Crocco

6th Annual Mary Hepburn Lectureship in Social Studies Education

“Sustainability and Social Studies: Perfect Together”

Margaret Crocco
Visiting Scholar at Michigan State University

Crocco will explore sustainability education in relation to democratic dialogue and civic engagement. Drawing on issues of difference, gender and poverty, as well as the use of film as a teaching tool, the scope of Crocco’s talk will appeal to a broad range of students and faculty in the College of Education.

Lamar Dodd School of Art
Room S151

A catered reception will be held prior to the lecture at 5:30 p.m.  in the atrium.

Jonkgo

Whitehead Road Elementary’s Aaron Jongko (BSED ’08, MED ’09) named Clarke County Teacher of the Year, reports a September 30 Athens Banner-Herald story. Jongko received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in early childhood education from UGA.

Buxton

A University of Georgia College of Education research team has received a $2.65 million grant from the National Science Foundation to test a new teaching model that improves science learning for middle school educating English language learners and perhaps for all students.

Led by UGA faculty member Cory Buxton, a professor in the department of educational theory and practice, the project will further explore and demonstrate the effectiveness of the teaching and learning model he and his COE colleagues have developed over the past three years.

Buxton is the principal investigator for the grant—and the project is focused specifically on increasing competitiveness among Latino populations as well as other English language learners.

Because of unprecedented growth in the Latino population in the U.S. over the past five decades, the international competitiveness of the nation will depend on the academic success of Latino students, Buxton said. Unfortunately, Latinos’ educational attainment has not kept pace. With Georgia among the top 10 states for fastest-growth in and largest share of Latinos, the need for educating English language learners is a critical priority.

The new study will focus on teaching as it influences the critical student transition from middle school to high school.

Buxton and his team worked with students, teachers and parents in three area middle schools to help students improve their science inquiry practices, use academic language in and beyond science class and understand that success in science can lead to broader academic success. The team also designed, tested and refined methods to determine the effectiveness of the teaching-learning model.

“English language learners are often pulled out of class to learn conversational English and miss their grade-level content classes, or they are left to sink or swim with unsupported immersion in all-English instruction,” Buxton said. “We use a co-teaching model, often used with special education students, which involves an English as a second language teacher collaborating with a content-area teacher.”

In the new four-year study, Buxton and his colleagues will focus on teaching as it influences the critical student transition from middle school to high school. The college’s team will work with select area teachers in grades 7-10 with a focus on life and physical sciences, and an emphasis on biotechnology as a critical science, technology, engineering and mathematics field.

“The middle school to high school transition is a period in which many students lose interest in science, and many English language learners drop out of school,” Buxton said. “Our research will help us understand the aspects of professional learning that can support teachers in helping (these students) learn to use science, engineering and academic language practices to gain college and career-ready skills in science.”

In their previous study, Buxton and his team worked with students, teachers and parents in three area middle schools to help students improve their science inquiry practices, use academic language in and beyond science classes and understand that success in science can lead to broader academic success. The team also designed, tested and refined methods to determine the effectiveness of the teaching-learning model.

In addition to Buxton, the project team includes Martha Allexsaht-Snider, an associate professor in the department of educational theory and practice; Zhenqui Lu, an assistant professor of educational psychology; and Allan Cohen, a professor of educational psychology and director of the college’s Georgia Center for Assessment.

Buxton

A University of Georgia College of Education research team has received a $2.65 million grant from the National Science Foundation to test a new teaching model that improves science learning for middle school educating English language learners and perhaps for all students.

Led by UGA faculty member Cory Buxton, a professor in the department of educational theory and practice, the project will further explore and demonstrate the effectiveness of the teaching and learning model he and his COE colleagues have developed over the past three years.

Buxton is the principal investigator for the grant—and the project is focused specifically on increasing competitiveness among Latino populations as well as other English language learners.

Because of unprecedented growth in the Latino population in the U.S. over the past five decades, the international competitiveness of the nation will depend on the academic success of Latino students, Buxton said. Unfortunately, Latinos’ educational attainment has not kept pace. With Georgia among the top 10 states for fastest-growth in and largest share of Latinos, the need for educating English language learners is a critical priority.

The new study will focus on teaching as it influences the critical student transition from middle school to high school.

Buxton and his team worked with students, teachers and parents in three area middle schools to help students improve their science inquiry practices, use academic language in and beyond science class and understand that success in science can lead to broader academic success. The team also designed, tested and refined methods to determine the effectiveness of the teaching-learning model.

“English language learners are often pulled out of class to learn conversational English and miss their grade-level content classes, or they are left to sink or swim with unsupported immersion in all-English instruction,” Buxton said. “We use a co-teaching model, often used with special education students, which involves an English as a second language teacher collaborating with a content-area teacher.”

In the new four-year study, Buxton and his colleagues will focus on teaching as it influences the critical student transition from middle school to high school. The college’s team will work with select area teachers in grades 7-10 with a focus on life and physical sciences, and an emphasis on biotechnology as a critical science, technology, engineering and mathematics field.

“The middle school to high school transition is a period in which many students lose interest in science, and many English language learners drop out of school,” Buxton said. “Our research will help us understand the aspects of professional learning that can support teachers in helping (these students) learn to use science, engineering and academic language practices to gain college and career-ready skills in science.”

In their previous study, Buxton and his team worked with students, teachers and parents in three area middle schools to help students improve their science inquiry practices, use academic language in and beyond science classes and understand that success in science can lead to broader academic success. The team also designed, tested and refined methods to determine the effectiveness of the teaching-learning model.

In addition to Buxton, the project team includes Martha Allexsaht-Snider, an associate professor in the department of educational theory and practice; Zhenqui Lu, an assistant professor of educational psychology; and Allan Cohen, a professor of educational psychology and director of the college’s Georgia Center for Assessment.

Alvermann

Spangler

Two College of Education professors, Donna E. Alvermann and Denise A. Spangler, have been appointed to endowed faculty positions in the College. The endowed positions are named for the late UGA President O.C. Aderhold and his late daughter, Elizabeth (BeBe) Aderhold, who served as a faculty member in childhood education.

Alvermann, a Distinguished Research Professor of Language and Literacy Education, was named the Omer Clyde and Elizabeth Parr Aderhold Professor in Education.

Alvermann is also a Fellow in the Owens Institute for Behavioral Research and an Affiliate Faculty member of the Institute for African American Studies. She is currently the principal investigator on a grant funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop and test a Web tool for improving young adolescents’ literacy skills.

Previously, she was principal investigator and co-director of the National Reading Research Center, a $7.8 million dollar grant collaboration with the University of Maryland and funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Her research has also been supported by the Spencer Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association. Alvermann was elected a Fellow in the American Educational Research Association.

Spangler, professor and head of the department of mathematics and science education, was named the Bebe Aderhold Professor in Early Childhood Education.

Spangler’s research focuses on the development of pre-service elementary school teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching. She has published her work in the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education and the Teachers College Record. She has garnered grants from both the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Spencer Foundation. She is currently the principal investigator of a $1 million NSF grant designed to increase the number of high-quality mathematics and science teachers in high-needs school districts.

Spangler, a member of the UGA Teaching Academy, has been recognized for her work with UGA’s Richard B. Russell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and a Lilly Teaching Fellowship.

Spangler has been involved with several national policy efforts focusing on mathematics assessment and teacher preparation standards in association with the American Statistical Association, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators and the Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences.

In addition to her work at UGA, Spangler is in her third term as a member of the Clarke County School District Board of Education, where she has served as vice president.

The special appointments, approved by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia earlier this year, are among three positions established with funds in a gift bequest from the estate of O.C. Aderhold, former UGA President (1950-67) and dean of the College of Education (1947-50).   The third appointment is held by Allan S. Cohen, professor of educational psychology and director of two major assessment and research centers in the College of Education, who was named the Omer Clyde and Elizabeth Parr Aderhold Professor in Research Methodology in 2011.

Hedgepeth

Abbey Hedgepeth (BSED ’13) is featured in the first of a series of Association of Middle Level Educators podcasts about  the critical work happening in middle level-schools and the critical lives that make that work possible.

Listen in as AMLE talks to Hedgepeth, a first-year teacher, talks about the hopes she has for herself and her students as the school year begins.  You can follow Abbey’s journey as AMLE keeps the conversation going throughout the school year.

Hedgepeth was in a cohort taught by Educational Theory and Practice faculty Kathy Thompson and Gayle Andrews at Hilsman Middle School, one of the Model 4 Professional Development Schools.  She was a leader in her EDMS (Middle Grades Program) cohort, contributed significantly to the work at Hilsman and to the Athens community (she tutored at the East Athens Community Center). She did her student teaching at another of the Model 4 Professional Development Schools,  J.J. Harris Elementary Charter School.

AMLE Podcast:  Middle Level Journeys – Episode 1

Elms

Pamela Nix Elms (BSED ’95), has been named the joint executive director for the Kappa Delta Sorority and Foundation.

She will oversee both the sorority and foundation staff and operations at the Kappa Delta national headquarters in Memphis, Tenn. She became executive director of the sorority in 2011, reported an August 14 story in the Gainesville Times.

Elms  served as the president of the Sigma Pi chapter of Kappa Delta while she was a student at the College of Education where she received her bachelor’s degree in middle school education.

Burton

Maxine Burton (BSED 72, MED ’78), founder and president of balloon and gift supply store burton + BURTON, was appointed earlier this month by Gov. Nathan Deal to serve on the Georgia Council for the Arts, reported a story in the August 2 issue of the Athens Banner-Herald.

Butchart

Ron Butchart, professor and head of the department of educational theory and practice, is quoted in a July 17 story in the Hampton Roads Daily Press about contraband slaves flocking to Yorktown, Va., when Confederate troops pulled back from Richmond late in the Civil War.  Butchart is the author of a book titled,  “Schooling the Freed People: Teaching, Learning and the Struggle for Black Freedom, 1863-1865.”

A followup article in the AJC’s “Get Schooled” blog June 18 reports additional information from the study specific to Georgia that was released by the NCTQ later that morning.