Teaching Tactics
Lauren Puglia applies lessons learned in her classroom.
Suzanne Houff Publishes Book
Suzanne G. Houff, College of Education department of curriculum and cnstruction professor and chair, recently authored Managing the Classroom Environment: Meeting the Needs of the Student. Published by Rowman & Littlefield Education, the book offers educators practical strategies for managing the classroom. Using William Glasser’s ideas as a foundation, the text covers the five basic needs and their relation to classroom management. Additional management theories and concepts are explored alongside developmental recommendations to offer an overarching classroom plan that focuses on meeting student needs and moving away from reward- and punishment-based systems.
Education Students Present at Festival of Makers
UMW COE graduate students Jane Clair Bishop, Valerie and Kelsie LaSalata provided demonstrations of 3-D printing at the Festival of Community Makers.
Students from UMW’s College of Education provided hands-on demonstrations of new technology at the Central Rappahannock Library’s Festival of Community Makers on Saturday. The Festival was held at the England Run Branch of the Library, from 2 p.m. through 5 p.m. and featured exhibits and demonstrations by local artists, craftspeople, and maker groups.
Mark Frauenfelder, author of Made by Hand and the editor of Make magazine, was the featured speaker at the event. Graduate students from the College of Education demonstrated 3-D printing, Makey Makey alternative input devices, and a LEAP motion controller, new technology that allows a user to control a computer by hand motions and finger gestures. Undergraduates enrolled in the education program provided attendees the opportunity to test their design skills by building and launching paper rockets and creating flyers for a wind tube. The demonstrations and hands-on activities were developed by COE students working in UMW’s two makerspaces, the ThinkLab and the LearnerSpace. University Librarian Rosemary Arneson also provided a demonstration of e-textiles as an example of work being done in the UMW makerspaces.
Educating Innovators
Professor Teresa Coffman shows her education graduate students how to integrate technology into the classroom.
H. Nicole Myers Publishes Book
“Social Skills Deficits in Students with Disabilities: Successful Strategies from the Disabilities Field,” edited by H. Nicole Myers, associate professor of education, was recently published by Rowman and Littlefield Education. The book explores how social skills can impact students with disabilities and gives readers strategies to support social skill development. The text includes a chapter by Beverly D. Epps, associate professor of education.
Courtney Clayton Presents at VATESOL Conference
Courtney Clayton, assistant professor of education, presented her research at the annual VATESOL conference. The presentation was entitled “Using Action Research to Improve Instruction for English Language Learners”. She presented with one of her former M.S. in Elementary Education students whose action research project focused on improving writing skills for English Language Learners using dialogue journals through EduBlogs.
VATESOL is a professional organization dedicated to promoting professional development, strengthening instruction, and supporting research opportunities at all levels for teachers and administrators of ESL/EFL/ESOL.
Growing a New Generation of Educators
Grades aren’t foremost on the mind of Laurie Abeel. The College of Education associate professor focuses more on the journey for her graduate-level students. “My approach in every single class deals with growth, not grades,” said Abeel, who teaches gifted education courses. “I’m more concerned with ‘do they understand what I’m trying to teach’ and [...]
Saving the Cloud Forest One Young Woman at a Time
In January, I traveled to Guatemala to interview young Maya women who had received scholarships to continue their secondary education. An organization, Community Cloud Forest Conservation (CCFC), run by Rob and Tara Cahill and several Guatemalans, began providing small scholarships for young women aged 13-24 about seven years ago. Its goal was to accomplish two things: educate young women, thus producing better educated mothers who would raise healthier, fewer and better-educated children, as well as providing them the opportunity to become teachers or nurses, or any other occupation of their choosing; and train them in agroecological techniques that would help directly improve the nutrition of their own families and help conserve the remaining cloud forest.
I spent a week with many of these young women, talking about what they had learned and what they hoped to achieve. I also saw the end product of their five-week course, where they had developed a proyecto de vida, or life project, a tangible goal that each and every young woman could achieve with dedication and hard work. In addition, they shared with everyone (about 65 young women were in the session that I observed) what they had learned about conservation and the need to protect the forest, the source of their drinking water, planting vegetables and fruits, nutrition, etc. Each small group produced a poster and a representative spoke to everyone about it…talk about a way to build self-confidence and self-esteem!
In theory, education through grade 9 is free in Guatemala. The reality is that the vast majority of the villages (see attached) where these young women live have only a primary school. In order for them to complete middle and high school, they must leave their villages, sometimes living as boarding students during the week or in special programs that operate on the weekends. There are costs associated with continuing their education that typically their fathers are unwilling or unable to pay, including transportation, school supplies and tuition.
CCFC offers $150 scholarships for young women who complete 25 days of work at Chiaxha’, an agroecology center that CCFC is developing in Guatemala’s central highlands. Here girls undertake practical activities, such as planting fruit trees and vegetables, learning about biodiversity conservation and the range of income generating activities from natural resources and acquiring values such as respect for nature and community resources, as well as human rights and the rights of women.
CCFC’s mission is to conserve what remains of the cloud forest in the Alta Verapaz, but they have learned that it is not possible simply to conserve the forest. Consequently, their approach has, by necessity, become very diversified. Part of that strategy is to equip young women with the knowledge and skills that they need to help conserve the cloud forest. It is a very small NGO that is having small but meaningful impacts. As I became a little discouraged last month, Rob reminded me that I have to focus on the big picture; they are throwing rocks into a fast flowing river in an attempt to find a way across. Some of the rocks land precisely where they can enable one to walk across; others fall off target. Nevertheless, many girls are gaining tremendous knowledge that they can take back to their villages and also have the opportunity to continue their education.
As always, my travels to Guatemala involve highs and lows. It is a beautiful country, with beautiful people, but it is also a country whose people and environment have been ravaged by war, poverty and a population explosion. What I learned during my most recent trip is that there is hope, even if it seems small. These girls hold tremendous promise for their families and their communities. The world is changed most, I believe, not by mega-projects that cost billions of dollars, nor by those which seek to aid hundreds of thousands of people. Instead, I understand how one person can be transformed and ultimately impact the lives of both current and future generations through her leadership.
— Dawn Bowen, professor of geography