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Fall/Winter 2006 |
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| Greetings
from the Dean Deborah A. Shanley, dean, School of Education As we close the 2005-2006 academic year, we pause to reflect on our collective accomplishments and plan for the new year. This issue of the CHALKBOARD shares the outcomes of the work we continue to be engaged in with our partners across the city landscape and beyond. Our collaborative projects with our liberal arts and science departments continue to demonstrate a high level of professional commitment in an effort to achieve academic excellence across both our undergraduate and graduate programs. And, in addition to develop and to implement best practices on how to use the greatest city in the world as a learning lab to enhance both our college courses and to explore ways to draw down from these rich resources for the children and their families in our school communities. Throughout these pages we celebrate the research and scholarship published by the faculty and the wide range of collaborations established locally, across CUNY campuses, on the national stage and even as far as China. We are proud of the role we are playing in improving our public schools and in developing the next generation of educators. We continue to reflect on this role and welcome the feedback from our professional colleagues and other members of our community. We salute the many practitioners that have joined hands with us in our mission to provide equal educational opportunities for all students across K-16+ settings. I look forward to this new academic year and continue to strive and support efforts to break down barriers to learning that have for too long been used as an excuse not to allow students access to reach their highest potential. As one of our new partners frequently state – “we sweat the small stuff.”– and I agree. Every detail that assists us in improving the teaching and learning process is never too small for our undivided attention. We look forward to moving forward with you. Working Together: The School of Education and Brooklyn College Academy Stephen E.
Phillips, instructor;
executive director |
teaching a social studies elective to BCA students. “Breakin’ In, Breakin’ Out: A Cultural Challenge,” was designed to challenge students to identify and reflect on boundaries and barriers between their own cultural groups and other groups around them. The course placed a heavy emphasis on literacy and reflective skills. Professor Florence’s efforts are to be expanded in the fall by Assistant Professor Laurie Rubel, who is working with BCA Principal Nick Mazzarella to develop a plan for her work in the school. In addition, Assistant Professor Priya Parmar has developed a literacy-based, cultural studies course for high school students and teachers that taps into students’ interest in hip-hop to advance their literacy skills and cross-cultural knowledge. This program, sponsored by the College Now Program, was implemented through a two-year curriculum development and professional development plan with BCA as one of three participating schools in Parmar’s project. Another exciting collaboration between the School of Education and BCA is the new art education program for high school students instituted by Nick Mazzarella, Linda Louis, and art educator Margaret Atkinson, ’05. Weekly art classes are held in the art education studio, an arrangement that has benefits for all involved: The high school students have access to primary materials in a well-equipped art studio (a facility that would otherwise be too expensive for a small institution to support) and the art education students have an opportunity to observe adolescent art-makers and perhaps, in time, work with them as student art teachers. It is hard to imagine a more "win-win" situation. This year also marks a new high point in the participation of high school students from BCA in the College Now program, which enables the students to take undergraduate college courses while still enrolled in high school. Louis is working with Mazzarella to expand art education offerings for students in the high school, including the hiring of a new part-time teacher and providing access to on-campus art studios, rooms that had previously been unavailable to the high school. For the first time in a number of years, BCA students will now have regularly scheduled art classes. To benefit our teacher-preparation program, Associate Professor Fred Stopsky will teach two sections of undergraduate Education 69 this spring term on -site in BCA, structuring students’ observations of classes around “introduction to curriculum and teaching” elements covered in the class. Students will begin and end each class session with a traditional college class, spending the time between the two sessions visiting a series of junior high or senior high school classes to observe the practices that are the subject of the day’s learning. A new collaboration-within-a-collaboration was launched this spring. BCA high school faculty has brought together an “ensemble” of students, grades 7--12, who represent a wide range of educational achievement. These students will be available to college classes to provide first-hand insight into public school students’ opinions on their own educations. The School of Education faculty is also reaching out to junior and senior high school faculty who are willing to act as guest lecturers to teacher preparation classes on a variety of topics. The School of Education has long drawn upon current and retired BCA teachers and administrators to bolster its adjunct faculty, and that trend continues. Maria Fisher, an English teacher at Bridges to Brooklyn, taught introductory courses to this year’s crop of Teaching Fellows, as did David Genovese, BCA Assistant Principal, Supervision, who taught a social studies content course in the program. Principal Mazzarella joined the School of Education’s School Leadership program this spring. Current School of Education faculty members Richard Leide, Lucy Harris, and Alon Gross were all former faculty members at BCA, and former principal Madeline Lumachi joined the faculty this spring as a field supervisor of student teachers in English. --/-- |
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| Honor
Thy Teachers: A Continuing Collaboration |
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Karel Rose, professor, childhood education Winner, Tow Award for Distinguished Teaching, 2006 Teaching may be the quintessential human activity. Everybody teaches somebody during their lifetime. Many people think that because they went to school, they are qualified to teach. Though we know that this is not necessarily true, most people frequently find themselves in a leaching or learning mode, collaborating with another person who facilitates the process. Testimonials abound about how teaching is the highest calling of a free people, but too often neither the remuneration nor the status of the field reflects this perspective. Teaching is a profession with an identity problem, particularly if its members use the world as a mirror. Often what motivates an individual to enter the profession, despite discouragement from well-meaning relatives, friends, and even teachers, is the memory of a teacher who helped them search for what Nel Noddings terms a better self, someone who assisted them to dream a life that they never thought possible. It is the optimism, the passion, and the commitment of the teacher, both to the students and the discipline, that empower students to recognize that they, too, can make a difference in the world. Teaching at its best is a collaborative activity. Education controversies are always raging. Whether we are debating hornbooks or textbooks, Latin grammar schools or charter schools, religion or science, critical pedagogy or the return to the basics, a furious fight is in progress. What this means is that teaching is and always has been a messy, complicated, ambiguous, incredibly complex and dynamic interaction among people. The challenge and seduction of teaching is that you never get it quite right. We are always on a seesaw, pulled up and down by our dreams and frustrations, reaching beyond that which we thought was possible. As Maxine Greene says, “We are pursuing something that we haven’t yet caught.” Many studies indicate that, when students learn about themselves and others, it is among the most significant experiences that they have in college. When I ask education students what they most want their own children to learn in school, Howard Gardner’s personal intelligences are at the top of their hierarchy. Obviously, parents want their children to master the skills, engage with the great |
ideas,
and develop the ability to communicate, reason and solve problems. Yet
they are equally concerned that their children become happy,
self-actualizing human beings capable of effective engagement with others.
As
an educator, you then might ask, “Is that also our responsibility?”
The battle cry seems to be, “Do it all.” Yes! Feed them, love them,
make them into lifelong learners, help them to become compassionate human
beings, assist them to feel worthwhile, teach them to be good citizens of
their country and the world! These
are the ultimate goals of education. The staggering truth is that many
teachers do manage to do it all, and for them teaching is the best job in
the world. Perhaps the richest and most useful metaphor for teaching and learning that I have found is to think of the classroom as a studio. The word “studio” suggests images of light, space, creativity, works in progress, experimentation--and collaboration, a place where the instructor models many roles. L. Dee Fink uses the metaphor of teacher as helmsman. If you have ever been white-water rafting, you know that most of us are oarsmen, but there is usually one person who is most experienced who serves as helmsman. His or her job is to steer and coordinate the efforts of the oarsmen. Come into the education classes at Brooklyn College and you will see that optimism is alive and well in education despite the frustration and anger about scripted programs and standardized texts. There is always the power of possibility. It boggles my mind that many teachers seem to apologize for doing what arguably might be the most important job in the world, for every profession depends upon effective teachers. We need to stop focusing on the wormwood side of teaching and celebrate our heroes. The agenda is outrageous--saving children who will save the world. Last year, when I received the Tow Award for Distinguished Teaching, I decided that I would like to find these heroes and celebrate them. The provost and I have invited the graduating class of 2006 to write essays in which they describe an exceptional teacher. A committee composed of myself, Dean Shanley, and Professors DeLuca, Gura, and Taubman, selected two essays. The two winners, Barbara Brizard (Midwood High School) and Christine Choi (Brooklyn Technical High School), and their teachers, Carmine Rusotti and Paul Hoftzyer, received a cash award at a special ceremony in May honoring these outstanding human beings who have made a difference in the lives of so many. Chalk dust will forever be on their souls. --/-- |
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Education for Everyone: Agenda for Education in a Democracy Deborah Shanley In fall 2001 I was invited to participate in a Leadership Associates Program conducted by the Institute for Educational Inquiry (IEI) in Seattle. During the past five years, faculty teams from the City University of New York have been introduced to the Agenda for Education in a Democracy, an agenda shared by educators at the IEI, at the Center for Educational Renewal, and across the United States in member settings of the National Network for Educational Renewal (NNER). John L. Goodlad and his colleagues have engaged us in critical conversations, anchored in the mission-driven, research-based agenda that seeks to “foster in the nation’s young the skills, dispositions, and knowledge necessary for effective participation in a social and political democracy; ensure that the young have access to those understandings and skills required for satisfying and responsible lives; develop educators who nurture the learning and well-being of every student; and ensure educators’ competence in and commitment to serving as stewards of schools.” |
Brooklyn
College has been a member of the NNER and has strived to integrate the
agenda into our work and align it with other projects that we were already
engaged in on campus. Our
primary projects included the participation of Vincent Fucillo, professor emeritus of political science, and myself
coteaching a paired course in the undergraduate program on democracy with
one theme addressing the public purpose of schools in educating future
citizens. At a recent NNER
conference, Fucillo and I participated in a roundtable discussion on the
collaboration between schools of education and liberal arts and science
departments. The panelists
agreed that although seen as a benefit, with its implications of
cooperation, teamwork, and mutual support, collaborative behavior cannot
be brought about unless it is valued. There
must be agreement among collaborators that all sides will benefit. Collaboration
must be recognized as a positive academic goal and methodically designed
with a specific—and lasting—outcome in mind. The tripartite group of
Fucillo, Professor of Education Namulundah
Florence, and
Brooklyn College Academy Principal Nick
Mazzarelli attended a symposium in May to study and further understand
the agenda and how it could help us strengthen and sustain our work in
schools and our collaborations with liberal arts and science departments. --/-- |
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PAGE 3 |
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| Partnership
Updates
Brooklyn
College Academy Brooklyn College Academy senior Ashley Houston is a $30,000 New York Times Scholarship winner, the first in BCA’s twenty-year history. College
Now College
Now will shortly release a second edition of Lyrical Minded: Enhancing Literacy Through Popular Culture and Spoken
Word Poetry,
a CD/DVD project featuring student poets and their teachers. The
project is the culmination of the second year of College Now’s development
program for high school professionals from Brooklyn
College
Academy,
East
New York
Family
Academy, Freedom
Academy,
and other partner high schools. Assistant Professor Priya
Parmar, literacy and curriculum
development specialist, worked with teachers, a principal, and a guidance
counselor to design original instructional units that incorporate specific
genres of popular culture to promote literacy, analytic, and other
essential skills by making connections between students’ experience and
the high school curriculum. These units have been successfully
implemented in several schools and have included a
professional development and a counseling curriculum as well as units in
academic disciplines and the arts. Each year, students whose
classes are included in the program participate in poetry slams at their schools and
attend a culminating spoken-word performance featuring selected
students at the Nuyorican Poets Café in Manhattan.
CUNY
Teacher
Academy The Teacher Academy is the City University of New York's contribution to the NYC Partnership for Teacher Excellence, a collaborative partnership with the New York City Department of Education and New York University. The academy will be launched with the help of a $15 million grant from the Petrie Foundation. Associate Professor Eleanor Miele has been named director of the Brooklyn College unit. An internal committee chaired by Associate Professor Fred Stopsky has been established that includes |
School of Education and liberal arts and sciences faculty. Two cohorts (mathematics and science) will start classes in fall 2006. In addition to these subjects, the BC unit will emphasize the educational use of New York City cultural institutions. For more information, contact Eleanor Miele or Tamar Levin at 2606 James Hall (718) 951-5061. Early
Childhood Programs/Brooklyn College The program was recently awarded a four-year, $608,000 U.S. Department of Education grant toward the costs of providing high-quality early education and care programs to the children of low-income students. Kappa
Delta Pi, Eta Theta Chapter The Eta Theta chapter won an Achieving Chapter of Excellence (ACE) award, presented at the Kappa Delta Pi Biennial Convocation in Orlando, Florida in November. Diane Shatles and six chapter members presented a workshop, "Teaching the Reluctant Learner" at the convocation. An international honor society in education, Kappa Delta Pi is committed to recognizing excellence and fostering mutual cooperation, support, and professional growth for educational professionals. Midwood High School at Brooklyn College Midwood High School students Kerry Li, Elina Melamed, and Michael Vishnevetsky were named 2006 Intel Scholarship winners. Vishnevetsky was one of three New York City high school students invited to attend the Nobel Prize Award ceremony in Stockholm in December. School of Education receives official notice of accreditation by the National Council of Teachers of Education (NCATE) Participating members of the School of Education’s NCATE team, headed by Dean Deborah Shanley and Assistant Deans Kathleen McSorley and Peter Taubman, were honored by Brooklyn College president Christoph Kimmich at a reception during the school’s annual faculty retreat in January following official notice of accreditation by NCATE. Faculty, staff, students, and participating teachers in local field placement schools were all applauded for their hard work and frank, accurate presentation of the activities of the School of Education. The NCATE accreditation team, which included teachers and administrators in schools of education from institutions outside of New York, indicated at the informal close of their April 2005 visit that they were favorably impressed by the close connection between the School of Education’s Conceptual Framework and the actual practice of its concepts in the classroom. --/-- |
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| News
and Notes Faculty Associate Professor David Bloomfield
’s commentary on small schools implementation was published in Education
Week, January 25, 2006
. His article “High School Reform: The Downside of Scaling Up”
appeared in the fall 2005 issue of the Politics of Education
Association Bulletin. Bloomfield was recently recognized by the New York State Education Department as a
“Distinguished Educator” for his work on New York State school redesign. |
Barbara Winslow , associate professor, delivered a paper, "How Can I Possibly Talk about Harriet Tubman When I Have to Get to World War II by February: Integrating Class, Gender, Race, and Sexuality into the Middle and High School Curriculum" at Beijing Normal University in December as part of a National Council for the Social Studies delegation to study the teaching of social studies in China. Students MSED candidates in teaching students with disabilities presented their master’s research projects at the conference, “Creating an Inclusive Environment for all Students” at Pace University. James Hewitt, Jacqueline Mattos, Jon Taylor, and Jeanelle Walcott contributed to the ongoing conversation on integrating students with special needs into the school environment. Assistant professors Pauline Bynoe and Yoon Joo Lee also presented workshops at the June, 2006 conference. Staff Michael Watson is the teaching assistant for field experience in Assistant Professor Linda Louis ’s ED43 class, “Teaching the Creative Arts.” A graduate of Brooklyn Transitions, Watson has been working for the School of Education as a “guy Friday” for the past four years. He also serves as assistant manager for the Brooklyn College basketball team. Welcome to New Faculty Namulundah Florence, assistant professor, educational foundations, received her initial degree from Kenyatta University , Kenya , and a Ph.D. in education administration and supervision from Fordham University . She taught at Bronx Community College as an adjunct assistant professor in education and reading before joining the School of Education as a substitute assistant professor in 2002. Hanna Haydar , assistant professor, joined the program in adolescence mathematics education in spring 2006. Haydar received a Ph.D. in mathematics education from Columbia University and was the curriculum standards and professional development adviser of RAND-Education, where he worked on a plan for national educational reform in the State of Qatar. Sonia E. Murrow, assistant professor, adolescence foundations, received a Ph.D. in history of American education and culture from New York University and served as coordinator of the international exchange program for the American Field Service, instructor of secondary education at New York University , and assistant professor of urban education at Long Island University. Maria R. Scharrón-del Rio , assistant professor, school counseling, received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Puerto Rico and served a clinical internship at the Cambridge Hospital & Harvard Medical School . She was an assistant psychologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital’s Integrated Mental Health Program/Child Psychiatry. Jacqueline Shannon, assistant professor, early childhood education, received a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from New York University and an NIH Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at NYU’s Institute for Child Health and Development. She was a developmental research psychologist at NYU’s Department of Applied Psychology. Jessica Siegel, assistant professor, adolescence English, is a graduate of the University of Chicago and earned an M.S. degree in journalism from Columbia University as well as an M.S. in education from Teachers College, Columbia. She taught high school English and journalism for ten years in New York City and joined the School of Education in 2001 as a journalism instructor. Siegel is a member of the New Jersey Society of Professional Journalists. We Wish Them Well in All They Do The
School
of
Education
lost one of its master teachers and valued colleague, Professor Phyllis
Gold Gluck, to the seductions of retirement this spring. A painter,
Prof. Gluck earned her master of fine arts in
painting and sculpture from
Columbia
University
in 1957, and Ed.D. in art
and education in 1971. She also studied in Italy
under a Fulbright grant. --/-- |
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his
year has seen a major revitalization in the collaboration between the
School of Education and Brooklyn College Academy (BCA), the College’s
on-campus high school. Plans continue to expand the relationship into a
true professional development laboratory for the College’s faculty and
students, and the faculty and students of the grade 7--12 public school,
which is housed partially on campus and partially at the Bridges to
Brooklyn site on Coney Island Avenue and Park Circle in Brooklyn.