EduCoug

Social justice in the classroom. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.  Some weighty research topics are on the agendas of eight education faculty  as they plan sabbaticals (aka battery recharging) during the coming year. Bruce Romanish is unique among them in that his time away will serve as a transition from administration back to the teaching ranks. Now vice chancellor at WSU Vancouver, he’ll join colleagues in the Department of Teaching and Learning starting in fall 2011.

Here’s the lowdown on education faculty approved for professional leave, excerpted from the university-wide list published by WSU Today.

June Canty, Department of Teaching and Learning (T&L), Vancouver,  Aug. 16 – Dec. 31, to study the support new teachers are given by their school district and/or the state during their first two years of teaching. Will follow four beginning teachers in four schools in Southwest Washington.

Gail Furman, Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling Psychology (ELCP),  Spokane,  Aug. 16 – Dec. 31, to complete the analysis of a large data set from the Stuart Foundation funded project, Leadership for Learning, conducted with the Spokane School District; complete a comprehensive literature review related to leadership for social justice in K-12 schools; and develop a book proposal.

Stephen Kucer, T&L,  Vancouver, Aug. 16 – Dec. 31, to explore the relationship between how scientific expository text is processed in terms of fluency – speed, prosody, miscues – and what is recalled by 35 proficient fourth grade readers.

Laurie “Lali” McCubbin, ELCP, Pullman, Aug. 16 – May 15, to continue a Kauai study that began with 698 participants who were all born in 1955. This study is the only prospective longitudinal study of the baby boomer generation with a sample that consists of predominantly racial and ethnic minorities.

Darcy Miller, T&L, Pullman, Aug. 16 – Dec. 31, to conduct analyses/syntheses of clinical data and research related to students with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, adolescent females with behavior/emotional disorders, and juvenile offenders; to produce book draft, submit three manuscripts for journal articles and three to four proposals for international/national presentations; and write two grant proposals. Pullman, the University of Washington, Seattle, and a possible trip to Drake University.

Judith Morrison, T&L, Tri-Cities, Aug. 16 – May 15, to complete research projects including writing and submitting journal articles; to submit a proposal for an edited book on the role of scientists in the professional development of science teachers; and to submit a proposal for external funding to extend and develop current research.

Bruce Romanish,  Vancouver, Aug. 16. – May 15, to prepare to return to T&L’s Vancouver faculty in fall 2011 and recharge research and writing. Research foci are critical thinking and societal views/treatment of children and their relationship to public education policies and practices.

Richard Sawyer, T&L, Vancouver, Aug. 16 – Dec. 31, to complete two book projects, both accepted by publishers, on the research methodology of duoethnography, a relatively new qualitative research methodology which promotes critical self-change and praxis in relation to educational and societal issues. Portland,with trips to Brock University, Ontario, Canada.

Beth Jan Smith received the only doctoral degree bestowed at the WSU Tri-Cities spring commencement.  And while the news story didn’t say so, she may have been the only graduate who could celebrate in tandem with her child.

Beth earned an Ed.D. in educational leadership.  Her daughter, Janel Beth, took part in the ceremony because she is scheduled to complete her B.A. in history this summer.

Beth has been a part-time community college adviser and adjunct instructor while finishing her dissertation on “The Influence of a New Student Introduction Program on New Student Retention at a Two-Year, Rural Community College.” Chances are she can put her advising expertise to work at home.  She has five children, of whom Janel is the first to earn a four-year degree.

A certifiably happy moment

Not all happy academic endings involve caps and gowns.  This year, 320 teachers obtained their Professional Certification through WSU — including this ProCert group in Wenatchee. Pictured from left to right are Dr. Joan Wright, instructor, with teachers Oliva Gonzalez-Franco, grade 1; Stephanie Ross, kindergarten; Betsy Myers, kindergarten; Jake St. John, high school English; Koni McLean, high school French and English; Malinda James, pre-school. Not pictured: middle school teacher Alicia Lopez, who was home with her new baby.

When our dean and associate dean died last summer, many of us felt the loss of their friendship and expertise. But only one of us, dean’s assistant Stacy Mohondro, sat between the two suddenly empty offices.

For her exceptional support of the interim deans in a time of abrupt transition, for helping the bereaved families of Judy Mitchell and Len Foster, and for her excellent work and ready smile under all circumstances, Stacy has been honored with the Administrative Professional Contribution Award.

“What makes Stacy special is her great understanding of the importance of each person, and of his or her role in the college mission,” said her nominator, Krenny Hammer.

Stacy’s is the latest name on our list of 2009-2010 award winners.

Will she hang that picture in Vandal-land?

Faculty and staff from the Department of Teaching and Learning gathered Thursday to bid adieu to their former chair, Cori Mantle-Bromley, who is about to leave the Pullman campus and head eight miles east to become dean at the University of Idaho’s College of Education.  Cori, who has served as interim associate dean for the last year, gave a wry smile when she saw that her farewell gift was the portrait of a cougar.  UI’s gain isn’t entirely our loss, as Cori’s new position bodes well for educational cooperation across the state line.

Look on the WSU College of Education Shutterfly page for pictures from Cori’s party, the WSU President’s Early Learning Summit, and some happy commencement snaps.

Hats (and mortarboards) off to our Athletic Training Education Program.  It’s been a truly stellar academic year,  as you can tell from these student highlights shared by program director Kasee Hildenbrand:

•    The Northwest Athletic Trainers Association District 10 gives out four undergraduate scholarships each year and, this spring, WSU students Yoko Jingi and Lee Martin were recipients.
•    Jamie Jolliffe was selected as the winner of the Bobby Gunn Scholarship to attend the National Athletic Trainers Association’s meeting in San Antonio.
•    A WSU student was selected to attend the Collegiate Sports Medicine Foundation Student Leadership workshop in Florida for each of the past two years (Omar Fercha and Josh Emery), with both going on to leadership positions–Omar as WSU Athletic Training Club president and Josh as District 10 student vice president.
•    Also at the district meeting, two groups presented case studies during the Undergraduate Student Forum.  One group, which did a case study on Acute Compartment Syndrome, won the presentation portion of the program and was able to present the topic to the certified members the next day. Group members were Omar Fercha, Emily Clarke, Josh Williams, Shelby Witschen, and Daisuke Yamada.
•    Daisuke Yamada was selected for the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society program and will intern with the Seattle Mariners for this summer.
•    Ten of the 13 graduating seniors graduated with Honor cords (above 3.5 gpa)
•    Nationally, only 43.3 percent of those who take the exam to become certified athletic trainers pass on the first try.   Ten WSU students took the exam in April with a first-time passing rate of 90 percent.
•    Student Lee Martin was awarded an National Athletic Trainers Foundation Scholarship and will be recognized at the national meeting in Philadelphia this June.

On top of all that, the Athletic Training Club was very active. Members raised awareness and money to fight cancer by sponsoring a Relay for Life team; provided volunteer medical assistance for sports and recreation events; and, with their annual Halloween food drive, scared up  more than a ton of donations for the Pullman food bank.

Cake baking and bird song inspired this year’s Inga Kromann Medal winners.  Like so many WSU Pullman students who have competed in the children’s book design contest, the two elementary education majors reached into their own childhoods for stories to tell.

Marissa Miller, a junior from Gig Harbor, dedicated A Cooking Adventure with Grammy Mammy to her two grandmothers, who “taught me that the best foods are made with love.”   She was so excited by the creative process that she plans to keep making books after she’s launched her teaching career.

Molly Ward won the Kromann Medal for best illustration. Her book, Sounds of the Northwest, resulted from her love of the outdoors.  “I’ve always been intrigued with the sounds of nature,” she said, crediting her family for providing help with the project — which, she found, involved lots of planning, hard work, time and patience.  Molly, a junior, grew up in Olympia and now lives in Portland.

Honor medals went to William M. Fitzgerald for his book Randy,  to Cheryl Fredericks for Molly’s Pumpkin, and to Nicole Ragsdale for The Three Little Sheep Can’t Sleep.  Bound copies of their books will be kept in the Brain Education Library.

Our guests weren’t quite ready to get up and dance, as the students in this picture urged, but they were all smiles.

The Golden and Diamond Graduates reunion under way on the Pullman campus included a Wednesday visit by alumni to the College of Education.   The annual spring celebration here has grown to include dance performances by students in the teacher preparation program’s arts integration class, plus presentation of the Inga Kromann Medal Awards for students who create children’s books.  To see more pictures, visit the College of Education’s Shutterfly site.

And here’s news about some prominent alumni-to-be:

Both Xyanthe Neider and Paul Mencke plan to be college professors. Both will be among the graduates whose accomplishments are highlighted at Pullman’s May 8 commencement.  But as you can find out by reading about Xyan’s background and Paul’s background, they have taken very different journeys on their way to getting those doctoral hoods.

Except for the fact that the change would mess up a fun acronym, it might make sense to rename the Education Graduate Organization the “Education Graduate Connection.”

Incoming EGO President Jennifer LeBeau has a list of impressive goals for the upcoming year, including:  re-establishing contacts with faculty, administrators, and students; increasing connections with the Spokane, Tri-Cities, and Vancouver campuses; and making connections with other units throughout the university, as well as within the college. Jenny and her fellow officers are especially excited by the idea of engaging students, faculty, and staff in a college-wide community service project.  Read more about them and their ideas on the EGO page.

Arizona Coug kids update
A batch of thank-you letters arrived at the College of Education from those fifth graders at Palomino Elementary in Phoenix who’ve adopted WSU, inspired by some gifts from Pullman–including T-shirts that are the envy of other classes.  The notes are sweet. Here’s one from Silvia Ramirez, who has one sister, two brothers, and likes going to school:

“Thank you for the cool gifts. One of my favorite gifts is the shirt. I use the highlighter when Ms. Cook tells me to highlight key words. I haven’t used the sticky notes. We got more things than the other classes. We are learning the fight song. When we learn it, we are going to send you a video. Go Cougs!”

We’re doubly honored
Education doctoral student joan.Osa Oviawe and alum John Doty (Ph.D. ’08) are among winners of this year’s Civic Engagement Awards. The Center for Civic Engagement honored joan for her service with the YWCA of WSU, where she serves as board president, as well as her efforts to aid the education of poor Nigerian students through the Grace Foundation, which she founded.  Doty is the founder and director of READ for LIFE, a program he started as research toward his doctoral degree. The nonprofit provides free tutoring for kids in kindergarten through sixth grade.  On top of his volunteer work, John has a day job coordinating the Academic Enrichment Center/Computer Lab in WSU’s Office of Multicultural Student Services.

Associate Professor Jennifer Beller‘s passion for undergraduate research has been recognized by the Honors College, which presented her with its Thesis Advisor Award for her above-and-beyond efforts to assist Emily Cox.

Emily, a senior from Seabeck, Washington, is studying exercise physiology and metabolism at WSU Spokane. Her thesis, “An analysis of running gait in elementary aged students 5-12,” is one of the first studies ever conducted on children with normal motor development.

“Dr. Beller once told me to `Think of this as a team project. Think of us as partners,’ ” Emily recalled. And that’s just the way things turned out.

Offered congratulations on the award, Jennifer deflected the attention to Emily.

“Working with Emily has been a great joy,” Jennifer said, noting that the two of them presented the study at WSU’s Academic Showcase in Pullman and at the Northwest Health Symposium in Spokane.  “Now we are working on a manuscript for Research Quarterly and have plans to conduct a follow-up study to several different elementary schools this fall.”

The researchers have already collected data on more than 300 elementary students. Their eventual goal is to establish normal ranges for children’s running stride characteristics.

It’s an enormous project, said Emily, with implications for athletic training and clinical practice in exercise physiology and orthopedics.  It all started when Jennifer agreed to be her advisor, then suggested she narrow her research focus, then agreed to be principal investigator, then helped her secure approval for working with minors, then secured equipment, then help build relationships with schools … and much more.

In her letter of nomination for the Outstanding Advisor Award, Emily wrote:  “Thanks to her commitment, professional integrity, academic guidance, and multidisciplinary proficiency in research, this project has inspired me to continue graduate education in anticipation of a career in medical research.”

Today’s cloudy skies did nothing to dampen enthusiasm at the  annual science day at Klemgard Park, organized by Assistant Professor Blakely Tsurusaki.  Nor did a bit of Mother Nature’s bluster keep WSU videographer Matt Haugen from recording the energy of some of the 275 youngsters who were on hand.  Matt’s video, which is already posted online, features WSU students Amy Romero, Dave Marshall and Adrian Espindola.

More award winners
Assistant Professor Pauline Sameshima will receive the 2010 Critical Issues in Curriculum and Cultural Studies Early Career Award at the American Educational Research Association annual meeting this spring.  Pauline, who is known for her interdisciplinary approach to teaching and research, has written three books and is a regular contributor to curriculum journals.  She has co-chaired the WSU Globalization, Diversity & Education Conference and administers a curriculum theory social network.

Two doctoral students from the Department of Teaching and Learning were among those recognized by the Association for Faculty Women as outstanding women in graduate studies.  Finalists for the Harriett B. Rigas Award included Cara Preuss, who took third place,  and Janine Darragh, who received honorable mention.

Curious about the three candidates for the College of Education dean position? Keep an eye on our Web calendar for opportunities to meet with them, starting next week, and learn about their visions for our future.

The trio of accomplished educators are Glenn E. Good, associate dean for Research, Graduate and International Studies, and Technology in the College of Education and professor of educational, school, and counseling psychology at the University of Missouri; Anthony G. (A.G.) Rud, head of the Department of Educational Studies and associate professor of Educational Studies, College of Education at Purdue University; and Jayne E. Fleener, dean of the College of Education at Louisiana State University.

New faculty highlights on WSU site

Research Professor Bruce Becker stars in an excellent video interview, “New Frontiers in Aquatic Therapy,” now linked from the WSU home page. It’s also posted on YouTube.

Assistant Professor Tom Salsbury is pictured on a future students page, where he’s quoted about the College of Education’s links to a global community of educators.

WSU Today and the WSU News pages both feature stories highlighting the research of Associate Professor Lali McCubbin, who explores the resilience that a multicultural heritage can bring; and Assistant Professor Matt Marino, who wants middle school students to explore the wonders of science using video games.