The new assistant superintendent of elementary schools in East Hartford is Elsie Torres, a teacher and administrator from Meriden, school officials announced Thursday. Torres, who starts her new job on Aug. 15, most recently worked as supervisor of bilingual education and English-as-a-second-language programs for Meriden public schools.

Ronald Beghetto wears many others in studying and working to inspire creativity, especially in education. He is one of the speakers at the Creativity Conference at Southern Oregon University August 3-6. And he visits with us about his work on creativity.

“Each year, I have the opportunity to work with preservice teachers to provide a little bit of information for them about gifted education. During that workshop, someone always brings up the idea that one great way to work with advanced learners – particularly the teacher pleasers and ‘fast finishers’ among them – is to have them help the other kids with their work. These developing professionals, along with some of the practicing teachers with whom they work, are secure in their belief that this approach is a win for everyone. Students are kept busy, the struggling student has individual support, and surely the gifted learner will benefit because “we all learn something better when we have to teach it to others,” writes Catherine Little, a professor of educational psychology at UConn’s Neag School of Education.

The interim administrator who helped to launch the Windrose Program is leaving the Greenwich Public Schools after accepting a position as Pequot housemaster at Fairfield Warde High School. Brian T. Keating was named the interim program administrator after participating in the Alternative High School Design Team during the 2016-17 school year to develop the Windrose Program. He joined Greenwich High School in 2001 as an English teacher with the GHS Community Learning Program and served as Clark House assistant dean.

Pondering Education (Professor Ronald Beghetto interviewed)

When we honored Jessica Raugitinane in 2012, she said it was her dream to teach abroad. After two years of teaching in Washington, D.C., she realized her dream. During the 2016-2017 school year, she taught English as a second language in Quito, Ecuador, through a volunteer program called WorldTeach.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), school psychology has “…evolved as a specialty area with core knowledge rooted in psychology and education.” Graduate students who choose to become school psychologists have two certification options, according to Sandra M. Chafouleas, Ph.D.

Jamelle Elliott has been named associate athletic director for the National “C” Club and will lead the new enterprise. Elliott served as the head women’s basketball coach at the University of Cincinnati from 2009-18 after working on Geno Auriemma’s coaching staff from 1997-2009.

Professor, doctor, expert on creativity, whatever you call him, James C. Kaufman, Ph.D., knows the subject of creativity about as well as anyone. As a psychologist, Dr. Kaufman has been studying and writing about creativity for many years, and is currently a professor of educational psychology at the University of Connecticut.

James C. Kaufman, a psychologist whose research focuses on creativity, hypothesizes that the power of tarot cards to jumpstart creativity lies in their ability to stimulate “associational thinking.” That’s what happens when the brain tries to synthesize multiple distinct inputs, forming associations between ideas that, at first, seem unrelated.