He may look devilish in this photo, but Skip Paznokas is definitely an education angel.
The College of Sciences reports that he has retired. Well, sort of. Skip, whose WSU duties included teaching science methods to our secondary education majors, soldiers on at the side of his wife, Lynda Paznokas, working hard on behalf of science education. In May, the dynamic duo organized a regional conference for college-level science teachers in Spokane. Focused on sustainability education, it was supported by a $85,000 Environmental Protection Agency grant. Now, the Paznokases (Paznoki?) are hurrying to get ready for the second annual Math Science Partnership workshop, which will bring K-12 teachers to Pullman from June 22 through July 2. (BTW, the photo was taken at last year’s workshop, when Skip was standing in front of a projected image.)
Skip co-founded Washington’s Teachers of Teachers of Science, and is the driving force behind an equipment loan program that gives teachers access to expensive and hard-to-maintain lab equipment. The College of Sciences put the perfect headline on an article about the endowed equipment fund named in his honor: Skip Paznokas is passionate about helping teachers in any way possible!
Teacher redux
Did you read in WSU Today about another fine science educator, Jim Williamson? Jim is featured because one of his long-ago third grade students showed up again, this time in Jim’s master of teaching program courses. The M.I.T. grad-to-be, Andrew Larive, is a swell guy who looks good in a hat.
Ferrucci legacy continues
Dr. Vitt Ferrucci, a WSU alum with a passion for education, died June 1 at age 90. A former WSU trustee, he’ll be remembered especially at the College of Education for his generosity in establishing the Ferrucci Award that provides a fellowship each summer to a math or science teacher. (Watch for news about this year’s scholar, Rena Minks of Pullman.) From Dr. Ferrucci’s obituary: “Ferrucci, a veterinarian by trade, spent an extraordinary 38 years on the (Puyallup) School Board. He was appointed in 1957, the year the Russians launched Sputnik, and was re-elected nine times before stepping down in 1995, the year the federal building in Oklahoma City was bombed.”
Change across the state line
Paul Rowland, dean of the University of Idaho College of Education, will become the new executive director of the Kentucky-based Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. WSU College of Education Pullman employees will remember Paul’s wife, Ann Rowland, as a former colleague in the School & Community Collaboration Center.
Reading matter
One room, many stories Making the Grade: Plucky Schoolmarms of Kittitas Country was published this spring by Washington State University Press.
Subject-Matter Groups Want Voice in Standards The thousands of teachers who belong to math and reading associations worry they are being ignored in the setting of national standards.