joined by instructors Leah Barbuto, Hannah Sellers, and Terrell Green, and educational technology instructor Harry Singh, and residential assistants Sasha Muniz and David Archibald.  David Stoloff is the project co-director for this 11th annual institute.  Please contact Delar or David if you would more details on the program and please consider joining us for the closing showcase at 11 am in Webb 110 and at the luncheon on Friday, August 3 at noon.

SIFT was featured in a Hartford Courant article on Monday, July 30, 2007, with an accompanying video posted at http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-futureteach0730.artjul30,0,3216121.story .

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3) Congratulations to Dr. Tuesday L. Cooper, now Associate Dean of the School of Education and Professional Studies, who will become the Dean of the Long Island Center, Empire State College (New York), http://www.esc.edu/longisland, at the end of August.  Congratulations, Tuesday!

4) Rob Levin, a former faculty member in the Education Department at Eastern CSU, wrote that he has "begun a position called School Designer for New York City Outward Bound's Expeditionary Learning small secondary schools in the NYC Public Schools.  NYCOB ( www.nycoutwardbound.org ) is a nonprofit affiliate of the national Outward Bound program that has typically been best known for its wide-ranging outdoor education / adventure / team-building programs, in wilderness and urban areas around the nation (and the world; OB was founded in Germany).  In New York City, NYCOB is a partner in the few-years-old movement to remake very large, often ineffective public high schools into much smaller new schools with no more than 100 students per grade ( http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/30/nyregion/30grads.html ).  The job title "School Designer" is a bit misleading, in that the principals, teachers, and communities are the true school designers, while my role is to help a small portfolio of Grades 6-12 or 9-12 schools -- recent start-ups, or brand new ones taking on one grade per year -- to hit their stride and make the best possible use of Outward Bound's "Expeditionary Learning" model for engaging learning within and across the academic disciplines.  "EL" schools work at implementing several familiar aspects of quality teaching -- such as "understanding by design," authentic assessment, and balanced literacy -- with one special New York State twist (Regents exams!) and one Outward Bound hallmark (personal and character development, including outdoor challenges and a "crew, not passengers" approach to building school climate).   It's about trying to blend some of the best inspiration of the Outward Bound heritage to "regular" academic and special-needs programs within small, often urban public schools, typically in struggling neighborhoods."

Congratulations, Rob!

5) Julie Alexandrin, a former faculty member in the Education Department at Eastern CSU, has accepted a position as Associate Professor in Special Education at the University of Southern Maine.  Her email address is juliealexandrin@yahoo.com . Congratulations, Julie!

6) For Connecticut-based scholarships for minority teacher candidates, please visit -

Connecticut Minority Teacher Recruitment Grant information:

http://www.ctdhe.org/SFA/pdfs/MTIP%20Brochure%20and%20Form.pdf

Alma Exley Scholarship Program

http://www.almaexleyscholarship.org/

The deadlines for these applications are usually in the Fall semester.

7) Opportunity shared by Hope Marie Cook, Head of Curriculum Center:

Dear GEMS Associate,

We need your help!  GEMS is recruiting field trial teachers and we are hoping that you will either qualify or know someone who does.  We need teachers who are teaching reading in grades 2 through 4.  Please pass this message on to anyone you know who can help us with testing this exciting new program from GEMS:

Reading About Science-Field Test Teachers Welcomed!

The University of California at Berkeley is developing an innovative new reading curriculum as a joint effort between the University's Lawrence Hall of Science and Graduate School of Education. The focus of the program is teaching literacy skills using content rich student books that address compelling science topics.

We are now actively recruiting reading teachers in Grades 2-4 to participate in field trials of a number of exciting units in the Reading About Science curriculum. In exchange for testing and providing feedback on a single unit, participants will receive free field trial materials and later the unit's published teacher's guide and student books.
Reading About Science is part of the University's promising new research and development program Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading.  To learn more about this ground breaking program and to participate, please visit http://seedsofscience.org/about/FieldTest2.htm

We are recruiting for the units listed below. We will use teacher preferences expressed in the applications to make assignments. Please note that a class session is typically an hour in length.

Thank you.

Great Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS) Setting Standards for Excellence in Education Lawrence Hall of Science, #5200 University of California Berkeley, CA 94720

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The Education Department Faculty photo is posted at
http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/faculty.html
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The CSU-AAUP/BOT Contract, covering the period from August 25, 2007 to August 25, 2011, can now be found on-line at http://www.ccsu.edu/aaup/csu/AAUP2007-2011FINALContact2007[1].pdf  Hard copies of the contract are in the process of being printed.

A summary of the changes can also be found on the CSU-AAUP website at http://www.ccsu.edu/aaup/csu/SummaryOfChanges2007.doc

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Alumni News
http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/alumninews.html

Good news from Melissa DeMarco, past president of the Education Club and December 2006 elementary education graduate, on July 31, 2007:

"I just wanted to let you know that I got a job as a 6th grade teacher at Elizabeth Shelton Elementary School in Shelton. Right in my home town! I couldn't be happier. Just wanted to give you the good news....

As far as advice . . I would say that networking helps.
I got a job as a special ed tutor and was able to meet a lot of other professionals and form a relationship with the principal (Ms. Arpin). She later became a strong advocate for me when it was time for the interviews."

Congratulations, Melissa, and best wishes for your continuing success.

Dr. Fred Ashton at Windham Tech shares that "Matt Zagura ... has been offered a teaching position in health and P.E. at Goodwin Tech.  The interview committee was impressed with his demeanor, attitude, and health/phys. ed. skills and knowledge.  Of course, special recognition goes to Connie Clabby and the rest of the Windham Tech health and P.E. department for the preparation that was given to him here in the final round of his student teaching.  It will be great to have Matt as a colleague in the Connecticut Technical High School System!"

posted on July 30, 2007

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Good news shared by Leah Barbuto

"As of Monday, July 23, 2007, I have accepted a second grade permanent position for Manchester Public Schools at Robertson Elementary School. I appreciate all of the support you and the university have given me over the years and the ample amounts of resources that I have gathered with my knowledge from your courses." - Christina Litrico

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Good news shared by Dr. Richard Reynolds:

Kristen Sixbey, one of our graduate students has found a position at South Windsor High School.

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Thanks from Chelsea Jasek:

I recently graduated with my elementary certification, having student taught in Coventry, Connecticut and I just wanted to tell you how happy I was with the Education Program at Eastern.  I truly felt that the professors in my CORE set me up for the challenges that came my way.  I would especially like to note three that really aided me in my teaching steps, Dr. Richards, Dr. Kauffman and Dr. Ashton.  All three of these professors provided me with actual life skills that I have been able to use in my teaching. Dr. Ashton especially allowed us time in his class to have real discussion about actual events that were occurring to us during our student teaching - all things that we could learn from.  This class certainly prepared me overall for the challenges I did face and will face in my years to come.  

I am so thankful that I made the right choices to come to Eastern four years ago and receive the education that I have.  What a wonderful experience I have had and I would give a great amount of credit to the Education Department.  

Thank you for making my time at Eastern as exceptional as possible,   Yours,   Chelsea Jasek

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Good news about Greg Carter:

Greg Carter, a 2003 graduate of our secondary education/social studies program, is currently teaching at the Polaris Center in East Hartford.  After his studies at Eastern, he continued to receive certification in special education.  He was a recruiter at the CREC Minority Teacher Recruitment Career Fair at the Two Rivers Magnet Middle School on Saturday, March 10, 2007. 

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For other past good news, please visit http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/alumninews.html

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Past Alumni News is posted at
http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/alumninews.html

Call for Graduate News -

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. 

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Other Events
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ECSU - CultureQuest

Faculty members and students from Eastern Connecticut State University are participating in an international consortium of teacher education institutions to explore ways to make use of the web to enhance global understanding.  Please visit our projects at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/dept/culturequest.html .

Earlier this decade, we participated in a US Department of Education grant to Prepare Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology with ThinkQuest.  Our projects' homepage may be found at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/dept/pt3.html.

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Long Term Announcements
Alumni news may be found at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/alumninews.html.
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Research and Creativity Activities
chronicling the ongoing progress of the Education Department at Eastern Connecticut State University

Commencement Research Report - May 20, 2007

This an unofficial research report on a comparison of Eastern CSU graduates at Commencement on May 2007, determined by counting names in the commencement program.  It would be an estimate because some of the students listed in the program are listed in two sections and the official count will depend on final grades from the spring 2007 semester.  These statistics do not take into account the number of teacher candidates that the Education Department shares with other departments.  Teacher candidates are more often listed as graduating with their liberal arts major.

These statistics are compared with last year's commencement count.  Some preliminary generalizations include that there was growth in graduates from the School of Education and Professional Studies and the School of Continuing Education, but a slight decline in graduates from the School of Arts and Sciences. There was also a slight over-all decline in the number of graduates from Eastern. 

also found at http://www.easternct.edu/depts/edu/news/rca.html

Searches and Opportunities

for job announcements at Eastern CSU - http://www.easternct.edu/depts/personnel/jobs.html

positions filled for Fall 2007 -

two full-time Reading/Language Arts tenure track faculty members
and

a Research and Assessment tenure track faculty member

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Recommendation from Diane Reale, OnlineCSU instructor, to subscribe to Edutopia:

"You may already be familiar with Edutopia, but I recently received an invitation to a free magazine subscription from them, in the mail, so I thought I would send the link along to you....(re: exemplary programs in K-12 schools)....thought your faculty and students might be interested.

http://www.edutopia.org/foundation/foundation.php

Diane"

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Reference from Walter Diaz, Director, Career Services:

Teaching Jobs at SchoolSpring.com

Description: Free educator job search. Apply online, get email job alerts, find 1000s of teaching jobs from dozens of sites with the SchoolSpring SuperSearch. Apply to any job, anywhere with SchoolSpring PLUS!

URL: http://www.SchoolSpring.com

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Looking for an internship, co-op or full-time job? Then check out our new on-line system-eRecruiting at http://eastern.eRecruiting.com

Walter Diaz
Director
Career Services
Eastern Connecticut State University
83 Windham Street
Willimantic, CT  06226
Phone: (860)465.5244
Fax:(860)465.4440
Email: diazw@easternct.edu
University Web Page: www.easternct.edu
Department Web Page: www.easternct.edu/depts/career/

 

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For Connecticut teaching opportunities, please visit http://ctreap.net .

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Teacher Substitute Openings in Windham Public Schools

Posted on November 27, 2005

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Alma Exley Scholarship Program

This scholarship program supports and encouraged persons of color who are committed to a career in public school teaching.  A scholarship award of at least $1,500 a year for two years will be granted to an individual who has been admitted to a teacher-preparation program in a Connecticut College or university.  For more information and an application, please contact David Stoloff in the Education Dept, Webb 129 or visit http://www.almaexleyscholarship.org .

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Connecticut Minority Teacher Recruitment Grant information:

http://www.ctdhe.org/SFA/pdfs/MTIP%20Brochure%20and%20Form.pdf

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

1) The Education Club has donated to the departmental library - Freedom Writers with Erin Gruwell (1999).  The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing To Change Themselves and the World around Them.  New York:  Broadway Books.

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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.