School of Education - Fall 2016, Volume 2

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NEWS Minnesota Technology Educator/ Teacher of the Year 2016 Mark Vonder Haar, SCSU Alumni 1993 By Tess Kwon

Mark Vonder Haar receiving award

Mark Vonder Haar, who teaches at Orono High School in Long Lake, is the 2016 Minnesota Technology Educator/Teacher of the Year. He was recognized for his award in Washington, DC last spring with the other Technology Educators from across the United States.

He has been teaching Industrial Technology/Technology Education for the past 24 Years. “My teaching philosophy is really quite simple to understand. I expect the students to learn as much as they can in a conductive learning environment,” Vonder Haar said. “I expect the students to treat one another, and myself, with respect and courtesy; while doing their best to learn as much as they can in the short amount of time they have in the Technology Lab.” In her nomination letter, Penny Peasein, principal, wrote “Mark is a magnet for students in our high school. His personality, enthusiasm, and knowledge of the varied content areas he teaches draws students to his classroom year after year… He brings a unique and fun way of engaging his students into learning this field to his students which no doubt will become some of tomorrow’s top engineers and workers of the future.” Vonder Haar first enrolled as a student at St. Cloud State University in 1988 and receive his bachelor’s degree in 1992 He has taught at Orono High School since 1993. He received his master’s degree in Technology Education from St. Cloud State University in 2006. He talked about his school life at SCSU as “Full of warm encouragement to be able to meet the challenges.” He goes on to say that “While I was attending college at St. Cloud State my instructors must have seen something in me that I did not because most of them kept me honest with myself. They did not let me say I can’t do it. They pushed me until I succeeded in every aspect.”

Special Education Cohort Program in Brainerd To help address the shortage of licensed special education teachers, the Special Education Department has begun a cohort program in the Brainerd area. The focus of the program is to provide a path by which paraprofessionals can become licensed as teachers in several special education licensure areas. According to Dr. Marc Markell “There is a large number of competent paraprofessionals who would be excellent special education teachers, but they need to become licensed.” The director of Special Education for the Brainerd School District, Dr. Heidi Hahn, contacted Dr. Marc Markell, SCSU faculty member in Special Education, and asked if his department could create a path whereby interested paraprofessionals could become teachers. Thanks to the work of several SCSU faculty, primarily Dr. Mary Beth Noll – who is still working with the cohort even though she retired in May 2016, as well as Dr. Janet Salk, Patty Waletzko, Dr. John Hoover, Dr. Kyounghee Seo, Michele Rogers, and Dr. Michael Pickle in cooperation with several at the Paul Bunyan Cooperative and the Brainerd School District, an initial cohort completed their first course toward licensure in spring 2015. The program is aimed at people who are working full time, primarily as paraprofessionals, as a result the program is designed so that it can be completed by taking courses on a part time basis. Continued on page 2

Congratulations Mark!

Inside this edition

Volume 2, Issue 1 Fall 2016

Educator’s Club

Discovery Lab

North Branch

Ignite

Dean’s Message

STEM

Vera W. Russell

Dessert Fest

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