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Click here to see "Questions and Answers from the Field", our blog allowing readers to share their ideas and suggestions about using student achievement data to assess teachers. |
Events and Activities
Workshop on Strategies for Using Media in the Classroom
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Nicole Kempskie (left) and students |
Professor Jennifer Strycharz announces that the Educational Theatre program is offering a new and exciting workshop to all undergraduate and graduate students in any School of Education program as well as to alumni. This free workshop will give teachers added confidence to navigate media and technology in the classroom in a way that encourages active listening, critical thinking and verbal and creative expression in their students. In this workshop, we will take age-specific film and/or television programming and unpack how to use it to enrich curriculum. The presenter will be Nicole Kempskie. The workshop will be held on Saturday, December 5, 2009 from 12:30 – 3:00PM in room NAC 3/222. Please register by sending an email to educationaltheatre@ccny.cuny.edu no later than Friday, December 4, 2009. (Read More)
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Technology Workshops in December
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Dr. Sheila Gersh |
Dr. Sheila Gersh will offer the following free workshops in December: “Using PowerPoint in your Classroom” on Wednesday, December 16th and “Creating a ScienceQuest Web Site to Enhance Student Engagement in Science”; on Tuesday, December 22nd. These technology integration workshops are offered (on a space available basis) to SOE students, faculty, alumni and teachers in collaborating schools. Each workshop is from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm. Please contact sgersh@ccny.cuny.edu for room information and to register. (Read More)
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SAVE THE DATE: THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2010
The Education Alumni will sponsor a conference for students, alumni, faculty and others entitled "Getting Jobs in the Age of Accountability." More information will be forthcoming in the February issue of CONNECTED.
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SAVE THE DATE: SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 2010
A major conference, in honor of the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and in memory of the late Professor Emeritus Lillian Weber, entitled “In Defense of Childhood: Play and Active Learning in Urban Schools” will be hosted by the Graduate Program in Early Childhood and the Psychology Department at City College. The conference will address growing concerns in the research and educational communities about drastic reductions in opportunities for active learning and play in children’s lives – both inside and outside of school – that jeopardize their development. Research about the importance of play and active learning will be presented as well as strategies for how educators can teach in ways that children learn. (Read More)
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News and Notes
Professor Hope Hartman has Chapter in “The New Science of Learning”
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Prof. Hope Hartman |
Professor Hope Hartman has a chapter entitled "Windows into Teaching and Learning through Social Annotation Practices" in a forthcoming edited collection "The New Science of Learning". Her chapter on social annotation discusses how by using innovative social annotation software like HyLighter, one can connect participants with each other as a virtual learning community. The chapter includes how pre and inservice teacher education students use social annotation for discussing course readings, developing lesson plans, and creating concept maps and how these activities promote metacognition in teaching and learning. The link to this impressive collection is http:/www.springer.com/978-1-4419-5715-3
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Professor Amita Gupta is a Panelist in New Delhi
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Prof. Amita Gupta |
Professor Amita Gupta, Department of Childhood Education and Fulbright Senior Research Scholar, participated in a panel discussion entitled “Preparing the Early Childhood Professional for 21st Century India” on November 19 in New Delhi. Early childhood development has captured the attention of policymakers as an investment for the future in both India and the US. Discussions included how economic, political and social systems perceive and view Early Childhood care and education. The distinguished and diverse panel included: a member of the National Council of Educational Research and Training, the founder of Katha, an NGO that provides schooling and teacher training for underprivileged children living in slums, the Executive Director of Sesame Workshop India and the Financial Advisor for the Parliament Secretariat.
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Latest Issue of The New Educator is Online
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The New Educator Journal |
Professor Beverly Falk announces that Volume 5(4) of The New Educator journal, a publication of CCNY’s School of Education, is dedicated to the memory of Theodore Sizer, one of the founding members of The New Educator’s Advisory Board. Over his long, distinguished, and passionate career, Ted was a classroom teacher, a faculty member and Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, headmaster of Phillips Academy Andover, chair of Brown University’s education department, and founder of the Coalition of Essential Schools, the Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School in Massachusetts, and the Forum on Education and Democracy. He was also the author of numerous books that inspired hundreds of thousands of educators to envision new possibilities as well as re-imagine, change, and create new schools.
Perhaps it is fitting that this issue honoring Ted’s memory features articles about the challenges of the first years of teaching (see as an example “Coming Into My Own as a Teacher: Identity, Disequilibrium, and the First Year of Teaching” by Jennifer S. Cook, which highlights some of the commonalities in first year teachers’ experience (such as former teachers’ influences on their teacher personae, the struggle to develop an authoritative role in the classroom, learning how and why to set boundaries with students, and the quest to develop resilience and resolve in the face of multiple challenges). Bookmark this Web address to read articles in The New Educator on a regular basis www.ccny.cuny.edu/neweducator.
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$2.56 Million NSF Grant To Professors James Neujahr and Gary Benenson
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Prof. James Neujahr |
Professors Gary Benenson (Mechanical Engineering) and Jim Neujahr (Childhood Education) were awarded $2.56 million over five years from the National Science Foundation’s Discovery Research K - 12 program to conduct simultaneous research, curriculum development and professional development to come up with new methodologies based on design technology for teaching physical science in urban and other disadvantaged settings. They are in the third year of the project. The program, entitled “Physical Science Comes Alive: Exploring Things That Go,” has produced four curriculum units, Force & Motion: MechaBlocks (K-1), MechAnimations (2-3) ArithMachines (4-5) and Pop-ups (4-5), currently being pilot tested and soon to be field tested around the country. Units on Energy Transformation for the K-1, 2-3 and 4-5 grade bands are currently under development. These units will focus on the design and testing of toys that invoke principles of mechanics and electricity to achieve successful outcomes.
The curriculum development process is guided by a significant research component conducted by Dr. Richard Lehrer, an expert on cognitive research related to data analysis and modeling at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Lehrer and his colleagues are investigating children’s strategies for meeting design challenges, their engagement levels and forms or participation and their learning of scientific concepts. Pilot test versions of the Force and Motion curricula are available at www.citytechnology.org, as are on-line support materials for teaching the ArithMachines and Pop-ups units. For more information on the CCNY project: Prof. Jim Neujahr 212-650-6269; jneujahr@ccny.cuny.edu, Prof. Gary Benenson 212-650-5211; gbenenson@ccny.cuny.edu
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December Web Sites of Interest
- Wordle. Best described as making art from words, this site allows you and your students to enter a set of words (words related to a new topic, vocabulary words for the week, Presidents of the U.S.) and instantaneously make a graphic using the words. Students love it and it hopefully leads to better retention of the words. Go to www.wordle.net/create and play.
- Educational Resources Online. This is our own Dr. Sheila Gersh’s educational portal for teachers to use when teaching with the Internet. It is the second site that comes up on Google when searching for "Teaching with the Internet". On a single large page you will find many useful educational resources at your fingertips. Go to www.schoollink.org/twin.
- Google for Educators. What more can you say about the vast number of resources that Google has created, nearly all of which are free. Free, safe g-mail and free web sites at Google Sites, plus Google Maps, Google Earth and more. Go to www.google.com/educators.
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Winter Session Registration
Winter session information is now available at http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/
Registration is scheduled to begin on December 1, 2009.
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Participate in Our Blog: Questions and Answers from the Field
City College of New York School of Education students, faculty, alumni, educators in collaborating schools and friends of the School of Education are invited to ask and/or answer questions about classroom teaching. Send your questions to Dr. Bruce Billig, (bbillig@ccny.cuny.edu), Director of Field Experiences, who will moderate the discussions.
DECEMBER’S QUESTION: How do you feel about the use of student achievement data on standardized tests as a factor in assessing teachers for tenure or salary increase?
TO RESPOND, CLICK ON http://teachersquestions.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/december%E2%80%99s-question/
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Best wishes for a healthy and happy holiday season!
Doris Cintron, Acting Dean
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The CONNECTED Community Committee: Bruce Billig, Doris Grasserbauer, Leonard Lewis, Stacia Pusey, Norman Shapiro, and Gareth Williams
Send comments and suggestions to SOE@ccny.cuny.edu
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Calendar of Events at City College
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Layout and Design by Kurt Brown
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