College of Education News

UCA Ranks Among Top 50 in National Board Certified Teachers

The University of Central Arkansas was ranked 28th among the top 50 institutions of higher education to produce National Board Certified Teachers, according to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

UCA produced 33 National Board Certified Teachers in 2011. Three other Arkansas universities also ranked among the top 50.

National Board Certification requires classroom teachers to pass rigorous assessments and produce exemplary teaching materials and learning outcomes to earn the distinction of becoming a National Board Certified Teacher. National Board Certified Teachers are considered among the best in the teaching profession.

“I am pleased to see UCA hold a national ranking in the production of National Board Certified Teachers. This is a strong contribution to the education profession,” said Dr. Diana Pounder, dean of the College of Education. “I think as our recently revised Advanced Studies in Teacher Leadership program becomes even larger, we will see UCA’s place in these national rankings go even higher.”

Arkansas has more than 2,000 National Board Certified Teachers out of 97,000 nationally.

UCA participates in a National Board Certification training program supported by federal and state funds to prepare teachers for National Board assessment. The program also helps support candidates to defray some of their application and assessment costs. For more information, contact Dr. Carolyn Williams at carolynw@uca.edu or visit www.arkansased.org/educators/recognition/nbct.html.

UCA’s Department of Teaching and Learning offers a master’s degree program whose core courses help prepare educators for National Board Certification. The ASTL program also offers students a variety of specialization options including coursework in specific content or teaching assignment areas and other endorsement credentials to supplement their initial teaching license. For more information, call Dr. Jeff Whittingham at jeffw@uca.edu or visit uca.edu/tlt/astlprogram.php.

Arkansas Educators Travel to China

UCA’s Confucius Institute, along with East China Normal University, sponsored eight Arkansas educators in a trip to China for a week in June to provide exchanges with educators in Shanghai and Hangzhou. The Confucius Institute’s Chinese Bridge for Arkansas Schools program seeks to start and strengthen Chinese language programs and partnerships in the state. The focus of the trip was to collect knowledge about China’s culture, society and educational system.

The Arkansas delegation spent a day at the Confucius Institute at East China Normal University in Shanghai where the visitors were provided Chinese language lessons and cultural experiences to broaden their understanding of Chinese culture. In addition, the delegation visited Changzheng High School, Gongchenqiao Primary School, Wenlan Middle School in Hangzhou and Ganquan Foreign Languages Middle School in Shanghai. Each of these schools provided insights for Arkansas educators into the educational system in China. Debbie Barnes, UCA College of Education, reports, “One of the highlights of our trip involved our conversations with primary age students speaking English and telling us about their school, favorite musicians, school subjects they liked  best and what profession they are most interested in pursuing. Students begin to learn English at the age of seven in China.”

Despite language and cultural differences, the educational systems are very similar. Both countries emphasize content subjects – mathematics, science, language, history while also providing students experiences with technology, art, music, sports, etc. One of the major differences for teachers is that in the United States, K-12 teachers teach six to seven class periods a day. In China, teachers may teach two to three class periods but they are also expected to research and write in their field of study. The Chinese educators reported that they did not have discipline problems in the schools because parents and students value education as a means to a better life.

In addition to sharing experiences with Chinese educators, the delegation was able to visit cultural sites in Shanghai and Hangzhou, including a tea farm, a Buddhist monastery, a countryside village, the Shanghai museum and other attractions.

Arkansas educators making the trip included: Daniel Daniels, assistant principal, and Brent Bogy, principal, representing Batesville Junior High School; Memorie Freyaldenhoven, sixth grade mathematics teacher, and Jamie Bird, Spanish teacher, representing Conway Public Schools; Tom Arnhart, Spanish teacher, and Bill Rowan, band director, representing Rogers Public Schools; Kim Rowan, Spanish teacher, representing Bentonville Public Schools; Debbie Barnes, Assistant Dean in the College of Education, and Guo-ou Zhuang, Director of the Confucius Institute, representing UCA.

ASTL Program Graduates Demonstrate Teacher Leadership Knowledge and Skills

On April 19, five Advanced Studies in Teacher Leadership (ASTL) candidates presented their exit portfolios. All five teachers spoke positively about the growth they had experienced in becoming teacher leaders while pursuing their graduate program. Each teacher has had fewer than five years of teaching experience.

The Department of Teaching and Learning is proud of these graduates who will now make an even more positive impact in their school districts and classrooms. For more information about the program, please contact Dr. Jeff Whittingham at jeffw@uca.edu or 501-450-5445.

Bearswrite: From Pencils to Pixels

The UCA Department of Teaching and Learning and Department of Writing hosted the first Bearswrite Writing Camp for local middle school students. The camp was held June 25-June 29 and included 36 middle school writers.

The Bearswrite camp was designed for aspiring authors entering grades 4 to 6. Bearswriters were involved in five action-packed days of writing using both traditional methods and writing with technology. Campers studied how to use voice, setting, word choice, character traits, point-of-view, journaling and poetry. Campers also learned how to blog, how to create a prezi or glogster and how to work with voki and blabberize.

Campers were inspired to write through fieldtrips on campus and a one day field trip to the Arkansas Arts Center where they viewed the exhibit “The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft.” Campers also interacted with published author Carla McClafferty who held a writing workshop and a book signing.

Campers created individual, digital portfolios of their best work, and a camp digital anthology was assembled. A final authors’ reception and closing ceremony was held on  June 29in Mashburn Hall. Campers shared their work in public performance with parents and community members.

In addition to Stephanie Vanderslice, Donna Wake and Jeff Whittingham of the UCA Department of Writing and the UCA Department of Teaching and Learning respectively, Janie Brown and Elizabeth Rollans of the Conway Public Schools and Vickie Rogers from the Vilonia Public Schools participated as teachers in this camp. Faculty were teacher consultants for the National Writing Project (NWP). Classroom writing assistants included current undergraduate and graduate teacher education candidates.

Dr. Alicia Cotabish to Receive National Gifted Education Award

Dr. Alicia Cotabish, an assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning in UCA’s College of Education, has been selected to receive the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) Early Leader Award. The Early Leader Award is given to “an individual who has exhibited the highest and most consistent degree of leadership in the gifted education field since receiving his or her doctorate.” The award will be presented to Dr. Cotabish at the NAGC national conference in Denver in November.

“It is such an honor to be recognized by the National Association for Gifted Children,” said Cotabish. “The talent in the field is top-notch, and is supported by strong leaders. I couldn’t be more thrilled to be recognized by the national organization and the field.”

Before working in higher education, Dr. Cotabish taught eight years in the public school system as an elementary and middle school science teacher, a gifted and talented teacher and an award-winning, district-level, gifted program administrator. “As a former middle school science and K-12 gifted education teacher, I had the opportunity to inspire students to be creative and to embrace scientific habits of mind,” she said. “With a pressing need to produce more Science, Technology, Engineerning, and Mathematics (STEM) talent in the U.S., the cross mix of science and gifted education was a good fit for me.”

Prior to joining UCA, Dr. Cotabish was the Associate Director of the Jodie Mahony Center for Gifted Education at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and served as one of two Principal Investigators of STEM Starters, a federally-funded Javits project. In addition, Dr. Cotabish coordinated the Arkansas Evaluation Initiative in Gifted Education, a federally-funded, state-wide school program evaluation initiative. She has delivered more than 100 professional development workshops and presentations focused on STEM and gifted education at local, state, national and international venues.

Dr. Cotabish received the 2012 Arkansans for Gifted and Talented Education Challenger Award for her work in STEM and gifted education and was the recipient of the Educator Award from the organization in 2007. In 2006, the National Association for Gifted Children awarded her the Doctoral Student Award for potential leadership and early scholarship in the field of gifted education. She was honored with the Texas A&M University – Texarkana Distinguished Alumna Award in 2008.

Dr. Cotabish is the currently the president-elect of the Arkansas Association of Gifted Education Administrators (AAGEA), a constituent arm of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators. In addition, she is the legislative co-chair of Arkansans for Gifted and Talented Education and serves on a dozen other committees for education organizations.

She serves on six editorial review boards including the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Journal for the Education of the Gifted, Administrative Issues Journal, TEMPO, Gifted Child Quarterly and Teaching for High Potential. Her recent work has focused on STEM education, school administration and low-income promising learners.

Dr. Cotabish received her doctoral degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2007, where she majored in Administration and Supervision with an emphasis in Gifted and Talented Administration.

 Kappa Delta Pi (KDP) Awards Chapter Grant to April Martin

April Martin was awarded the KDP Chapter Grant at the last meeting of the year. April is an education major pursuing a career as a secondary mathematics teacher. She is an active member of the Pi Beta Chapter, holding the offices of historian and vice-president. She has volunteered to help in various chapter functions, including decorations for the bulletin board and the teacher appreciation event in the college. She is active in other college activities as well. She was recognized for her dedication to sports and grades by being on the Southland Commission Academic Honor Roll in 2010 and 2011. April stated that she “wants to be able to reach all students even if that means she has to stay after school to help.” In addition, she “wants every student who comes through her classroom door to know she cares about them and wants them to be very successful in life.”

Kappa Delta Pi is an international honor society for educators. The Pi Beta Chapter at UCA is led by co-counselors Mara Cawein and Nancy Gallavan.

Art Education Student to Present at National Conference

Robyn Blaylock, who completed her K-12 art teaching license in May, was recently accepted to present at the National Art Education Association’s annual convention  in Ft Worth. The convention is scheduled for March 7-10, 2013. Robyn’s  session, “What a Student Teacher Learns… priceless,” consists of dramatic readings of her journal entries while student teaching in an inner-city high school. Excerpts include candid and personal reflections on issues such as motivating students, classroom management, contacting parents, and developing curricular units. NAEA received a record number of presentation proposals this year and relied upon a scoring rubric for the peer review and assessment process. The caliber of this year’s presentations was excellent—making the acceptance of just over 1,000 sessions (approximately 44%) highly competitive.

Drs. Jeff Young and Deborah Kuster will also be presenting at the conference. Their session, “The Making of an Art Teacher,” describes the results of a longitudinal study describing how six art teachers’ perceived identities and their roles change during their journey from their first year through their fourth year of teaching.

Hu Among Few Scholars Selected for NSF-sponsored Early Career Symposium

Haihong (Helen) Hu, an assistant professor in the Department of Leadership Studies, was recently selected to attend the Association of Educational Communication and Technology (AECT) Early Career Symposium sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF).  Nine early career faculty applicants from the U. S. were selected through a competitive application process to attend the symposium to receive mentoring on building a research agenda, pursuing funding, and building collaborations, developing a community of researchers interested in ways technology can transform teaching and learning. AECT is an international professional association dedicated to providing leadership in educational communications and technology by linking professionals holding a common interest in the use of technology and its application to the learning process.  Dr. Hu has since made multiple local, regional and national presentations and publications on her work in asynchronous distance education and other technology-aided instructional approaches.

 

 

 

Feng’s Literacy Expertise Tapped by UCA’s STEM Institute and Confucius Institute

Shoudong Feng,  an associate professor in the College of Education’s Reading Graduate program, has been busy bringing his expertise on literacy to other units on UCA’s campus. Specifically, during Summer 2012 he collaborated with the STEM Institute to help approximately 40 struggling readers from 23 Arkansas high schools to improve their reading comprehension and reading skills. Additionally, his summer included a presentation to new Chinese language teachers assigned to teach in Arkansas K-12 schools, a collaborative program between the Confucius Institute and the Arkansas Department of Education.

 

 

 

 

College of Education Faculty Focus on School Improvement Publications

Professors Angela Webster-Smith, Shelly Albritton and Patty Kohler-Evans co-authored a recently published book entitled Meaningful Conversations:  The Way to Comprehensive and Transformative School Improvement, Rowman-Littlefield Publishers (2012).  They also have published a related chapter, Coaching to transform the heart, head, and hands of teaching and learning, in a book edited by McGill and Kippers entitled Pathways to Transformation:  Learning in Relationship, Information Age Publishing (2012).  These publications are influenced by their current and prior school improvement work, and their investment in promoting effective communication and school improvement strategies to enhance school outcomes for students and teachers.

 

Patty Phelps’ Book Inspires University Teaching Faculty

Like so many things in life, it happens slowly and almost imperceptibly. But, eventually your teaching career, something you once looked at as “a calling,” begins to feel like nothing more than a job. You’ve gotten off track and fallen deep into a teaching rut.

Patty H. Phelps, EdD knows what it’s like. A few years ago, she says, her teaching life had reached what felt like a dead end. She was “going through the motions” and had definitely lost her joy of teaching.

Today Phelps, a professor in UCA’s College of Education, has her joy back. In Journey of Joy: Teaching Tips for Reflection, Rejuvenation and Renewal she shares her experiences and offers advice to guide others to more joyful teaching. From building connections with students to celebrating even minor victories, this new ebook is loaded with practical tips for getting and staying engaged, enthused and excited about teaching. The  first week the book was available, there were over 25,000 downloads.

For the past three years Phelps has led a standing-room-only plenary session on joy in teaching at the annual Teaching Professor Conference.