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Events and Activities


Thursday, March 11th Seminar Event:
“Getting Jobs in the Age of Accountability-Finding a Position in this Recession”

The CCNY Educational Alumni group invites alumni, teachers and School of Education students to a very special event that will include: panel discussions with educational leaders, answers to frequently asked questions about obtaining positions, practice interviewing in small interactive groups simulating hiring halls, helpful employment and resource materials and light refreshments. Thursday, March 11, 4:30 - 7:00 p.m. in the Faculty Dining Room, 3rd floor of the North Academic Center, Convent Ave and 138th Street. In Sponsorship with the CCNY Educational Leadership Program, this no-cost event is a MUST for entry level or advanced educational job opportunities. For further information or questions please contact jsncc@juno.com. To assure a place in this event we suggest you pre-register at
http://www1.ccny.cuny.edu/prospective/education/form_march2010_alumni_signup.cfm.


Saturday, March 13th Conference:
“In Defense of Childhood: Play and Active Learning in Urban Schools”

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. Admission is free. For more information and to register, click on (Read More).


Technology Workshops in March/April

Dr. Sheila Gersh

Dr. Sheila Gersh will offer the three separate technology integration workshops described below (on a space available basis) at no cost. Each workshop is from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm. Please contact sgersh@ccny.cuny.edu for room information and to register. Workshops are designed for School of Education students, faculty, staff, alumni and teachers in collaborating schools.

 

Wednesday, March 10th Using Google Tools to Enhance Instruction
Learn to use a variety of Google tools (Sites, Search, FastFlip, Maps, Earth and Mail) to enhance your teaching of science and other subjects. Create a basic web site that redesigns one or more lessons using Google tools.

Wednesday, April 14th Preparing Instruction for and Using the SmartBoard
Engage your students by using the SmartBoard. Bring online resources into your classroom and learn to create lessons and activities based upon SmartBoard’s NoteBook 10 software.

Tuesday, April 27th Engage your Students with Digital Stories
Use computer based multimedia tools to tell powerful stories or highlight important instructional ideas. Plan, storyboard and prepare a digital story based on a personal experience or a poem. Plan and produce a digital story introducing a science unit.  Find images on the Web and publish your digital stories using PowerPoint, MovieMaker and/or PhotoStory.


Monday, March 8th: Publishing Workshop for SOE Faculty

Share your research interests or book proposals with editors from prominent educational publishers on March 8th in NA 4/220B, from 12:30p.m. to 2:30p.m. Lunch will be served at this professional development event. Editors from Palgrave Macmillan, Peter Lang Publishing, Routledge, and Teachers College Press will introduce you to their series in education and meet with you individually after the large forum. Topics of discussion will include but are not limited to (a) aligning faculty research interests with the types of books published by each publishing agency and (b) understanding the selection process for well received/accepted book proposals. If you are interested in submitting a book proposal at the event, please review publishers’ websites and author guidelines to facilitate the writing of book proposals.


Wednesday, April 7th Book Talk with Professor Tatyana Kleyn

Prof. Tatyana Kleyn
Professor Tatyana Kleyn

 

Professor Tatyana Kleyn will hold a talk on her newly released co-authored book, Teaching in Two Languages: A Guide for K-12 Bilingual Educators, on Wednesday April 7 from 5-7pm in NAC 4/220B. The event, which will be followed by a reception, will feature an overview of the book, practical advice for teachers and teacher educators, and a Q&A session about the book topics and the state of bilingual education. All invited.


Tuesday, April 14th The Doyle and Alma Bortner Distinguished Speaker Series in Urban Education: Professor Amy Stuart Wells.

Professor Amy Stuart Wells

The first speaker in this series is Professor Amy Stuart Wells, professor of Sociology and Education at Teachers College-Columbia University. Professor Wells presentation is entitled: "Metro Migrations, Racial Segregation, and School Boundary Lines: How Separate and Unequal Educational Opportunities Defy Efforts to 'Lift All Boats' via the Standards and Accountability Movement" . Her research and writing has focused broadly on issues of race and education and more specifically on educational policies, such as school desegregation, school choice, charter schools, and tracking, and how they shape and constrain opportunities for students of color. She is the recipient of several honors and awards, including a 2001-02 Fellowship from the Carnegie Corporation's Scholars Program; the 2000 Julius & Rosa Sachs Lecturer, Teachers College-Columbia University; and the 2000 AERA Early Career Award for Programmatic Research. The event will be held in the Faculty Dining Room, 3rd floor of the North Academic Center from 5:00-6:15 with reception to follow immediately after. All are invited


For Other Events At CCNY See: http://www1.ccny.cuny.edu/current/events/index.cfm

For Directions to the Campus See: http://www1.ccny.cuny.edu/prospective/about/directions.cfm


News and Notes


Faculty Profile: Meet Nancy Stern

Prof. Nancy Stern
Professor Nancy Stern

Professor Nancy Stern is the new chair of the Department of Childhood Education, which includes programs in Bilingual Education, Early Childhood Education, Childhood Education, Literacy, Theatre Education, and TESOL. Prior to her election as Chair, Professor Stern served as the program director for Bilingual Education and TESOL and before joining the School of Education in 2003, her experience included teaching ESL to adults, as well as teaching adults to use computers. Faculty and staff are often amused by how frequently she observes that she loves working at CCNY, and how much she appreciates the students and her colleagues here. “Students at CCNY bring energy, curiosity, diversity, a wealth of personal experiences and a wide range of talents to the School of Education, and I feel privileged to have the opportunity to work with them.” She is also impressed with her colleagues' level of commitment, thoughtfulness and enthusiasm for their students.

As an undergraduate, Professor Stern majored in sociology, and minored in history and French. Her love of language began in high school where she studied Spanish and has since studied Arabic, Russian, and Portuguese. As someone readily able to pick up other languages it seemed only natural that Professor Stern would be drawn to the field of linguistics. She earned her Ph.D. in linguistics at the CUNY Graduate Center and teaches courses in linguistics at CCNY. Her research interests center on understanding the meaningful nature of grammar, educational linguistics, and bilingualism. Her most recent article is about Spanish in the U.S. (what some people call "Spanglish"), and she is currently working on a study of effective teacher education practices.

As a linguist, she helps students connect knowledge about language to teaching, learning, and schools. But she believes that teaching about language is not like teaching about most other subjects, because students come to class as experts (they already know at least one language), and, as we all do, they have deeply-held opinions about language. “While we all use language every day, most of us look through language, rather than at it." In my classes, I encourage students to look carefully at the language that is all around them -- their own and the language of their students -- and to begin to think critically and analytically about people's use of language, and the role of language in society's power structure."

To learn more about Professor Stern, see her online profile at http://condor.admin.ccny.cuny.edu/~nstern/profile.html . To see the set of online resources she developed for students and faculty in the Bilingual and TESOL programs see http://www1.ccny.cuny.edu/prospective/education/bilingual/resources.cfm. For more information about the programs in Bilingual Education and TESOL go to http://www1.ccny.cuny.edu/prospective/education/bilingual/bilingualprogram_graduate_new.cfm She is currently developing a departmental website to help faculty and students find information about College policies and procedures.


Publications and Grants

Professor Beverly Falk, Early Childhood Education

Professor Beverly Falk
Professor Beverly Falk
Book image

Professor Beverly Falk’s most recent book, Teaching the Way Children Learn (Teachers College Press) received acclaim from a number of people including Deborah Meier who said “There's never been a more timely book, one that brings to life what it is that we need and want for all our children, written by someone who has proven it can be done,” and from Teacher Librarian (a journal for school library professionals) that has chosen Teaching the Way Children Learn as the best book of the year for teachers.

In addition to her book, which came out last year, Professor Falk has edited four issues of the New Educator, written a book chapter, co-authored a journal article with Linda Darling-Hammond (Documentation and Democratic Education), is convening our March 13th Conference In Defense of Childhood: Play and Active Learning in Urban Schools (see above), and has spoken at a number of professional conferences. She also serves as a trustee of the newly-created Bronx Community Charter School and as a consultant/advisor to PS 36, District 5, NYC. She is the founding member of the New York City Early Learning Consortium, a consortium of educational, advocacy, and community organizations focused on preparing educators of young children to teach the way children learn.

Professor Yael Wyner, Secondary Science

Prof. Joseph Davis
Professor Yael Wyner

Professor Yael Wyner recently received a major grant ($997,511) entitled “Ecology Disrupted “ from the National Science Foundation and will serve as the Lead PrincipaI Investigator in collaboration with the American Museum of Natural History, the National Center for Science Literacy, Education and Technology, and Virginia Commonwealth University. The goal of this project is to use published scientific research to link daily life and environmental issues to ecological issues in secondary science classrooms. The group incorporating media and technology produced by the American Museum of Natural History into our resources. Professor Wyner is also analyzing high school environmental science textbooks for the level of integration of ecological principles, environmental issues, and daily life as part of PSC-CUNY grant. Finally, through a Faculty Fellowship Publication Program she is writing an environmental science primer for high school classrooms that uses published scientific research on environmental issues to link everyday human activities to ecological processes.

Professor Maria Castiglione

Prof. Maria Castiglione
Professor Maria Castiglioni

 

Professor Maria Castiglioni received a PCS-CUNY grant to investigate the effectiveness of several phonemic awareness training procedures in minority language kindergarten students. The results of this study might help identify alternative methods of teaching phonemic awareness to struggling novice readers. The study will take place in schools located near The College.


Communications from Abroad

Professor Amita Gupta
Professor Amita Gupta

Professor Amita Gupta, who received a Fulbright Research grant from the South and Central Asia Regional Research Program, traveled through India this fall and will be traveling to Sri Lanka and the Maldives. She is there to study early childhood education and teacher education policies and practices. She invites readers to follow her travels on her personal and beautifully written blog site and to post their comments or questions on her site http://amitagupta.posterous.com/?page=2.

Professor Catherine Franklin
Professor Catherine Franklin

Professor Catherine Franklin received a Fulbright Lecturer Award to travel and teach in the Republic of Slovakia. Her focus is on civic education as it is taught in emerging democracies. She describes her delight and enthusiasm at a recent conference in Bratislava, Slovakia at http://condor.admin.ccny.cuny.edu/~connect/march2010/Connected-March2010-CFranklin.html.)


Help us Identify Excellent SOE Professors

Established last year through a gift to the School of Education from retired Professor Alfred Weiss and his wife Miriam, the Weiss Award for Excellence in Teaching seeks to recognize excellent teaching by School of Education professors. This year the award will be based both on nominations and by the end-of- term Teaching and Learning Surveys routinely collected. Your participation in helping us select this year’s award recipient is important to us. Your nominations will be kept confidential. To nominate School of Education professors that you feel were excellent, please take a few minutes to take our online survey at SurveyMonkey. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2YDNC6F .


February’s Web Sites of Interest

  1. www.archive.org Its stated purpose includes offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format. Explore the Internet Archive’s texts, audio, moving images and software as well as archived web pages.
  2. www.nasa.gov Wonderful resources and activities for educators and students. Explore especially the teacher resources at http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/index.html
  3. www.youtube.com Need to fix a leaky faucet or to insert a Google calendar on your website, or most anything else? Go to YouTube and get video help. Upload your own videos as well.
    See also www.teachertube.com to use other teachers’ videos or to upload your own.

Nominate CCNY Alumni Who are Outstanding Teachers and Administrators

The Education Alumni Affiliate Group of the Alumni Association of the City College of New York is proud of the alumni of the School of Education at CCNY who have made outstanding contributions in the field of education whether in the classroom, or as school and district leaders or in other key policy and related fields committed to improving education and educational opportunities for our city’s and nation’s students.

We ask you to join us in supporting our Awards Program for 2010 by nominating worthy recipients. Please help us identify and honor CCNY graduates who have excelled in or made important contributions to the field of education. It could even be you! Each award recipient will be invited to the CCNY Annual Education Alumni Luncheon that will be held at the National Arts Club on Saturday, May 1, 2010, receive a plaque and other tokens of appreciation. This year, we are looking to honor an Outstanding Teacher and an Outstanding Administrator for each of the following levels: Pre-K through 6, Middle School and High School. For all categories of awards, the recipient must be a graduate of The City College of New York.

Applications and supporting materials must be submitted no later than MARCH 26, 2010. Mail to: Dr. Bruce M. Billig, Director of Field Experiences, The City College of New York School of Education, 138th Street & Convent Avenue, NAC 6/207A, New York, N.Y. 10031. E-mail Dr. Billig (bbillig@ccny.cuny.edu) if you have any questions. For a printable copy of the application click on http://csauth.ccny.cuny.edu/prospective/education/news/news_alumni_award_sp2010.cfm


Accepting Applications for Fall 2010

The CCNY Graduate School of Education is currently accepting applications for the fall 2010 admissions period.

Application Program Deadlines:

  • Early Childhood Education - April 15th
  • Childhood Education - March 15th
  • Bilingual/TESOL/Bil Special Ed - March 15th
  • Science Education - April 15th
  • Social Studies Education - April 15th
  • Art Education - April 15th
  • Mathematics Education - March 15th
  • Educational Theatre - March 15th
  • English Education - April 15th
  • Special Education - April 15th
  • Educational Leadership - April 15th
  • Literacy - April 15th

For information on programs and requirements, we invite you to visit http://www2.ccny.cuny.edu/prospective/education/newprograms.cfm or e-mail your questions to edgradadm@ccny.cuny.edu.


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.

March’s Question: Do you think there is an overemphasis on assessment in our school system to the detriment of real learning? Please share your experiences and ideas.

TO RESPOND, CLICK http://teachersquestions.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/february%E2%80%99s-question/


Send your comments on CONNECTED to connected@ccny.cuny.edu

Calendar of Events at City College | CCNY School of Education