A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff
The Virginia Consortium of Social Studies Specialists and College Educators (VCSSSCE) held its Summer Leadership Meeting at UMW’s College of Education on Friday, June 8.
The organization comprises stakeholders in Virginia history and social sciences education, including social studies specialists, college educators, museum professionals, social studies education non-profit professionals and representatives from the Virginia Department of Education.
John P. Broome, assistant professor in curriculum & instruction and director of undergraduate secondary and preK-12 education programs in the College of Education, serves as the State Instructional Committee Chair for the organization.
Laurie Abeel, associate professor in graduate education, passed her Black Belt test in Tae Kwan Do on Saturday, April 28 at the Karate Sports Academy in Warrenton. She started as a white belt in April 2004 and three knee surgeries (with one more at the end of May) and eight years later has finally earned her black belt!
John P. Broome, assistant professor in curriculum and instruction and director of undergraduate secondary education and preK-12 education programs in the College of Education, judged student-made documentaries for the Virginia state championships of National History Day on Saturday, April 21 in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Every year, more than half a million U.S. students conduct extensive primary and secondary research through libraries, archives, museums, oral history interviews, and historic sites for the contest. This year’s theme was “Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History.” After analyzing and interpreting primary and secondary sources and drawing conclusions about their topics’ historical significance, students submit their work in original papers, Web sites, exhibits, performances, and documentaries.
Student entries are judged at the district, regional and state levels. The top two winners from each category compete at the national championships at the Kenneth E. Behring National Contest on June 10-14, 2012 at the University of Maryland at College Park.
George Meadows, associate professor in the College of Education, and Tim Owens in the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies were featured in Campus Technology for their work with 3D printing in an article titled “Making Stuff: 3D Printing on Campus.” Meadows and Owens are in the process of exploring the technology and documenting the process at UMW Blogs in preparation to integrate the device as a curriculum component to a freshman seminar course in the fall. 3D printing technology allows students to build 3-dimensional models on a computer using free and easy-to-use software and then “print” them by extruding plastic in layers to create an object.
Laurie Abeel, associate professor of Graduate Education and Program Director for Advanced Licensure, is also the State Director for Destination ImagiNation (DI), a creative problem solving program for ages four through college level. She and her state board successfully ran the April 2 state tournament, which included 97 teams from around the state, with about 1,500 people attending.
Abeel will take 41 teams from Virginia to Global Finals to be held in May at the University of Tennesee in Knoxville, where more than 1,000 teams from around the country and world will present creative solutions to DI challenges. For more information about DI, go to www.idodi.org.
Courtney Clayton, assistant professor in the College of Education’s Dept. of Curriculum and Instruction, has written a chapter in the book entitled “Teacher Preparation for Bilingual Student Populations”. “This volume focuses on understanding the structural, substantive, and contextual elements of preparation programs, and provides transformative guidelines for creating Educar signature programs. Designed to improve the practice of teacher preparation by promoting dialogic conversations and applications of praxis in the preparation of bilingual/ESL teacher candidates, it emphasizes that exemplary teacher preparation requires transformative teacher educators.”
Clayton, C. & Brisk, M.E. (2011). It’s my responsibility! Teacher of bilingual learners in an English-immersion context. In B. Bustos Flores, R. Hernandez Sheets & E. Riojas Clark (Eds.). Teacher preparation for bilingual student populations: Educar para transformar. (pp. 182-187). New York, NY: Routledge.
With the help of UMW faculty, graduate students and alumni, the 2010 statewide conference of the Virginia Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages was a success. This year’s TESOL conference, held at UMW’s Stafford campus Oct. 2, drew about 200 practicing teachers from across Virginia.
Mary Gendernalik-Cooper, College of Education dean, (left) gave the welcome address, and Jo Tyler, professor of linguistics and education, served as one of the conference coordinators. Master of Education students, alumni and faculty, including Jane Huffman, associate professor of education; Patricia Reynolds, instructor of education; and John St.Clair, director of distance and blended learning, provided on-site assistance.
The conference theme was “Rekindling Our Joy of Language Teaching.” More than two dozen presenters led workshops and served on discussion panels. As the keynote speaker, bestselling author Richard Lederer addressed the topic “A Joy Ride Through the English Language.”
