Teacher Education/Special Education Latest News
From the Academic Advisor
Switch Week is March 16th. If 2 internships are being completed Spring 2010, the first internship ENDS the week of March 8th and the second BEGINS the week of March 15th.
Deposit Refunds. If you are in your final semester of internships, your $250 deposit will be refunded to you at the end of March. Please look for emails from Rachel.
Scholarships! Make sure you apply for any and all scholarships you qualify for! Materials below! Due date is April 1st!!!
Letter of Recommendation Form for Scholarships
Attention Special Education Teacher Candidates:
The internship element of the special education licensure program provides the opportunity for you to connect theory to practice and is essential to your success in the program. With this in mind, please review the following information regarding the process for internship application for all “one-the-job” and alternative internship experiences and the reminder of the submission dates. A completed internship application must be submitted for all internships that are completed outside of a UCD partner school.
To ensure that each of your internship experiences provides you with varied professional opportunities to apply your skills in natural settings, and to enlarge the range of strategies you bring to the classroom, please remember to plan ahead and communicate with your advisor regarding internship requirements. All teacher candidates in the special education endorsement program are expected to demonstrate knowledge and skill with students of varying age and grade levels, so a range of internship experiences will be designed individually between you and your advisor. Please note the submission dates for each semester:
• March 1st for Summer internships
• May 1st for Fall internships
• October 1st for Spring internships
If you are intending to complete a special education internship outside of a UCD partner school during the summer term of 2010, your completed application materials must be submitted to your special education faculty advisor by March 1st, 2010for approval. Please contact Meredith Lopez in the Student Services Center if you need assistance in contacting your faculty advisor – meredith.lopez@ucdenver.edu
New Lab, Printing Kiosks and Student Quasi-Lounge
Published: February 18, 2010 – 12:28 pm on http://sehdlabs.ucdenver.edu/blog/
Although this post is a little tardy, we’re excited to announce that our lab makeover has finally been completed! We replaced our old (and slow) Dell PCs with fast 21? iMacs. You may have noticed we decreased the amount of ‘fixed’ computers in the lab, and increased the amount of table space to make the space more flexible. Our biggest complaint was that the room wasn’t flexible enough to cater to small group work. We hope we’ve addressed that issue. We’ve also seen an increase in students bringing in their own laptops to use, so we wanted to provide some space to use them without having to push a computer out of the way. We also are keeping the laptop cart in the lab for classes that do need extra computers to use or specific software to train on.
We hope you’ve also noticed our printing kiosks on each floor and have made good use of them. The goal here was to provide better access to print out any necessary documents before class so everybody isn’t running up to the lab at the same time. Remember to LOG OFF when you are done so nobody else prints on your account and increases your print count towards our quota.
Lastly, if you’ve ventured into the student ‘quasi-lounge’ on the 6th floor (through the door to your right as you get off the elevator), you might notice there are some pretty nice couches in there to work, read or just take a load off. Please be respectful of SEHD faculty and staff that might be working near this area, but we are trying to improve on the spaces students can go in between and before classes.
Thanks for your patience as we continually try to make our floor space a more comfortable and inviting place to work and learn. And feel free to let us know how we are doing!
Important information from last month
Links to handbooks
Please find all regular and special education handbooks online here and then click on the menu item “Current students.” Then click on “Current Student Resources.” You can also find important forms and assessment rubrics listed here as well as PLACE and Praxis II exam links. Don’t forget that the student plan protocol is also listed in the handbook which outlines steps in resolving any issues that may arise in class, at your partner school site, or with fellow teacher candidates.
Remember email is the University’s official means of communication. Once registered for courses you must activate your UCD email account that has already been set up for you. You do have the option to then forward it to your personal email. Don’t miss out on updates and important information from your professors, your student services center, and the university. Find the link here.
PLACE/Praxis II
For those taking licensure exams this semester, please find the acceptable tests that Colorado will accept and links to both licensure exam websites, which contain registration information as well as study guides. If you have any questions about which exam to take for your content area, please contact me via email or phone.
Once you have received your passing scores please send a copy of the FULL score report to Rachel Fraser in the Student Services Center, in Lawrence Center building, room 701. Please note that checking the box for UCD when taking licensure exam is not the same thing as submitting scores to SSC. We need to retain the full score report which contains sub scores as well. A PDF, copy, or fax of your score report are all acceptable. Keep your original at all times. You will need to reference this exam report many times in your teaching career. To replace it can cost up to $50.
Starting September 2009, Praxis is no longer sending you official scores in the mail. They give you access to a website where you can print and save your scores. This website is accessible for a few weeks and then they shut it off. YOU MUST SAVE THE PDF TO YOUR COMPUTER BEFORE THEY TURN OFF YOUR ACCESS. If you don’t, you have to pay $40 to get your scores.
TC Student Spotlight
Meghan Sullivan
During her seven years as a swim instructor, Meghan Sullivan recognized that she really loved working with children. She enjoyed teaching her swim students something new and seeing how proud they were of their accomplishments. Meghan soon realized that she wanted to be a teacher. Her commitment to that career goal has been clearly evident ever since she came to Rose Hill Elementary School as a Teacher Candidate.
Meghan is currently completing her 5912 internship. She brings great energy to her teaching and works hard to plan instructional materials and activities that meaningfully engage her second grade students. She plans lessons that address a variety of learning styles and provide many ways for students to learn and to demonstrate their learning. She connects well with her students and has nurtured mutual respect with them. She is committed to making a positive difference in their lives.
Meghan is exceptionally well-organized, which has been an asset to her TC Cohort as they plan their Legacy Project She has also been an active and valuable member of her grade-level team. Building good relationships with her colleagues is important to Meghan.
Commenting recently about teaching, Meghan said, “I have learned that being a teacher is a lot harder and requires more work than most people outside the profession know or give you credit for,” So true! Thank you, Meghan, for your hard work at Rose Hill. We appreciate all that you do!!
~Carol Younghans, Site Professor, Rose Hill Elementary School, Adams #14
Rachel Goss
As her internship comes to an end, I want to take the opportunity to celebrate Rachel Goss, teacher candidate at South Middle School, teaching social studies.
Here’s a little biographical detail before I tell readers how fortunate South is to have Rachel co-teaching Social Studies: Rachel graduated from Colorado State University with a B.S. in Psychology and Social Work, then received a Masters of Social Work from the University of Denver. Throughout her education, Rachel has worked with youth in a variety of ways, including program development with at-risk youth, creating and teaching tolerance workshops, and leading HIV prevention workshops. She’s also worked for the past ten years teaching students form the age of 5 to 50 to ride, care for, and enjoy horses.
It was, she says, these experience that inspired her to go back to school to pursue her passion for working with and educating young people.
Watching Rachel teach social studies is a treat – a treat for me and a treat for her students (and, of course, her Clinical Teacher!). Rachel uses her gentle disposition, her warm smile, her passion and her teaching skills to settle, engage and motivate her students from the moment they are greeted and seated. I always smile when I see her students lean forward in anticipation of another fruitful and engaging opportunity to learn. They know, as the lesson unfolds, they have chance to talk with and learn from each other. They know, too, they will have chance to journal and draw the key pieces of each lesson.
Watching Rachel teach is a learning experience for me, too. As I observe her building and engaging a community of learners, she reminds me of what teaching and learning is about.
Watching Rachel interact with her peers during seminars reminds me how much I value her presence and her participation. Her eye contact, her body language, and her proactive disposition make the seminar experience so very productive and enjoyable.
Soon she will move on to new pastures. Another school will be fortunate, indeed, more fortunate than South, as she will be in the classroom each and every day.
Thank you, Rachel. It’s been such a pleasure working alongside you. I wish you well.
~John Paull, Site Professor, South Middle School, APS
Sarah Kelly
Sarah Kelly is a Teacher Candidate at Cherry Drive beginning her third internship. We love having her at Cherry Drive! She brings a positive attitude to all of her work. She is a team player, willing to make decisions based on everyone’s best interest not merely her own. She is willing to pitch in and help wherever she can. She is willing to share her experiences and expertise as a veteran TC to those just beginning the program. In addition, she brings great skill, knowledge and passion into the classroom. Her lessons are thoughtfully prepared and delivered. Her students, clinical teachers and other staff member all enjoy working with her. Thanks, Sarah for being a part of our Cherry Drive Community. We appreciate all that you do!
~Jennifer Harvey, Site Coordinator, Cherry Drive Elementary School, Adams #12
Co-Teaching In Action!!!
Patti Harrington (5th grade Clinical Teacher) and Lauren Dougherty (Teacher Candidate) co-teach lessons whenever possible. Here is what they wrote up together regarding co-teaching:
“Co-teaching shows students we are a team right away. Students take the TC more seriously and the same expectations apply. We actually take in each others style and contribute to conversations equally. We have already found out that two minds are much better than one!!
Seen above, Ryan Kelley (Teacher Candidate) and Erin Nelson (Clinical Teacher and Former IPTE Student) co-teach a nutrition lesson in a 2nd grade classroom.
Here is what Erin had to say about co-teaching:
“Co-teaching with my teacher candidate is a fun and successful system for designing and delivering specific instruction to the entire group. It also gives you the opportunity to feed off each others ideas while providing assistance to students as needed. I love this teaching method and would definitely recommend trying it!”
~Tania Hogan, Site Coordinator, Goldrick Elementary School, DPS
A note from an Alumni:
Hi Rachel!
Just wanted to drop you an note and tell you that I got the long-term sub job at Sheridan!
I started this Monday, and am really excited. It is a very small school, but I think it is perfect for me to get my feet wet teaching. And I can already tell the IPTE program and my internships at Adams City and South prepared me well for my first year as a teacher.
Thanks so much for letting me know about this great opportunity!
– Mike Garkie
CONGRATULATIONS MIKE!
Partner School Spotlight
Commissioner Dwight Jones visits Aurora Central High School
In late January, Colorado’s Education Commissioner Dwight Jones paid a long visit to IPTE at Aurora Central High School. In this picture, you can see Commissioner Jones conferring one-to-one with a high school student about his work. Commissioner Jones visited classrooms where Teacher Candidates were working; and he also observed in classrooms of teachers who are recent IPTE graduates. In every case, he made it his business to speak with the teacher candidates and teachers about how the program is working out. After his classroom visits, he met at length with current teacher candidates, clinical teachers, new teacher hires from UCD; the IPTE site team and principal, APS district leaders, and UCD leadership. As the commissioner asked probing questions, ACHS teacher candidates spoke eloquently about the value of intensive field-based preparation for the real world of teaching and learning.
~Nancy Sahlings, Site Professor, Aurora Central High School, APS
Denver Post visits Goldrick Elementary School
Denver bilingual school lauded as model at educators’ convention
By Jeremy P. Meyer
The Denver Post
Posted: 02/04/2010 01:00:00 AM MST
Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana, an education official in the Obama administration, talks with Goldrick Elementary first-grader Miguel Barrios, 6, Wednesday during a visit to the Denver bilingual school. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post )
English is not the native language for more than two-thirds of students at Denver’s Goldrick Elementary School, which usually is an indicator for poor academic performance.
But Goldrick is beating the odds under principal Maria Uribe, who has developed a system that pushes academic achievement while getting students more fluent in English.
Student language-fluency levels are identified early and constantly assessed. Students are placed into programs that teach literacy in their strongest language with the understanding that learning the skill is more important than learning the language.
In Alma Guardiola’s second-grade classroom Wednesday, 12 students were instructed in Spanish on how to write a story summary. On the other side of the room, a dozen more got the same lesson in English.
The progress at Goldrick has caught the eye of a top U.S. Department of Education administrator who was visiting the school in advance of her keynote speech Wednesday at the convention of the National Association for Bilingual Education.
“I have seen many schools with similar demographics that weren’t as successful. But this school is successful,” said Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana, U.S. assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education. “You know what the biggest issue is? How do we clone this school across the nation? That is the challenge.”
Hundreds of educators are meeting this week at the Colorado Convention Center to discuss bilingual education, one of the most vexing challenges and controversial subjects in U.S. education.
In Colorado, persistent achievement gaps exist between English-language learners and their English-fluent peers — more than 40- point disparities on standardized tests. And students whose primary language is not English are overrepresented in school dropout figures.
About 13 percent of Colorado students are English-language learners; Denver has the most — 13,639 students, or about 18 percent of the enrollment.
Denver is under a federal court order that mandates that Spanish-speaking children have the option to begin their education taking most of their classes in Spanish and switch gradually — within three years — to English.
In most other schools and districts across the country, courses are taught in English with support to help the less-fluent students understand — a method that officials from the National Association for Bilingual Education say doesn’t work.
“We have tried it for so many years, spent so much of our tax dollars, and we are still getting the same results,” said association executive director Santiago Wood.
Check it out!
A Fellow SEHD Student Needs Help
Sarah Jane Tweed, born Sarah Jane Altstadt, was diagnosed in October 2009 with stage IV triple negative breast cancer. Sarah had just celebrated her 29th birthday and was 24 weeks pregnant with her first child. Sarah grew up in Madison and Janesville WI. She attended the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, where she met her husband Eric Tweed. After graduation the couple moved to Denver, Colorado to live closer to Eric’s family and Sarah began studies at the University of Colorado, Denver. She was on schedule to graduate in December 2009 with a Masters degree in Family and Couples Counseling until cancer intervened. Sarah had 3 chemo treatments and was reading cancer books and pregnancy books simultaneously. In order to continue with further diagnostic tests and aggressive treatment for Sarah, the baby was induced a month early, at 36 weeks. A healthy Emmett Wayne was born on January 14th 2010 weighing in at 5 lbs 9 oz. Sarah resumes chemotherapy January 25th. While Sarah currently has medical coverage, there are many expenses that Eric and Sarah need help with. The Sarah Jane’s Army benefit has been organized to help cover these expenses and to help her focus all of her energy on getting well. We thank you for your consideration in supporting Sarah in her fight against breast cancer, and her quest to heal and care for baby Emmett!
How You Can Contribute
If you would like to make a contribution, please visit www.sarahjanesarmy.org.
(There is a fundraiser event on Saturday, February 27th for Sarah. You can find more information here.)
A Benefit for Sarah Altstadt Tweed
www.sarahjanesarmy.org
Facebook Group: Sarahjanesarmy
TC NewsFeed is now on FACEBOOK!
Have all the information you need on Facebook! Become a fan of our page! Suggest it to other fellow TCs! Let’s get connected!
Niver Creek’s Poetic Introductions
Niver Creek had a creative idea of how to introduce CTs and TCs to the school. Here are the Biopoems written about TCs and CTs and posted at Niver Creek. (Please click on poem for a larger view.)
Student Council for Exeptional Children Meetings
I hope you’re doing well! The Student Council for Exeptional Children will be meeting March 4 and April 1 at 5pm. Both meetings will be held in one of the historic buildings behind the West Classroom at 1020 Ninth Street Park. On March 4th, we will be having a guest speaker with multiple sclerosis to share about her life. Please come out for an exciting time for networking and learning! This is an open invitation, and is not exclusive for special education majors! If you have any questions please feel free to e-mail me at grace.hyun@email.ucdenver.edu!
Thanks,
Grace Hyun
President of SCEC, representing UCD
Virtual Visit: RTI in Action
From the RTI Action Network
The RTI Action Network travels to schools across the nation to find examples of real people doing real work with the Response to Intervention (RTI) model. Click here to view a “virtual visit” to Tigard High School in Portland, Oregon, which has been successfully implementing RTI for several years. Members of the Tigard team discusses their successes and challenges implementing RTI at the high school level as well as critical issues such as scheduling, screening and instruction, and using data to make educational decisions.
Teaching for Student Success
Justin Darnell, the 2010 Colorado Teacher of the Year and UCD Graduate, is making a series of videos about educational equity and effective teaching. His first video, available here, addresses a number of the fundamental aspects of teaching for educational equity including the importance of avoiding labels, positive teacher expectations, fostering strong personal relationships with students, and reaching out to parents and the community.
After watching this video, consider the following questions:
1. At the beginning of the video Darnell says, “the first thing is to get rid of the word ‘at-risk’.” It is important to consider the impact of the labels and related stereotypes we use to describe students and their negative impact. As Herbert J. Gans points out in his book, The War Against the Poor, “Labels are primarily used to designate people as ‘deviant,’ different in a negative or pejorative sense because ‘these people’ or some of their actions and beliefs, and beyond the pale of our own or even ‘mainstream’ values.” Though a word like “at-risk” may start out as merely a term to encapsulate a certain population and their specific needs, it is easy for such terms to take on a negative connotation and be used to disparage and oppress certain groups. What are your thoughts on this aspect of labeling and stereotyping? What are some other commonly used labels that educators should eliminate from their vocabulary and what are the subtexts of those labels?
2. Darnell spends a lot of time talking about the importance of strong personal relationships with students and his expectation that all his students will succeed. Research shows that close relationships with educators and high expectations have a major impact on student success. Why do you think this is so important? What are some examples of this from your own experiences?
3. In discussing how to engage the parents and guardians of students, Darnell asks the question “what have you done to engage them?” He points out that “the best thing a school can do is go out and get those parents.” How is this different from the attitudes and strategies you have seen regarding parent involvement? What are some effective ways educators can reach out to families and the community so they feel welcomed and valued?
4. What else stood out to you about the video? What are you going to change about how you work with students based on the suggestions made in this video?
To read Justin Darnell’s blog and watch for future videos by him go to http://coloradotoy.blogspot.com/.
Below are some lessons and activities you can use with students to help them learn about some of the topics covered in Darnell’s video:
Teaching Tolerance: The Power of Words
Ed Change: Inclusion/Exclusion
Provided by:
Culturally Responsive Urban Education
1380 Lawrence Street, 6th Floor
Denver, CO 80204
Conferences & Special Events
Want to Study Abroad?
Please click on the links below to learn more about Summer 2010 Study Abroad opportunities in Mexico.
Study Program to Guanajuato, Mexico
Special Topics in Language, Literacy and Culture – LLC 5835 – 3 credits
June 5 to June 20, 2010
Study Program to the US/Mexico border
Foundations of Multicultural Education — LLC 5140 — 3 credits
June 8-23, 2010
Study Program to Puebla, Mexico
Culture of the Classroom – LLC 5150 – 3 graduate credits
Denver meeting dates: April 24, 9 a.m. to noon, May 7, 4:30 – 7 p.m., May 22, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Puebla dates May 29 – June 13, 2010
For more information, please contact Rebecca Schell!
Rebecca Schell, Academic Advisor
rebecca.schell@ucdenver.edu
1380 Lawrence Street Center, Suite 701
Phone: 303-315-4978
Fax: 303-315-6311
Job/Volunteer Opportunities
2010 Education/Teacher Fairs
March 13 Charter School Teacher Job Fair
Peak to Peak Charter School
Lafayette, CO
www.peaktopeak.org
Phone: (303) 866-4730
E-Mail: charterjobfair@peaktopeak.org
March 20 Rocky Mountain Teacher Fair
Battle Mountain High School
Edwards, CO
www.rockyteacherfair.org/
March 23 and 24 University of Wyoming Teacher Fair
Laramie, WY
www.uwyo.edu/cacs
E-Mail: tbrownin@uwyo.edu
March 25-26 Teacher Employment Days
University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO
www.unco.edu/careers
Phone: 970-351-2127
April 8 Teacher Education Fair
Mesa State College, Grand Junction, CO
www.mesastate.edu/advising/edfair.html
Phone: (970) 248-1491
April 12-13 Teacher Fair
Ft. Lewis College, Durango, CO
www.fortlewis.edu/current_students/career_services/events_programs/teacher_fair.aspx
Phone: (970) 247-7562
April 14 CSU Teacher Job Fair
Fort Collins, CO
www.career.colostate.edu
Phone: (970) 491-1756
(Colorado Districts Only)
April 15 Teacher Education Fair 2010
Colorado State University – Pueblo, CO
www.colostate-pueblo.edu/careercenter
Phone: (719) 549-2980
Also check teachincolorado.org for current Colorado education job opportunities.
Georgetown Community School Looking to Connect
“It’s all about the kids.”
To Whom It May Concern,
I am contacting you in the interest of building mutually beneficial educational relationships, as well as giving up and coming teachers the opportunity to experience life in a public charter school setting. I would like to invite you and your students to come and visit our beautiful little mountain school and have included an informational brochure with this email. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have or to set up a visitation appointment.
Sincerely,
Rick Winter
Principal
Center for Pre-Collegiate and Academic Outreach Programs is Seeking Instructors
Click here for job announcement.
Click here for application.