UW-Madison School of Education Online News - November 2008

Welcome to the UW–Madison School of Education Online News, a monthly update on School and campus news and resources. 

School Celebrates American Education Week: Nov. 16-22
American Education Week is a national celebration of all the people who work together – in schools, homes, businesses and communities – to help children and young adults achieve.  The School of Education will mark the occasion with a week of public events, including a talk about the impact of NCLB on school leaders, a panel discussion by emeriti professors on the legacy of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, book discussions, the Fall Faculty Dance Concert, and much more.  The full schedule is online. Get the details.

Knowing School Law Empowers Teachers
Understanding legal boundaries can make teachers more comfortable and guide them in respectfully balancing legitimate competing interests, says Professor Julie Mead, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis.  Mead worked with the Department of Curriculum and Instruction to develop a course for undergraduate teacher-preparation students on teachers’ legal rights and responsibilities, offered for the first time this fall. Read the story.

UW Art Professor Leads Special Tour of Smithsonian Exhibition
Art professor Truman Lowe recently treated members of the Art Department’s Board of Visitors, art faculty and art alumni to an exclusive, pre-opening tour of the exhibition “Fritz Scholder: Indian/Not Indian” at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York City.  Lowe co-curated the exhibition, which explores Scholder’s singular place in Native American art history. Learn more.

Guide to Helping Educators Improve Adolescent Literacy Is Available Online (PDF)
Professor Geoffrey Borman, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, recently helped to develop a national “practice guide” to assist educators in improving adolescent literacy.  The guide (NCEE #2008-4017) is published by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance and is available online as a PDF file. View PDF file.

Ed Psych Releases Its First Faculty Profile Videos
Thanks to the Department of Educational Psychology’s new video profiles, alumni and others can hear first-hand about faculty initiatives and cutting-edge research.  The first profiles in the series feature Professor Robert Enright (pictured left), whose work on forgiveness is used in schools in Belfast, Ireland and inner-city Milwaukee, and Professor David Williamson Shaffer, whose research explores how new technologies – such as educational computer games – are changing the way people think and learn. (The videos require QuickTime Player, which can be downloaded via the department’s website.) Watch the video. 

Wisconsin Online Career-Matching Resource Is Launched
A new online career-matching initiative aims to promote job opportunities across Wisconsin for young people and to build the state’s information technology workforce.  The School’s Center on Education and Work helped to develop the resource, which allows Wisconsin companies and organizations to publicize information-technology internships to students seeking career opportunities. Check it out.

Web Tool Offers New Angle on College Student Evaluations
A tool designed to encourage universities to assess how effectively their students learn rather than assessing how their faculty perform in class is now available online.  The tool – Student Assessment of Learning Gains – was created by a team of researchers from five institutions that includes Bob Mathieu.  Mathieu is the principal investigator at the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning, which is housed in the School’s Wisconsin Center for Education Research. Find out more.

CCBC Offers Webcast of Judy Blume Lecture
Not to worry if you missed this year’s Charlotte Zolotow Lecture, delivered by Judy Blume on October 13.  The Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) offers an archived video of the event on its website. Go to Archive.

Fall Faculty Dance Concert: Nov. 20-22
This annual concert showcases choreography by Dance Program faculty artists and performances by student dancers.  A special feature this year is work by artist-in-residence Chris Elam, who serves as the artistic director of Misnomer Dance Theater in New York.  Ticket information is available online.

Careers Conference Early Registration Closes on Dec. 15
Early registration rates are good through December 15 for the 23rd annual Careers Conference, one of the largest and most comprehensive events of its kind.  With seven featured speaker sessions, more than 150 practitioner sessions, and many other career-related activities, the conference promises valuable learning experiences and networking opportunities.  It will be held January 27-28, 2009; online registration is available.

Proposals for International Education Conference Are Due Dec. 17
An online form may be used to submit proposals for the 2009 Wisconsin Council for the Social Studies & International Education Annual Conference (March 16-17).  This year’s conference, “Global Challenges and Changes,” features keynote speakers Jeremi Suri, UW history professor and author of Kissinger and the American Century, and Brian Steidle, co-author of The Devil Came on Horseback: Bearing Witness to Genocide in Darfur. Learn more.

School Calendar Highlights Upcoming Events
The UW-Madison Collegiate Poetry Slam Finals, a WISCAPE forum on “A Decade of Labor Licensing at UW-Madison,” the Visiting Minority Scholars Lecture Series, the Art Department’s Tuesday Talks – details about all these and more can be found on the School’s web calendar. View more events.

Kudos to Education Faculty and Staff

• The Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis has received a two-year $2 million grant funded by the Wallace Foundation to advance an aligned system of leader development in Wisconsin.  The project will be led by Professors Paul Bredeson, Rich Halverson, and Carolyn Kelley.
• Jeff Hird has been named Director of Training for the Wisconsin Internship Consortium in Professional Psychology at the Educational and Psychological Training Center.
• Works by Fred Stonehouse (Asst. Professor, Art) will be the main feature of the Philip Slein Gallery's booth at the 2008 Aqua Wynwood art fair in Miami, Florida, which runs from Dec. 2-7.
• Francois Tochon (Professor, Curriculum & Instruction and FRIT Professor in World Language Education) has received a three-year $471,200 grant from the International Research and Studies Program of the U.S. Department of Education for a project titled “A Deep Approach to Turkish Teaching and Learning.”

HAVE YOU MOVED OR CHANGED YOUR NAME?
You can easily update that information via the alumni page on the School’s website. And we’ll make sure that your University records are changed as well as ours.
Update your records

NEXT ISSUE
The next issue of the School of Education Online News will be delivered in November.

SUBSCRIBE
If you would like to subscribe to this listserv, CLICK HERE.

WE WELCOME YOUR FEEDBACK
Thank you for reading the SoE Online News. If you would like to comment on this service, please send a message to: soeonline@education.wisc.edu.