Share Tweet Share Email

"CSA student plays cello"Applications for need scholarships for the fall semester of the NIU Community School of the Arts are now available online and in the NIU Music Building.

Students 18 and younger who want to pursue their study of the arts, but who cannot afford the cost, are invited to apply for financial help through the program. Students may apply for scholarships for private music lessons, classes and ensembles as well as for art and theater classes.

The fall semester begins in September. The deadline for scholarship applications is Monday, Aug. 30.

Sponsored by NIU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, the Community School is home to about 80 teachers who offer lessons on most musical instruments as well as in art and theater. More than 500 people from nearly 50 towns and cities travel to DeKalb each semester for lessons and classes.

Call (815) 753-1450 or visit Room 132 of the Music Building for more information.

Date posted: August 19, 2010 | Author: | Comments Off on Scholarships available for Community School

Categories: Arts Briefs Community Music Theatre Visual and Performing Arts

Daughter and mother participate in a CSA Prelude class

A daughter and her mother participate in a CSA Prelude class.

The NIU Community School of the Arts invites people of all ages to CSA O’Rama, scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 28, at the Music Building.

Families can ask questions about the program, sign up for free sample music lessons, learn more about the Suzuki approach and attend sampler classes. All activities are free and open to the public.

Staff will be on hand in the Concert Hall lobby from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Beginning at 10 a.m., 15-minute sample music lessons are available on a variety of instruments. These must be arranged ahead of time by calling the office Friday, Aug. 27, and interested students must have an instrument. The limit is one lesson per person.

The following classes will have a 20-minute sneak preview session: 

10:00 to 10:20 a.m.

  • Prelude and Development Classes (ages 1 to 5)
  • Guitar Basics (ages 9 and older)
  • Paper Free Music Theory Class (ages 13 and older)

10:30 to 10:50 a.m.

  • Suzuki parent chat. Parents are invited to learn more about the Suzuki approach.

11 to 11:20 a.m.

  • Suzuki sampler class (ages 3 to 10)

11:30 – 11:50 a.m.

  • Musical Tales (ages 3 to 5)
  • Group Piano for Adults (ages 18 and older)

Parents are expected to attend the Musical Tales and the Prelude and Development classes with their children. There is no limit on the number of classes, but people are asked to call ahead of time to reserve spaces.

The NIU Community School of the Arts is sponsored by NIU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. About 80 teachers offer lessons on most musical instruments as well as in art and theater. More than 500 people from nearly 50 towns and cities travel to DeKalb each semester for lessons and classes.

To reserve a space in a class or rehearsal, call Renee Page at (815) 753-1450.

Date posted: August 19, 2010 | Author: | Comments Off on Community School of the Arts invites children, parents to CSA O’Rama open house Aug. 28

Categories: Arts Briefs Community Visual and Performing Arts What's Going On

 
"Michael Nicolas"

Michael Nicolas

Michael Nicolas, a longtime board member of the NIU Executive Club and an active member of the club’s Board of Directors, has been elected its president.

He succeeds Roy Schultz, the club’s outgoing president.

Established in 1996, the NIU Executive Club is an organization dedicated to fostering professional and personal relationships among highly successful NIU graduates, and giving back to the NIU community.

The Executive Club awards annual scholarships to exceptional students, connects students with mentors and internship opportunities and sponsors a variety of educational forums and networking activities. In 2006, it formed a partnership with the NIU Young Professionals Network to advance the career development of graduates with less than 10 years of experience.

Nicolas graduated cum laude from NIU in 1995 with a B.S. in business. While at NIU, he was active in several honor societies and his fraternity, Phi Kappa Sigma. He also was awarded the Farmer Insurance Group Scholarship based on his outstanding academic performance.

Nicolas went on to earn his law degree, with highest honors, from Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1998. While at Chicago-Kent, he was a member of the Chicago-Kent Law Review, the Moot Court Honor Society and the Chicago-Kent Honors Scholars Program. He also was among an elite group of students to be selected for the prestigious Order of the Coif.

Currently a partner at Neal Gerber & Eisenberg LLP, he concentrates his practice on complex commercial disputes and business counseling. He regularly counsels clients on risk avoidance measures, corporate structure, corporate governance, contracting, internal policies, alternative dispute resolution, all aspects of civil litigation and many other issues.

Beyond his new leadership role with the NIU Executive Club, Nicolas is involved in a variety of charitable and civic activities including the Lawyers in the Classroom Program, which is sponsored by the Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago. In addition, the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation honored him with a Distinguished Service Award in 2003.

Nicolas lives in Palatine with his wife Janine, 5-year-old son Connor and 2-year-old daughter Ashley. He is a lifelong fan of the White Sox, Blackhawks, Bears and NIU Huskies.

Date posted: August 19, 2010 | Author: | Comments Off on Accolades: Michael Nicolas

Categories: Alumni Business

"Sudhir Gupta"

Sudhir Gupta

Sudhir Gupta, professor in NIU’s Division of Statistics, has been conferred the prestigious 2010 Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA) award, an award bestowed annually upon no more than one-third of 1 percent of the association’s membership.

The award was presented at an Aug. 3 ceremony during the ASA’s Joint Statistical Meetings held at Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The award is granted in recognition of outstanding contributions to and leadership in the field of statistical science. 

Professor Gupta’s research specialization is in the field of statistical design and analysis of experiments. Scientific principles of statistical design are critical to experimentation, from discovering genetic markers of diseases and clinical trials of new drugs to developing efficient engines and high quality products.

He recently developed new methodology for deriving designs for high-dimensional problems requiring optimization of a large number of variables. Gupta also has contributed extensively to the profession as a member of the editorial panel of several important scientific journals in statistics.

Gupta joined the NIU faculty in 1985.

Date posted: August 19, 2010 | Author: | Comments Off on Accolades: Sudhir Gupta

Categories: Awards Liberal Arts and Sciences

NIU’s Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education will offer an early-childhood motor development program.

The eight-week program for children ages 3 to 6 runs from 4 to 5 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays from Monday, Sept. 13, through Wednesday, Nov. 3. The program costs $80 and is held in Anderson Hall.

The program curriculum includes learning movement concepts, developing fundamental motor skills and rhythmical abilities as well as games and fitness, program director Clersida Garcia said.

For more information, call Garcia at 815-753-1400 or e-mail cgarcia@niu.edu.

Date posted: August 18, 2010 | Author: | Comments Off on Give children fundamental motor skills through KNPE program

Categories: Briefs What's Going On

"Physical therapy"With a job market as lucrative as physical therapy’s – the career boasts 100 percent placement numbers and is projected to grow 20 percent in just the next five years as the U.S. population continues to age – the doctorate degree has become an entry-level requirement.

NIU now meets that need.

Thirty-six students in the first cohort to pursue NIU’s new doctorate in physical therapy (DPT) begin their classes this week. They are expected to graduate in the spring of 2013.

“This is the direction the profession has gone, and we must remain competitive,” said MJ Blaschak, coordinator of the physical therapy program housed in the School of Allied Health and Communicative Disorders in the College of Health and Human Sciences.

“Entry-level physical therapists need 100 credit hours past the bachelor’s degree,” Blaschak added. “That’s a doctorate.”

A pair of cohorts already on track toward the master’s in physical therapy will finish the program in the springs of 2011 and 2012. Those are the last students who will earn that degree, which NIU technically no longer offers.

The deadline to apply for Fall 2011 admission to the DPT program is Friday, Oct. 15. Admission is limited and competitive; more than 40 qualified applicants were turned away this fall, and Blaschak anticipates a larger number of applicants next year.

“We offer a high-quality degree at a very good price compared to other schools. This is the training physical therapists need and the degree they need without going $120,000 into debt,” she said. “We’ve also seen more applicants from out of state than we’ve had before. Our out-of-state tuition is still less than private schools.”

NIU’s physical therapy program began as a bachelor’s degree in 1980 and ascended to the master’s degree level in 1999. Most students who enter hold bachelor’s degrees in health science or biology, Blaschak said.

Completion of the DPT meets one of the eligibility requirements for mandatory state licensure to practice. NIU program has enjoyed accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education since its inception and will undergo re-accreditation in 2013.

The program also prepares physical therapists for the possibility of “direct access” in Illinois. A broad range of full- and part-time clinical experiences within academic settings and at various health care facilities in and around Illinois are required.

“With direct access, a patient can come to the physical therapist as the entry point into the health care system,” Blaschak said. “In Illinois, we can evaluate a patient without a physician referral or diagnosis, but we cannot treat.”

Meanwhile, although the DPT is a professional degree that enables recipients to practice physical therapy and encourages them to continue their education, the degree does not equip them to teach. Professors of physical therapy still need academic degrees, such as the Ph.D. or Ed.D.

Date posted: August 18, 2010 | Author: | Comments Off on Thirty-six students to begin work at NIU toward new doctorate in physical therapy

Categories: Graduate School Health and Human Sciences

"NIU audiology students test the hearing of a Taiwan resident"On the densely populated island of Taiwan, the concept of hearing tests is as novel as formally educated audiologists.

Providing those critical hearing tests to hundreds of Taiwanese children and adults became an eye-opening experience this May for NIU College of Health and Human Sciences professor King Chung and four of her audiology students.

“Most of the people we tested had never had a hearing test before. Wherever we went, more than half of the people had to be referred, which is unheard of in the United States,” said Chung, who teaches in the School of Allied Health and Communicate Disorders.

“The Chinese think, ‘OK, hearing loss comes with aging. If it is not a disease, we do not need to worry about it.’ So not many older adults take care of it,” added Chung, who grew up in Hong Kong. “Most people have a poor understanding of why it is necessary to have good hearing: If a person cannot communicate with friends and family, he or she may experience emotional isolation, worse physical health and a lower quality of life than a person who has good hearing.”

Chung and her students – Carissa Coons, Sarah Hyde, Jonathan Javid and Laura Wagoner – collaborated with audiology students from three universities and professional Taiwanese audiologists to test the hearing of more than 500 people.

Heading eastbound, their luggage included 18 hearing aids donated by a manufacturer.

Returning westbound, their hearts were packed with the knowledge that their Taiwanese collaborators would provide free follow-up services and hearing aid services to those patients identified with hearing loss who are unable to pay.

They visited a nursing home, a community center for older adults, an orphanage, three special education schools and group homes for adults with special needs and children and adults with HIV or active AIDS. They also visited Cheng Hsin General Hospital to observe a pediatric cochlear implant surgery in the operating room while Dr. Joshua Chen, the chief otologist, explained the surgical procedures and anatomic landmarks while performing the surgery.

Chung and Co. battled intense heat and humidity, mostly without the relief of air conditioning during testing. They were fortunate to reach the Christian Mountain Children’s Home during a window of opportunity between road closures for landslides and flooding.

They also encountered language obstacles but enjoyed the benefit of translation from the Taiwanese audiology students, whose textbooks are written in English.

Learning a few terms in Taiwanese, including “hello” and “thank you,” moved mountains.

“Children with disabilities often cannot tell their parents or teachers about their hearing problems. When they do not respond to verbal instructions, a natural inclination for their parents and/or teachers is to assume that they do not comprehend the instructions,” Chung said.

“With minimal Taiwanese vocabulary, an open heart, an open mind and lots of help from our Taiwanese partners, we were able to test the hearing of more than 250 Taiwanese children with special needs. It was truly wonderful and rewarding.”

Javid, entering his third year of the NIU’s four-year clinical doctorate program in audiology, is grateful for the exposure to diverse patients. The Sugar Grove resident also gained a stronger appreciation for audiology services in the United States.

“Here in DeKalb, we don’t really see a lot of special needs individuals, so that was a really good experience. We don’t speak their language, and they also have disabilities, so it was complicated,” Javid said.

“I also learned we’re truly lucky to have services we have here in DeKalb,” he said. “Our Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic is one of the best audiology facilities in the nation.”

Classmate Laura Wagoner, who enjoys testing hearing and telling people about hearing and hearing loss, had additional reasons for joining the Taiwan group. The Richmond native, also entering her third year of the Au.D. program, had never left the United States before.

“For me, traveling to a foreign country would take me so far out of my comfort zone that I felt it would be a good and interesting experience for me to test hearing in people whose language I don’t know,” Wagoner said.

“I learned I could get my message across without being able to fully communicate, learning new facial expressions and movements – not really sign language, but gestures that say, ‘I don’t know what words you’re saying, but I understand your facial expressions,’ ” she added. “I learned I could communicate effectively enough to let them know, ‘Hey, there’s something wrong.’ ”

Working with HIV and AIDS patients proved a greater challenge.

The communicable nature of the disease, coupled with the NIU’s group complete lack of any experience with that population, created some unease. Meanwhile, all of the residents of the group home “were abandoned and forgotten by their family, friends and society.”

“It’s really a taboo in Taiwan for anyone to have HIV or AIDS. But I thought, ‘If we don’t go, who else will go?’ So we scheduled a visit,” Chung said.

“Testing the residents with advanced AIDS was especially difficult for us emotionally. These patients, once lively and loved, were shells of their former selves … hearing loss was likely the lowest priority of their medical treatment, yet hearing may be their only connection to the world around them,” Wagoner added. “Only after caring for strangers who were so sick did we realize their fight and desire to be treated as any other human being.”

Wagoner said that lesson, as well as the visits to the orphanage and the special needs schools, will guide her eventual practice in this country.

“Everybody is still a person no matter what they’re going through,” she said. “We need to love them all the same. We need to treat them all the same, whether they have AIDS, whether they’re special needs or whether they’re the guy down the street. It’s common courtesy.”

Another “Heart of Hearing” humanitarian trip already is being planned for next summer to Brazil, Chung said.

Date posted: August 18, 2010 | Author: | Comments Off on Audiology professor, students visit Taiwan for educational mission

Categories: Centerpiece Global Health and Human Sciences Students

NIU Art Museum blog logoEven though Peter Olson didn’t launch the NIU Art Museum’s blog, the assistant director ultimately become responsible for its care and feeding.

Turns out he’s doing an “awesome” job.

Best Colleges Online applauded the NIU Art Museum this summer on its list of “50 Awesome Art Museum Blogs,” recognizing web-based vehicles that “give visitors an inside look at what it takes to keep a museum going” and offer “fantastic resources for those who want to get more out of their local art outlets.”

“The blog was actually started by one of our grad students a few years ago. Those people tend to be the most technologically savvy. She was just bored one day and said, ‘I think I’ll start a blog.’ It was easy for her to do, and we would add to it,” Olson says.

“When she was finally graduating, I thought it best that I learn how to do it and so I did. I’ve been maintaining it the last couple years,” he adds. “We have plenty of outlets for promotion of our programs, but this really was a chance to talk about our behind-the-scenes operations. Most people don’t really know what goes into making a museum exhibition happen.”

Olson’s interest in continuing the blog pleased Jo Burke, director of the museum.

“We had had some experience with process blogs operated by artists such as Gabe Akagawa and Ayomi Yoshida, who had worked with us in workshops and installations. In the same way that it is interesting to get some insight into the artist’s creative process, it can also be enlightening to learn how museum exhibitions come together,” Burke says.

“With the different media of work we show, Pete has to solve lots of installation and hanging challenges. He is very open about sharing what he has learned,” she adds. “Our being listed among the top 50 art museum blogs was a surprise, but I can see how this sort of background information is appreciated.”

"Art Museum logo"Olson regards the blog as a new way to communicate with colleagues in the museum world as well as the art-loving public.

Networking opportunities abound through the seeking and swapping of advice, he says: How was an African tapestry hung? What to do with 300 small drawings, only some of which are framed? And what kind of pins work best for that kind of installation?

For museum visitors, the blog is a teaching tool.

“I try to keep things pretty brief while somewhat entertaining and insightful. I want it to be a capsule that people can digest with relative ease, where they can learn something about a museum in less than a minute,” he says.

“You know, everyone has framed art in their home, but do they really have any idea about what kinds of materials were used or what kind of choices were made by the artist? That’s something else I think about when I add to the blog.”

Olson, who updates the blog a couple times a month, hopes the national nod of approval brings more visitors to the NIU Art Museum – both online and on foot.

“Getting nominated for this mention was something completely unpredictable … but there we are, and I’m very honored. It’s more notice for the museum, which I think is excellent because it’s installation time for our new fall shows, and that means more material for me to post,” he says.

“For example, Barbara Peters is showing fashion from her extensive collection, and we’ve been laying colored pieces of paper on the floor where each dress is going to go. Once other stages of the installation are complete, I’m planning a series of photos on how that exhibit came together.”

Date posted: August 18, 2010 | Author: | Comments Off on Art Museum blog called ‘awesome’

Categories: Arts Visual Visual and Performing Arts

Brent E. Wholeben
Brent E. Wholeben

NIU’s Office of Research, Evaluation and Policy Studies, an arm of the College of Education, has won the largest contract in its 22-year history.

Following a national bidding competition, administrators of the Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH) will pay $800,000 to REPS over four years in return for external evaluation of some of the major initiatives funded by the organization. Work begins this fall.

The contract covers the assessment of 21 of the foundation’s grants to Missouri agencies tackling mental health and substance abuse issues in youth as well as the evaluation of 10 foundation-funded projects that provide access to mental health services for older adults, treating depression and associated suicide risk.

“They want to know: Are these people doing what they said they would do? Are they evaluating things in the right way? And, in their proposals and contracts, is what they said they were going to do the right way to do it?” REPS Director Brent E. Wholeben said. “We know how to do this. Our job is to set up the evaluation framework and determine whether the foundation’s money has been well-spent.”

Wholeben, who is in St. Louis this week attending a series of MFH meetings with grant recipients, has already begun a cursory review of the youth portion of the contract. Ages covered by those initiatives range from 6 to 21, he said.

One of the major issues to address, Wholeben said, is the co-morbidity between mental health and substance abuse – when two more disorders seem to team up and exacerbate the original diagnosis. “These are at-risk youth with mental health disorders or substance abuse issues,” he said. “Six of the grants deal with youth suicide.”

The foundation’s grants involving Missouri’s older population are equally critical, he added. The state is home to the nation’s highest rate per capita of senior citizens who end their own lives.

REPS staff will make introductory stops at each of the 31 sites and then conduct annual visits to centralized locations where they can meet with grant recipients in small groups.

Otherwise, much of the subsequent surveys, data collection and even meetings will take place online. The work includes reviews of each agency’s own evaluations of their results and new REPS-generated evaluations of those accomplishments.

In the end, Wholeben and his staff will draft a template for agencies to use in the future when applying for dollars from the Missouri Foundation for Health.

The College of Education launched REPS in 1988 to provide college-wide research and evaluation assistance to administration, faculty and staff. The office also contracts with other academic and support service units within the university to assist with research and evaluation objectives on a cost-recovery basis.

REPS competes for or collaborates as a partner in extramural grant activities with state, regional and national agencies, including the U.S. departments of Education, Health and Human Services and Justice; the National Science Foundation; and the National Institutes of Health.

One pending contract could surpass the current Missouri agreement by nearly $1 million; another could give the office its first work overseas in Africa.

Date posted: August 18, 2010 | Author: | Comments Off on College of Education’s research office lands four-year contract with Missouri foundation

Categories: Education Research

Jim NewmanLocation, location, location.

The mantra of real estate agents also could be the motto of the NIU Department of Geography, which kicked off a new academic program this semester leading to a doctorate degree.

NIU is now the only university in northern Illinois and one of only two statewide offering a Ph.D. in geography. It’s a logical extension, given NIU’s setting.

“If you want to study geography, we’re located in one of the most favorable places in the United States,” says Andrew Krmenec, geography chair. “We’re in close proximity to Chicago and are part of one of the largest regional economies in the country. We’re also near the juncture of the Great Plains, Great Lakes and Mississippi Valley climatic regions. We sit on the edge of the former tall-grass prairie, at the northern tip of Tornado Alley and amid some of the most productive farmland anywhere.

“We’re a geographic observatory to the world,” he says.

The Illinois Board of Higher Education approved the Ph.D. offering last summer. But Krmenec says the geography department first began to ponder the program decades ago and started to pursue it in earnest in the late 1990s.

“We began seriously thinking about it after we had invested in rebuilding the undergraduate program and strengthening the master’s program,” he says. “You must have an incredibly sound undergraduate and master’s program if you’re going to be successful with the Ph.D.”

In terms of majors and undergraduate degrees granted per year, NIU boasts the largest geography program in Illinois and one of the largest undergraduate-only meteorology programs in North America. About 200 NIU students are pursuing undergraduate degrees in geography; another 35 are working toward master’s degrees.

The Ph.D. program intentionally is much smaller – the aim is to build it up to an optimum enrollment of 12 to 15 full- and part-time students. Some program graduates will go on to university professorships while others will help meet an increasing demand for highly sophisticated expertise in geographic analysis. The field has grown rapidly in recent decades with geospatial technologies driving applications and research.

In Illinois, the northern third of the state is home to a large employment base for businesses, consultants, private industry and non-profit organizations that increasingly rely on geospatial analyses on such topics as traffic movement, soil quality, flood zones, land suitability, economic development, regional planning, precision agriculture, environmental hazards and population distributions.

“I’ve been fascinated with maps and mapping ever since I was a kid,” says Jim Newman, one of two students who began working toward the geography Ph.D. this semester.

A former information technology specialist who holds an M.B.A. in finance from the University of Chicago, Newman owns a small business that specializes in spatial data analysis, mapping and regional planning using geographic information systems (GIS). After earning a graduate certificate in Geographic Information Analysis from NIU in 2009, the resident of Campton Hills in western Kane County decided to continue his studies and work toward the Ph.D.

“With the convenience of being near NIU and having had some experience with the geography department, it made for an easy decision to stay here and work on the degree,” says Newman, who has done some teaching at the college level. The doctorate will strengthen both his teaching and business credentials.

“The Ph.D. ties several of my interests together, particularly working with maps and the analytical aspects of dealing with GIS,” he says.

Students in the Ph.D. program can choose an emphasis in spatial environmental science or human spatial science. Both areas attempt to identify and understand geographic relationships, such as the effects of sprawl on traffic patterns or the impact of climate change on human activities.

Ph.D. candidates must hold a master’s degree, but it doesn’t have to be in geography, according to the department chair.

“We have applicants with degrees in architecture, business, civil engineering, urban planning and the atmospheric sciences,” Krmenec says. “Yet their interest is primarily focused on geography, or how humans use space and how things are distributed by nature across geographic space.

“A love of maps also helps,” he adds. “For a lot of people, that’s how they describe their interest in geography. We believe everything can be mapped.”

Date posted: July 28, 2010 | Author: | Comments Off on NIU offers state’s second Ph.D. in geography

Categories: Did You Know? Faculty & Staff Graduate School Liberal Arts and Sciences

Nine teachers from DeKalb High School and nine future teachers from NIU will launch a new era in District 428 this fall – a full year before the new high school opens on Dresser Road.

The 18 are participating in a pilot “co-teaching” program expected to transform the old student-teaching model into something more dynamic, engaging and beneficial for all involved.

NIU’s pre-service teachers will spend an entire year with their mentor teachers, serving not as one-semester spectators and occasional instructors but as full partners.

“We’re really excited about the prospect of what this can bring to DHS,” said Jennie Hueber, assistant principal at DHS. “The pre-service teachers will come out with a year of experience under their belts, and when they get hired for jobs, they really are second-year teachers.”

“This is not the usual model where the student-teacher sits in the back for a while and observes until the teacher says, ‘OK, I’m going to turn one class over to you,’ ” said Susan Callahan, a professor of English at NIU and co-chair of the professional development school’s design team.

“They will plan and deliver lessons together and, gradually, the NIU student takes over more and more responsibility for the planning and delivery,” she added. “The ones who emerge on the other side of this program are more confident and more able to work in collaborative relationships when they get into the public schools.”

Although the fall term mandates part-time hours only two or three days a week, their immersion is immediate: “The minute they walk in,” Callahan said.

“They’re not silent observers in the back but active participants. And they will be introduced as co-teachers, not student-teachers. When you say ‘student-teacher,’ the first word is ‘student.’ That immediately makes it more difficult for that teacher,” Callahan said.

“Our real goal is that on the first day the pre-service teachers walk in, they will have some kind of hands-on activity to do with DHS students. It’s nothing big to begin with, maybe just talking with one of the students, or taking attendance or passing out papers.”

Members of the design team, made up of top district administrators and teachers along with NIU faculty and staff, are developing a unique vision that expects students at the new DHS will demonstrate “globally competitive” academic success.

In addition to raising the quality of DHS student achievement and NIU teacher preparation programs, the partners are planning joint research and excellence in professional learning for both DHS and NIU faculty.

Based on a model developed at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, co-teaching is one component of the collaboration that teachers are eager to implement as soon as possible.

“Our thinking was that we would pilot it extremely small and work out any of the kinks or bugs before we begin it on a much larger and grander scale,” Hueber said.

High school teachers already have met and become acquainted with their interns – something that usually happens during the busy academic year, when time is a precious commodity – and have participated in a summer workshop about co-teaching.

The St. Cloud model identifies seven co-teaching strategies:

  • One Teach, One Observe. One teacher has primary instructional responsibility while the other gathers specific observational information on students or the (instructing) teacher. The teacher candidate or the cooperating teacher can take on either role.
  • One Teach, One Assist. One partner has primary instructional responsibility while the other partner assists students, monitors behavior or corrects assignments.
  • Station Teaching. The pair divides the instructional content into parts and the students into groups. Each teacher instructs one of the groups, which rotate.
  • Parallel Teaching. Each teacher instructs half of the students, presenting the same material and using the same teaching strategies.
  • Supplemental Teaching. One teacher works with students at their expected grade level while the other works with those students who need to catch up or who need enrichment.
  • Alternative or Differentiated Teaching. Teachers use two different approaches to present the same material with the same goal for learning outcomes.
  • Team Teaching. Partners present well-planned, team-taught lessons, exhibiting an invisible flow of instruction with no prescribed division of authority.

Benefits of the model are clear, the 428-NIU partners said.

“The classroom teacher at DHS will have another set of eyes and ears in the classroom, and we expect improved student performance academically and socially because of the relationships built with that other person,” Hueber said. “Special education has been doing this for years, and it works when it’s done right. And that’s what we’re really focusing on: doing it right.”

“High school students get more one-on-one instruction and more questions answered,” Callahan said.

“The high school teacher does not have to just turn his or her students over to a student teacher, but can remain more involved and bounce ideas off someone else,” she added. “It’s energizing. They get new ideas, and they’re forced to articulate the reasons why they do things they way they do and what makes those better activities or better policies.”

NIU’s eight pre-service teachers come from three colleges – Education, Liberal Arts and Sciences and Visual and Performing Arts – and will teach art, earth science, foreign language, humanities, math and special education.

Participants on both sides of the collaboration were able to approve their partners, Callahan said, and all of the new relationships earned dual blessings.

“Co-teaching is not a pre-service requirement. Our students were told it would be more work but also told what the benefits are,” she said. “All of these students are really interested in having as much hands-on experience as possible. They’re not at all concerned about doing a little extra work.”

Visit http://www.niu.edu/dist428partnership/dekalbhs/index.shtml for more information about the NIU-DeKalb High School partnership.

Date posted: July 19, 2010 | Author: | Comments Off on DeKalb High School, NIU to implement ‘co-teaching’ pre-service model this fall

Categories: Community Education Latest News Liberal Arts and Sciences Visual and Performing Arts

Lemuel W. WatsonBefore Lemuel W. Watson visited Belarusian State University in 2004, he hoped that his time there would provide “a whole new insight as to how I view things in this country.”

Indeed, the executive director of NIU’s Center for P-20 Engagement and Fulbright scholar experienced a welcome measure of self-discovery.

“I got a good feel for the region, its students and some of their drive to play a bigger role in the global community,” Watson said. “It was refreshing because they have some of the wonderful values that we used to hold so closely, like community and looking after each other’s children. And it just came so naturally to them. They don’t have much, but what they do have, they share.”

Now Watson is making plans to return to the former Soviet Union, this time to study how graduates of the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA) shape public policy and inform public opinion.

Watson, former dean of the NIU College of Education, has been selected for the 2010-2011 Embassy Policy Specialist Fellowship by the International Research & Exchanges Board.

He will spend six weeks in Georgia, making the U.S. Embassy there his research headquarters from Sept. 15 through Oct. 30. Afterward, he will draft a report with recommendations on how the United States can build a better relationship with Georgia.

The work is centered at GIPA, created after Georgia became a free state in 1991 as a national center for the development of the best practice in public administration and journalism.

According to its website, the non-profit organization brings together “successful leaders from business, media, civil society and public services” to contribute “developing effective governance at state, municipal and local levels as well as independent and viable media in Georgia.”

“I will look at specifically how its graduates are influencing democracy and policy and creating a civil society in Georgia. I’m looking at data bases of the graduates and where they’ve gone, how policy is being made and what groups are making policy,” Watson said. “I also will interview a number of the graduates, and the public in general, about what I see the graduates doing and what the public sees the graduates doing.”

For example, he will examine Georgia’s transition from a close-knit society to a free market society and the level of “economic stamina needed to create a system of democracy that works for voting and equal rights for individuals.”

He also will explore the various groups with the potential to hold power in that country.

“I’m comparing it to Belarus now, which is not, by any means, what the West would consider a free market society. According to the president of Belarus, if they were suddenly a free market society, they would not have any wealth because the residents could not afford to buy their own land,” Watson said. “Of course, I’m approaching this from a Western standpoint. I won’t know the details until I get there, at least not from a Georgian standpoint.”

Watson already is sure what to expect from the students and graduates, who more than likely are similar to their counterparts in the rest of Eurasia.

“Young students know two or three different languages. They know more about U.S. history and movements than many of our students do,” Watson said. “I’ve experienced this first-hand. They are very eager to make a different in the world and to be part of a capitalist and free market society.”

This fall’s opportunity came from Deb Pierce, associate provost for International Programs.

Pierce distributed an announcement regarding nine fellowships available through the International Research & Exchanges Board. Founded in 1968, the non-profit organization provides leadership and innovative programs to improve the quality of education, strengthen independent media and foster pluralistic civil society development.

Already possessing some fluency in Russian – Watson had taught himself the language before he journeyed to Belarus – and an academic interest in higher education, he applied.

“I love being a scholar. It’s what I do,” he said. “I’m doing what I need to do to be a good citizen for my college and department.”

 

Date posted: July 19, 2010 | Author: | Comments Off on Lemuel W. Watson to visit Eurasia to study impact of Georgian Institute of Public Affairs

Categories: Education Global Latest News