Dr. Angela Webster-Smith Builds Partnerships in Belize
In August 2011, Dr. Angela Webster-Smith, assistant professor in the Department of Leadership Studies, presented “Building a Nation through Purposeful Partnership” to the administrators and faculty of Cayo Christian Academy, a village school in the Cayo District of Belize, Central America. Approximately 20 educators attended this two-hour session that highlighted the case for hope-based schooling that offers instruction to help children identify and develop their personal intelligences and gifts that increase student achievement, involve hard-to-reach parents, and build a nation of contributing citizens.
UCA MAT Candidates Enter Projects in the Arkansas iTunes University
Five graduate students in the UCA Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program in the Department of Teaching and Learning were recently accepted for inclusion in the Arkansas iTunes University. The focus of the summer project was to explore technologies that can be used to support P-12 student literacy development. Their projects addressed ways that technologies could be used to support student literacy development for the grade levels and subject areas that the candidates either currently teach or plan to teach in the near future.
The five MAT teacher candidates and their projects included:
Amanda Mamula, who explored the uses of Toon-Doo. Toon-Doo allows students to create comic strip creations exploring both visual and textual literacy.
Ian Emery created his presentation on graphic novels. Graphic novels are narrative works where the story is told using art to support textual storytelling.
Anna Walthall studied Webquests and their uses in classrooms. Webquests allow teachers to guide students in a ersearch study by pre-selecting and providing appropriate resources within an inquiry oriented project format.
Casey Bazyk examined the uses of Prezi as a replacement for PowerPoint. Prezi is a presentation tool that is more animated and interactive than PowerPoint and asks the presenter to truly focus on key concepts.
James Patrick investigated Social Bookmarking with a focus on using social bookmarking to aid in research. Social bookmarking allows users to organize, store, manage, search for and share resources online. This technique also is called social tagging.
For more information, contact Dr. Donna Wake, assistant professor in the department of teaching and learning at (501)-852-2820 or dwake@uca.edu.
Dr. Angela Webster-Smith Guides Mabelvale Middle School with Parent Involvement
Dr. Angela Webster-Smith, assistant professor in the Department of Leadership Studies, presented insights on parent involvement to the administrators and faculty of Mablevale Middle School in Mablevale in August 2011. The presentation was titled “Connect, Respect, and Reflect: A Model for Parent Involvement.” Approximately 75 educators attended this 1 and 1/2 hour session that was specifically designed to help them with “hard-to-reach parents.” Participants engaged in ways to “connect” by getting to know parents, through systematic, friendly interactions, and by cultivating partnerships. The workshop reinforced ways to “respect” parents by honoring who each parent is, what each parent brings to the table, by honoring the way each parent demonstrates love for his or her child; and by honoring what each parent needs and wants. Educators were encouraged to “reflect” by considering what’s working in their classrooms and school and what’s not; then to modify and adjust accordingly. For more information about professional development on parent involvement, please contact Dr. Angela Webster-Smith at 501, 450.5438 or email her at awebster@uca.edu.
Digital Storytelling Writing Workshops
In partnership with the National Writing Project, Dr. Donna Wake, associate professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning, presented two seminars at two of the Arkansas Writing project sites. Educators at each of the sites were guided through day-long sessions on digital writing. Participants were trained in personal and classroom uses of digital storytelling. Digital storytelling builds on narrative and oral storytelling traditions using computer-based tools to re-vision and shape those stories. The digital storytelling process combines images, text, audio narration and/or music. Most digital stories focus on a specific topic and contain a particular point of view ranging from sharing personal narratives to recounting historical events to exploring community issues. For more information about digital storytelling, contact Dr. Donna Wake at dwake@uca.edu.
The Three-Ring Circus: Enriching Learning for CAPCA
Four faculty members in the Department of Early Childhood/Special Education facilitated a two-day workshop for Head Start teachers with the Community Action Program for Central Arkansas (CAPCA). Candice Barnes, Assistant Professor; René Crow, Assistant Professor; Ruth Rowell, Instructor; and Mark Cooper, Professor, established a long-term partnership with the CAPCA Head Start teachers that will extend throughout the school year and into the future.
The initial two-day workshop, titled “The Three-Ring Circus: Using Relationships, Engagement, and Positive Guidance to Enrich Learning” focused on student engagement, room arrangement, and relationship building. Regularly scheduled follow-up sessions will be conducted throughout the school year checking for fidelity and usefulness gained from the workshop. On-going communication with CAPCA center managers will be conducted to troubleshoot and offer more assistance as needed. For more information related to professional development opportunities for early childhood educators, please contact Candice Barnes at 501.450.5461 or cbarnes@uca.edu or Mark Cooper at (501)-450-3171 or mcooper@uca.edu.
Dr. Gary Bunn Guides Conway Teachers
Conway teachers at Carl Stuart Middle School and Simon Intermediate School were offered professional development sessions by Gary Bunn, assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning in the College of Education at the University of Central Arkansas during the semester months. In May, he conducted the district-wide parental involvement presentation for more than 600 teachers, discussing strategies for involving parents and techniques for improving communication between home and school. In June, he presented the day-long workshop “Honing Your Craft” to teachers at Carl Stuart Middle School. This workshop considered the importance of effective teaching strategies and offers teachers an opportunity to develop new strategies to engage students in learning. In August, Bunn worked with teachers from Simon Intermediate School and Carl Stuart Middle School to strengthen questioning skills. During the seminars, teachers gained new techniques for engaging all students through questioning and learned more about the value of questioning in developing problem-solving skills and higher-level thinking.
Education Classes for Non Traditional Licensure (NTL) Teacher Candidates
Dr. Terri Hebert and Dr. Gary Bunn, both assistant professors in the Department of Teaching and Learning, coordinated the initial classes for the Non-Traditional Licensure (NTL) Program held in Hot Springs, Ark. in summer 2011. In June, 33 candidates began Year 1 of the NTL Program, and in July, 17 additional candidates began Year 2 of the NTL Program. Hebert and Bunn will continue directing the program throughout the academic year for seven Saturday sessions.
Summer classes for the NTL Program were conducted by Dr. Wendy Rickman, assistant professor, and Dr. Stephanie Huffman, associate professor, both in the Department of Leadership Studies, explored educational media and technology issues and trends in P-12 education; Dr. Donna Wake, assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning, introduced human growth and development as well as questions and vocabulary building; Hebert taught secondary science content, Sue Farris, Candidate Services and Steve Ward, instructor in the Department of Teaching and Learning, presented classroom management, Marilyn Friga, instructor in the Department of Teaching and Learning, provided professional development, and Dr. Tammy Benson, associate professor and chair of the Department of Teaching and Learning, facilitated literacy development and student achievement.
Additionally, teachers in their first year of teaching received a three-day Pathwise orientation co-taught by Dr. Gwen Morgan. Development for year two teacher candidates was providing students with classroom management tips and techniques, also held in Hot Springs Ark. and the Middle School. NTLP candidates labeled as year one and year two teacher candidates were guided in their three-day professional development workshop related to Pathwise in day long workshops by Hebert in Hot Springs, Ark. and the Arch Ford Coop at the Greenbrier Junior High Facility.
Professional Development Conducted by the College of Education Summer 2011
During the first week of August, faculty in the College of Education worked with the Arkansas Department of Education by providing Pathwise training to 150 Arkansas educators. Pathwise is a comprehensive, research-based framework for professional practice that details the approaches and strategies that effective educators should demonstrate in their classrooms. Pathwise training and recalibration provide opportunities for educators to learn and review these professional practices. New teachers in Arkansas are assigned to experienced teachers within their school districts to mentor the novices through their first year of teaching. Mentors must be Pathwise trained in order to mentor new teachers using Pathwise principles.
For more information about Pathwise, contact Sue Farris in the College of Education Field Placement Office at sfarris@uca.edu or (501)-450-3131 or Marilyn Friga at mfriga@uca.edu or (501)-852-2910.
Technology Focus of Gamma Tau Chapter of Delta Pi Epsilon Conference
Technology was the main topic of the Gamma Tau Chapter of Delta Pi Epsilon Conference held this summer. This year’s conference, titled “Technology Reboot,” was hosted by the College of Education. The conference broke attendance records, build partnerships and established integrated learning communities beyond business education majors. Technology sessions included Digital Sandbox, Vilonia School District Bill Beavers, NBC Learn/E-missions by College of Education Instructors Marilyn Friga NBCT and Brenda Linn; I-Pad/Flip Camera by Hector School District Shelly Frew and Nooks & Kindles by the Best Buy Geek Squad.
Chapter President Debby, of the Mauldin Vilonia School District, and Advisor Dr. Cheryl Wiedmaier, of UCA, presided over the conference and welcomed Dr. Kelly Wilkinson, current Director for the Center of Instruction, Research and Technology and Associate Professor in Management, Information Science, and Business Education in the Scott College of Business at Indiana State University. Wilkinson was the keynote speaker for the event.
In support of the new common core standards adopted in teacher preparation programs and all state teacher evaluation standards, Dr. Wilkinson’s research focuses on end-user computing, pragmatic use of technology for learning and immersive assessment and feedback using technology. The conference ended with the chapter’s scholarship recipients awarded to UCA Business Education majors Kaleb Gray and Chris Easley.
Dr. Tammy Benson Guides “Social Emotional Learning” for Early Childhood Educators
Dr. Tammy Benson, associate professor and chair of the Department of Teaching and Learning, conducted professional development through the Arkansas Department of Human Services for Early Childhood Preschool Educators in July and August. Approximately 25 educators from Conway, Greenbrier and Heber Springs attended the four-day series of courses offered by the Department of Human Services Early Childhood Division. The Pre-K Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) provides teachers of three to five-year-olds the knowledge and skills to build war relationships with children, parents and co-workers.
Pre-K SEL is designed to advance understanding of how children develop social and emotional skills and present techniques for developing positive relationships with children, families and colleagues. It also provides tools and strategies for implementing preventive classroom practices that support development and appropriate behavior. It enhances knowledge and skills in order to implement social and emotional teaching strategies and presents methods for implementing intensive individualized interventions for those children displaying challenging behaviors. Benson also conducted a one-day Saturday workshop on Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Strategies that Work for Early Childhood Educator to preschool teachers employed at The Center of Early Learning and a professional development workshop to Pediatrics Plus preschool teachers in Conway.