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Blog Is a Verb
Curry alumni take to the blogosphere
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f you are a blog reader, you’ve noticed that the number of blogs written by educators has proliferated over the past decade or so. Reading blogs can invigorate you with rich sources of lesson ideas and link you to like-minded professionals. To some, blog is more verb than noun, and alumni from the Curry School’s education programs are among those getting in on the action. They are populating the Internet with inspirational stories of their classroom experiences, creative teaching strategies, and insightful perspectives. Even though their days are just as packed as every other educator’s, they find fulfillment in writing about their profession and publishing online. You can meet a sampling of alumni bloggers here. If you blog, too, please tell us about it, and we’ll add it to the online version of this article (go to curry.virginia.edu/education-connection). Alex Piedra (M.T. ’11 Soc Studies Ed) is a history teacher at Walker Upper Elementary School in Charlottesville. His blog is Mr. Piedra’s Classroom (mrpiedrasclassroom.blogspot.com/). Alex posts instructional and review activities as well as his thoughts on various classroom topics. He was initially inspired to blog because he had creative teaching ideas he thought other educators might find useful. Ultimately, though, blogging about his practice helped him be more cognizant of why he does what he does in the classroom. Peyten Williams (M.T. ’06 English Ed) is a middle school English teacher
at The Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Ga. She blogs at Superfluous Thought (superfluousthought.wordpress.com).
“I wanted an outlet to share some classroom work of which I’m really proud.”
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Class Notes 2010s Hillary Billingsley (M.Ed ’10 Reading Ed), Reading
Specialist at South Anna Elementary School in Montpelier, Va., was named the 2013 Richmond Area Reading Council Reading Teacher of the Year. Taryn Johnson (M.T. ’13 Elem Ed) was interviewed by NBC29 news about her impending first day in the classroom as a brand new teacher last fall. Johnson is teaching third graders at Broadus Wood Elementary. Beth Scherm (M.Ed. ’12 Reading) and Jason Scherm welcomed their baby girl, Eliza Grace Scherm, into the world on August 8, 2013… Kelly-Ann Williams (M.T. ’13 Elem Ed) “Wahoo wa!! I am excited to share that I am currently teaching kindergarten at Broadus Wood Elementary School for Albemarle County Public Schools...”
2000s Lottie Baker (M.T. ’04 Elem Ed) earned her Ed.D.
in Curriculum & Instruction from The George Washington University in 2013. She is currently serving as a U.S. State Department Senior English Language Fellow at the Ministry of Education in Thailand. Ana Marisa Casanova (M.T. ’08 Elem Ed) was selected to attend the Klingenstein Summer Institute for Early Career Teachers… Jessica (Garrison) Chung (M.T. ’05 English Ed)... [works] with the educational consulting firm Generation Ready. She was recently promoted to Director of Talent Acquisition and Development, managing the hiring and training of the firm’s entire consulting corps. Kathy Crane (M.Ed. ‘04 Reading), a reading specialist at Coleman Elementary School in The Plains, Va., received the 2013 Agnes Meyer Outstanding Teacher Award for Fauquier County... Patricia Jarvis (M.T. ’06 Elem Ed) is in the spring of her eighth year of teaching...and is currently at Key School in Arlington, Va... Kirk Lindgren (M.T. ’02 Science Ed) was named teacher of the year at his school, the School of the Arts in Charleston, S.C. He was runner up for teacher of the year in the entire district out of 3,800 teachers. Donna Lowery (M.Ed. ’03 C&I) was named 2013-14 Teacher of the Year at Martinsville Middle School, where she teaches seventh-grade English teachers... Richard “Vance” Lynch (M.T. ’02 Sci Ed) received his National Board Certification in November….He was also a member of Louisiana’s “Louisiana Believes’” initiative... Patrick J. McGuinn (M.Ed. ’02 Ed Policy) appeared again in 2014 on the RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Presence rankings published in Education Week... Eston Melton (M.T. ’04 English Ed)….is a middle school assistant principal for the Palo Alto Unified 2
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Submit your class note at curry.virginia.edu/classnotes/submit
School District in California.
Mischa Schuler (M.T. ’99 Science Ed) is a commu-
grade Earth Science at Rockbridge County High School… Chad Prather (M.T. ‘03 Soc Studies Ed) was named the 2013 Glencliff High School teacher of the year and then High School Teacher of the Year for the Metro Nashville Public School district… Margaret Rankovic (M.Ed. ’05 Educ Research) is Associate Director of Educational Initiatives for Good Clinical Practice and Human Subject Research at the CITI Program at the University of Miami in Florida… Terrell Strayhorn (M.Ed. ’00 Ed Policy Studies) of Ohio State University wrote Living at the Intersections: Social Identities and Black Collegians (Information Age)… Rob West (M.Ed. ’06 C&I) is the new assistant vice president and store manager of the TD Bank store in Apollo Beach, Fla...
1980s
Lars Nelson (M.T. ’07 Science Ed) teaches ninth-
1990s Mandy Bean (M.T. ’96 Elem Ed) recently passed her
doctoral proposal (and is now ABD) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Gerrelyn Chunn Patterson (M.Ed. ’97 English Ed)
co-authored The Ultimate Student Teaching Guide (Sage Publications). Amy Angelo Cohen (M.T. ’97 Spec Ed) teaches at an elementary school in Fairfax County, Va… Natalie Dias Lorenzi (M.T. ’90 Elem Ed) wrote Flying the Dragon (Charlesbridge)….She is a librarian with Fairfax County Public Schools. Hillary Doherty (M.T. ’95 Elem Ed) ...is an Early Literacy Programmer for the Baltimore County Public Library sharing story times with families of babies and preschoolers...” Lisa Grillo (M.T. ’94 Spec Ed) is chief human resources officer with Baltimore County Public Schools in Maryland. Craig Herring (M.T. ’94 Math Ed) is the director of the Office of PreK-12 Curriculum and Instruction for Fairfax County Public Schools… Garland Jefferson (M.T. ’93 Soc Studies Ed) has taught for 15 years at Covington High School in Covington, Va…. Jim Jonas (M.T. ’94 Elem Ed) continues to homeschool his 8 children, ages 16-5, while they all work together in the family business, Goat Milk Stuff... Terry Lowry (M.T. ’90 Soc Studies Ed) is currently the technology resource teacher at Patriot High School in Prince William County, Va.... Caitlin McMunn Dooley (M.T. ’95 Elem Ed) is a teacher and education researcher in the Early Childhood Education Department at Georgia State University.
nity herbalist with her company Wild Carrot Herbs. “Wild Carrot Herbs is now in Portland, Maine, offering classes, apprenticeships and herbal consultations to support women’s and children’s health…” Melinda “Mindy” (Martz) Sumner (M.T. ’91) “For the past 22 years I have worked at an amazing Blue Ribbon School, Grafton Bethel Elementary, in York County, Va….” Amanda Taylor (M.T. ’99 English Ed) finished her Ed.D at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and is teaching at American University. Patricia I. Wright (Ed.D. ’91 Math Ed) will retire from her post as Virginia’s superintendent of public instruction May 1, 2014. Wright, a veteran of the Virginia Education Department, served in the top department post under Democratic and Republican governors…
Gail Barber (M.Ed. ’85 AV C&I) is Sr. Employee
Relations Consultant, Assistant Vice President, in Human Resources for Wells Fargo in Charlottesville... April Keck DeGennaro (M.T. ’89 Elem Ed) earned a doctor of philosophy degree in Early Childhood Education at Georgia State University in Atlanta Georgia on January 10, 2014. The degree was conferred upon Dr. DeGennaro by her adviser, Caitlin McMunn Dooley (M.T. ’95 Elem Ed).
Margret Kerrigan (B.S. ’87 Elem Ed) was recently
elected president of The Artists Gallery, a non-profit artist co-operative in Virginia Beach, VA. She is a visual artist and resident artist at The Artists Gallery... John O’Neil (M.Ed. ’84 English Ed) is communications director at the Virginia Education Association and would love to hear from fellow alums. Anna Sempeles (B.S. ’83 Math Ed) is an Independent Sales Director with Mary Kay Cosmetics. “I am a small business owner who still loves to teach. In this position I teach women how to run their own business while teaching women how to take care of their skin with good skincare and learn all about color cosmetics application too!” Deborah L. Stroman, Ph.D. (B.S. ’82 Soc Studies Ed)
received the 2013 Hortense K. McClinton Outstanding Faculty/Staff Award. Deborah is a lecturer in Exercise and Sport Science and a Senior Advisor in the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Read more. Many class notes were abbreviated due to space limitations. You can read the full versions with photos and fond memories at curry.virginia.edu/ education-connection
Blog Is a Verb, continued from p. 1
Peyton writes about education, books, food, poetry, pearls of wisdom, and more. She loves reading education blogs herself and began blogging in 2010 to model the practice of reading and writing for her students. She was surprised to find that blogging is also a great tool for recording her teaching history. “I can see how much I’ve grown in my understanding.” Maggie Thornton (M.Ed. ’11 English Ed) is an English
teacher at Charlottesville High School. Her blog is called Show Your Work (maggieebeth.blogspot.com/). Maggie started blogging in 2008 to keep in touch with friends and family as she completed a year of AmeriCorps service in West Virginia. She has blogged about teaching off and on since 2011. “I wanted an outlet to share some classroom work of which I’m really proud, as well share my thoughts on policy issues directly affecting students and classroom teachers. I like the feeling that I’m contributing something to those discussions in a constructive way from the classroom.” Nick Langsdorf (M.Ed. ’11 C&I)
is a volunteer teacher trainer and teacher of English as a foreign language with the Peace Corps in Cambodia. His blog is Nou Kampuchea, or “In Cambodia” (langsdorf.weebly.com/). Nick shares stories about Cambodia while also describing his work and life in the Peace Corps. “Beyond that, writing is an important outlet,” he says, “a hobby that I rely on to keep my mental health in balance. There’s a huge amount of work to do here, and volunteers are on the clock 24/7, but it’s crucial to have time to yourself doing things you enjoy.”
Claire Cantrell (M.T. ’14 Elem Ed) is a brand new
third grade teacher in Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia. She blogged through her student teaching semester last fall at Claire’s Classroom Experience (www. clairesclassroomexperience.blogspot.com/) “Blogging helped me reflect on my challenges and successes as a student teacher,” she says, “on what worked, why it worked, and how I could continue to refine my practice.” She says it also maintained a record of what she had done and created connectivity with other educators. Claire has been teaching on her own for only three months, so she hasn’t found time to blog recently, but she hopes to start again someday. “When I can eloquently express the type of teacher I desire to be, I am more motivated to reach my full potential and search for ways to overcome the challenges that my students and I face on a daily basis.” Amy Azano (Ph.D. ’09 English Ed) is an assistant professor
of education specializing in adolescent literacy at Virginia Tech. She has started posting monthly at SmartBlog on Education about issues related to rural education. Her first post was titled “’The Hunger Games’—Catching Fire in Rural Schools.” She likes using the blog format to fill the lag time between research and publication and get good ideas into the hands of teachers and other practitioners. Using an established blog gets her work in front of more people, then she reposts to her own website (www.amyazano.com). Her “Hunger Games” post scored her an interview on WVTF Public Radio.
Read more about these alumni bloggers and add your own blog info at curry.virginia.edu/ education-connection
Ruffner Redux The floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall Ruffner Hall renovation is on schedule for completion this summer! Check out the progress and learn how you can help finish off this building in style at curry.virginia.edu/ruffner-reno Opportunities are still available to honor a beloved professor or esteemed classmate with a named classroom or office!
New Curry Faculty Members Patricia Ann Jennings, assoc. professor, Teacher Education and the U.Va. Contemplative Sciences Center... Frackson Mumba, assoc. professor, Science Education... Peter Youngs, assoc. professor, Center for Advanced Study of Teaching & Learning... Vivien Chabalengula, assoc. professor, Science Education... Natasha Heny, asst. professor, English Education... Eileen Merritt, asst. professor, Ed Psych: Applied Developmental Science. Recent Faculty Retirements Bob Covert, Jim Esposito, Margo Figgins, Daniel Hallahan, and Jane Hansen. Other News Around Curry U.Va. Innovation named Marcia A. Invernizzi, Henderson Professor of Education, the 2013 EdlichHenderson Innovator of the Year in recognition of her work to improve children’s literacy... Glen Bull, professor of Instructional Technology, was featured on a February 14 PBS NewsHour segment about 3D printing (http:// www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/3dprinting-revolution)... Latisha Hayes, asst. professor of Reading, was named director of the McGuffey Reading Center... Jennifer Chiu, asst. professor of STEM Education, received a $500,000 award from the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program in 2013... Michael Kennedy, asst. professor of Special Education, received a $400,000 early career research grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences in 2013... Ellie Wilson, assoc. professor, and Sandi Cohen, professor, both accompanied teacher education students on student teaching semesters abroad last fall—Wilson to Cambridge, England, and Cohen to Belfast, Northern Ireland...
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Find more Curry stories at curry.virginia.edu/education-connection
Curry Research You Can Use Early Readers
Children in the early grades who don’t understand the relationship between graphemes (letters) and phonemes (sounds) will likely require extra intervention to develop into proficient readers. When offering small-group repeated reading practice for struggling early readers, teachers may want to add a quick activity developed by Paige Pullen, associate professor of special education, that uses magnetic letters. Through a series of studies, she has found evidence that the strategy can improve both children’s decoding and sight word reading skills. Using magnetic letters on a magnetic board, children form focus words, then form new words (e.g., pig) then form new words—first, changing only onsets (that is, the first letter of words, such as changing pig to dig and wig), then the final phoneme (e.g., changing wet to web and wed) and eventually medial phonemes (e.g., changing fun to fan and fin). The teacher, of course, provides guidance throughout the activity. Following Prof. Pullen’s strategy for just a few minutes per session has helped struggling readers strengthen the connections between spelling, sound, and meaning of words until they are reliably represented in memory, she suspects. It also helped students develop beyond guessing words using context and partial letter cues to fully analyzing the grapheme-phoneme relationships in words. Prof. Pullen has posted instructions and a video example on the Curry School website at curry.virginia.edu/pullen-wordwork 4
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Elementary ELLs and Math
Using multiple representations, building students’ vocabulary, and providing individual student support may be keys to improving the mathematics achievement of upper elementary-level English language learners. These were some of the findings of a study by a Curry research team led by faculty members Eileen Merritt, Natalia Palacios, and Sara Rimm-Kaufman. Using a variety of representations of mathematical knowledge, such as manipulatives, pictures and even physical motions, helps English learners develop a richer understanding of important concepts, said the researchers. Model and encourage students to translate from one representation to another. Check individually with students for understanding and help them analyze their errors. Circulate around the room and ask questions like, “Do you understand or do you want me to show you?” or “How did you get your answer?” When you notice an error, ask more questions to elicit their thinking. Help students understand key mathematics vocabulary by providing scaffolds such as word walls or posters that show words with definitions and pictures. Ask students to construct their own definitions using words they know. With appropriate support, English learners have great potential to make gains in their mathematics achievement as they gain proficiency in English, the researchers concluded.
Adolescent Classroom Behavior
Would you like for all your adolescent students to behave appropriately in class? A study from our Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) addressed this subject, specifically in terms of sensitively addressing the discouraging pattern of racial disparities in discipline. They found evidence that teachers who, with some coaching, improved their sensitivity in interactions with students (including recognition of students’ needs for autonomy, leadership, relevancy, and peer interactions) and who adopted a specific set of behavior management skills made fewer office discipline referrals than those who did not. These skills included being explicit and clear about behavioral expectations and following up any misbehavior immediately with a predictable response. Sensitive teaching and proactive planning is key, said the researchers. Look for cues that indicate students may be moving toward more disruptive or inattentive behavior. Anticipate moments when misbehavior is likely to occur (e.g., transitions, discussions of sensitive topics), and reiterate rules and expectations before any misbehavior occurs. Move closer to students when you note behavioral problems. Be sure to notice when students are behaving appropriately, and tell them specifically what they are doing well.
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