Monday, October 31, 2011

SOE Doctoral Student Receives Major Promotion & Scholarship

Christopher Tremblay, a doctoral student in the UM-Dearborn School of Education, was recently promoted to Assistant Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management at the university. In his new role, Tremblay will provide strategic leadership and management to the offices of Admissions and Orientation and Financial Aid and Scholarships in order to meet and maintain the university’s undergraduate enrollment goals. He will work with the deans in the academic units and with other enrollment/student life units to help shape enrollment priorities and strategies that will meet the university's enrollment goals.

Tremblay was also recently selected as the recipient of the Norman K. Russell Scholarship from the National Orientation Directors Association. The scholarship will assist him to defray expenses in pursuit of his doctoral degree.

Please join me in congratulating Christopher Tremblay on these recognitions and in wishing him much success in his future endeavors!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

SOE Students Contribute to Tutoring Program Recognized for Excellence

The Volunteer Tutoring Program that is managed by the Oakwood Center for Exceptional Families was one of five Michigan programs nominated for the 2011 Governor's Service Award in the category of Outstanding Volunteer Program. This category was established to recognize the “extraordinary work volunteers accomplish in communities” and to “acknowledge the importance this support can make in community life.”

UM-Dearborn School of Education students play a key role in the success of this program. Students in EDC 460 (Exceptional Child) routinely volunteer to tutor a child for 10 hours during a semester. Students from other courses (e.g., EDC 241) also frequently volunteer their time as tutors in this program.

Congratulations to our partner, Oakwood Center for Exceptional Families, on being nominated for this prestigious award. Thanks to all the UM-Dearborn students, faculty and staff who have helped to make the program a success worthy of distinction!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

SOE Research Colloquium Features Work with Teachers of English Language Learners

The second session in the School of Education Research Colloquium Series was held on October 19, 2011. Martha Adler (SOE Associate Professor) presented findings from her multi-year project with secondary school teachers in Dearborn Public Schools. In that project, which was supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Adler and her collaborators assisted teachers of secondary school subjects incorporate “sheltered instruction” techniques to assist students with limited proficiency in English. The study design, findings, and implications were presented and discussed with a diverse audience of UM-Dearborn faculty, staff and students.

The next colloquium in this series will be on November 9, 2011 at 4:30-6:00 p.m. in the School of Education conference room (252 FCS). Professors Mary Schleppegrell and Annemarie Palincsar, both from the School of Education at UM in Ann Arbor will report research related to the use of “functional grammar” to assist elementary school teachers in their work with English language learners.

Faculty and students from across the UM-Dearborn campus are invited to attend. Please visit the SOE Research Colloquium page for more information regarding dates, speakers, topics and updates: http://www.soe.umd.umich.edu/soe_research_colloquium.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

SOE Students in the News

Several SOE elementary education students from University of Michigan-Dearborn were featured recently in a news article in the local Dearborn newspaper, Press & Guide.

The story describes a Friends of the Rouge River activity in which Jennifer MacMillan, Wendy McFarlin, and Stephanie Muth conducted a test for dissolved phosphates in the river in early October. Congratulations to these students for their engagement in a project that not only serves the interest of the citizens of Southeast Michigan but also enhances their education as future teachers of science.

To view the story and accompanying video and slideshow, go to: http://www.pressandguide.com/articles/2011/10/11/none/doc4e94762881490220093989.txt

Monday, October 17, 2011

SOE Faculty Featured at Fall Professional Meetings

The work of University of Michigan-Dearborn School of Education faculty is well represented at professional meetings this fall, locally, nationally, and internationally. Here is a summary of conference presentations this fall:

Martha Adler, associate professor, presented a paper at the Michigan Department of Education Special Populations Conference in September about an accelerated summer program for English Language Learners; her co-presenter was Maura Sedgeman (Resource Teacher Leader, ELL and Compensatory Education, Dearborn Public Schools).

Mesut Duran, associate professor, is co-author of a paper with Serkan Sendag (assistant professor of education, Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Burdur, Turkey) comparing preservice teachers` perceptions of online problem-based learning and online instructor-led learning; the paper will be presented in Istanbul, Turkey, in October at the 2nd World Conference on Learning, Teaching and Administration.

Susan Everett, associate professor, is presenting at the 2011 Detroit Area Science and Math Conference (DACTM-MDSTA) in November; her talk will focus on incorporating children's literature into Earth and Environmental Science.

Kristen Dara Hill, assistant professor, is presenting one paper at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Conference in Chicago in November and two other papers at the Literacy Research Association (LRA) Annual Conference in Jacksonville, Florida in early December; her papers all pertain to her research on improving reading proficiency among youth in high poverty, urban schools.

Seong Hong, associate professor, is presenting a paper on strategies for on-going reflection and documentation-driven decision making for curriculum planning at the Association for Constructivist Teaching Conference in Houston, Texas in October.

LaShorage Shaffer, instructor, presented at the Wayne County (Michigan) Head Start Training Conference in Westland in September on the topic of using positive behavior support to address the needs of children with persistent challenging behavior.

Edward Silver, dean and professor, is presenting at two National Council of Teachers of Mathematics regional conferences – one in St. Louis, Missouri, in October and the other in Albuquerque, New Mexico in November – on the work of an NSF-funded project that uses findings and tasks from the PISA international assessment of mathematics as resources for teacher professional development.

Mary Trepanier-Street, professor, presented at the Michigan Tri-county Head Start Training Conference in Paw Paw in October on the topic of appropriate learning activities for infants and toddlers; she is also presenting a keynote talk at the Wayne County (Michigan) Head Start Training Conference in Dearborn in early November on the topic of developing friendships in typically and atypically developing children.

We appreciate the efforts of these faculty to represent the SOE in this way.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

SOCC Featured in New Video

The Save Our Children Coalition (SOCC), a unit housed within and supported by the UM-Dearborn School of Education, is featured in a video produced by Detroit Public Television and the Michigan Department of Human Services. The video, which highlights SOCC and the Faith Communities Coalition on Foster Care, emphasizes the need to assist youth in foster care and raises awareness of some of the opportunities and resources available to foster families in Southeastern Michigan. The video, which will be widely distributed to child welfare agencies and faith communities, includes commentary from Katie Page Sander, director of SOCC. You may view the video at http://www.youtube.com/user/saveourchildren1.

Monday, October 3, 2011

SOE Holds Inaugural Research Colloquium

The inaugural session in the School of Education Research Colloquium Series was held on September 28, 2011. Mesut Duran (SOE Associate Professor) and Robert Fraser (Associate Director for Academic Resources, Mardigian Library) presented findings from their study of online academic dishonesty (e-dishonesty) related practices among UM-Dearborn students. The study design, findings, and implications were presented and discussed with a diverse audience of UM-Dearborn faculty, staff and students.

The next colloquium in this series will be on October 19, 2011 at 4:30-6:00 p.m. in the School of Education conference room (252 FCS). SOE Associate Professor Martha Adler will report research related to the use of “sheltered instruction” with English language learners. Faculty and students from across the UM-Dearborn campus are invited to attend.

Please visit the SOE Research Colloquium page for more information regarding dates, speakers, topics and updates: http://www.soe.umd.umich.edu/soe_research_colloquium.