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Vol 23, No. 2 - February 2015

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In this issue
Upcoming events
Gold square Faculty Notes
Gold square Alumni Notes
Gold square Department & Services

 

Upcoming Events

March 4 - Spring 2015 Teacher Career Fair and Interviews.  Learn more...

March 10 - Student Growth Measures Workshop.  The formal assessment of student growth in K-12 will soon be required by all physical educators.  To learn more about the workshop, contact Joella Mehrhof, 620-341-5946 or jmehrhof@emporia.edu.

 

March 14 - Art Therapy Discovery Day.  Learn more...

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Learn more about TTC’s Department and Services

Departments:

Counselor Education

Elementary Education / Early Childhood / Special Education

Health, Physical Education, & Recreation

Instructional Design & Technology

Psychology

School Leadership / Middle & Secondary Teacher Education

Centers & Services:

Center for Early Childhood Education

Center for Innovative School Leadership

Community Counseling Services

Jones Institute for Educational Excellence

Kansas Regional Reading Recovery University Training Center

Office of Field Placement & Licensure

Great Plains Center for National Teacher Certification

Reading Laboratory

Resource Center

School Counselor Center

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nikki

For information about alumni events, reunions, or other alumni questions, please contact Nikki Metz, Alumni Programs Coordinator.

Roy Mann

For information about scholarships and giving, please contact Roy Mann, Director of Development.

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Make An Impact:

 

Refer a Hornet!

Hire a Hornet!

Advocate for Higher Education

Give to Emporia State

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Emporia State University Links:

Campus News & Events

Emporia State Athletics

Offsite/Distance Education

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Fall 2015 Volume 23, Number 2

Emporia State University's The Teachers College Newsletter is an occasional publication designed to inform its audience about activities of the college's departments, students, and alumni compiled by the Jones Institute for Educational Excellence. To request additional past editions of this newsletter, contact: Terri Weast, Editor, Campus Box 4036, Emporia State University, 1 Kellogg Circle, Emporia, KS 66801-5087 or at tweast@emporia.edu. It is the policy of Emporia State University to guarantee equal employment opportunity, equal educational opportunity, and non-discrimination in the operation and administration of all of its programs and services.

 

 

 



ESU programs ranked highest in Kansas by U.S. News & World Report

 

Graduate programs offered by Emporia State University’s Teachers College are tops in Kansas, according to national rankings released today.

Emporia State’s online graduate education programs are ranked No. 11 in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, which analyzes data and ranks public and private educational institutions and their academic programs throughout the year. At No. 11, Emporia State is the highest-ranked school in Kansas.

The effort to build strong online programs is a true collaboration, according to Dr. Ken Weaver, dean of The Teachers College, and requires teachers to continue to learn new skills.

“Instructional designers on staff assist faculty in creating their online courses to meet student learning outcomes,” Weaver said. “Faculty, in turn, are expanding the technologies they use to engage their students.”

The Teachers College offers 11 graduate programs online, which especially benefits place-bound students who want to further their education and advance their careers. 

“These students could be classroom teachers, for example, 

who need courses that fit into their busy lives,” Weaver said.

 “Our online students are an essential part of Emporia State University,” said Dr. Kathy Ermler, dean of the Graduate School and Distance Education. “Some may never set foot on campus until their graduation, but we consider their successes just as important as our residential students.”

During winter commencement in December, Ermler noted that students who earned master’s degrees in online education programs came not only from Kansas but also Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island and Virginia.

Emporia State’s Information Technology department has been key to the success of online courses, Ermler said, by providing technical assistance to both faculty and students and creating services that allow users to log in to virtual computer desktops and use the software they need.

For more information about online graduate programs at Emporia State, click here.

For the ranking methodology, click here. 

For the full U.S. News online graduate education rankings, click here.

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Faculty Notes

Seven faculty members in The Teachers College were recognized during the spring semester meeting of The Teachers College.  Beth Dobler, Lori Mann and Nancy Smith received the Excellence in Service Award for their work on Hornet-Connected Learning, the one-to-one mobile device initiative. John Wade earned the Excellence in Scholarly Activity Award for writing a book and three book chapters, editing a book and publishing two articles in peer-reviewed journals in the past three years. Deb Larson earned the Excellence in Instruction Award. Jean Morrow, who retired in 2014, received the Darrell E. Wood Service Award, and the Ervay Family Award for Applied Scholarship went to Matt Seimears.

Two members of The Teachers College community completed Leadership Emporia in December. They were Joan Brewer, associate dean of The Teachers College, and Sharon Brown, advising office coordinator for Elementary Education, Early Childhood and Special Education. 

Two faculty members helped select students for the Fulbright U.S. Student program. Manjula Shinge, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages,  and Salim Sehlaoui,Instructional Design and Technology, were members of the national screening committee and volunteered their time to read and rate applications then attending a one-day meeting for selection. 

Melissa Reed, elementary education/ early childhood/special education, was selected to participate on a national reading panel to review National Assessment of Educational Progress  and ACT Explore reading assessments for grade 8 students.

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Alumni Notes

Four of the eight finalists to become 2015 Kansas Teacher of the Year are ESU alums:  Beau T. Bragg (MS 2011 in Health, Physical Education, and Recreation), Lisa Holt (BSE 1994 in Elementary Education), Jamie McDaniel (BSE 1993 in Elementary Education) and Dennis Munk (BS 2002 in Athletic Training; BSE 2003 in Physical Education). The delegation of eight will present seminars to education students on campus January 27.  Learn more...

Ty Baumgardner (MS '95), Gwinnett, GA, is in his first year as Collins Hill High School's boys basketball coach. Previously he was at Olympic High School in Charlotte, NC for 10 years, earning 222 wins and a state title.

Lorraine Cannistra (BS '90, MS '94), Lawrence, is a wheelchair ballroom dancer who is campaigning to perform on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the daytime television talk-variety show. In 2013, Cannistra's writings were published in the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" book series. She is an advocate for disability awareness. Learn more...

Rebecca L. (Lowther) Doan (MS '98), Wichita, closed her antique shop in Wichita in September 2014 and have re-opened it - Paper Moon Antiques - at 317 Commercial, in Emporia.

Barbara Fowler (BSE '79), Emporia, was chosen in October to be part of an all-expenses-paid trip to Poland in January to participate in a four-day professional development workshop tied to the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration and death camp built on Polish land annexed by Germany during World War II. Fowler was one of 25 teachers from 11 countries selected by the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation and Discovery Education to participate in the project. Learn more… 

Tobias Frieb (BSE '14) is in his first teaching job, which is in Kwigillingok, Alaska, a 300-person village on the Bering Sea in the southwest part of the state.

Brad Griffin (BS '01, MS '03), Winfield, was hired in January to become the head football coach at Southwestern College. Previously he was the defensive coordinator at William Penn University (Oskaloosa, Iowa) for 10 years. 

Eleanor Hensley (BGS '88, MS '89), an early childhood education instructor for Highland Community College, was selected in January by the Kansas State Department of Education  as a member of the Kansas Advisory Committee for Career and Technical Education.

Mitch Hixson (BSE '97), Hutchinson, was hired recently by Hutchinson's Historic Fox Theatre as director of development. Previously, he worked at The Hutchinson News where he was marketing solutions coordinator for seven years.

John Lichty (MS '14), Goshen, IN, began teaching at a second school this year, Chamberlain Elementary, alongside his present position as PE instructor at Parkside Elementary. He is in his second year as elementary PE coordinator for the district as well as elementary track coordinator.

Patricia (DeFries) McCarver (MS '85), Prescott, AZ, Was re-elected to a 6-year term on the District Governing Board for Yavapai Community College, in Prescott. Her term ended in December 2014 and the new term began in January. She earned her Ph.D in transformative learning and change in 2003. She works as a faculty mentor for Western Governors University.

Katherine (Hiltibidal) Vessar (BSE '00), Olathe, is an executive administrative assistant at Benefit Communication Insourcing. She married her husband in 2012 and gave birth to a daughter, Hannah, in June 2014.

Christian Zuercher (BS), Newton, was reappointed in December to serve a three-year term on the State Rehabilitation Council. He currently works as the Director of Vocational Services for Prairie View Inc. 

 Do you have information to share with us and/or your classmates?  If so, please click here to share your news. 

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