Republican American (The Neag School of Education is a partner with the Region 14’s professional development program)
Neag School Launches New Educational Leadership Program for School Principals in the Middle East
While the number of global learning opportunities for current Neag School students continues to expand, the School will now be offering yet another type of internationally based program — one designed to serve practicing school principals based in the Middle Eastern country of Jordan.
Launched last month as a partnership between the Neag School’s Department of Educational Leadership and the nonprofit Queen Rania Teacher Academy (QRTA), along with the Jordanian Ministry of Education, the Advanced Instructional Leadership Training Program (AILTP) enables QRTA to offer a certification program designed to advance the leadership skills of public school principals.
Thirty-seven public school principals from Jordan started the three-year, professional diploma program in May. QRTA intends to expand the program to private schools in the next few months. According to AILTP director and coach Diane D. Ullman, the program ultimately aims to enroll 350 Jordanian public school principals by the end of the three-year project.
“Good principals encourage teachers and unleash their full potential. They create a community where teachers learn from one another.” — Diane D. Ullman, Advanced Instructional Leadership Training Program director
Research-Based Training
“The overarching goal of the Advanced Instructional Leadership Training Program is to give practicing principals in Jordan the advanced leadership skills needed to improve student performance at scale,” says Richard Gonzales, director of the Educational Leadership Preparation Programs at the Neag School.
“Jordan has a long-standing commitment to improving primary and secondary education and a firm belief that an educated populate is the key to peace and prosperity,” adds Gonzales. “The Ministry of Education in Jordan, the Queen Rania Teacher Academy, and UConn are committed to working together to fulfill this deep and enduring commitment. The AILTP is an integral part of this endeavor.”
The training program — led by the UConn Administrator Preparation Program (UCAPP) and funded by Global Affairs Canada — is based in large part on research demonstrating that high-quality, school-level leadership is a key factor in creating a healthy school environment for students, teachers, and parents, as well as in raising student achievement.
“For the University, this project provides recognition as we share the good work of a highly rated and very successful educational leadership program with others halfway around the world,” says Kelly Lyman, QRTA instructor and superintendent of Mansfield Public Schools in Mansfield, Conn.
Getting Started
“One of the primary commonalities I see in education throughout the world is that successful schools have successful principals,” says AILTP director Ullman, who also serves as UCAPP’s program advisor. “Good principals encourage teachers and unleash their full potential. They create a community where teachers learn from one another.”
She adds, however, that “student achievement on international assessments is lagging in spite of years of effort to improve the schools. The Ministry [of Education in Jordan] has invested significant resources and worked with many international experts in order to improve the public schools, but to date, these efforts have not produced the gains that the Ministry is looking for.”
In response, AILTP is taking UCAPP’s “best content and concepts,” Ullman says, and putting them into a Middle Eastern context in an effort to advance the skills of school principals in Jordan and, ultimately, improve student performance.
The program is the end result of a professional relationship Ullman developed with Mary Tadros, now advising consultant with QRTA, whom Ullman met while attending an international school evaluation visit for New England Association of Schools and Colleges. As the two discussed the importance of highly skilled principals to school success, the possibility of bringing the Neag School’s UCAPP program to Jordan emerged.
“Mary was a key force in establishing [the partnership with] QRTA,” says Ullman.
Enhancing Education
According to QRTA’s website, “Teachers in Jordan are under-resourced, under-supported and disconnected from one another. Most of the students’ learning experience at schools consists of routine learning, and students are under-performing in international test assessments in math, science, and literacy.”
QRTA, established in 2009, seeks to raise the quality of teaching in Jordan by developing the skills of educators through continuous training and professional development.
“QRTA seeks to enhance the education in Jordan and in the region, empowering individuals who work in the education fields with the needed skills,” says Eman Alzghoul, a QRTA trainer.
AILTP is based on the Connecticut Standards for School Leaders, the U.S. Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) Standards and the Jordanian Standards for School Leaders. The Public Education Leadership Project (PELP) framework, which originated in 2003 at Harvard University, provides the conceptual framework for the program.
AILTP’s four modules — School Culture and Climate; Curriculum Laboratory; Supervision, Evaluation, and Professional Development; and School and Program Management — are based on UCAPP core content that has been adapted to the culture and context of Jordan.
Though the content of each module continues to be fine-tuned, feedback from participants in the first module has been positive, according to Ullman.
“The participants were lively students, very excited to be involved in the program, and grateful for the instruction. The Jordanian educators we have met are extremely committed to their work,” says QRTA instructor Lyman. “This partnership allows us to share and train others in the best practices in school administration that are in use in Connecticut.”
Learn more about the University of Connecticut Administrator Preparation Program at the Neag School at ucapp.education.uconn.edu.
VIDEO: New Canaan High School Class of 2016 Graduates
New Canaanite (Alum Robert Stevenson featured as Graduation speaker at New Canaan High School)
Special Education Professor Advocates for Steps to Combat Replication Crisis in Research
Phys.org (Professor Michael Coyne is a co-author with the study)
UConn Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa Grants Dr. Virginia J. Grzymkowski Scholarship
Hartford Courant (Doctoral student, Kathleen Williamson, is the recipient of the scholarship)
Neag School Accolades, May-June 2016
Congratulations to our Neag School alumni, faculty, staff, and students on their continued accomplishments inside and outside the classroom. If you have an accolade to share, we want to hear from you! Please send any news items (and story ideas) to neag-communications@uconn.edu.
In addition to the Dean’s Office and Department achievements, explore this edition’s list of Accolades for the following: Faculty/Staff; Alumni; and Students.
Dean’s Office and Departments
The Dean’s Office at the Neag School of Education is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2017 Dean’s Research Incentive Awards (DRIA), awarded to the following faculty members:
- Michele Back — “Translanguaging and Multilingual Ecology: Scaffolding Success in Linguistically Diverse Schools.” Amount: $4,970
- Milagros Castillo-Montoya — “Teaching Through Diversity: Faculty Professional Development for Teaching Racially and Ethnically Diverse College and University Students.” Amount: $5,000
- Cara Bernard and Joseph Abramo — “Diversifying Music Educators: Creating Frameworks and Best Practices for Recruiting and Retaining Urban Students and Students of Color.” Amount: $4,334
Kudos to the more than 100 students who made the Neag School Dean’s List for Spring 2016.
Department of Curriculum and Instruction (EDCI)
The winners for the State of Connecticut’s Letters About Literature contest, which was sponsored by the Neag School, were announced. Aleema Kelly from CREC Montessori Magnet School in Hartford, Conn., was the national winner for grades 4-6. She will receive a $1,000 cash price from the Library of Congress.
EDCI faculty, staff, and students held a Curriculum and Instruction Rock Concert on May 2, at Pub 32 in Storrs, Conn. The concert featured two bands, “The Vygotsky” (including Notorious ZPD) with faculty and staff, along with “The Muzikidz,” with fifth-year music education students.
EDCI faculty in the Educator Quality Group hosted Dr. Audrey Amrein Beardsley on April 28 at the Storrs campus for a conversation about value-added models, measurement of teaching, and public engagement.
The third annual Teacher Education Redesign Partner Summit was held on May 18 in the Gentry Building. The Summit allowed for the Teacher Education Unit to work with administrators and teachers from Neag School’s partner schools to integrate the core practices into Neag School’s University courses and clinical placements.
Department of Educational Leadership (EDLR)
Former Neag School faculty member and current director of Urban Education at the University of Massachusetts, Jason Irizarry, came back to the Storrs campus for a presentation on “American Dreams: Latin@ Students, Ethnic Studies, and the Potential of Youth Participatory Action Research” in April. The event was co-sponsored by UConn’s Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA) and El Instituto. Irizarry is returning to the Neag School as faculty in the fall.
UCAPP has been awarded a $20,700, four-month planning grant from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving to support a collaborative, research-based process to augment the program for aspiring school administrators to help strengthen family, school, and community engagement. Read more here.
Department of Educational Psychology (ESPY)
The 6th annual Modern Modeling Methods (M3) Conference was held on the UConn Storrs campus in May. Andrew Gelman, professor of statistics and political science and director of the Applied Statistics Center at Columbia University, was a keynote speaker. The M3 Conference is an interdisciplinary conference designed to showcase the latest modeling methods and to present research related to these methodologies. See the Facebook photo album from the event here.
CBER faculty and students participated with the 6th Annual CBER Research Symposium in May. The event included a keynote presentation with Drs. John & Michelle Hosp, along with a doctoral research poster session. Check out the Facebook photo album from the event here. Faculty and students from CBER also hosted the 2016 Northeast PBIS Network Leadership Forum in Groton, Conn. in May. Numerous CBER faculty members and doctoral students presented at the Council for Exceptional Children national conference in April St. Louis, Mo. See the Facebook album from the event here.
The 28th Annual Postsecondary Disability Training Institute, a sold-out event, was held in Philadelphia in June. The annual conference is held to assist concerned professionals in meeting the unique needs of college students with disabilities.
The Teaching and Learning with iPads Conference was held in May at the Storrs campus. The timely and informative one-day event is held annually for K-12 educators.
Faculty/Staff
Melissa Bray co-wrote Picture Perfect: Video Self Modeling for Behavior Change, which will be available this month through Pacific Northwest Publishing.
Tutita Casa co-directed the NSF-funded Mathematics Task Force, which recently published a white paper, “Types of and Purposes for Elementary Mathematical Writing: Task Force Recommendations,” available in full here. The task force also produced a video about the recommendations, which appeared as part of the 2016 NSF STEM For All Video Showcase in May.
Milagros Castillo-Montoya was appointed interim director of the Neag School’s Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) program for one year.
Sandra Chafouleas co-wrote Direct Behavior Rating: Linking Assessment, Communication, and Intervention (Guilford Publications, 2016). She also was recently elected incoming president of the Society for the Study of School Psychology (SSSP). The purpose of SSSP is to advance basic and applied scientific research, disseminate research findings to broad audiences, and foster communication about the specialty of school psychology. Her term begins in 2017 as president-elect.
Shaun M. Dougherty spoke last month about his recent Fordham Institute report on career and technical education (CTE) at the National League of Cities Institute for Youth, Education & Families’ Mayors’ Education Policy Advisors Network in Phoenix.
Preston Green’s co-authored paper “School Vouchers and Tax Benefits in Federal and State Judicial Constitutional Analysis” has been accepted for publication by the American University Law Review.
Rashea Hamilton, a research scientist with the National Center for Research on Gifted Education, was selected as the recipient of the 2016 William E. Loadman Outstanding Dissertation Award for Educational Psychology at The Ohio State University. This award is given annually to the Ph.D. student who has completed and defended the most outstanding dissertation in each academic area during the previous year.
Allison Lombardi presented at the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) Convention in Montreal in March with graduate assistant Adam Lalor and Lyman Dukes ’95 MA, ’01 Ph.D., professor at University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. The title of this presentation was “Disability in Higher Education: A Primer for Student Affairs Professionals.”
Jennifer McGarry was recognized with the Connecticut Campus Compact Community Engaged Scholarship Award. The annual award honors representatives of Connecticut Campus Compact’s member institutions who exemplify the public purposes of colleges and universities by deepening their ability to implement all forms of public engagement, providing civic pathways to academic and career success, and nurturing a culture of engaged citizenship on campus and within communities. It was presented at the Civic Action Summit, held in June at Southern Connecticut State University.
Jennifer Michno co-presented a webinar on “Measuring and Assessing School-wide Leadership” for UCEA in April.
HESA faculty, staff, and students celebrated the outstanding contributions of Sue Saunders to UConn and the HESA program at a retirement celebration in May at the Storrs campus. See photos from the event here.
An interview featuring George Sugai was recently featured in an article titled “Tuning in to High-Fidelity Interventions: A Conversation with George Sugai” in Intervention in School and Clinic (2016). Sugai also recently provided technical assistance in a nationwide initiative with the Jamaican Ministry of Education and UNICEF, which are supporting efforts in Jamaican schools to improve overall school climate and academic attainment for all students. This video represents one example of initial implementation impact of the school-wide positive behavior interventions and supports approach in Jamaica.
Jennie Weiner and Laura Burton’s paper “The Double Bind for Women: Exploring the Gendered Nature of Turnaround Leadership” was accepted to the Harvard Educational Review for publication in September.
Suzanne Wilson presented at a one-day Michigan State University Education Policy Center conference titled “The Changing Face of Teacher Preparation” in April. Watch video of one of her presentations here.
Sarah Woulfin led a research symposium with Ed.D. educational leadership students, where they shared findings from their course inquiry projects. The second annual Neag Ed.D. Research Symposium, sponsored by the Department of Educational Leadership, was held in April. Current students, alumni, and faculty joined to share research findings and to celebrate students’ progress. Regina Hopkins ’16 Ed.D. and Angela Rossbach ’15 Ed.D. spoke about their capstone projects. Members of the ’15 cohort presented findings from projects from their qualitative inquiry course with Woulfin.
At the May faculty-staff meeting, Neag School employees were recognized for their milestone years of service. Congratulations to the following:
10 Years
Michele Femc-Bagwell; Robin Grenier; Tom Levine; Sue Saunders (retired); Brandi Simonsen; Dan Stolzenberg; George Sugai; j. Zack
15 Years
Sandy Bell; Sandy Chafouleas; Don Leu; Cheryl Lowe; Eliana Rojas; Kim Shirshac
20 Years
Dianna Geissert; Judith Mathews
25 Years
Michael Young
35 Years
Scott Brown
Congratulations to our recent retirees, as well:
Linda Neelly
Xae Alicia Reyes
Joanne Roberge
Sue Saunders
Students
The second cohort of Dean’s Doctoral Scholars, arriving this fall, has been announced:
- Dakota Cintron — West New York, N.J.
- Robert Cotto Jr. — Hartford, Conn.
- Alexandra Lamb — Brooklyn, N.Y.
- Josue Lopez — Windham, Conn.
- Xin Xu — Boston, Mass.
The Neag School hosted its annual Education Recruitment Career Fair in April on the Storrs campus. Representatives from 58 school districts from across the state of Connecticut participated.
IB/M student Alexandria Jabick was recognized last month by the UConn Women’s Center with the Outstanding Senior Woman Award. The award, sponsored by the Woman’s Center, alumni, and university provost, is given each year to one female student from each School.
Kaitlin Jenkins, a junior in elementary education, received an IDEA Grant. Her project “Empathy in Young Adult Versus Classical Literature: An analysis of Teachers’ Choices” will explore teaches’ choice of classroom literature (classical versus young adult literature) and the types of empathetic responses they want to elicit from their students. The project comprises an empirical research study, a literary analysis, and an original curriculum guide.
Jess Mala, a doctoral student in sport management, received the Edward Victor Gant Scholarship through UConn’s Student Life Awards.
T.J. McKenna, a doctoral student in curriculum and instruction, was selected as a national Research + Practice Collaboratory Fellow. Through this award, McKenna was supported to travel to the National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST) Conference in Baltimore in April to increase exchange and collaboration among STEM educators and educational researchers. As an R+P Fellow, he received up to $2,000 to attend the 2016 NARST educational conference in order to meet and learn from other STEM educators and researchers. In May, he was also featured as a representative of the Connecticut Science Center, where he serves as staff scientist, during a recent WSFB “Science Sunday” segment.
Jennifer O’Brien, a junior in elementary education, received a SURF Grant. Her project is “A Study of Parent Perceptions of Advanced Academic Potential in the Early Grades.”
Amit Savkar, a doctoral student in the MEA program and associate professor in residence for UConn’s Department of Mathematics, has been named a Teaching Fellow by the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL). Savkar has a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and runs the University’s introductory calculus sequence, for which he won the award.
Kathleen Williamson, a doctoral student in the school psychology program, was awarded a scholarship from the UConn Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa. Her research focuses on the use of specific praised as a classroom management strategy.
Alumni
The Neag School of Education’s Alumni Society hosted a reception earlier this month for current and former board members in honor of Dean Richard Schwab, who has returned to the faculty after serving as dean for a total of 14 years. The reception was held at Salute Restaurant in Hartford, Conn. See photos from the event here.
Recent graduates from the Teacher Certificate Program for College Gradates (TCPCG) performed the play “The Importance of Being Earnest” at the UConn West Hartford campus in May. Ticket sales from the play benefited the Valerie J. Pichette Scholarship Fund. Check out a few photos from the event here.
Congrats to recent HESA graduate, Ryan Baldassario ’16 MA on receiving the Graduate Student of Excellence Award from UConn’s Division of Student Affairs. The award recognizes a graduate student who has gone above and beyond expectations or honors a special, unique or extraordinary effort s/he has made within an assistantship or position.
Kelly Brouse ’07 (ED), ’08 MA, ’14 6th Year has been appointed principal at Bugbee Elementary School in West Hartford, Conn. She is currently the curriculum specialist at Morley School in West Hartford.
Ann Carabillo ’12 ELP, currently the chief academic officer for the Consolidated School District of New Britain, Conn., has been named deputy superintendent for Greenwich Public Schools.
Miguel Cardona, ’01 MA, ’04 6th Year, ’11 Ph.D., serves as assistant superintendent in Meriden, Conn. where the John Barry Elementary School was profiled by the National Center on Time & Learning. Through being part of the administrative leadership team, Cardona has seen his school experience the benefits of longer school days.
Nancy Cole ’05 MA, ’09 6th Year was recognized by the Connecticut Association of School Business Officials with the 2016 Connecticut Celebrated School Business Official Award. Cole, who has worked for the school district of Putnam, Conn., for more than 30 years, receives the award at the organization’s annual meeting this month.
Melissa Cyr ’04 BS (CLAS), ’12 6th Year has accepted a position as assistant principal at Bacon Academy, in Colchester, Conn. Cyr has 12 years of experience in education, including most recently serving as principal at Natchaug School in Willimantic.
Eileen Eustis ’05 6th Year has been appointed assistant principal at Conrad High School in West Hartford, Conn. She is currently the assistant principal at Simsbury High School.
Keely (Nearpass) Floyd ’14 MA, career consultant at the Health and Life Sciences Advising Center at Indiana-University-Purdue University Indianapolis, was named Outstanding New Professional by the Career Development Professionals of Indiana association.
Michael S. Griffin, ’88 6th Year, ’93 Ph.D., superintendent of Roman Catholic schools in the Diocese of Fall River, Mass., has been named head of Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Hartford, Conn. He will take over as acting superintendent July 1, and begin as superintendent Aug. 3.
Stephen Kilgus ’06 (CLAS), ’07 MA, ’11 6th Year, ’11 Ph.D., assistant professor of school and counseling psychology at the University of Missouri, was selected for the Lightner-Witmer Award from APA’s Division 16. The award is given to young professional and academic school psychologists who have demonstrated scholarship that merits special recognition.
Joseph LaBarbera ’07 (CLAS), ’15 6th Year was named principal at East Hartford’s Silver Lane Elementary in East Hartford, Conn. He is currently the curriculum specialist at Wequonnoc Arts and Technology Magnet School in Norwich. He also taught third and fourth grade in Norwich and was a resident principal at Uncas Elementary School through the UCAPP Residency.
Gary Lotreck ’86 (CLAS), ’90 MA, ’00 6th Year was selected as the Hartford Teacher of the Year. Lotreck has taught in the Hartford school system for 27 years, including at Hartford Public High School and Pathways to Technology, where he started a community service club. In recent years, he served as a teacher-in-residence for English language arts and writing.
Tomas Ramirez ’07 Ph.D. was named principal of Bassick High School in Bridgeport, Conn. The Cranston, R.I., resident worked for the Providence Public School District in a number of capacities from 1986 up until last year. He previously served as a high school science teacher, middle school principal, central office administrator, and interim superintendent. Since 2015, he has been a consultant on leadership assessment for Education Leadership Associates.
Michael Seal ’10 ELP was named principal at Vinton Elementary School in Mansfield, Conn. Mike has 20 years of elementary teaching and administrative experience in Connecticut, New York, and California. This includes being a founding member of The School at Columbia University, spending three years as a fifth-grade teacher at Willington’s Hall Memorial Middle School and five years as principal in South Windsor at Pleasant Valley Elementary School.
Orlando Valentin ’15 (ED), ’16 MA is the third Meriden resident to join the Alma Exley Scholarship Scholar family. He was recognized at a ceremony at the Mark Twin House & Museum in May in Hartford, Conn. In accepting the honor, Valentin announced that he had accepted a position as a fourth-grade teacher at Casimer Pulaski Elementary School in his hometown of Meriden, Conn. Read more about him here.
Sharon Ware ’07 Ph.D. accepted a tenure-track special education position at St. Joseph’s University in West Hartford, Conn. Most recently she was an assistant research professor at the Neag School.
In Memoriam
David T. Butterfield ’75
Joseph G. Cipollini ’89
Joyce G. Don ’54
Bruno E. Giordano ’51
Ruth Mary A. Parrett ’58
Patricia Z. Pesce ’73
Lorene Pettyjohn ’71
Patricia Pringle ’58
Louis M. Ruggiero ’57
George B. Saxton ’51
Pamela M. Shick ’09
Sara E. Thai ’91
Robert V. Wodatch ’62
Gary Youell ’72
UConn Administrator Prep Program Hosts Annual Change Project Day
Neag School students completing the UConn Administrator Preparation Program (UCAPP) this spring presented their change projects — the program’s signature capstone assignment, in which students identify a need or opportunity for school improvement and work toward positive change — during the 2nd Annual Change Project Day. Thirty-nine students from the program’s three preparation models – Traditional, Preparing Leaders for Urban Schools (PLUS), and Residency – shared their projects and fielded questions from alumni and fellow cohort members during their presentations, held on the Storrs campus in April.
In its second year, the program’s Change Project Day provides the opportunity “to celebrate our students’ UCAPP leadership journey,” says Richard Gonzales, assistant-in-residence and director of Educational Leadership Preparation Programs in the Neag School. “We also aim to build a community of practice culture among our current and former students.”
Check out out Facebook photos from the 2016 UCAPP Change Project Day.
New to this year’s event were presentations by the Traditional model students, along with participation by UCAPP alumni, including 18 graduates who facilitated the presentation sessions. Students also had the opportunity to invite their mentor principals and several guests.
The change projects serve as a “capstone assignment that provides an authentic opportunity for our students to apply what they have learned, and to lead improvement around an area of need in their internship or home school,” according to Gonzales.
Students’ projects were diverse – from building a social studies toolbox to supporting teachers with curriculum fatigue.
More than 50 guests attended to support the presenters, including superintendents, mentor principals, and UCAPP instructors.
“We would like to thank [our partners] for their partnership and support in preparing highly and capable school leaders who are committed to realizing equity and excellence for all students and school communities,” says Gonzales. “We also wish to express our most sincere appreciation for the school and district leaders, who generously shared their time and expertise as mentors to our UCAPP leaders.”
The Connecticut Association of Schools, Hartford Public Schools, and LEAD Connecticut are partners with the UCAPP program. A new partner, UConn School of Law, will provide for the opportunity for students to combine the UCAPP program in educational leadership with UConn School of Law’s JD program. The new program is slated to launch in Fall 2016.
Learn more about UCAPP here.
Escaping the Disability Trap
The Atlantic (Professor Shaun Dougherty is quoted in the article)
Connecticut Student Wins Library of Congress’ National “Letters About Literature” Contest
The Neag School of Education is proud to announce that a Connecticut student, Aleema Kelly from CREC Montessori Magnet School in Hartford, Conn., is the national winner of the Library of Congress’ “Letters About Literature” contest for Level I, grades 4-6.
Kelly, a sixth-grade student, wrote to Alex Gino, author of children’s novel George, about a young transgender girl. She won $100 for winning Connecticut’s statewide contest, for Level I. In Connecticut, more than 400 students participated across grades 4-12, resulting in six winners for the three levels. As part of the winning the national prize, she will receive a cash award of $1,000.
“Aleema’s first-place finish at the national level recognizes her skill not only as a writer able to convey thoughtful, complex ideas, but also her ability to read, analyze, and find personal meaning in literature,” says Wendy Glenn, a Neag School professor and the Letters About Literature faculty representative for Connecticut. “Her letter was particularly compelling in the way it revealed the impact of the novel on her as a person. She even conducted her own survey research to gather her classmates’ perceptions of gender norms to both inform her understandings and to challenge the assumptions her data revealed.”
“Winning the Letters About Literature contest means a lot to me,” says Kelly. “It helped me realize I could encourage other kids to feel better about being themselves. I also thought that hopefully other kids will take the time to read the book and become as inspired as I was to be more comfortable in their own skin.”
“I think everyone, not only in middle school, but at all age levels should read this book because it deals with an important issue that many people have to face. It means a lot to me to be able to inspire more people to feel comfortable just as they are and not pretend to be anybody else that they aren’t just because they are scared of how someone in their class will think of them,” adds Kelly.
According to Kelly’s teacher at CREC Montessori Magnet School, David Adamson, “Her letter spoke to the concerns of so many people nowadays, that many people are threatened by those who are different, and that prejudice is growing in some areas and against some groups in particular.”
“I think her letter won because it hit on an issue currently being discussed in the present day media and because her letter showed what a real preteen (she herself) thinks about an issue that to her seems very simple – ‘be who you feel you are no matter what,’” says Adamson, a library media specialist at CREC.
“In addition to the aforementioned ideas, the fact that a student can talk about, think about, and write about the really big ideas that a book can bring up is so important to the development of good thinking, solid analytical skills, seeing things from all sides, writing and rewriting, and analyzing how a writer makes a character come so alive that the reader learns from a fictional character’s challenges,” adds Adamson “This contest lets students think about issues bigger than themselves, issues that adults and societies struggle to understand and come to grips with. It also forces students to find books that deal with issues that go beyond those presented in a basic story read for pleasure or amusement.”
The Neag School of Education was the 2016 Connecticut sponsor for the Letters About Literature (LAL) writing contest for students in grades 4-12. The Neag School was awarded the sponsorship as a result of its sustained commitment to educational outreach in the areas of literature study, reading, and writing.
LAL is a national contest in which elementary, middle, and high school students are asked to read a book, poem, or speech and write a personal letter to that author (living or dead) about how the text affected them personally.
Glenn says the Neag School’s involvement helped foster students’ literacy skills while also promoting professional development opportunities for educators, as graduate students from the Neag School teacher education program, along with schoolteachers from across the state, served as judges at the state competition.
“Sponsoring the program was important in that it gave students the opportunity to write authentically and think creatively about literature,” says Glenn.
The Neag School was Connecticut’s first state-level sponsor of the LAL program in five years and will continue to sponsor the state contest again next year. “In our first year of sponsorship, the Neag School was particularly successful in reaching out to school districts and students that had not participated in the past, thus expanding the influence of this excellent program into more communities,” adds Glenn.
Winners from each state for each of the contest’s three categories (grades 4-6, grades 7-8, and grades 9-12) received a cash prize and state recognition and advanced to the national competition. More than 40,000 students nationwide entered the 23rd annual LAL contest, made possible by a grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. The theme of the 2015-16 competition was: “How did an author’s work change your view of the world or yourself?”
For more information, visit s.uconn.edu/NeagLAL.
Orlando Valentin ’15 (ED), ’16 MA: From Karate to the Classroom
Despite having spent four years focusing his studies in the electrical program at a technical high school — where he had graduated as salutatorian — Orlando Valentin ’15 (ED), ’16 MA knew within the first few weeks of his freshman year at UConn that the field of electrical engineering was not quite the right fit for him.
Seeking out his academic advisor, Valentin found himself talking with her about his roots in Meriden, Conn., where he grew up as part of a family heavily involved in martial arts. Valentin himself started learning karate at age 3; by the time he headed to UConn, he had been serving as a martial arts instructor for nearly three years.
His advisor suggested he consider pursuing a business career and managing a karate studio. That’s when Valentin had his realization. “Actually,” he recalls saying, “I just love teaching. I want to be a teacher.”
With awards ranging from the Alma Exley Scholarship to the state Minority Teacher Incentive Grant, Valentin completed the Neag School’s integrated bachelor’s/master’s (IB/M) teacher preparation program this spring. The first in his immediate family to have earned a university degree, his goal is to land his first job this fall as a science teacher — ideally, in his hometown of Meriden.
“If I’m going to make a difference in a community,” he says, “I want it to be right back home.”
But don’t let Valentin’s plans to return home to teach fool you. During his time in the Neag School, he has sought out firsthand experience not only in school districts across Connecticut — but also in classrooms abroad.
A Whole New Level of Diversity
Valentin spent his junior year interning at Batchelder Elementary School in Hartford, Conn., followed by student teaching duties in a third-grade classroom through his senior year at North Windham Elementary School. Both placements were in urban districts — communities that, in Connecticut, would be considered diverse.
This past fall, however, Valentin encountered a whole new meaning to classroom diversity as one of 16 education students immersed in the Neag School’s London Study Abroad Teaching Internship Program. There, he interned at Hampstead School — a secondary school in London with 1,300 students and more than 200 staff — where he spent the semester based out of the special education department, working with students enrolled in what would be the U.S. equivalents of sixth through 12th grades. For Valentin, the age of the students, the school’s size, even London itself — none of these differences, when compared with his previous experiences in the States, were as striking to him as the tremendous level of diversity.
Hampstead School serves pupils who have emigrated from more than 50 different countries, with more than 78 languages spoken among its student body. As an intern in U.S. schools, Valentin was able to make use of his conversational Spanish skills to help students who did not speak English. But at Hampstead, his students often included refugees, speaking Romanian, Somali, or Armenian.
“In Connecticut, when we say the term ‘diverse,’ you think of more Hispanic and black students,” says Valentin, whose grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from Puerto Rico. What he discovered at Hampstead, he says, “almost pales what we call ‘diversity’ in the States.”
Lessons Learned — Inside and Outside the Classroom
Being immersed in another culture and educational system while working with students who were decidedly older than the elementary schoolchildren he had student-taught as part of the Neag School bachelor’s degree program also exposed Valentin to other significant differences.
For one, he says, students in the British educational system appeared more comfortable with classroom discussion around controversial topics, from religion to reproduction, both required in the UK curriculum. Instructors at Hampstead also seemed to Valentin more forthcoming with students about poor academic performance than their American counterparts.
“Teachers are able to say, ‘You did very poorly, so you need to focus more.’ The low students are pushed to achieve higher, and the higher-performing students are pushed, too. It doesn’t end at ‘A,’” Valentin says.
Outside of his time at Hampstead, too, Valentin observed how international education qualifications differ from country to country, through an internship he held at the downtown London offices of education publishing giant Pearson. There, as a member of its International Qualifications Division — working alongside Neag School alum and Pearson progression recognition manager Rebecca (Brown) Spanos ’05 (ED), ’06 MA — Valentin designed an international study guide for students who aspire to study at a university in the U.S.
Engineering Education
Even as Valentin looks to bring all he has learned in London to his work as a schoolteacher stateside, he is already planning long-term, with an eye on pursuing his sixth-year certificate and, ultimately, enjoying a career in school administration as a vice principal or principal.
It is a trajectory certainly fitting for someone not only with experience teaching here and abroad, but who has also held a variety of leadership positions throughout his five years at UConn. “I’ve always enjoyed being a leader; I like being under pressure and making difficult decisions,” Valentin says. “I’d like to be someone who supports others.”
For the former aspiring electrical engineer, everything is falling into place. “I think I now consider myself a social engineer,” he says. “There is a lot I want to change with education, to try and break some of these vicious cycles that I see. Whatever I can do to have the biggest impact, that’s what I’d like to do.”
Editor’s Note: Orlando Valentin is well on his way to achieving his ambitions, having accepted a position as a fourth-grade teacher at Casimer Pulaski Elementary School in his hometown of Meriden, Conn., beginning this fall.
Learn more about the Neag School’s London Study Abroad Teaching Internship Program here or contact Associate Professor David Moss, Director of Global Education for the Neag School, at david.moss@uconn.edu.
Check out the stories of other Neag School London Study Abroad Teaching Internship alumni:
- Special Education Abroad: Teaching in U.K. Classrooms That Offer ‘Safe Space for Recovery’
- From Student Teacher to CEO: Meet Alum Amanda Slavin ’08 (ED), ’09 MA
- A Closer Look at the London Teaching Internship Program
