Judy Rondeau, Rachael Trowbridge, and Genevieve Rondeau are participating in a Conservation Training Partnership (CTP) program, a part of UConn’s Natural Resources Conservation Academy (NRCA) that pairs high school students with an adult conservation volunteer. NRCA teams work on projects across the state to educate and raise awareness in conservation and environmental concerns. The program includes service learning, so communities and students all benefit from the projects.

“At a crucial time in our history in which talented women continue to struggle with decisions about how to lead and how to blend family well-being with work responsibilities, it is critical for universities to provide training and opportunities for leadership development for intelligent young women to explore their choices and pursue their dreams,” says Sally Reis, who is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology and leader of the BOLD Women’s Leadership Network.

What counts as “good”? This question gets at the heart of engaging in productive conversations as we describe effective literacy instruction. We explore that inquiry in this episode with Rachael Gabriel and Sarah Woulfin, authors of Making Teacher Evaluation Work: A Guide for Literacy Teachers and Leaders (Heinemann, 2017).

In addition to becoming crucial for financial and social well-being, creativity has psychological benefits. James Kaufman from the University of Connecticut examined how creativity has a potential to contribute to past, present, and future meaning-making. Past-focused meaning making involves finding ways to successfully cope with challenging experiences, such as trauma, regret, or nostalgia-provoking events.

CSCH Program Manager Helene Marcy interviews CSCH Affiliate Jesse Mala about his research looking at the relationship between sport & physical activity and working memory and perceptions of school climate among youth living in poverty.

“Connecticut is far from the only state diverting school decisions to the local level. With few mandates coming from the federal government, most states are taking a similarly flexible approach to COVID mandates, leaving decisions up to individual districts,” said Sarah Woulfin, associate professor at UConn’s Neag School of Education.

Todd Campbell, one of the Neag instructors, tweeted that in the first session, forty participants recorded 112 data points from across the state in less than twenty minutes.

“In Connecticut, college students have been asked to step in as substitutes,” said Michele Femc-Bagwell, director of the teacher education program at the University of Connecticut. “The school has been getting requests to use fifth-year graduate students as substitute teachers. Heavy class loads and internship responsibilities, though, limit their availability to one day a week.”

“The biggest barrier to remote learning is having a good setup, that is, access to materials and technology…as well as resources such as uninterrupted space and time for learning,” said Sandra Chafouleas, professor of educational psychology and Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor at UConn.

“Principal preparation means getting staff ‘school-ready.’ While training programs often focus on knowledge, the University of Connecticut (UConn), with aid from The Wallace Foundation’s University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI), has found that practical leadership activities over time are equally important,” says Richard Gonzales, an associate professor in residence and director of educational leadership preparation programs at the Neag School.