Thursday, March 24, 2011

SOE Faculty Member Named Child Advocate of the Year

Mary Trepanier Street, Professor of Education and Director of the Early Childhood Education Center in the School of Education at University of Michigan-Dearborn has been selected to receive the Child’s Hope Child Advocate of the Year award for 2011. Child's Hope is a non-profit agency whose mission is to prevent child abuse and neglect in Wayne County.

The Child Advocate of the Year award is presented annually to an individual in Wayne County who exemplifies dedication to the safety and well-being of children in general, especially in our community; has made significant contributions to the prevention of child abuse and neglect; demonstrates community involvement for the betterment of the lives of children and families; and takes action to help break the cycle of child abuse and neglect, either by volunteering, mentoring, working on public policy, fundraising or providing direct service.

Mary’s nominators noted her significant contributions as a scholar and an activist on behalf of children, and her tremendous positive impact on children locally through her leadership of the ECEC and the early childhood educator training programs at UM-Dearborn. As one of her nominators noted, through her words and actions over her career, Mary Trepanier-Street has been “the quintessential child advocate, and she is thus a paradigm case for this prestigious award.”

Please join me in congratulating Mary on being selected for this very special honor.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

FI3T Project Showcases Accomplishments of DPS Students

The Fostering Interest in Information Technology (FI3T) Project, directed by UM-Dearborn SOE Associate Professor Mesut Duran is hosting a project showcase on Saturday, March 26th from 10:00am-1:00pm at the University of Michigan Detroit Center. The showcase will include project presentations by Detroit Public Schools high school students who have been participating in the FI3T program for the past two years. Some of these students recently participated in the 54th Annual Science and Engineering Fair of Metro Detroit 2010-2011, and several projects won prestigious awards:
  • Adarees Black- Science: blue (Outstanding award)
  • Pearl Gray - Mathematics: 3rd place in her category (Mathematics); US Metric Association Award; selected as Student Observer for Intel ISEF in Los Angeles in May.
  • Lawrence Harris, Chelsea Reed and Chanel Wilkerson - Engineering: blue (Outstanding award)
  • Jasmine Ross - Mathematics: green (Excellent award)
These and other projects will be on display at the FI3T showcase on Saturday. About 60 people re expected to attend the showcase including FI3T project faculty and staff from UM-Dearborn, participating high school students from Detroit Public Schools, their teachers, school administrators, and parents.

FI3T is funded by the National Science Foundation’s ITEST program and involves several UM-Dearborn faculty members and students from SOE, CASL, and CECS. The intent of the project is to increase the opportunities for underrepresented and underserved high-school students, particularly those from urban communities in Southeastern Michigan, to learn about and gain experience using information technologies (IT) within the context of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), with an eye toward helping them explore 21st century career and educational pathways.

Anyone wishing to attend the showcase to celebrate the accomplishments of the students should contact the FI3T project office via telephone <313-436-9151> or email at fit_project@umd.umich.edu.

SOE Students Recognized as Honor Scholar Award Winners

At the 28th annual Honor Scholars and Faculty Awards Ceremony on March 23, 2011, 12 SOE students were among 90 students from across the full spectrum of academic programs at UM-Dearborn who received recognition as Honor Scholars.

The Honor Scholar Award is presented to at most one student in each degree program, and it recognizes superior academic performance. Awards are made within both undergraduate and graduate programs. Faculty within a program area choose the award winner.

The 2010 Honor Scholar Award winners in the School of Education at the undergraduate level were Carol Allie (Science Studies), Jessica Boroniec (Social Studies), Ariel Lossing (Mathematics Studies), Marilyn Miller (Children & Families), Jessica Richardson (Special Education), Amy Szymaszek (Early Childhood), and Leah Walkuski (Language Arts). At the graduate level, the SOE awardees were Jeffrey Bouwman (MA Educational Leadership), Rima Hassan (MA in Education), Alexandria Oleksienko (MS Science Education), Meredith Resnick (M.Ed. Special Education), and Natalie Sikora (MAT)

Please join me in congratulating all of the SOE award winners. We celebrate their academic excellence!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

SOE Faculty Featured on UM-Dearborn Faculty Enrichment Day Program

The University of Michigan-Dearborn Faculty Enrichment Day is an annual event intended to support faculty and lecturers improve their instruction, with special attention to technology-enhanced, instructional environments. The program includes presentations and workshops by UM-Dearborn faculty and outside experts on the design, development, and implementation of online and hybrid courses. Two faculty members from the School of Education – Assistant Professor Stein Brunvand and Professor Belinda Lazarus – are featured speakers on the program. Brunvand is co-presenting in his session with Chris Casey, an SOE staff member, and CASL faculty member Camron Amin, on the topic of Best Practices in and Technologies for Video Lectures. Lazarus will speak on the topic of Making Accommodations for Students with Disabilities. Information about the program for this event on April 1, 2011 and an opportunity to register can be found at http://www.casl.umd.umich.edu/fed_registration.

UM-Dearborn Faculty to Present Papers at AERA Annual Meeting in April

The annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) is the major national forum for showcasing cutting edge research in the field of education. This year’s meeting will be held in New Orleans from April 8-12. Based on critical peer review of proposals, several UM-Dearborn faculty members from the School of Education have been granted slots on the program to present their work. Assistant Professor Laura Reynolds-Keefer will present a research paper on the use of blogs as a technological support to facilitate college student learning; she will also chair two other sessions on the program. Associate Professor Martha Adler will present a research paper on providing literacy supports to teachers in high-poverty, urban schools; she will also chair several other sessions on the program. Professor Edward Silver is co-author with Professor Valerie Lee (UM-Ann Arbor) and UM doctoral student Joe Waddington of a paper that reports a multilevel analysis of data drawn from the PISA international assessment to examine the organizational features of secondary schools in the United States and Canada that influence their students’ mathematics achievement and its (in)equitable distribution. In addition, several UM-Dearborn doctoral students will be attending an AERA research training session prior to the conference.

The American Educational Research Association (AERA), founded in 1916, is concerned with improving the educational process by encouraging scholarly inquiry related to education and evaluation and by promoting the dissemination and practical application of research results. AERA is the most prominent international professional organization with the primary goal of advancing educational research and its practical application. The membership of AERA, numbering more than 25,000 professionals, includes educators, administrators, research directors, testing and evaluation specialists, graduate students, and behavioral scientists. The broad range of disciplines represented by the membership includes education, psychology, statistics, sociology, history, economics, philosophy, anthropology, and political science.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

SOE Contributes to Global Exchange on Educational Issues

The School of Education at University of Michigan-Dearborn is participating in myriad ways in efforts to improve knowledge and practice in education around the world. We do so through academic programs of interest to international students, faculty and student participation in international conferences and publications, and hosting visiting scholars and practitioners from other countries.

The online Master of Education in Special Education Inclusion Specialist program has served students from many countries, including Canada, Colombia, England, India, Indonesia, Japan, Lebanon, Norway, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Turkey, and Venezuela.

Several SOE faculty members – Mesut Duran, Susan Everett, Paul Fossum, Ed Silver, and Karen Thomas-Brown – have recently published articles or book chapters in international publications. Martha Adler presented several papers at the International Reading Association 23rd World Congress in Auckland, New Zealand in July 2010; and Dara Hill is presenting a paper at the European Conference on Reading in Belgium in July 2011.

In addition the SOE has recently hosted visits from two visiting international scholars. Dr. Ali Yilmaz is Professor in the College of Education at Ondokuz Mayis University in Samsun, Turkey. He is spending the winter 2011 term at UM-Dearborn, and he is collaborating with Mesut Duran and colleagues on the FI3T project. Dr. Beverly Derewianka is Professor of Language Education and Director of the Centre for Research in Language & Literacy in the Faculty of Education at the University of Wollongon, New South Wales, Australia. She is internationally known for her research on children's writing development, particularly from the perspective of how they "learn to mean" through writing. On March 15, 2011 she presented a colloquium to the UM-D SOE, “Reading and writing for a purpose.” Her visit to UM-Dearborn was coordinated by Martha Adler and Ross Groover, an SOE doctoral student and principal of Snow Elementary School in Dearborn.

Stay tuned for further developments in our efforts to expand the global reach of the UM-Dearborn School of Education!

Monday, March 7, 2011

UM-D Signs Articulation Agreement with HFCC for Children & Families Program

A new articulation agreement between University of Michigan-Dearborn and Henry Ford Community College (HFCC) will allow HFCC students who earn an associate’s degree in Children and Families to transfer up to 62 credits toward a Bachelor’s of General Studies in Children and Families degree from UM-Dearborn’s School of Education. The children and families program is a four-year degree early childhood program designed for students who wish to pursue careers in childcare centers and Head Start centers, as teachers or administrators or in other sites or agencies working with children and their families. A minimum of 128 semester credits is needed for the degree. For more information from the curriculum guide visit http://www.umd.umich.edu/transferhfcc/.

This new agreement reinforces the strong relationships that exists between UM-Dearborn and Henry Ford Community College, and it provides HFCC students with an interest in working with children and families the opportunity to continue their education while pursuing a UM-Dearborn degree. At the signing ceremony HFCC President Gail Mee said, "We are very pleased to once again collaborate with the University of Michigan-Dearborn on an articulation agreement for our students who are interested in children and family studies." She noted that agreements like this "assure students a seamless transition to complete their bachelor's degrees and assure employers that students have successfully met the rigorous program standards of both Henry Ford Community College and the University of Michigan-Dearborn.”

See related story at
http://www.umd.umich.edu/fullstory/articl/UM_Dearborn_HFCC_sign_articulation_agreement/