CT Examiner (Michael Coyne is quoted on the pending dyslexia legislation for teacher preparation in Connecticut)
Neag School Alum and Educator Teaches Her Students to Give Back
When Madison Corlett started teaching, the idea of giving back came full circle with her desire to share that focus with her students.
From a young age, Madison Corlett ’16 (ED), ’17 MA, was excited about helping others, raising money through lemonade stands and other fundraisers, then donating the money to local causes.
In elementary school, Corlett was hospitalized for a week with pneumonia. She saw other kids in the hospital who were much sicker than she was.
“I wasn’t as sick as some of the other kids who were fighting these horrible diseases,” she says. “I realized that these kids weren’t able to go to school.”
She recalled one of her mom’s early fundraisers for her best friend in grade school, who had a rare disease that required a bone marrow transplant.
“My mom had a hair-cut-a-thon that helped raised money for my friend’s treatments. I remember at the time that these treatments would cost almost a million dollars in the end,” she says. “That stuck with me, as she was out from school for a whole year.”
Her friend’s brother went through the same treatment a few years later. Luckily, both of them are now healthy and thriving. Her own hospitalization, her friend’s hospitalization, and the realization that other children had it much worse, stuck with her.
Today, as a fourth-grade teacher in Mansfield, Connecticut, she brings those life lessons to her classroom.
Corlett Gets Her Students to Be Passionate
When Corlett started teaching four years ago, the idea of giving back came full circle with her desire to share that focus with her students.
“We talk a lot about being a citizen of the world and doing more than just within yourself,” she says. “I think it’s important to give kids opportunities to give back and learn why that’s so important and how it feels good to give and to take care of people.”
“That’s something that I always try and think about and share with my students,” she adds.
Corlett came up with the idea of “passion projects” for her students one day when before school after she was inspired by one of her own students who had created an animal sanctuary drive.
“I think it’s important to give kids opportunities to give back and learn why that’s so important … to take care of people.”
— Madison Corlett ’16 (ED), ’17 MA
As Corlett and students in her class talked about what was going on due to the pandemic, she asked, “What are you passionate about helping?”
Ideas from the students included helping seniors, animals, and essential workers. To help seniors in the area, the students made greeting cards and delivered them to convalescent homes and senior centers.
“Senior citizens were alone during the holidays, and this small gesture meant a lot,” Corlett says.
They also collected items and goods for an animal sanctuary in nearby Ashford, Connecticut. Before the pandemic, a previous class of Corlett’s had made care packages for veterans and collected stuffed animals for a Children’s Hospital.
This winter, the students decided to help local businesses in Mansfield, Connecticut. These local businesses were familiar to them, and some of their families knew the owners or managers.
Corlett suggested they put together a presentation and set up a meeting with the Mansfield Public Schools’ superintendent, Neag School alumna Kelly Lyman ’88 MA, ’01 6th Year, ’10 ELP.
In a Hartford Courant article, Lyman remarked that she wasn’t surprised the Mansfield students came up with the idea.
“In our district, we focus on providing authentic experiences that build life skills, and help find opportunities for students to apply what they are learning,” said Lyman.
“In our district, we focus on providing … opportunities for students to apply what they are learning.”
— Kelly Lyman ’88 MA, ’01 6th Year, ’10 ELP
“Superintendent Lyman was great and was able to ask them all kinds of questions to push their thinking and get them to think a little outside of the box, and that’s where the idea of gift cards came from,” says Corlett. “The students then thought they could encourage Mansfield citizens to buy the gift cards.”
Lyman suggested the student group meet with the Mansfield Downtown Partnership, a local organization that supports Mansfield’s promotion and economic development. During the meeting, there was a discussion about what they would do with the gift cards. The students decided the gift cards should go back to local essential workers.
“Their cool idea came full circle, and we started a GoFundMe page to raise funds,” says Corlett. “We are close to reaching our goal, and the students and their families are continuing to get the word out.”
Managing Teaching Through the Pandemic
Like all educators this past year, Corlett learned how to deal with the pandemic and remote teaching and learning. Her class of fourth-graders is a group of 22 students from across three elementary schools whose parents selected remote-only learning for their child during the academic year.
Corlett acknowledges that it’s been “crazy,” but feels like her students are in a “really good groove now.”
“They’re able to access all of the academics almost exactly as they would in class,” she says.
She says she has enjoyed teaching in this space, as it allows her the opportunity to know families at a different level than before. “My class feels a strong sense of community because they’re the only fourth-graders that are remote.”
When they transition to middle school in fifth grade, they will know kids from different schools. “That’s a cool experience,” she says.
Pivoting to remote-only learning was a transition for her, and it was trial and error at first.
“I would give the kids a whole week of assignments at the beginning of the week, thinking that it would be helpful for them to see across the week,” she says. “That was not helpful at all. They like to get their assignments daily. That’s one thing I learned.”
She also learned that using too many platforms became overwhelming and stressful for the kids, and found a balance between synchronous and asynchronous instruction. “Keeping the classroom routines and community building activities, similar to regular learning, is key,” she says.
Like the passion projects, she says community-building activities have helped her and her students during this chaotic time. One of her favorite activities includes a daily “lunch bunch” where the students go into a breakout room with their friends to have lunch.
“Doing things you and your students love and are excited about, in addition to the regular curriculum, is so important.”
— Madison Corlett
“Doing these activities makes your heart full and, at the same time, they benefit the kids,” she says.
The passion projects have helped keep Corlett, and her students, stay engaged in school on a different level. “It’s been a bonus for them, and they have gained new communication and thinking skills.”
In reflecting on this past year, Corlett says that “doing things you and your students love and are excited about, in addition to the regular curriculum, is so important.”
“Teachers forget they were people — and kids are people,” she adds, “and doing things a little outside the box makes learning meaningful, fun, and fresh.”
A Year Into the Pandemic, Kids Face Struggles and Some Silver Linings
The Day (Sandra Chafouleas is quoted about the mental, physical effects on children due to the pandemic)
Kindergarten Teacher Pilots App to Help Detect Dyslexia, Assess Reading Readiness
Wisconsin State Journal (A dyslexia detection app, developed by Devin Kearns and others, is mentioned)
Alumna Anne Hill Brings People Together Online During COVID-19
When the pandemic hit, Anne Hill and her team had to uproot the strategies they had been using to design in-person events.
A program specialist for University Events and Conference Services at the University of Connecticut, alumna Anne Hill ’90 (CLAS), ’92 MA, has been planning events across campus for nearly 24 years. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit last spring, Hill and her team had to uproot the strategies they had been using to design in-person events and pivot to online platforms.
In her role, Hill is responsible for coordinating events and conferences at UConn. She also serves as a resource for clients on campus, offering them advice and best practices for event planning. Each year, University Events holds a one-day conference for UConn staff called UConnference. In collaboration with Total Webcasting, a webcasting and content management service, Hill and her colleagues held their first fully online UConnference in July to offer people across campus guidance in planning virtual events amid the pandemic.
“We wanted to show people that this can be done, and it can be done successfully … so people could think about their own programs and imagine what it would look like based on participating in ours,” says Hill.
Celebrating Students and Donors Virtually
Thanks to expert advice from Hill and the University Events team, the Neag School was able to hold the 2020 Scholarship Celebration, one of its signature annual events, virtually this past fall. Hill’s colleague Juliet Kapsis of University Events coordinated with the Neag School of Education to design and implement the program.
Typically held as an in-person luncheon where Neag School donors enjoy an opportunity to meet with the students whose scholarships they have supported, the 2020 virtual celebration brought donors, students, and their guests together with current students, alumni, and administrators for an hour filled with testimonials from student scholarship recipients from as far away as Portugal. It also featured a musical performance by Neag School music education students as well as remarks by UConn alumni and donors Jim and Beth Degnan, both ’87 (CLAS), who shared personal insights into why they have dedicated themselves to supporting the Neag School. Attendees tuned in from around the world.
“The fact that we work with people from all over campus has really been one of the joys for me.”
— Anne Hill ’90 (CLAS), ’92 MA
Later this month, the Neag School will host its 2021 Alumni Awards Celebration virtually as well, coordinated by Lauren Schaller, another representative from University Events.
University Events has been able to pivot many of its other campus events and conferences to an online format and are still finding new platforms and strategies to help keep audiences engaged. Hill says she and her colleagues have since learned there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to virtual event planning, and some events require different platforms or a combination of platforms to be executed effectively.
“It’s similar in many ways to what we were doing in person, but it also requires a lot more script writing and more producing,” says Hill. “It’s become similar to producing a television show in some ways.”
Problem Solving and Relationship Building
In reflecting on her work with University Events and the impact she has had over the years, Hill says that while there are many aspects of the job that she enjoys, the most rewarding is the problem-solving aspects and the relationships she has built with colleagues across the University. Each event she works on comes with different challenges, different personalities, and different rewards.
“While the structure of events can be very similar in the sense of the process that you go through, the fact that we work with people from all over campus and on all campuses has really been one of the joys for me,” says Hill.
For Hill, one of the most memorable events on campus was held in collaboration with Lockheed Martin and the UConn School of Engineering, during which they landed two helicopters on the Student Union lawn.
“In events like that, it’s really the people behind the scenes that make it a success, and we’re able to bring them all together to make the event happen,” says Hill.
Another one of her favorites is the annual gingerbread house decorating competition for faculty and staff that the University Events team organizes annually. The event brings together teams from across the University to get creative and have fun.
“I enjoy working on this and having the event evolve over the years but fostering creativity and collaboration among my colleagues is most rewarding,” says Hill.
Hill has also worked on the Graduate School New Student Orientation in the past, helping them evolve from a standard lecture-based event into a multifaceted event where panels and tours are happening simultaneously, and students can choose the aspects in which they want to take part. Shalyn Hopley, graduate programming assistant and fellow Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) alumna, organized the event with Hill for two years, and says Hill was instrumental in sorting out the logistics and creating a space for students to navigate easily.
“Anne was particularly helpful when it came to thinking through how to make the event accessible for our graduate students and how to ask the right questions,” says Hopley.
Adapting to Change as a Higher Education Professional
Hill earned her master’s degree from the Neag School of Education’s Higher Education and Student Affairs program in 1992. She has applied the skills and knowledge she learned not only in her current role, but also in previous roles in higher education and in many different scenarios of her life.
“I am confident that the education and the experiences that I was able to have because … the Neag School prepared me for this path.”
— Anne Hill ’90 (CLAS), ’92 MA
“I am confident that the education and the experiences that I was able to have because of being in the Neag School prepared me for this path,” says Hill.
While much has evolved in the higher education profession since Hill’s time at the Neag School, certain standards reinforced through the program remain the same. HESA director and associate professor, Saran Stewart, came to the University in July and while she does not know Hill personally, she points out that the field of higher education prepares professionals to respond to crisis situations. She describes higher education as a microcosm of society, in which professionals have to respond to all aspects facing social and cultural life.
“I think what Anne has afforded and what should be credited is what she has been able to do in this pivot and the lessons learned from these challenges that are still applicable when we are able to come back face-to-face,” says Stewart. “She has increased equity and accessibility to these kinds of events and programming.”
What We’ve Lost, What We’ve Learned During Our Year of COVID
CT Mirror (Casey Cobb is quoted on the inequities in access to technology)
Doug Glanville: MLB Needs More Black Managers
How can I leave my children for extended periods of time when, every day, the poison of racism makes me fear for their safety?
Editor’s Note: Written by Doug Glanville, a former Major League Baseball player and current faculty member in Neag School of Education’s Sport Management program, this article originally appeared on ESPN.
I check all of the boxes.
I played nine seasons in the big leagues with the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, and Texas Rangers.
I have experience as an executive subcommittee member in the Major League Baseball Players Association and am well-versed in baseball governance.
I have an Ivy League degree at a time when that means a lot for executive opportunity in baseball.
I’ve been a candidate before, and I believe I have the voice and drive to be an excellent major league manager.
But I can’t be your candidate right now.
That truth has a lot to do with another box I check: Black father.
“I believe I have the voice and drive to be an excellent major league manager. But I can’t be your candidate right now.”
As is the case with any potential manager who has young children, the stress of considering a position that keeps you away from home is real. The significance of missing major milestones in their lives and the guilt of putting so much on your spouse makes even the greatest job a compromise.
But as a Black father in 2021, this compromise becomes a deal-breaker for me.
How can I leave my children for extended periods of time when, every day, the poison of racism makes me fear for their safety? The past year has been one of racial reckoning in America. But in the Black experience, much of what we saw was business as usual. It’s been a year that has given us even more indisputable evidence of systemic racism, sometimes stark brutality caught on camera — and most of my four kids, all under 13, are of an age to pay close attention. Appreciating that I have the privilege to make this choice, I want to be present as much as I can as they ask probing questions about this reality. It matters to me that I can share firsthand experience to help them understand, but I still want them to retain hope. Even as the children of a former big leaguer, the advantages that come with that do not make them immune. Those advantages also make it important to teach them to embrace empathy for others, and show determination in the face of hate.
“The past year has been one of racial reckoning in America. But in the Black experience, much of what we saw was business as usual.”
— Doug Glanville
I knew what it meant to be a Black man in America well before I was a parent, before I found out that shoveling my own driveway involves risk, that buying a house brings the potential of lowering property values, that signing up my kids for an education involves countering forces that erode their self-esteem — when schools are still largely segregated and security officers are summoned disproportionately to deal with Black students. But knowing these things now, how can I leave all that at the door?
In late 2014, I knew I entered my interview with the Tampa Bay Rays as a long shot to become their next manager. The Rays brought in what must have been the most diverse field of candidates in history. Meanwhile, back in Black life, it was just a few months before a law was enacted in Connecticut to address an encounter I had with a police officer in my very own driveway.
On a snowy day, I went out to shovel when an officer from another township parked across the street and eventually approached me. He rudely asked if I was shoveling “other people’s driveways” to make “some extra bucks.” I told him it was my home. When he finally left, after making a sarcastic remark, I stood there, feeling robbed of my dignity and my rights on my own property. It took 18 months of my life, countless meetings, community engagement, and a few sit-downs with my family to achieve restorative justice. The “Glanville Law” was born, reminding officers that you cannot cross town lines and enforce the municipal laws of a different town. My kids were watching.
I didn’t get the Rays job, which even then I was nervous about taking. The following year, I landed in Los Angeles after midnight, and when I went to get a cab with my white colleague, the cab driver saw me and told me to “go take the bus, it is $19.” He refused to drive me to my hotel. When police did a sting to see how often this happened at LAX, the first night it happened to 30% of Black undercover riders. We’re talking about one of the most diverse airports in the world.
My son noted a pattern: “Every time these bad things happen to you,” he said, “it seems to be because of your color.”
I have made my way in sports media, which I enjoy immensely. Still, I don’t take my decision not to actively pursue a managing job at this time lightly. I am grateful for the inquiries I have received over the years, not just for my future, but because I could be part of the league’s effort to rectify a legacy of inequity. It is a critical time as our country still sorts through its pain, underscored by the killing of George Floyd. I want to believe that being in that manager’s office is an opportunity to shape the culture, to welcome others who have been othered, to be representative, to see talent through unique eyes, to unearth winning outside of traditional bias.
But this path is no guarantee. A great mentor, Dusty Baker, has had an incredibly successful career by any standard, approaching 2,000 wins and managing against the tides as a Black leader. Yet, he’s also lost jobs after making the playoffs and winning 90-plus games. In one case, he had to wait until a white candidate rejected a position because of a lowball offer. Most recently, jobless for two years after winning 97 games, one of the most iconic Black managers in history was asked to clean up the mess after a once-in-a-century scandal in Houston. Being Black, you pay attention to how your legacy representatives are treated. Especially when more Dusty Bakers are needed in the game — not fewer.
After the Selig Rule, a policy that mandates teams consider minority candidates, was introduced in 1999, teams quietly began to remove previous managerial experience as a requirement. Analytics became a big driver in hiring. Long struggling for a fair shake, Black candidates were initially told they needed extensive managerial experience to get in the interview room. Then, in the second decade of the Selig Rule, 11 white candidates were hired without any previous professional coaching or managerial experience. In one case, a team filled its open managerial job by pulling from its front office, handing its general manager a field position instead of hiring an experienced candidate. Yes, many of the above were respected players, and they collectively had a lot of success, but still that could not explain the absence of color. In every single facet of a Black person’s life, the rules change as soon as you get online.
The recent events in Washington, D.C., only crystallized what I already knew, that our country has two competing stories, and at the center of those stories is power and race. It’s hard to address my children’s questions about why, in this moment, a predominantly white mob would garner such favoritism relative to a peaceful Black assembly in the same place. To see the dual interpretations of threat play out before your eyes, reveals and stirs that sense of inequity. It was hard not to be afraid for the future because of how much this untethered terror reminded me of the worst of our past.
I believe I’d be a success in the dugout. Yet I have this horrible feeling about walking out the door for a year and not being there to help my kids navigate these kinds of moments.
While there is tremendous progress in certain areas — progress we must fight to help sustain — I would grapple with being an absentee Black father for a full big league season. I realize that so many committed parents find careers in the game of baseball. They make it work, they combine the two worlds. They endure for the privilege of working in a sport they love. I have a great appreciation for how they do it.
But if we truly value diversity, it has to be reflected more than through a sprinkling of people of color in the chairs of power. We have to do more than post Black Lives Matters signs. We have to learn from the story of these diverse candidates and understand what they face every day, as many of them, like me, prepare their children to face white supremacy being given its biggest hall pass in generations.
Despite the progress we have made, the worst of what we are seeing today is who we are too. It exists everywhere, even in baseball. The many times I was told an experience with racism was a figment of my imagination, now has a face, and apparently a gun, for the world to see. Am I safe? Are my kids?
As long as I have those existential questions, particularly while my kids are young, I will be a hesitant candidate. Admitting that, I wouldn’t fault anyone for not considering me. But I still believe the game can help make the world better — for all of our children — even as I choose to cheer from afar.
Doug Glanville in Related Stories:
Miguel A. Cardona Is Confirmed as Education Secretary
The New York Times (Alum Miguel Cardona featured)
Senate Confirms Miguel Cardona as Education Secretary
Washington Post (Alum Miguel Cardona featured)
Miguel Cardona: Biden’s Pick for Education Is a Teacher, Unifier
The Christian Science Monitor (Alum Miguel Cardona, newly confirmed U.S. Education Secretary, is featured)
