Education News: Fall/Winter 2017

Several members of the university’s chapter of the Student Virginia Education Association (SVEA) attended the Virginia Education Association’s Instruction and Professional Development Conference in Richmond in November. The theme of the conference, which was sponsored by the Virginia Lottery, was “Celebrate! Educate! Advocate!” The keynote speaker was Yewande Austin, founder of the Global Institute for Diversity and Change. Breakout sessions covered issues including managing stress, teacher retention, special education policy, mobile apps, and inclusion and diversity, and were led by association members, university professors, and Virginia Department of Education officials.

In October, university studies students in the EDU 346 Management and Methods class used their iPads and MacBooks to connect with fellow future educators at the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) in Conway, Arkansas. Using the Flipgrid app, each of the 16 students in an assessment course at UCA uploaded a short Clips video about a questioning strategy like Broken Record, Instant Replay, or Point of Error, and demonstrated its use in a K-12 classroom. EDU 346 students watched a selected Clips video, and then used the reply feature in the Flipgrid app to share their constructive feedback on the post. The instructors of the courses – Dr. Michael Mills (UCA) and Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction Karrin Lukacs, Ph.D. (Shenandoah) – met during the Apple Distinguished Educator Academy in Houston, Texas, in July.  The results of the collaboration can be seen here.