the EDUCATOR SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND ALLIED HUMAN SERVICES
Dr. David Foulk Assumes Duties as SOEAHS Dean After an almost yearlong national search, Dr. David F. Foulk has been named dean of Hofstra University’s School of Education and Allied Human Services (SOEAHS), effective July 1, 2008. Dr. Foulk earned an Ed.D. and M.A. in health education from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and most recently served as professor of health education and associate dean for administration and research at Florida State University’s College of Education. Hofstra University Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs Herman A. Berliner said, “We were fortunate in our national search for a new dean of the School of Education and Allied Human Services to have an impressive and highly qualified pool of finalists. As the process progressed, it was clear to President Rabinowitz and all of us involved that Dr. David Foulk was the most qualified and best suited to lead our school. We are all delighted that he will be joining us as dean.”
Prior to serving as associate dean at FSU, Dr. Foulk was chair of its Department of Middle and Secondary Education for a decade and chair of Georgia Southern University’s Health Sciences Department for seven years. He has published extensively in the areas of public health and health education, specifically in the fields of adolescent obesity, HIV/AIDS and tobacco use prevention. He has also been involved in submitting successful grant proposals at the multimillion dollar level. Dr. Foulk’s diverse academic background includes serving as an instructor at Tennessee State School for the Deaf and Georgia School for the Deaf, as well as coaching basketball and football at both schools. He was a member of the writing SUMMER 2008
Dr. David Foulk team for the health and physical education curriculum for the State School for the Deaf in Knoxville, Tennessee. Dr. Maureen Murphy, who has served almost three years as interim dean for SOEAHS, will resume her role as Hofstra professor of curriculum and teaching for the fall 2008 semester.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
“I am very excited about the opportunity to work with such a respected group of faculty, staff and students,” said Dr. Foulk. “I eagerly anticipate exploring new areas of potential collaboration within our academic community and am excited about the potential synergy we can create across our campus, across the region and across the nation. SOEAHS has a longstanding reputation for quality of instruction, service and research that we will continue while expanding our visibility among our many constituencies.”
IDEAS Spring 2008 Lecture Series . . . . . . . . . 2 Slavery Walking Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Educate ’08 and the Presidential Election . . . 4 Shaping Students’ Lives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Fall 2008 Conferences/Workshops . . . . . . . . . 6 Faculty Accomplishments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Immigration Museum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
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Climate Institute’s Michael MacCracken Concludes IDEAS Spring 2008 Lecture Series Hofstra’s Institute for Development of Education in the Advanced Sciences (IDEAS), directed by Dr. Janice Koch, provides a focus on cutting-edge issues in science and technology for the general public, local public and private school teachers and administrators, and college educators. Every academic year, IDEAS hosts a series of lectures that have widespread appeal and are free and open to the public. The aim is to enhance visibility and understanding of scientific and technological advances for the public and the professional education community.
Dr. Janice Koch, IDEAS Director spoke about limiting national and global emissions with the ultimate goal of preventing global warming. Other spring 2008 IDEAS lectures included Dr. Antonio Lanzirotti from Brookhaven National Laboratory, who discussed “Shining Light on Extraterrestrial Matter”; Dr. Connie Bertka from the American Academy of Science, who addressed the conflict between scientific knowledge and society’s values and beliefs; Hofstra Geology Professor Charles Merguerian, who lectured on mega-construction projects in subsurface New York City; Hofstra Geology Professor J Bret Bennington, who painted a prehistoric picture of dinosaurs in New York state; NASA astronaut Charles Camarda, who talked about his adventures in space; and Felix J. Grucci, Jr., who explained the science behind the mesmerizing world of fireworks. IDEAS also hosts a number of professional development workshops and seminars for teachers who seek to enhance their scientific knowledge and integrate cutting-edge technology in their teaching.
Dr. Michael MacCracken, Climate Institute On May 1 Dr. Michael MacCracken, chief scientist at the Climate Institute, served as the final IDEAS speaker for the spring 2008 semester. He discussed the impact of climate change and how human activities – primarily the combustion of coal, oil and natural gas – are increasing the atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping gases. He also PAGE 2
IDEAS will kick off the fall 2008 semester with “Galileo’s Muse,” which explores the relationship between one of history’s greatest scientists and the spirited music of late Renaissance Italy, on Thursday, October 2, at 7:30 p.m. at Monroe Lecture Center Theater. To view a full schedule of 2008-2009 IDEAS events, please visit hofstra.edu/IDEAS or call (516) 463-5792. THE EDUCATOR
Telecommunicating Students Meet Their Hofstra Mentors Throughout the spring 2008 semester, junior and senior students in the School of Education and Allied Human Services – along with Professors Irene Plonczak, Blidi Stemn and Roberto Joseph – utilized state-of-the-art telecommunications technology to work with 30 fifthgrade students in Ms. Neme Alperstein’s P.S. 56 class in Richmond Hill, New York. Finally, on May 1, the fifth graders met their Hofstra mentors. Their field trip to the University included a campus tour and an assignment to tell a “digital story.” This required each fifth grader to take digital pictures on a campus tour.
digital story workshop. For the Hofstra student-teachers, the videoconferencing experience highlighted the importance of understanding the content matter in order to teach, while the face-to-face workshop added the social and personal dimensions to teaching. Teaching, learning, and bonding defined this overall experience for Hofstra student-teachers and fifth graders from P.S. 56.”
The tour started at Professor Plonczak’s garden outside of Hagedorn Hall, where they planted seeds, identified vegetables and discussed caring for a vegetable garden. After touring the rest of the campus, the Hofstra students, professors and Ms. Alperstein’s class enjoyed lunch before uploading their pictures in the computer lab. “The visit of the fifth-grade class to Hofstra allowed our student-teachers to meet and bond with the students they had been teaching through videoconferencing,” said Professor Plonczak. “An experience that started as a virtual relationship culminated in a face-to-face
Dr. Irene Plonczak (r) works with a fifth-grade student at her teaching garden.
Dr. Alan Singer’s Third Annual Lower Manhattan Slavery Walking Tour On May 23 Hofstra Professor of Curriculum and Teaching Alan Singer and Adjunct Instructor of Curriculum and Teaching Michael Pezone conducted the Third Annual Lower Manhattan Slavery Walking Tour. The professors joined students from the advanced placement government class at the Law, Government, and Community Service Magnet High School in Cambria Heights, Queens, and serve as tour guides for hundreds of middle and high school students from all over the New York metropolitan area. The Slavery Walking Tour began at the red sculpture at One Police Plaza with stops at the Colonial-era African American Burial Ground; an 18th-century Wall Street “slave market”; a bank that financed the transatlantic slave trade; a restaurant where slave traders known as “blackbirders” planned their voyages; locations where enslaved Africans fought for freedom in 1712 and 1741; and New York City Hall, where the New York City mayor sided with the South and slavery during the Civil War. Many of these places and events have been “erased” from history. Other than the African American Burial Ground, none are even marked. The tour concluded at South Street Seaport. THE EDUCATOR
New York City high school students participate in Hofstra’s Slavery Walking Tour. Dr. Alan Singer won the 2005 National Council for the Social Studies Program of Excellence Award for his curriculum on New York’s complicity in the slave trade, a chapter of American history typically associated with the South. In fact, enslaved Africans lived and labored in New York from 1627 until 1827. New York’s economy was so linked to slavery that on the eve of the Civil War in 1861, Mayor Fernando Wood spoke of a “common sympathy” with “our aggrieved brethren of the slave states,” and called for the city to secede from the North. PAGE 3
Educate ’08 and the Presidential Election Hofstra University is proud to be the host of the third and final debate of the 2008 presidential campaign on October 15, 2008, produced by the Commission for Presidential Debates. Hosting this debate offers Hofstra students and the community unique insight into the presidential election and the issues important to the campaign.
Mary Matalin and James Carville participated in the April 30 event “All’s Fair: Love, War and Politics” at Hofstra’s John Cranford Adams Playhouse.
moderator Tim Russert on September 15; and a National Issues Forum for high school juniors and seniors on September 19. National Issues Forums is a nonpartisan, nationwide network of locally sponsored public forums that focus on public policy issues and provide high school students with a platform to probe and discuss with their peers the issues surrounding the 2008 campaign. The three topics of discussion at the Hofstra forum will be “America’s Role in the World: Building a More Secure Future”; “The Energy Problem: Choices for an Uncertain Future”; and “Paying for Health Care in America: How Can We Make It More Affordable?” Additionally this fall, Hofstra will offer a number of different courses that tie into the U.S. presidential race. Among them are “Analyzing and Teaching the 2008 Elections,” which examines issues associated with selecting a president in 2008, and “The World’s Children in Crisis: What Are the Shared Responsibilities of the American Presidency and the American People?” For a full list of courses that are part of Hofstra’s Educate ’08 initiative (many of which are offered in the late afternoon and early evening), visit hofstra.edu/educate08 and click on “Courses & Academics.”
In spring 2008 Hofstra launched Educate ’08, an unprecedented educational effort that is engaging not only University students and faculty, but also the public, in a yearlong series of conferences, events and lectures about the upcoming elections, politics and presidential history. Hofstra’s unique programs, such as the Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency, the Center for Civic Engagement, the Hofstra Cultural Center and the National Center for Suburban Studies, are important partners in this series. Events this past spring included presentations by New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd, author and adviser to four presidents David Gergen, presidential adviser and celebrated conservative voice Mary Matalin, and Democratic political strategist James Carville. In fall 2008 the Hofstra community looks forward to welcoming John and Elizabeth Edwards on September 8; NBC News Washington bureau chief and Meet the Press
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Former presidential adviser David Gergen met with students after delivering Hofstra’s Arnold A. Saltzman Lecture on the State of the Union on April 8. For additional information on future Educate ’08 events and for news regarding the October 15 presidential debate, please visit hofstra.edu/educate08 or hofstra.edu/debate.
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Reflecting on How to Shape the Lives of Our Students On April 8 Professor of Curriculum and Teaching Andrea Libresco, who directs the Hofstra University Network of Elementary Teachers (HNET), coordinated a program titled “The Teacher Who Shaped My Life,” where professors, teachers, administrators, undergraduate and graduate students shared their stories of teachers who greatly influenced their lives. Some participants located their former teachers and invited them to the event, where the audience consisted mainly of pre-service teachers.
one. Then Sr. Maura started ‘coaching’ me. She asked me a series of questions that led me to the correct answer and, when I gave it to her, she said, ‘That is absolutely correct, and don’t ever tell me again that you don't know the answer.’
Presenters spoke of teachers who had opened their minds, spoken to their hearts, appreciated and trusted them as creative individuals, and encouraged them to have high selfexpectations. Prospective teachers were moved as they realized that the effects of good teaching last a lifetime. One student, Esther Pascal, remembered her first-grade teacher, Dr. James Cone, a committed conservationist who insisted that she and her classmates think about the consequences of their actions on the environment. “To this day, I cannot throw away six-pack holders without cutting them up to protect the fish who could choke on them,” she said. Doctoral student Jonie Kipling spoke of Mr. DeLane, her high school social studies teacher, who had inspired her to take an interest in current events. After becoming a teacher herself, she emphasized current events in her own elementary classes, created major election-year projects, and became president of the Long Island Council for the Social Studies. Perhaps the most poignant story came from a professor whose own students see her as a rigorous thinker. She explained that it hadn’t always been that way and that it took a teacher, Sister Maura, to make her realize her potential. Eileen (Granito) Simons, special assistant professor of curriculum and teaching at Hofstra, said, “I was such a poor student that my very bright and academically successful siblings called me ‘poor dumb Eileen,’ and that is how I thought of myself. When teachers called on me to answer questions, my standard response was, ‘I don’t know.’ “That is how I went through six years of elementary school, until I got to seventh grade and Sr. Maura’s class. About a month into the school year, Sr. Maura called on me to answer a history question; I gave her my standard response. In a not-toogentle voice, she said, ‘Miss Granito, on your feet and answer the question.’ I stood and fumbled for an answer, an incorrect
Dr. Andrea Libresco “… In her sternness, she forced me to think and she forced me to realize that I was not as dumb as I had come to believe. That day she helped me believe in myself, and that day she changed the course of my life. I have been grateful to her ever since.” It is interesting to note that although some speakers focused on the “thinking” attributes that involved challenging students academically, the majority turned to the more affective, “caring” aspects of teaching. In addition, projects that stimulated creativity and innovation were strikingly presented and appreciated. The most obvious conclusion is that effective teaching and learning should link caring involvement with intellectual challenges. Perhaps teachers who demonstrate these attributes are best positioned to support their students on intellectual journeys in and out of the classroom.
This is the official newsletter of the School of Education and Allied Human Services. For more information, please call (516) 463-6775. Hofstra University is an EO/AA/ADA educator and employer. THE EDUCATOR
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Fall 2008 Conferences/Workshops Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): Current Policies and Best Practices The conference focuses on educating students with autism in general and special education settings and provides information on a variety of the research-based strategies to facilitate best outcomes for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Date/Time: Friday, September 26, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Location: Sondra and David S. Mack Student Center, North Campus Admission: $115 per person; $100 per person for teams of three or more
How to Build the Master Schedule This workshop is designed to teach secondary-level staff how to build a master schedule. The second day of the workshop is “hands-on,” with simulated data provided to allow participants to build a mock master schedule from start to finish. Date/Time: Friday, October 10, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and Monday, October 20, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Location: Scott Skodnek Business Development Center, Room 246, Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, South Campus Admission: $160 per person; $150 per person for teams of three or more
Legal Clinic: Current Issues (co-sponsored by the Center for Secondary School Administrators) This is an annual conference on major legal topics for middle and high school superintendents, assistant superintendents, principals and department chairpersons. Date/Time: Wednesday, October 22, 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Location: Scott Skodnek Business Development Center, Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, Room 246, South Campus Admission: $115 per person; $100 per person for teams of three or more
Know Me Know My Name, A Youth Leadership Institute: Students Helping Students (co-sponsored by the Center for Secondary School Administrators) Students in grades 9 and 10 have an opportunity to speak and be heard on issues facing young people – issues not usually covered in the classroom, but inextricably linked to academic success. The Youth Leadership Institute is designed to provide a forum for student voices to be heard, and for action plans to be developed that will promote access and equity for all students. Date/Time: Tuesday, October 28, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Location: Sondra and David S. Mack Student Center, North Campus Admission: $35 per person
Reaching All Children: Possibilities and Challenges in Implementing RTI This conference provides information to general and special educators and administrators on skills and strategies that are particularly effective in addressing at-risk learners. The goal of the program is not only to share information about RTI, but also to offer sessions that enable participants to apply strategies and ideas in ways that are meaningful for their particular classrooms, schools and districts. Date/Time: Monday, November 17, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Location: Sondra and David S. Mack Student Center, North Campus Admission: $115 per person; $100 per person for teams of three or more
AIDS Education/Prevention Conference (co-sponsored with the Nassau County HIV Commission Prevention Committee) Hofstra University has sponsored the Heart ❤ BEATS Conference since 2001. Teen peer educators plan workshops on HIV and health-related issues affecting young people. Free HIV screening is available to the University community. Date/Time: Friday, November 21, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Location: Sondra and David S. Mack Student Center, North Campus Admission: Free 13th Annual Conference of Long Island Gay & Lesbian Youth Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth, Inc. (LIGALY) offers youth, K-12 and university staff and administrators, youth counselors, and health care professionals the opportunity to learn about the broad range of issues affecting GLBT youth. Date/Time: Tuesday, December 2, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Location: Sondra and David S. Mack Student Center, North Campus Admission: $75 per person; $35 for college students; $30 for high school students. Preregistration is required.
Secondary New Teachers Network The network is designed to support secondary school teachers in their first few years in the classroom. Date/Time: Saturday, December 6, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Location: Hagedorn Hall, South Campus Admission: Free For more information on these conferences/workshops, please call the Office of Professional Development at (516) 463-5750.
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Faculty Accomplishments Jacqueline Grennon Brooks,
associate professor of curriculum and teaching, was named the School of Education and Allied Human Services Teacher of the Year for 2007-2008. She was recognized at the 12th annual Hofstra Gala on May 1 and at the May 18 commencement exercises. The award, which is coordinated by the Office of the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, is based on nominations by graduating seniors.
Jamie Mitus, assistant professor of counseling, research, special education and rehabilitation, has assumed the role of project director on a grant that was originally awarded by the U.S. Department of Education to the late Dr. Frank Bowe, who held Hofstra’s Dr. Mervin Livingston Schloss Distinguished Professorship for the Study of Disabilities. The $138,908 remaining funds of the grant have been reallocated, and Dr. Mitus will be responsible for the completion of the project titled “Distance-Education on Rehabilitation and Independent Living for Persons Who Are Deaf.” Dr. Mitus is also project director on an $88,498 grant from the Research Foundation of CUNY for the project “RRTC on Improving Employment Outcomes – Employment Service Systems Research and Training Center.” Maureen Murphy, interim dean of the School of Education and Allied Human Services, has been named one of the 2008 “Top100 Irish-Americans” by Irish America Magazine. She was honored by Dublin City University in April 2007 for her work in Irish studies. In June 2007 she traveled to Bulgaria at the invitation of the Irish government to speak about modern and contemporary poetry at a symposium on Irish literature at the University of Veliko Turnovo. Dr. Murphy was invited to participate at that symposium because her translation of Mairtin O’Direan’s poem “Ionracas” was selected as Ireland’s contribution to Bulgaria’s “Wall-to-Wall Poetry” project in Sofia, which promotes the diversity of European languages and literature. Each embassy has adopted a wall in the center of Sofia to be decorated with a poem in the language of its country. In July 2007 Dr. Murphy served as associate director of the Yeats International Summer School in Sligo, Ireland. This is considered Ireland’s premier literary summer school, featuring scholars and poets such as Helen Vendler and Seamus Heaney, who are regularly involved. While there, Dr. Murphy delivered the school’s Yeats Family Memorial Lecture, titled “Of Loyal Nature and of Noble Mind: Jack B. Yeats and His Siblings,” and she taught a seminar, “Yeats and Folklore.” She also serves on the selection committee for the George J. Mitchell Scholarships, a program created by the Irish-American Alliance and Irish universities in honor of the work of former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell in the Northern Ireland peace process. In October 2007 Dr. Murphy was named Hofstra University’s Honorary Alumna of the Year at the Interim Dean Maureen Murphy annual Alumni Awards Dinner. Darra Pace, assistant professor of counseling, rehabilitation, special education and research, received a $13,000 grant from the Amityville Union Free School District in support of the 2007-2008 Partnerships Program.
Anthony E. Robinson, assistant dean for special programs and executive director of STEP, CSTEP and TQLP, is project director on a $175,700 grant from the New York State Education Department in support of the Collegiate Science Technology Entry Program (CSTEP).
Donna Tudda, director of the Diane Lindner-Goldberg Child Care Institute at the Joan and Arnold Saltzman Community Services Center, is project director on a $20,000 grant from the Initial Teaching Alphabet Foundation, awarded in support of the project “Early Literacy Center Program Enhancements.”
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Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Hofstra University
SHempstead, CHOOL OF ENew DUCATION ALLIED HUMAN SERVICES York AND 11549 HEMPSTEAD, NEW YORK 11549
Student-Created Immigration Museum Debuted at Hagedorn Hall Faculty and students from Hofstra’s School of Education and Allied Human Services joined middle and high school students and teachers from a number of Long Island school districts to open an immigration museum at Hagedorn Hall on November 16, 2007. The museum featured artifacts, panoramas, charts, paintings, photog raphs and other materials depicting the immig rant experience in America over many different periods of time. The United States, New York state, and Long Island are shar ply divided over recent immigration reform proposals. In response, local teachers, working in conjunction with Dr. Alan Singer, Hofstra professor of curriculum and teaching, created a series of lessons and projects exploring the history of U.S. immigration and contemporary controversies. The culmination of these programs was this student-created “Hofstra Immigration Museum.”
Dr. Alan Singer Participating districts included Uniondale, BellmoreMerrick, Westbury, East Williston, Farmingdale, Queens, Comsewogue, Baldwin and Hempstead. The exhibition remained on display through November 20, 2007. 11874:6.08
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