Feature Article

Last spring, you might recall that the feature article section ran articles written by members of the Dean's Leaderhsip Team, updating faculty and staff on each area represented on the team. This academic year, the section will feature articles from program coordinators giving an overview and update on each program area at Curry.

Teacher Education Program
By Sandi Cohen

The school year starts early for the Teacher Education Program as all Teaching Associates (student teachers) begin the term working in their placements more than a week before the university officially starts its fall semester. This early return allows student teachers to experience the teacher pre-school work week and to work with their clinical instructors to set up the class program, plan the curriculum, establish routines, and arrange the physical space. Fall student teaching at Curry sets our students apart from other teacher education programs in their understanding of how classrooms and schools work, giving them an advantage when they enter their own classrooms. We are off to another fast start, and all of us in teacher education are excited about the challenges and possibilities that each Teaching Associate semester brings!

New this year in the teacher education five-year BAMT program is that we are limiting application to the program to those in the spring semester of their second-year. What was the introductory class, Teaching as a Profession (EDIS 2010), is now a prerequisite to the application process. In conjunction with the EDIS 2010 class, the initial field experience (EDIS 2880) has been redesigned to introduce components of effective teaching using the CLASS protocol as an organizing framework for the study of classroom instructional interactions. This early introduction to clinical practice will also be part of the prerequisite experiences expected of all applicants.

The TED faculty ended last year with some initial program review work that resulted in the changes mentioned above. There are plans to continue this discussion across the coming year with a focus on curriculum, course sequencing, and clinical experiences. One example of the “goings-on” is the creation of a pilot program for distance supervision based on the My Teaching Partner model. There are many other initiatives for TED this year. One of these involves partnering with other programs across the university such as the Semester-at-Sea in which TED students will be working with students on the ship to develop lessons on sustainable global initiatives for distribution to local schools. We also are looking forward to developing opportunities to follow our graduates and to create on-going relationships supporting their professional development as instructional leaders and mentors of those who follow them in the program.

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, September 9 @ 12noon: Brown Bag Lunch Series--Diversity. Please join us for a presentation by SEEDS4Change and discussion about diversity in teaching. We'll meet in Ruffner 200. Don't forget to bring your lunch.

Wednesday, September 9 @ 7 pm: SEEDS4Change Book Club, Cville Coffee at 1301 Harris Street. Drawing for five free books! SEEDS4Change Book Club invites you to take time for a relaxed conversation on a non-scholarly work- just for fun- but centered on diversity. Our first book will be Farwell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. This book looks at one family’s struggle during the Japanese American internment during WWII and the years following the war. There will be a drawing for five free books and questions will be provided to consider while reading. The club will meet once a month to discuss sections of the book. Come join the fun!

Thursday, September 10 @ 12noon: Tea & Technology in the CLIC. The second Tea and Technology talk will focus on the process of supporting faculty and students who are integrating collaborative learning technologies in their work. Ann Thompson, Director of the Center for Technology in Teaching and Learning (www.ctlt.iastate.edu) at Iowa State University will meet with us via videoconference to discuss a technology mentoring program established at Iowa State University two decades ago. We hope to establish a similar technology mentoring program in the Curry School to support pilot technology projects. A link to a final chapter (“Lessons Learned”) in Ann’s book, “Faculty Mentoring: The Power of Students in Developing Technology Expertise,” is available here: http://people.virginia.edu/~dat8a/mentoring/
The link also includes a podcast of Ann discussing some of the lessons that they have learned about in two decades of technology integration in a school of education. See you on September 10th!

Friday, September 11 @ 9am: Faculty Council Meeting

Friday, September 11 from 11am-4pm: Blood Drive sponsored by Ed Council. Ruffner Hall Room 202.

Monday, September 14 @ 11:30am: Education Policy Seminar with Sarah Turner presenting "Playing the College Application Game: Critical Moves and the Link to Socio-Economic Circumstances" Ruffner Hall 200

Wednesday, September 16 @ 12noon: Brown Bag Lunch Series--Research. Please join us for a presentation by Daphna Bassok titled "Does Pre-Kindergarten Expansion Impact Program Quality in Head Start?" Ruffner 200. Don't forget to bring your lunch.

Thursday, September 17 @ 12noon: Tea & Technology in the CLIC. Stephanie Moore will share about ScreenCasts & PenCasts

Friday, September 18 @ 9am: Faculty Meeting

The Curry Calendar is up-to-date. Bookmark it and visit it often!

News at Curry

Curry Web Tool Being Used on Smithsonian Site by Teachers and Students to Create Short Movies
September 1, 2009 — How are an elementary school student, the Dust Bowl era, the University of Virginia and the Smithsonian Institute's American Art Museum connected? All play a role in "Picturing the 1930s," a new educational Web site created by the museum in collaboration with U.Va. and launched publicly today. Users of the site, many of whom are teachers and secondary school students, explore the 1930s through paintings, artist memorabilia, historical documents, newsreels, period photographs, music and video in a virtual movie theater. More.

Curry Has A Team For the Alzheimer's Walk!
Members of Curry's Communication Disorders Program walked last year at the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk. This year we have expanded our team to be Curry wide! The Communication Disorders Program is actively involved in a community service and research project through the Jefferson Public Citizens inaugural class and in Dr. Braddock's Academic Community Engagement Project in partnership with the Alzheimer's Association Central and Western Virginia Chapter.Alzheimer's affects everyone in America either directly or indirectly! Every 70 seconds, someone develops Alzheimer's resulting in as many as 5.3 million people in the United States living with Alzheimer's. The direct and indirect costs of Alzheimer's and related dementias amount to more than $148 billion each year. We invite all interested persons to walk with us to end Alzheimer's on Saturday, September 26th. If interested, please contact Hilary Koch at hmk4e@virginia.edu.

Did you know?

Robert Berry, Nancy Deutsch and Susan Mintz participated in a community panel on Tuesday evening, September 1st sponsored by the Charlottesville City Schools to discuss local concerns in education. The panel was moderated by Billy Cannaday, dean of the School for Continuing and Professional Studies. Daily Progress article.

A participant in the PLE School Turnaround Program was featured in the article "Low-performing schools looking for turnaround--along with KC distrct" in the Kansas City Star.

Carol Tomlinson spoke in Colorado at a back-to-school session for the RE-1 Valley School District teachers and staff.

Art Weltman is the keynote speaker at this year's Redcord Conference that was held in Norway on September 4.

http://www2.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/opinion/op_ed/article/good_teachers_are_good_start_for_research/44476/

Announcements

If you have any announcements for faculty or staff, please send them to Audrey at audreybreen@virginia.edu to be included in the bi-weekly Curry Discovery. Thanks!

EDUCATION POLICY SEMINAR SERIES
Sarah Turner and Jim Wycoff invite you to join a group of researchers with interests in education policy. We will generally meet Mondays 11:30-1:00pm in Ruffner 200. Josipa Roksa, from Sociology, will be presenting her paper, "Work, Marriage, and Parenthood: Life Course Transitions and Inequality in Higher Education" 11:30 Monday, August 31st in Ruffner 200.

8/31: Josipa Roksa: " Work, Marriage, and Parenthood: Life Course Transitions and Inequality in Higher Education"
9/14: Sarah Turner: " Playing the College Application Game: Critical Moves and the Link to Socio-Economic Circumstances"
10/5: Heather Wathington: " Do historically Black public colleges provide a developmental difference for academically underprepared students?"
10/19: Jim Wyckoff: " Recruiting Effective Math Teachers, How Do Math Immersion Teachers Compare?: Evidence from New York City"
11/2: Daphna Bassok: " Competition or Collaboration? The Role of State Pre-Kindergarten Expansion on Program Quality in Head Start"

Compete in the Curry Cup
The Curry Cup is a team entrepreneurial concept competition. To compete you must: 1) Form a team of students, staff, faculty, and/or Curry alums (N = 1-5; see me for details). 2) Write an entrepreneurial concept paper no longer than two pages. 3) If invited to do so, present your paper publicly for a maximum of ten minutes and answer questions for ten minutes. The winner(s) of the upcoming entrepreneurial concept competition sponsored by your Ed Council will walk away with the Curry Cup, $3,000 in cash, and the right to make the rest of us squirm with envy.

The Curry winning team will then test their ideas against winners of similar competitions held in eight other schools across the University. If the Curry team prevails, it will capture the even bigger and better UVa Cup lined with another $3,000 in winnings! Second-place finishers at Curry and in the University at-large will capture $1,500. Third place teams will receive $500.

Put these important dates on your calendar:
• Tues, 9/15, 8:30-4:30. We will have an information table in the Curry lobby to address questions about the competition.
• Thurs, 10/1, 8:30-12:30. We will have another information table in the Curry lobby
• Fri, 10/2, 9:30 - 12:30. There will be a Curry Cup workshop in the CLIC to assist people with their proposals. Curry and Darden people will offer insights into writing proposals.
• Mon, 10/26. Deadline for submission of proposals.
• Fri, 11/6, 9:00. Public presentations by finalists for the Curry Cup.
• Sometime in mid-November. University-wide competition for UVa Cup.

Request from Professor Ron Reeve
I teach a doctoral-level course in Cognitive Assessment in the Curry School of Education. Students in the course learn to administer, score, interpret, and write reports using 4 major cognitive assessment instruments, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – 4th Edition, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – 4th Edition, the Differential Abilities Scale – 2nd Edition, and the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability – 3rd Edition. We need a total of 40 volunteers who would be willing to be tested by these graduate students. We need people between the ages of 3 years and adulthood. Typically about 1.5 hours is needed. The testing usually takes place in Ruffner Hall, although it is possible to arrange to have your children tested in your home if that is necessary. Evening and weekend hours are possible as well. Children almost always enjoy the interaction with the students, and with the test materials. A written report is available if desired. All reports are supervised and co-signed by me; I am a licensed clinical psychologist and a licensed school psychologist. Contact me if you are interested. My email is rer5r@virginia.edu, and my office phone is 924-0790. Let me know ages of the volunteers, and contact information for you. Thanks!!

CURRY BROWN BAG LUNCH SERIES
Taking place EVERY Wednesday at noon in Ruffner Hall 200, the 2009-10 Brown Bag Lunch series has a wider focus than in previous years. Created with all Curry faculty and Curry doctoral students in mind, this series will rotate through a variety of topics from week to week. The first week of the month will focus on Curry’s curriculum. The second week of the month will focus on diversity and international topics. The third week will cover topics pertaining to research and faculty development, while the fourth week of each month will focus on technology. Each lunch session will vary in format. Some of them will be informal, consisting of perhaps a brainstorming session, a conversation, or a brief demonstration followed by Q and A. Other sessions may be a bit more structured, such as a presentation on research findings or a tutorial on some topic.

September 2: Curriculum—Join us for more creative discussion about Curry’s curriculum
September 9: Diversity—The SEEDS4Change students will be presenting on culturally sensitive teaching at Curry
September 16: Research—New Curry faculty member Daphna Bassok will present “Does Pre-Kindergarten Expansion impact Program Quality in Head Start?”
September 23: Technology—Joe Garofalo and Randy Bell will share about the FIPSE-sponsored investigation into the ways students use SmartBoards
September 30 (bonus week!): International—“Field Notes from Elsewhere: Reflections on International Education in Africa” Carol Anne Spreen & colleagues. Desserts provided!

Free Latte
So, the "Curry Discovery" is not one to endorse any particular vendor in Charlottesville. But we sure will pass along some good deals when we hear about them. HotCakes, a cafe in the Barracks Road Shopping Center, is offering 30 days of free latte. Here's the deal: 1. Bring in your UVA ID (student, faculty or staff), 2. Get your free lattee card. 3. Drink one free latte each September day. (Valid every day in Sept.One 12 oz latte each day. Max value $2.50/day. If you want a specialty coffee other than a latte, just pay the difference.) Enjoy!

All That Is In Store For the CLIC
The brainstorming for how to use the CLIC space continues! An advisory group has formed and meets every other Thursday morning at 10 am. (These meetings are open--so join us on Nov. 17.) This advisory group is made up of Curry faculty, students, staff, and other partners from across Grounds. Specifically, their work includes creating a mission for the space while meeting the needs of Curry students and faculty. These objectives are also focusing around three goals: 1) How can we enhance digital scholarship? 2) How can we create and enhance electronic collaboration? 3) How can we build communities both interally and externally? Do YOU have ideas of how to innovatively use this space? Join us for the next Tea & Technology on Thursday at noon.

Paid Position for Graduate Student
The Curry Library Innovation Commons (CLIC) seeks a graduate coordinator for 20 hours per week. The CLIC Coordinator will work with the Librarian in Residence, Student Council, and Curry faculty to facilitate transition of the Education Library from a physical to a digital library. Throughout the year, the coordinator will help develop of a seed grants program that has been provided for UVA faculty and students. The program was funded to integrate learning technologies into collaborative learning spaces at Curry. The person selected must be able to work independently and graciously with a faculty, students, and administrators. The ability to deal with change is valued and necessary. The opportunity to undertake research and extend the impact of the research through publication, conferences, and presentations is inherent. For infomration, contact Kay Buchanan at kac7f@virginia.edu. Please encourage a graduate student you know to apply!

Stay Tuned: Mini-Grants Available for YOU!
Please keep an eye out for information coming from the CLIC about how you can apply for mini grants to fund the application of technology to your work. Details coming soon.