News
Education Students and Faculty Attend Minority Student Dinner
On Monday, Sept 23, the College of Education participated in UCA’s annual Dinner for First Year Minority Students. About 15 first-year minority pre-education majors attended the dinner hosted by the Provost Office.
Dr. Pounder, Dean of the College, Dr. Carolyn Williams, Assistant to the Dean, and faculty members Dr. Angela Webster-Smith, Dr. Shoudong Feng, and Pre-Education Advisor, Mr. Shannon Williams were also in attendance.
President Courtway and Provost Runge welcomed students, faculty, and guests. Ms.Thelma Moton, Founder and Executive Director of a non-profit organization entitled Choosing to Excel, made an inspiring speech that encouraged students to pursue and achieve their academic goals. The COE faculty also had casual conversations with the students and answered their questions regarding their programs of study, teacher education admission requirements, financial aid, and various other issues.
The Mashburn Voice
UCA’s Mashburn Center for Learning team is excited about introducing The Mashburn Voice, an abbreviated publication designed to represent the struggling learner. Our intention is to share Dr. Mashburn’s voice through this publication. While abbreviated in scope at the present time, the voice has much potential for growth in breadth and depth. In fact, we will publish Dr. Mashburn’s first lecture in the next edition. Our plan is to share the voice within and outside our university community.
We hope the recipients of The Mashburn Voice will share the electronic publication with your constituents. I ask colleagues to share the publication with all teacher education candidates. Hopefully, our Conway School District partners will share the publication with their administrative team. The publication has already been shared with our 40 plus Certified Professional Developers who represent our Arkansas Adolescent Literacy Intervention.
-Dr. Mark Cooper
Prospective teachers can attend Transition to Teaching Meet and Greet Events
PRESS RELEASE
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS
OCTOBER 9, 2013
CONTACT:
Dr. Carolyn Williams, special assistant to the dean for external funding and special projects, at carolynw@uca.edu or 501-450-3627.
Michelle Wynn, administrative specialist I, at mwynn@uca.edu or 501-450-5443.
PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS CAN ATTEND MEET AND GREET EVENTS
CONWAY— Future and master level teachers in the Harrison and North Little Rock areas can learn more about the Partnership for Transition to Teaching grant during Meet and Greet events in October and November.
The Partnership for Transition to Teaching is a $2.3 million federal grant awarded to the University of Central Arkansas in 2011 to teachers for instruction in 10 partnership school districts across the state. The grant provides up to $5,000 in tuition payments for qualified mid-career professionals and recent higher education graduates to become licensed teachers in partnership school districts.
Officials from the partnership school districts, community team leaders, university administrators leaders will share information and updates about their role in the partnership during these special recruitment events. The Meet and Greet events are scheduled for the following times:
4 p.m. Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Harrison High School Library
925 Goblin Drive
Harrison, Ark.
4 p.m. Wednesday, November 20, 2013
North Little Rock School District
2700 Poplar Street
North Little Rock, Ark.
For more information about the Transition to Teaching program or the Master of Arts in Teaching, visit uca.edu/MAT, email transition@uca.edu or call 501-450-5443.
10 Things I Never Knew about Being an Academic Chair: Lessons Learned from Year One in Administration
Written by: Tammy Benson, Ed.D.
Published On: September 28, 2013
Full article can be found at the Magna Publications website.
UCA STEMteach students work with Vilonia 3rd graders
Full article can be found on the Vilonia School District website.
First Edcamp in Arkansas!
The first Edcamp Arkansas was held on the University of Central Arkansas campus on October 5, 2013. Sixty participants attended the all day event and included teachers and administrators from across the state as well as college and university personnel and pre-service and in-service teachers.
The event began at 8:30am with registration and session creation. The first annual rock-paper-scissors championship of Arkansas was held to kick off the event. Participants then attended 16 different sessions across the day and visited the available “TED talk” room. Lunch was provided by the UCA Department of Teaching and Learning. The day ending at 3pm with door prizes provided by the Edcamp Arkansas sponsors including Remind 101; Educlipper; Adam Bellow, author of Untangling the Web; Class Dojo; Dave Burgess, author of Teach like a PIRATE; Flocabulary; Socrative; Livebinders; BrainPop; BoomWriter; Edutopia; Glogster; Vocabulary-Spelling City; Go! Animate!; Voki; Nearpod; Edmodo; the UCA Department of Teaching and Learning; and the UCA College of Education.
Session offerings at the Fall 2013 Edcamp Arkansas included Twitter for Teachers, Technology Organization and Digital Curation, iPads in the Classroom, Technology Integration, Livescribe, Kidblog, National Board Certification, Next Generation Science Standards, PARCC Test Considerations, TESS Teacher Evaluation, Parental Involvement, Renewal and Teacher Joy, Classroom Management, and Teaching to Diverse Learners.
The Edcamp model provides one recent and increasingly popular approach to providing relevant and responsive professional development. An Edcamp is often referred to as an “unconference” in that no pre-set agenda exists. Instead the content and sessions of the Edcamp day relies solely on the participants with common foci being technology, pedagogy, and current issues and trends.
Participants of an Edcamp engage in an ad-hoc community structure as they are called upon to lead or take part in conversations they define. If a participant feels their needs are not being met, they are welcome to join another session on their own initiative. The underpinning philosophy of Edcamp is that the agenda that emerges the day of the camp is the only agenda that could have happened and is therefore the right agenda for those who attended (Boule, 2011).
The first Edcamp was held in May 2010 in Philadelphia, and over 200 Edcamps have been held since that inception. The vision of the Edcamp Foundation is to “promote organic, participant-driven professional development for K-12 educators worldwide” (Edcamp Foundation, 2012).
Edcamps possess certain shared attributes. They are free to all participants. There is no vendor or commercial presence, although Edcamps can seek sponsorship. Edcamps can be hosted by anyone interested in the Edcamp vision and mission. The sessions are determined the day of the event and do not have to take the form of formal presentations. Edcamps are reliant on the “law of two feet” where participants are able to change sessions as they wish. Social media (i.e., blogs, wikis, Twitter, Facebook) can be used to continue the work started the day of the camp (Edcamp Foundation, 2012). Additionally, technology is a presence at the camp in the form of interactive connectivity and presentations (i.e., backchannels, twitter, polling sites, video rooms).
Educators discuss academic vitality as part of UCA’s AVID Week
Full article can be found at the Log Cabin Democrat website.
ANGELA SPENCER STAFF PHOTO Dr. Patty Phelps, director of the Instructional Development Center and professor of teaching and learning in the College of Education, holds up a ribbon she received at a conference that says “I had an aha moment,” illustrating the university’s goal toward academic vitality.
NCTE Arkansas Affiliate Honored with Excellence Award
Arkansas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts Honored with 2013 Affiliate Excellence Award
Urbana, IL — October 4, 2013 — The Arkansas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts has been named one of 8 recipients of the 2013 Affiliate Excellence Award, given by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). The affilite, whose president is Donna Wake of Conway, Arkansas, has won the award for the first time.
The Affiliate Excellence Award was established in 1996 to honor NCTE affiliates that meet high standards of performance for programming and promote improvement in English language arts teaching.
Qualifications for the award represent standards of excellence to which all NCTE affiliates should aspire. Award winners fulfilled at least eight different criteria for excellent affiliate programming during the school year of application. The required criteria include:
- increasing membership in the affiliate or NCTE,
- publishing an affiliate communications instrument at least twice a year,
- conducting at least one professional development program for members,
- completing the annual affiliate report to NCTE by the deadline,
- achieving accomplishments such as implementing and maintaining a cultural diversity plan,
- developing a program to encourage new teachers into the profession,
- participating in an NCTE Affiliate Leadership Meeting, and
- participating in at least three affiliate-sponsored activities at the NCTE Annual Convention.
The award winners will be announced at the 2013 NCTE Annual Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, during the Affiliate Roundtable Breakfast on Sunday, November 24.
Other award winners include Colorado Language Arts Society, Concho Valley Teachers of English (TX), Georgia Council of Teachers of English, Montana Association of Teachers of English Language Arts, Ohio Council of Teachers of English Language Arts, Texas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts, and Virginia Association of Teachers of English.
For more information about the NCTE Affiliate Excellence Award, see http://www.ncte.org/affiliates/awards/excellence.
Contact: Millie Davis, 217-278-3634, mdavis@ncte.org.
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The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), with 35,000 individual and institutional members worldwide, is dedicated to improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education. For more information, please visit http://www.ncte.org.
UCA science, math majors earn teaching licensure in Faulkner County classrooms
Full article can be found at the Log Cabin Democrat website.
“The University of Central Arkansas math and science majors are getting the chance to obtain their teaching licensure while going to Faulkner County schools to conduct hands-on, engaging lessons in the UCA’s STEMteach program.”