Education News

The spring 2009 joint meeting of the Ohio-region section of the American Physical Society (OS/APS) and the Southern Ohio section of the American Association of Physics Teachers will take place Friday, April 24, and Saturday, April 25, on the campus of Ohio Northern University.

The theme of the conference is "Plasma FUNdamentals." There will be four keynote speakers from the fields of space plasma physics, basic plasma physics, applied plasma physics and fusion physics. These speakers are Earl Scime from West Virginia University, John Goree from the University of Iowa, Matthew Goeckner from the University of Texas at Dallas and Linn Van Woerkom from The Ohio State University.

Additionally, participants will present their research in a poster session on April 24 from 4:30 until 6 p.m. Oral presentations will continue the following morning from 8 to 9:45 a.m. in McIntosh Center. A complete schedule of the weekend's activities is available at www.onu.edu/a+s/physics/osaps/osaps.html

For more information, contact Dr. Jason Pinkney, associate professor of physics and astronomy, at 419-772-2740.

On Friday March 27, six ONU students and Professor Russ Crawford attended the Ohio Council for the Social Studies Annual Convention in Worthington. Along with Crawford, Matt Fox (SR Social Studies, Cardington, OH), Brian Hoefel (SR Social Studies, Akron, OH), and Aaron Stiger (SR Social Studies, Wapakoneta, OH) presented a session on Using Sport to Teach the Social Studies to the secondary teachers gathered there. Also attending were Katherine Gualtiere (SR Social Studies, Parma, OH), Rick Ingold (SR Social Studies, Newark, OH), and Jennifer Sherman (JR Social Studies, North Olmstead, OH).

After Crawford gave an overview of how sport could be used to teach the National Council on the Social Studies Ten Themes, Hoefel presented his lesson plan for using the 1980 U.S. Hockey team victory over the Soviets to understand the latter phase of the Cold War. Matt Fox then presented his lesson plan on International Sporting Events as Sites for Political Engagement to describe how the Olympics are often sites for political protest as well as athletic achievement. Aaron Stiger followed with a multiage lesson plan for teaching Civic Ideals and Practices using sport.

Among the audience was Tom Rutan, the Associate Director in the Office of Curriculum and Instruction at the Ohio Department of Education, who asked what the response would be to a principal who wondered why educators were wasting time talking about sport when we should be getting students ready for the Ohio Graduation Test. Stiger answered immediately that sport is an important way to reach many students who wouldn’t otherwise care about the social studies, and student interest increases their comprehension of the subject.

All of the student presenters did a fine job delivering their part of the talk, and all students had the chance to listen to professional educators tell about their fields of expertise. They also had the chance to network with other educators and to talk with sales representatives from various textbook and other educational companies, not to mention gathering bags full of complimentary materials.

 

Picture, left to right: Stiger, Fox, Hoefel, Ingold, Gualtiere, Sherman.

Dr. Sandra Crosser, professor of education, was a presenter at the Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) annual conference and exhibition titled "Children at the Crossroads: Educating All to Move Forward." Her presentation was "Partnership South Africa: An International Collaboration." The emphasis was on three innovations: (1) a new teacher professional development model; (2) making school Internet connections in remote areas; and (3) connecting alumni with teachers in rural South Africa.

Encountering lions, rhino and giraffes on the way to school are not common experiences for Ada, Ohio Rotary Club members Diana Garver, Nathan Oliver, Sandy Crosser, and Sandy's husband, Ron. But that is what it took to bring teacher training in literacy and technology to a remote village near Kruger National Park.   Calling themselves Partnership South Africa, the team of four was touched by the needs of community schools in Lepesi, South Africa where there is no running water, high unemployment, and great desire to educate the 1200 children enrolled in the village schools.        Rotary VSG grants and donations from ONU and individuals made it possible for the Ohio team to bring hope to the small, rural, South African village schools.  There are 38 teachers in the primary and secondary schools.   When asked what was needed in the village schools, educators requested training for teachers in literacy, child development, and technology.  Following that lead, teacher training in 2007 and again in 2008 focused on classroom demonstrations of strategies to teach beginning reading to the youngest children and content area reading skills to older students.  The Rotary team found that teachers had access to few instructional materials and very limited print resources to use in their classrooms. Teachers struggled with limited numbers of textbooks, requiring four or five students to look on together, limiting opportunities to learn. In order to overcome the lack of books, the Rotary team looked to other ways to provide access to the world of knowledge.  That breakthrough came when tech expert, Nathan Oliver, accessed a cell tower and cell technology to connect the internet.  Lepesi, an isolated community of 3500 has been brought into the age of technology.  The Lepesi students are the first  in Mpumalanga Province to have internet access.   That connection is critical in a system where there are no libraries and few textbooks. Of course teacher training in the use of technology has been important to sustaining the initial inroads.  In August, 2007 teachers began training in use of e-mail , Word, and Excel.  E-mail allowed continued contact between Africa and Ohio during the interval between training sessions.  A second training session occurred in August, 2008.  At that time the team provided multimedia projectors and computers for both the primary and secondary schools.  Teachers learned how to create lessons, insert illustrations, and project text onto classroom walls, permitting all students access to reading the text.  Other classroom materials such as hand-held calculators, computers, chart holders, picture books, pencils, pens, and white boards had been donated by community groups and individuals in the US and were carried with the training team to very grateful teachers. One major problem encountered by the primary school has been lack of classroom space for the preschoolers and kindergarteners.  The forty children had been using a shipping container as a classroom.  The crowded conditions made it impossible for children to sit in chairs, move about, or even hang up jackets and backpacks.  The Partnership South Africa team contacted a local contractor for an estimate, finding that two classrooms could be built for $11,500.  The funds were raised through donations and construction was begun August 2008.  Classrooms were completed and have been in use since October, 2008.  The Ada community and Lepesi village, both with populations of approximately 3000, are demonstrating that individuals can make a difference in our world even when those individuals live on opposite sides of the globe

 

Dr. Tena Roepke, associate professor of mathematics/education and director of the Center for Teacher Education, has been appointed chair of the Higher Education Subcommittee of Ohio's Educator Standards Board.

Dr. Sandra Crosser, professor of education, and Dr. Diana Garver, assistant professor of education, made a presentation titled "Partnership South Africa: Making a Global Connection" at the Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges for Teacher Education (AILACTE) annual meeting and extended conference, Feb. 5-6 in Chicago.

The presentation describes the innovative teacher-training project connecting ONU personnel and teacher education alumni with teachers in an isolated, rural school in South Africa. Research on continuing professional development was used to build a new training model.

 

Dr. Tena Roepke, director of the Center for Teacher Education, was appointed in May 2008 to a two-year term on Ohio's Educator Standards Board. In addition, she was recently elected as treasurer for the Ohio Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and the Ohio Confederation of Teacher Education Organizations.

On Oct. 29, Dr. Russ Crawford, assistant professor of history, Linda Lehman,visiting assistant to the director of the Center for Teacher Education, and Dr. Sandy Crosser, professor of education, presented their experiences in observing student-teachers in distant locations to faculty from around the country who are part of the CIC Teach 21 Records of Practice webinar program.

This program seeks to bring education professionals together online to share effective practices that they use in their programs. Lehman presented the reasons behind ONU's decision to use remote observation technology rather than hiring outside contractors to observe our student teachers. Crosser told participants about observations that have taken place in locations in Europe. Crawford discussed the various technological platforms that can be used to accomplish these observations.

Dr. Sandra Crosser, professor of education, and Dr. Diana Garver, assistant professor of education, gave a presentation on Partnership South Africa at the Ohio Confederation of Teacher Education Organizations fall meeting in Columbus on Oct. 22-24.