In this episode, we speak with Dr. Jennie Weiner Ph.D., professor of Education Leadership at UConn’s Neag School of Education. Dr. Weiner raised quite a few eyebrows earlier on during this COVID-19 pandemic when she Tweeted about how she had no intention of homeschooling her kids while sheltering-at-home, and was going to allow them to enjoy their video games, eat cookies, and play instead. Her Tweet quickly went viral, and she was invited to write an op-ed piece in the New York Times to discuss her philosophy and motivations behind taking this approach.

The Neag School of Education, UConn’s Department of English, and the Connecticut Writing Project (CWP) at UConn are proud to announce Connecticut’s winners of the 26th annual Letters About Literature competition, a nationwide contest sponsored by the Library of Congress for students in grades 4 through 12.

With her three kids — ages 19, 17 and 14 — home for the foreseeable future, Chafouleas and her husband were left, like so many Connecticut parents, to adjust to a new normal of balancing home-schooling and telecommuting.

“The first class I was teaching in English to American kids I was a bit nervous at times,” Wang said. “Taking this initiative [to talk to people] first, you will actively solve your problem. Second, you will take this challenge as an exercise for you to establish good communication ability and interact with people in the host country.”

“While all levels of government are working overtime to solve the immediate issues of controlling the coronavirus and flattening the curve, it is apparent we were not prepared for dealing with a pandemic of this magnitude,” says former Neag School dean Richard Schwab and University of Rhode Island’s Richard Rhodes III.

“My kids are watching TV, playing video games and eating cookies,” says Jennie Weiner, a professor of educational leadership at the Neag School of Education and mother of two boys. “It’s fine.”

Sandy Chafouleas shared the Direct Behavior Rating (DBR) can be effective and efficient as a progress monitoring tool as well as a targeted screening tool.

For the last 34 seasons, Chris Dailey has worked closely with Geno Auriemma to build UConn women’s basketball into the dynasty it is today. Together, they’ve won over 1,000 games, 51 conference championships, and 11 national titles. But Dailey does have one trophy that Auriemma can’t claim: a 1982 AIAW championship with the Rutgers Lady Knights. The AIAW was the predecessor to the NCAA for women’s sports and that year was the first time the NCAA sponsored a women’s basketball championship. So it was the last year of the AIAW Tournament.

Kelly Villar, 43, a mom of six who teaches second grade at Southeast Elementary School in Mansfield, was selected last June as the Iditarod’s designated “teacher on the trail,” a year-round role created in 2000 to extract educational opportunities from the fabled, 1,000-mile sled dog race. She recently served as the race’s “teacher on the trail.”

“Jordan is a great addition to our defensive staff as our linebacker coach,” said Head Coach Greg Gattuso. “Jordan worked with us two years ago and did an outstanding job for our staff, which made this an easy choice for our defensive coaches and myself.”