Outstanding education students named

University of Houston-Clear Lake’s School of Education named graduate student Ace Filipp and undergraduate Candace Harrison as recipients of the prestigious Dr. Patricia Potter Wilson School of Education Outstanding Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarships. Winners are chosen based on their academic achievements and demonstrated leadership capabilities. Filipp will complete a Master of Science in School Library and Information Science in May 2009. Harrison will complete a Bachelor of Science degree with EC-4 Generalist Certification in December 2009. Pictured are Associate Professor Emerita Patricia Wilson, Ace Filipp, Candace Harrison, and Wendell Wilson.

University of Houston-Clear Lake graduate student Ace J. Filipp and undergraduate Candace Harrison were named recipients of the prestigious Dr. Patricia Potter Wilson School of Education Outstanding Undergraduate and Graduate Scholarships. Winners are chosen based on their high academic achievement and demonstrated leadership.

Filipp and Harrison were each presented a plaque by UH-Clear Lake School of Education Dean Dennis W. Spuck, with family and friends, the Wilsons and UH-Clear Lake President William A. Staples also in attendance. The two winners’ names have been added to a permanent wall plaque on display in the dean’s office suite. The endowment creating the awards was established over 10 years ago by UH-Clear Lake School of Education Associate Professor Emerita Patricia Potter Wilson and her husband, Wendell Wilson, a retired captain for Delta Airlines.

Wilson, a retired educator, is also a community leader, business owner and author. She frequently serves as a member of various organizations and boards in Houston and the Clear Lake area. Wendell Wilson is also an avid community supporter, who enjoys working as a volunteer for non-profit organizations in the Clear Lake and Galveston areas.

Filipp, who is District Librarian for the Danbury Independent School District in his hometown of Danbury, Texas will complete his Master of Science in School Library and Information Science in spring 2009. His current work includes oversight of two Danbury ISD school libraries, as well as district librarian responsibilities. Filipp completed an undergraduate degree in Museum Studies and History at Baylor College and worked at the Brazoria County Historical Museum before deciding to obtain certification to teach. He taught Texas History in the Alvin Independent School District for two years, and was named the Danbury District Librarian three years ago.

“I enjoy giving back to the community and school where I grew up,” he says.

The librarian position is particularly rewarding as it combines his museum studies and collection management with teaching.

“With my background in museum studies I’ve learned to adapt the educational programs I did with hands on activities. I make the library an interactive place to teach kids about books and reading, and to tie in the books that we’re reading in the library with real life situations,” Filipp explains.

Demonstrating leadership abilities at both work and leisure, Filipp has served on five district leadership and planning committees, as well as serving on the Board of Directors of the local Brazoria County Red Cross. He helped operate a relief shelter for displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Collaborating with the teachers in the school district, Filipp is leading a campaign among the Danbury fourth-graders to name the Texas State Amphibian. He solicited the help of State Representative Dennis Bonnen and State Senator Mike Jackson in drafting a House Resolution naming the Texas Toad, as voted upon by the kids, as the state amphibian. Through this effort students have learned not only about Texas history and government but also how to exercise a leadership role in society.

Undergraduate student Candace Harrison spent 10 years working in the medical world before opting to return to school in pursuit of an education degree.

“It just sort of hit me,” she says as she began to become more involved with her 10-year old son’s classroom activities.

“This is what I want - working with children,” she explains. “Teachers don’t only open hearts and minds, they change lives in the process. That’s why I’ve put so much into my schooling. I’m committed and I feel I can make a change.”

Harrison has maintained a 4.0 grade point average and is currently on the Dean’s List. She is a member of the National Scholars Honor Society, and was recently inducted into the International Honor Society in Education, Kappa Delta Pi. She will complete a Bachelor of Science degree with EC-4 Generalist Certification in December 2009 and begins student-teaching with Clear Creek ISD in January.

She believes that great teachers make great leaders and that they can inspire, empower, motivate and stimulate intellectual growth in their young students.

“Every child needs someone in their classroom who is passionate about what they do. My passion as a teacher will help motivate my students.”

Harrison has served as a substitute teacher at Goforth Elementary School for two years. She served on the school’s PTA board as the Youth Protection Chairman and has been involved with planning annual fund raising events and decision making activities. For five years she has been the homeroom/helper mother for her son’s class, assisted with the school’s Robotics team, and has done volunteer work with the Bay Area Cub Scouts Pack 609.

Writing project inspires the muses in teachers

University of Houston-Clear Lake’s School of Education conducted its annual Greater Houston Area Writing Project’s Summer Institute during July and August. Classroom teachers come together for an entire month to better understand the art of writing and to learn enhanced ways to teach the subject to their students. In addition to daily writing and critiquing assignments the educators prepare a typical lesson plan for presentation and discussion ultimately providing new material for teachers to use in their classrooms. One writing exercise included a local excursion where the educators spent the afternoon capturing the experience on paper. Pictured above are (standing l to r) Maria Garza, Pasadena ISD; Amy Hopkins, Galveston ISD; (seated l to r) Kelcey Ivens, Pasadena ISD; Sharon Dennis, Houston ISD; and Shonda Dudley, Galena Park ISD.

Teachers enrolled in University of Houston-Clear Lake’s Greater Houston Area Writing Project Summer Institute learned firsthand how intimidating writing can be for students. The terror of having to fill a blank page, the panic of not knowing what to write about, the nervousness of receiving feedback from teachers and peers can make writing a dreaded subject, yet writing skills are essential for success in today’s world whether it’s writing a resume, responding to the boss’s email, or simply expressing oneself.

To become better at teaching students how to cope with these common anxieties and help them develop the necessary writing skills, if not instill a love for the practice, teachers from across the Houston area took up pen this summer and plunged head first into the world of writing.

UH-Clear Lake’s GHAWP Summer Institute is a part of the National Writing Project, established 34 years ago and now in place at 200 universities across the nation. National Writing Project touches more than 100,000 teachers annually. The program’s premise is twofold: teachers who write are better able to teach writing, and classroom teachers learn best from other classroom teachers.

In addition to four weeks of daily writing and critiquing assignments ranging from poetry to journals to proposals, each educator presents a demonstration lesson – a writing workshop technique that is modified for classroom presentation. The group then discusses additional methods of adapting the material for their school’s students.

“Teachers go back to school in the fall energized, and with ideas they can immediately implement in the classroom,” explains UH-Clear Lake Associate Professor of Reading and Language Arts and GHAWP Director Kathy Matthew.

Annually, the GHAWP publishes a collection of family recipes from the institute participants. Each recipe includes a brief description by the contributor about family memories associated with the dish.

“It’s really fascinating to see the look on these adult faces when they see their words in print,” Matthew says. “It’s like the students in their classrooms when suddenly they are authors and their words are in print.”

The GHAWP experience changed the way Machelle Herrera, Secondary Curriculum Specialist for Language Arts grades 6-12 in the Galveston ISD, teaches reading and writing, and with remarkable results. Herrera, who completed the GHAWP in 2005, says she used to select a single book for the class to read and then write about. Now, she understands the importance of giving students a choice. Today her students might be reading as many as six different books.

Among her most memorable student success stories was a class of 14, 10th-grade students many of whom had been in correctional facilities. Only two of the group had successfully passed the state’s mandatory reading and writing test. After working with the students for six months, Herrera reports, all of the students except two passed the mandatory exam when retested.

“It’s one of the most amazing programs – I don’t know how you get results like this. It’s just modeling, modeling, modeling and relationships. It’s probably 90 percent relationships and then giving them the freedom to read what they want and to write about it. It has to be a choice,” Herrera says.

In addition 63 of Herrera’s students had poems published, and one young student even collected a $5,000 check for a winning entry submitted to an online contest.

“It’s legendary where I teach,” says Stephanie Gilbert, seventh-grade language arts teacher at Dickinson ISD’s McAdams Junior High of GHAWP. “I’ve heard about it ever since I came to Dickinson.”

Gilbert attended the institute last summer and returned this year as a teaching assistant. “I’ve fallen in love with writing again,” says Gilbert, who minored in creative writing but admits she has had little time to write since leaving school.

Back in the classroom Gilbert incorporated not only her rekindled passion for writing, but also some of the techniques she learned.

“I do a lot of modeling,” she explains.

Now when Gilbert gives a writing assignment to her students, she writes, too. She has even shared with her students the multiple drafts of a single essay she prepared during the Summer Institute. The students were surprised to learn that “even teachers aren’t perfect,” and that they also have to do revisions.

“The more I show them how I write, the less resistant they are going to be,” Gilbert explains.

For Carla Gerardino it wasn’t only a renewed passion for writing she discovered, but a new-found confidence that emboldened her to take a more active leadership role. Being uncomfortable is part of the learning process, explains Gerardino. At the institute’s end the participants feel more at ease, which makes them more effective as a teacher, leader and writer, she says. “That’s the whole spirit of the writing project.”

Gerardino, who recently completed a master of science in reading at UH-Clear Lake, initiated a writer’s workshop for a group of Dickinson second graders she volunteered to teach reading.

“When they got their (writer) notebooks you’d have thought I had given them gold,” she says. She helped each put a photo on the back of the notebook with a brief “About the Author” summary. “They were so excited about writing. You can’t bottle that.”

Recently one of the young students approached Gerardino outside of the classroom to show her a poem she had written that day. “She’s still writing, and still wanting to share her writing with us.”

In the end that is the best judge of GHAWP’s success.

UH-Clear Lake School of Education offers two new certifications

University of Houston-Clear Lake School of Education has expanded its offerings to include two new teacher certifications, a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies with an EC-6 Reading Generalist certification and, in cooperation with the School of Human Sciences and Humanities, a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Applied Design and Visual Arts with EC-12 Art certification.

School of Education students interested in the EC-6 certification now have two options. In the original EC-6 Generalist program the focus was, and remains, on the early childhood years, pre-kindergarten to second grade. Now, students who prefer to teach in the upper elementary years, Grades 3-6, can opt for the EC-6 Reading Generalist certification that provides more coursework and preparation in the skills necessary to teach students in the later grades.

The School of Human Sciences and Humanities and the School of Education cooperated to create a new Bachelor of Fine Arts in Applied Design and Visual Arts with EC-12 Art certification. The all-level certification provides opportunities for students to become certified art teachers.

For years, UH-Clear Lake graduates have secured art teaching positions throughout the greater Houston area. Many UH-Clear Lake graduates received training through a state education program which was eliminated in 2000, forcing students to seek training and art teaching careers through alternative certification programs. The new EC-12 Art certification offers students a new option.

UH-Clear Lake’s Art School for Children and Young Adults, which has modeled art curriculum development and teaching methods for 31 years, will provide a valuable resource for the new certification. Annually more than 1,000 students, ages three-and-a-half years old through high school, enroll in this children’s program.

“As an NCATE-accredited School of Education, we continually seek input from our students and school district partners about our programs. We’re excited to be able to offer these two new degree certifications to better serve the needs of our students and the community,” says School of Education Associate Dean James Sherrill.

Partnership seeks to develop Galveston home grown teachers

University of Houston-Clear Lake, the Galveston Independent School District and Galveston College reaffirmed their commitment and partnership in recruiting and retaining more “home-grown” teachers for the Galveston area. Above UH-Clear Lake President William A. Staples, GISD Superintendent Lynne Cleveland and GC President W. Myles Shelton sign a memorandum of collaboration supporting the Galveston Area Teacher Education Recruitment and Retention (GATER2) Program. The three institutions will work together to identify and assist GISD and GC students interested in a teaching career with the intent that these students will return to GISD as teachers.

University of Houston-Clear Lake, the Galveston Independent School District and Galveston College reaffirmed their commitment and partnership in recruiting and retaining more “home-grown” teachers for the Galveston area, a strategy designed to address a shortage of teaching professionals predicted to grow as more baby-boomer teachers enter retirement.

The three educational institutions are teamed through the Galveston Area Teacher Education Recruitment and Retention (GATER²) program to identify and support GISD and GC students who are interested in pursuing teaching careers. The main intent of the program is to assist and prepare these students to return to GISD as teachers.

“This partnership,” says GC President W. Myles Sheldon, “will help us create a resource of teachers to meet the future needs of our students in Galveston and Texas.”

UH-Clear Lake President William A. Staples agrees.

“The GATER² program is a great example of how a school district, community college and university can partner to address critical needs in our communities,” says Staples.

Besides providing a pipeline of teachers, explains UH-Clear Lake Collaborative Program Coordinator Jerricia Ulmer, these “home-grown” teachers have added value. They are already familiar with the Galveston community and return to Galveston schools with a built-in sense of pride. The students also recognize them as being “one of us” so they look up to the teachers, Ulmer says. The community benefits as well by retaining local talent who make a positive contribution to the island’s economy, growth and development.

“It’s a win-win for GISD and for us,” says UH-Clear Lake student and GATER² participant Naomi Long. “We get to work and live on the island. We can stay in our community and work for GISD.”

Long, who has lived in Galveston for nine years, will graduate in Spring 2009 as a bilingual elementary teacher.

“I would love to stay on the island…I love living there,” she adds.

Through the GATER² partnership students begin taking course work at GC and transfer to UH-Clear Lake to take junior and senior level courses. GISD provides GATER² students with hands-on classroom training as well as opportunities for employment when their studies are completed. GATER² advisers are also available to help the student every step of the way – providing advising assistance, career counseling, scholarship funding and employment opportunities.

Janice Lewis is a home-grown GATER² success story. She graduated from Ball High School in 1975, and began studies at Lamar University the following semester but dropped out after her mother died suddenly and unexpectedly during her sophomore year. Lewis often thought about returning to college to complete her degree, but never found the time nor the courage as the years passed. Then, while working as a GISD secretary, her boss encouraged her to enroll in the home-grown teacher program and GATER².

Lewis took classes at GC and graduated from UH-Clear Lake in 2005. She is now in her third year at GISD’s Weis Middle School, teaching math and personal finance, and next year she will move to Central Middle School to teach eighth-grade personal finance.

“It’s so much fun. I love it…It’s been a wonderful journey for me from start to finish - and a lot of it had to do with the GATER² program,” Lewis says, adding that without the program’s support she might have given up that first semester.

“I was so nervous about going back to school…Things had changed a whole lot since I was on campus. The program was such a great resource for me. Whenever I needed something it was like I had my own personalized, one-on-one adviser and counselor,” Lewis explains.

The program seeks to identify young students still in high school who express an interest in a teaching career.

“We want to steer them in the right direction,” explains Ulmer. “That can mean ensuring they are taking the right courses, following the right plan, having experiential learning opportunities early on – which can help them be sure of what they are getting into – being exposed to college/university campuses and scholarship opportunities,” she says. “It can also mean helping students realize that they ‘can’ go to college, something that may be hard to fathom for first generation college students or those traditionally underrepresented in higher education due to various barriers.”

GISD Superintendent Lynne Cleveland expressed her excitement about the program that allows Galveston students to continue their education in the area and return to GISD as certified teachers.

“We are blessed to have this opportunity in our community and I look forward to the positive outcomes of this partnership,” says Cleveland.

Additional information is available through the GISD Personnel Office (409-766-5155), the GC Counseling Center (409-944-1220) or the UH-Clear Lake School of Education (281-283-3600).

UH-Clear Lake’s School of Education has established similar partnerships with Goose Creek Consolidated ISD and Lee College; Galena Park ISD and San Jacinto College-North; and Austin High School and Houston Community College-Southeast.

UH-Clear Lake School of Education wins national award

University of Houston-Clear Lake School of Education EC-4 Generalist student Gracie Reyna assists Baytown’s George Washington Carver Elementary School students as part of her yearlong student-teaching internship. Reyna’s three-member mentoring team – (background) Pre-Service Teacher Supervisor for Goose Creek Consolidated I.S.D. Annese Jones, UH-Clear Lake University Supervisor Pat Hutchins and Fourth-Grade Mentor Teacher Susan Hales – provides support and assistance for the novice teacher as she prepares to launch her career. UH-Clear Lake’s Pre-Service I & II Internship program was named winner of the Distinguished Program in Teacher Education Award by the Association of Teacher Educators. The program is credited with drastically reducing teacher attrition rates and assuring new teachers are well-prepared and ready for classroom assignment. George Washing Carver students pictured are (front, r to l) Rubi Olvera, Michael McCoy, (back l to r) Elizabeth Thompson and Susan Aramburo.

 

University of Houston-Clear Lake’s School of Education and its 10 partner schools districts won national recognition for an internship program that not only prepares teachers who can make a difference in area classrooms, but one that also helps ensure those teachers remain in the classroom.

The Association of Teacher Educators bestowed its highest honor, the Distinguished Program in Teacher Education Award, upon UH-Clear Lake’s Pre-Service Internship I and II program. The national award recognizes outstanding programs that demonstrate strong, viable partnerships between education agencies such as local school districts and institutions of higher education in the preparation of quality teachers.

“One of the biggest hurdles in the teaching profession is retention,” says Annese Jones, Supervisor of Pre-Service Teachers for the Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District. “We have so many teachers that leave in the first five years because there is so much more to teaching than people outside of teaching realize or could even comprehend.”

In fact, the national average retention rate is 50 percent among new teachers in the first five years, but among UH-Clear Lake teacher graduates retention is a remarkable 80 percent.

“The high retention rate comes from the fact that when they (the UH-Clear Lake graduates) get into that first year of teaching they are more prepared for it,” says Jones. “They have a better idea of what’s coming, what’s expected and how to handle it because they’ve spent a full year in the classroom gradually taking on more of the responsibility the teacher has – and they’ve done it with a lot of support.”

While most teacher preparation programs – there are 160 such programs in the state of Texas – require student-teachers have only about 12 weeks of classroom teaching before being certified, UH-Clear Lake, through its Internship I and II program, requires its teacher candidates to experience an entire school year. During that year, the intern receives support and guidance not just from one instructor, but from a three-person mentoring team comprised of experienced, professional educators from the university, the school district, and the classroom.

“It’s the most comprehensive program both in time and requirements,” says Jones, who has worked in partnership with UH-Clear Lake since the internship program began in 1992. “It’s a tough program, but it’s a good program.”

Internship I introduces the teacher candidate to the school, its teachings, philosophies and students. The intern is in the classroom once a week and explores different types of classes such as gifted and talented, and special education, and also the classes of the grades above and below the level they will teach. This helps the student understand where the kids are coming from and where they’ll go next, explains Jones. In this way they get to know all of the pieces, along with the dynamics of the classroom, and how to prepare lesson plans.

During Internship II the teacher candidate returns to the school and becomes like a second teacher in the classroom of a mentor teacher, an experienced teacher with a proven record of classroom success. Gradually the intern assumes more responsibility until finally they are managing and teaching the class. During this time the student teacher is expected to do everything the classroom teacher does from attending staff meetings, to meeting with parents, and even appearing at evening functions at the school.

So when the new UH-Clear Lake graduate begins his or her teaching career, Jones explains, “They walk in not as a typical first year teacher but more like a second year teacher.”

For UH-Clear Lake Intern II Gracie Reyna, completing her internship at George Washington Carver Elementary School in the Goose Creek Consolidated ISD, the program is invaluable. “It’s a lot of work and it’s really eye-opening. I can’t imagine myself stepping into being in charge of a classroom without the hands-on experience I’m getting now.”

Reyna, who will graduate in May with a Bachelor of Science and an EC-4 Generalist certification, believes, “You take the classes and you think ‘this is what I want to do,’ but until you are in the classroom like I am now and you get the full experience, that is when you know – I made the right choice.”

The intense preparation and extra support and guidance are paying off in other areas as well. The internships are performed at specially designated professional development schools within each of the 10 local independent school districts (Alvin, Clear Creek, Brazosport, Dickinson, Galena Park, Goose Creek Consolidated, La Marque, Pasadena, Pearland and Texas City). These participating schools have shown significant improvement in student achievement as well as teacher development.

In addition, a report by the Center for Research, Evaluation and Advancement of Teacher Education showed that schools within a 75-mile radius of the university, many of whom hire UH-Clear Lake teacher graduates, have experienced a significant, positive change in Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills scores – some as much as 20 points higher in mathematics and 17 points higher in reading.

“The difference is our students are in the same school with the same teacher and students for an entire year,” says UH-Clear Lake Program Area Chair and Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction Sue Brown, who also serves as chair of the Teacher Education Program. “They have time to learn the ‘culture’ of the school and become familiar with the students.”

All involved in the program agree it is the teamwork, collaboration and continual evaluation of the internship program that makes it strong and such a success.

“We have a lot of interaction and collaboration from our professional development schools,” says Wren Bump, university supervisor coordinator and chair of the Teacher Education Advisory Committee, a group comprising university and school district personnel who meet regularly to assess and monitor the program, and to determine placement of interns.

Jones adds, “Each party brings a special perspective. When we get together there is a ton of discussion and there is a lot of listening to both sides. The public schools need to hear about the current research and be reminded of theory, and the university needs to hear what life is like day-to-day for the teachers and the challenges they face. I truly believe that’s why the program is as successful as it is. It’s a good mesh of the two.”

Accepting the award in New Orleans on behalf of UH-Clear Lake and its consortium at the annual ATE conference were Bump, Brown, Jones and UH-Clear Lake Center for Professional Development of Teachers Director Harriet Sturgeon.

For more information about teacher education at UH-Clear Lake, visit the School of Education Web site, http://soe.uhcl.edu.