Project SOAR Takes Off

A mentoring program for underserved middle-school students in some of Tucson’s poorest neighborhoods is about to take off, thanks to two major gifts to the University of Arizona College of Education totaling $418,000.  

Project SOAR (Student Outreach, Access, and Resiliency) at the College of Education is an innovative service-learning class offered for college credit through the Center for the Study of Higher Education. Students from all over campus take the class, which prepares them as mentors and tutors for younger students throughout Tucson. “The College of Education places particular emphasis on establishing the relevance and importance of our research to major issues of educational practice faced by schools and communities,” says Ronald W. Marx, dean of the college.

Find out more here.

Embracing 21st Century Skills

Gov. Napolitano

The College of Education knows how essential proficiency is when it comes to the future of education. That’s why we work closely with Governor Napolitano to develop statewide recommendations on how to incorporate 21st century skills into teacher preparation, professional development, assessments, and youth development programs.

The College of Education, the Governor’s P-20 Council, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and state education leaders and policy-makers are gathering for a summit, called the Arizona Summit on 21st Century Skills. This far-reaching assembly will be held at the UA Memorial Student Union on Thursday, October 25.

Summit sponsors include the Arizona Education Association and the Arizona Technology in Education Alliance plus:

For more information about the summit, please contact Maureen Cain at cain@itstrategies.com. 

Introducing: Worlds of Words

The College of Education is delighted to announce Worlds of Words: International Collection of Children’s and Adolescent Literature. WOW is the largest international collection in the United States, and it’s right here in the College of Education, hidden in our basement.

It’s a magical place — a place where lives change, thanks to the power of books. In fact, there’s only one larger international collection in the world, and it resides in a medieval castle just west of Munich.

Language, Reading & Culture Professor Kathy Short is the driving force behind the collection. “Most children obtain their knowledge through television with its focus on catastrophe, terrorism, and war. This often leads to superficial understandings, grounded in fear and stereotypes, leading to a lack of understanding about world cultures.”

Books, on the other hand, awaken interest in other cultures, arouse curiosity, and demonstrate the unifying force of human interaction. This is particularly true of children’s literature and part of the reason our WOW International Collection is so remarkable.

To celebrate the premiere of WOW, we have several events planned. Here’s the breakdown:

What: World's Best Bedtime Stories Reception
When: Saturday, October 27, 5 - 7 p.m.
Where: Main Lobby at the College of Education
Who: Please contact Director of Development Nina Daldrup at 520-621-7143 or ekd@u.arizona.edu for more information.
Why & More: This reception, which will raise funds and awareness of this astonishing collection, includes hors d’oeuvres, personal tours of the WOW International Collection, and two traveling book exhibits — one from Munich!

What: WOW Open House
When: Saturday, December 8, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Where: WOW International Collection of Children’s and Adolescent Literature, College of Education, Room 104
Who: Professor Kathy Short will be your guide for this free and amazing tour of the collection. Please contact her for more information at 520-621-1843 or shortk@u.arizona.edu.
Why & More: The Open House will include the 2006 International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) Honour Book Exhibit and the Munich International Youth Library Traveling Book Exhibit on Children between Worlds. The IBBY exhibit contains three books (one each for illustration, writing, and translation), representative of the best in children’s literature from each nominating country. Both exhibits address cultural divides and intercultural relations, inviting dialogue across cultures.

Still More in Celebration of Children's Books!

What: Children between Worlds: Intercultural Relations in Books for Children and Young Adults, the Seventh International Board on Books for Young People Regional Conference
When: Friday, November 2 — Sunday, November 4
Where: Westward Look Resort
Who: For more information, please contact usbby@reading.org.
Why & More: This is a rare opportunity to interact with international authors and illustrators — from Japan, England, the West Bank, Ghana, Mexico, and the U.S. — and explore intercultural relations through a program of distinguished presenters, including:

• Yuyi Morales — artist, author, puppet maker, Brazilian folk dancer, and a former host of a Spanish-language storytelling radio show — wrote and illustrated Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book and illustrated Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez, both of which won numerous awards
• Ibtisam S. Barakat, an award-winning Palestinian-American writer, poet, educator, and founder of Write Your Life seminars, will talk about her recent book, Tasting the Sky, the story of her Palestinian childhood. 
• Meshack Asare from Ghana, West Africa, is a children’s author and illustrator whose work is regularly translated into different languages including German, Danish, Swedish, and Japanese. His book, Sosu’s Call, was published in the U.S. after winning the 1999 UNESCO Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature in the Service of Tolerance.
• Tayo Shima, Japanese children’s book editor, lecturer, and consultant, will talk about the ways in which picture books as art are able to traverse time and culture. She is from Tokyo and has spent her life promoting children’s literature internationally. 
• Monty Roessel, a Navajo photographer and author of Songs from the Loom and Kinaaldá, will chair a panel of American Indian authors and illustrators, including Shonto Begay and Roberta John.
• David Almond has received many awards in his home country of England for novels such as Skellig and Kit’s Wilderness. His most recent novel, Clay, is on the USBBY’s Outstanding International list.
• Nancy Farmer is the highly acclaimed author of books such as The House of Scorpions, The Ear, the Eye and the Arm, and A Girl Named Disaster. She was raised in Arizona and traveled widely in Africa where she lived for many years.
   

What: The College of Educaion and Harcourt Education Publishing present IBBY Dessert Reception/Conversations with Authors and Illustrators
When: Friday, November 2, 8:30 p.m.
Where: Westward Look Resort
Who: For more information, please contact usbby@reading.org.
Why & More: Arizona authors and illustrators will be featured in special roundtable discussions where they will display drafts of their illustrations and writing for recent books. Participants will have an opportunity to informally talk with these illustrators and authors, including Kendrick Bennally, Stephen Buchmann, Roni Capin Rivera-Ashford, David Christiana, Gerald Dawavendewa, Chris Gall, Juanita Havill, Ronald Himler, Susan Lowell, Paul Mirocha, Judi Moreillon, Janette Rallison, Guy Porfirio, Joan Sandin, and Jennifer Ward, among others. Special thanks to Harcourt Education Publishing for making this event possible.

Making Connections: Children, Parents, and You

Southern Arizona Association for the Education
of Young Children Conference
Saturday, October 13
7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
UA College of Education 

Join keynote speaker Debby Buchanan as she explores the importance of literature in connecting with families. Buchanan, the coauthor of This House is Made of Mud/Esta Casa Está Hecha de Lodo — selected to be given to every first grader in the state through Governor Napolitano’s landmark program to promote literacy — has inspired countless children and educators through more than 200 author appearances and writing workshops around the world.

Registrations must be postmarked by Saturday, October 6.

How Do You Learn?

How do the people, objects, and events in your life affect your learning?

Scholars from all over the world will discuss unresolved challenges that connect sociocultural theory and second language learning during the 14th Annual Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning Research Working Group at the UA College of Education October 25-27, 2007. 

Faculty and graduate students across campus have been invited to explore pedagogical applications (curriculum design and course development, pedagogy and methodology, teacher cognition, TELL, etc.) and data analysis. 

Our very own Luis C. Moll, associate dean for Academic Affairs and professor of Language, Reading & Culture at the College of Education, is the featured speaker. He is an authority on connecting culture, psychology, and education, especially as it relates to the education of Latino children in the U.S. 

The conference is already at capacity, but you can find out more at www.coedu.usf.edu/sct/2007, or contact Assistant Professor Ana Christina Iddings at aiddings@email.arizona.edu or Sultan Turkan at sultant@email.arizona.edu.

Faculty & Staff News

Educational Psychology

Assistant Professor Hugh Crethar has been appointed president of Counselors for Social Justice, a division of the American Counseling Association.

Bauman

Associate Professor Sheri Bauman

Bauman also recently wrote Essential Topics for the Helping Professional, a book published by Allyn & Bacon, which covers eight critical issues — sexual abuse, eating disorders, self-mutilation, suicide, substance abuse, grief and loss, sexual minority concerns, and trauma and violence. The book gives readers an overview of these issues, including a definition and description of each problem, with sections on prevalence, developmental issues and patterns, assessment strategies, treatment options, counselor issues (with a special note for school counselors), ethical concerns, and additional resources. Each chapter includes an authentic case study as well as exercises that encourage readers to extend their understanding. 
  

Higher Education

You might just say John Cheslock had a busy summer. The assistant professor at the UA College of Education was catapulted into the limelight amid heated news conferences and debates, landing him in the pages of The New York Times and USA Today and on stage with the likes of tennis great Billie Jean King. At the center of the debate was whether or not men’s participation in sports has declined since Title IX went into effect. Look for his story in an upcoming UA Alumnus magazine and our Imagine magazine.

Cecilia Rios Aguilar joined the Higher Education faculty this fall and brings expertise in statistical analysis and survey design. The assistant professor comes to the UA College of Education from the University of Rochester.

Assistant Professor Regina Deil-Amen also joined the faculty and brings expertise in the study of community colleges, pointing out the pivotal role these institutions play in American society. She received her Ph.D. from Northwestern University and comes to us from Penn State.

Milem

Professor Jeffrey F. Milem

Doctoral student Judy Marquez Kiyama was elected to the ASHE Board of Directors.She is focused on enhancing the experiences of graduate students and the ASHE community. 

Here's more on ASHE.

 

Rubinstein-Avila

Life has been very good for Eliane Rubinstein-Avila. She was just promoted to associate professor with tenure and she also published an article, From the Dominican Republic to Drew High: What Counts as Literacy for Yanira Lara, in the prestigious Reading Research Quarterly.

The University of Arizona has teamed up with CONACyT, the Mexican Council for Science and Technology (equivalent to the U.S. National Science Foundation) in order to provide a new source of funding for Mexican graduate students. We’re happy to report that doctoral student Carmen Fimbres has received a Mexican CONACyT Fellowship. Here’s more on the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology. (Note: This site is in Spanish.)

Doctoral student Juanita L. Watters presented a paper, How We Talk about Some Contact-Induced Language Change: Immigrant Words and Impure Language, at the Third Symposium on Language Policy, held in Toluca, Mexico. 
 

Special Education, Rehabilitation & School Psychology 

Assistant Professor Chih-Chin Chou is a new faculty member in the rehabilitation program. She joins us from the National Institute of Education, Psychological Studies, in Singapore. She completed her Ph.D. in rehabilitation psychology and special education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004. 

Rosenblum

Kudos to Adjunct Associate Professor L. Penny Rosenblum. For the last several years, she has been working on a video, Reclaiming Independence: Staying in the Driver’s Seat When You No Longer Drive, with the American Printing House for the Blind. The 40-minute video introduces Syd, Wilbert, Josephine, Blanche, Gary, and Johnny, people who had to give up their drivers’ licenses because of vision loss. The program follows them as they talk about adjusting and developing strategies for maintaining their independence and community involvement as nondrivers.

Rosenblum is hosting a video premiere at the Southern Arizona Association for the Visually Impaired, 3767 E. Grant Road (an agency Syd refers to in the video), on Wednesday, October 10, from 4 to 6 p.m.

For more information, contact Rosenblum at 520-621-1223 or rosenblu@u.arizona.edu. 

Admissions, Advising & Student Services

Morriss

For more information about the Ombuds Program, please visit http://ombuds.arizona.edu. 

Western Regional Equity Network

Joseph M. "Mike" Tully, WREN’s support systems analyst, has been appointed to the board of directors of the International Bullying Prevention Association. His duties as a member of the all-volunteer board are to oversee media relations, including working on Web content, drafting articles, and interacting with media. The IBPA is an active and growing organization dedicated to the prevention of bullying and cyber-bullying in schools. For more information, contact Tully at 520-626-4627 or jmtully@u.arizona.edu.

Multicultural Community & Career Expo

You are cordially invited to attend the
2007 Multicultural Community and Career Expo 
Thursday, October 11
5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
UA Memorial Student Union Grand Ballroom

This is a unique opportunity to network with students, faculty, staff, alumni, and members of the participating organizations: Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Tucson-Arizona Black Chamber of Commerce, Tucson GLBT, Chamber of Commerce, UA Asian American Faculty Staff and Alumni Association, UA Black Alumni Club, UA American Indian Alumni Club, UA Greater Phoenix Hispanic Alumni Club, UA Multicultural Centers, and local, national, and international employer recruiters.

The event, hosted by UA Hispanic Alumni Club in collaboration with UA Career Services and UA Diversity Resource Office, is free and includes refreshments and prizes.

To R.S.V.P. or for more information, contact Patsy Klein at 520-626-6473 or patsyk@email.arizona.edu or Oscar Lujan at 520-626-9327 or lujano@al.arizona.edu.

In the News

Check out these links to some terrific stories about the College of Education.

Great coverage on our UCATS program can be seen here. (Note that Arizona Board of Regents member Dennis DeConcini was among the stellar delegation of education officials!) 

Here’s one about our new Science Education Scholars Program.

And here’s one on our new living-learning community.

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