West Chester University students in Dr. Penny, Dr. Kinslow and Dr. Goss' classes visited the School District of Philadelphia Patterson Elementary School in October to initiate a MentorPlace Classroom to Classroom e-mentoring program with grade school students in their science studies. The program is supported by IBM and The School District of Philadelphia. A group of Web Minor students are making a documentary of the project.

Articles

Kathryn P.Alessandria, & Wendy C. Bordeau, “Career entry in counselor education: Preparing aspiring faculty,” New Jersey Journal of Professional Counseling (in press)

Penny, C. & Kinslow, J. Faculty Perceptions of Electronic Portfolios in a Teacher Education Program. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education. Volume 6. Issue 4.

Sally Winterton, Cynthia Haggard, Frances Slostad, “Transition to the Workplace Called School: Second Career Student Teachers Reflect on Their Personal and Professional Challenges,” Teaching Education 17(4).

Conference Presentations

Cai, Wei Wei, Using picture books as a tool to develop children’s global perspective, Hawaii International Conference on Education.

Bollin, Gail and Cai, Wei Wei, Teaching for a global society: Enhancing global awareness in the college classroom, National Association for Multicultural Education Annual Conference.

Gail Bollin made two presentations at the Summer ATE Conference, one with Gwenelle O'Neal of the Graduate Department of Social Work and one with Darla Spence Coffey, Interim Associate Provost.

Cai, Wei Wei and Bollin, Gail, College student attitude toward Affirmative Action, National Association for Multicultural Education Annual Conference.

Kong, Ailing and Cai, Wei Wei, Potential learning challenges for Chinese ESL learners, The Eastern PA Area Association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.

JoAnn Yaworski-Usher, “The Effects of a Hybrid Developmental Reading Course on Comprehension,” Annual Conference of the College Reading & Learning Association.

Grant Awards

Trish Broderick, “School-Based Mindfulness Curriculum for Adolescents, Trust for the Meditation Process”, $10,225.

Cai, Wei Wei, Tim Brown (Communication Studies), William Hegamin (Cheyney University), “Dialogue on Social Justice: Walking Across the Room: An Unfinished Conversation, Workshop and Open Forum with Lee Mun Wah” SSHE Diversity and Equity Grants, $9,026.

Google Inc. has launched a web site dedicated to literacy and helping teachers and educational organizations share reading resources. In this way Google is cooperating with the United Nations in an international literacy campaign. Google has asked literacy groups to upload video segments about their successful teaching programs. The service also uses Google’s mapping technology to bring literacy organizations in touch with each other. It links to reading resources.

Apple Computer and EF Educational Tours have developed curriculum units on global awareness and cultural understanding, both identified as 21st Century skills. The free multimedia units, mapped to state and national standards, are geared to various grade levels pre-K – 12, spanning wide range of areas from science to language arts and social studies.

The Inside Teaching website was launched form the Quest for Signature Pedagogies in Teacher Education project, funded by the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund and by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The site features a collection of multimedia web sites of K-12 classrooms for teacher educators to use. The teacher educators who developed the sites documented and made public their innovative integration of multimedia records to be used as alternative texts for teacher education. The site was designed to support a community of learners, including teachers, teacher educators and others.

Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education and media company, has a corporate mission supported through all of its divisions of helping children around the world to read and learn. Their web site provides activities for kids, as well as resources for parents, teachers, administrators and librarians. Included are multimedia presentations, audio and video podcasts, e-books and monthly themes – November features the first Thanksgiving.

The Idea Book for Educators is the biannual teacher's magazine created by the Education Department at A&E Television Networks. The Idea Book includes Teacher's Guides for programs featured in Classroom and a printed version of the A&E Classroom Calendar, with air dates, program descriptions, and copyright information. Visit this web site to get your complimentary copy of The Idea Book, free to teachers who request it.

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and Entertainment Software Assn (ESA) recently released a report recommending the federal government, industry and educational communities work together with video game designers on video games to provide high quality workforce skills training and education. This could lead to effectiveness of learning through specially designed video games.

The 2007 ExploraVision Awards competition, sponsored by Toshiba and administered by the National Science Teachers Association challenges teams of students in grades K-12 to pick and research a technology, then explore what it could be 20 years from now. This competition has been held annually for the past 15 years. Each student of four first-place teams will receive a $10,000 U.S. Savings Bond and a trip to Washington, D.C. Runners-up win additional prizes. All participants get the opportunity to use science to envision the future. Brochure and materials can be downloaded or printed from the web site. Deadline for entry is January 30, 2007.

Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. and the National Science Teachers Association have announced the 17th annual Toyota TAPESTRY Grants for Science Teachers program. This program awards 50 large grants of up thee $10,000 and at least 20 mini-grants of up to $2,500 to K-12 science teachers in the United States. The awards are for innovative projects that enhance science education in schools. There are three categories: Environmental Science Education, Physical Science Applications, Literacy & Science Education. To apply complete an online proposal by going to this link: http://ecommerce2.nsta.org/toyota/ . Submission deadline is January 18, 2007.

Each year, the Wright Science Center of Tufts University grants full-year Fellowships, which provide support for study and professional advancement to teachers of grades K-12. Wright Fellowships are awarded to pre-college teachers, based anywhere in the world, whose significant innovations in their school's science curriculum have improved student understanding of science. Applicants must be full-time teachers, at the elementary, middle-school or high-school level. The major activity of the Wright Fellows will be to develop further their innovative approach to science and science teaching, and to disseminate their expertise to other teachers. For application forms and guidelines, contact Zach Smith at the Wright Center; 617-627-5394, or wright_center@tufts.edu .(You can also view the application online.) Applications must be postmarked no later than February 1. Fellowship awards are made annually on 1 March.

Funded by Inspiration Software, Inspired Teacher Scholarships for Visual Learning are designated for educators who integrate visual learning and technology into the curriculum. Scholarships may be used to attend workshops, conferences or graduate courses focusing on visual learning and technology in education. Educators may apply in one of five categories for one of 30 awards worth $750. Deadline is January 11, 2007.