Teacher Features

Showcasing Events of the Union College Education Program

Editor’s note: Meg Current joined our conference this year as a teacher of grades 2-3 at Miami Springs Adventist School. I was delighted to discover her actively teaching students to learn their memory verses, rather than merely assigning the memory work as something to be done at home. Here’s how she did it:

-Write the memory verse on a white board or chart paper.
-Use metacognitive skills to model for the student show you might associate pictures with some of the words. For example, you might say: “I am the light of the world…hmmm…when I think of light, I think of the flashlight that I use when I go camping. So I am going to draw my flashlight right above the word.”
-Continue talking out load and drawing pictures above key words. Then begin to involve the children in the free association.
-Finally, tell the children that it will help them to learn the memory verse if they make their own associations.
-Turn on some enjoyable Christian music and give the students time to create their own learning tool by drawing pictures above key words in the memory verse.

Taken from the January-March 2009 edition of the Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists News Letter

On December 6 at 7:00 p.m. the George Stone Elementary School students will put on a Christmas program that they have worked hard to prepare. You are welcome to come to the Rees Hall Chapel to be blessed by their preformances.

We have 4 Elementary and 3 Secondary teachers graduating from the Union College Education Program in December. They are:

The education department at Union College hosted the Phi Delta Kappa UNL Chapter 15 meeting on October 8, 2008. A sumptuous dinner was served in the Atrium.

After the meal a panel discussion was conducted by 20 teachers/administrators from seven countries in the Woods Auditorium. They shared information about the educational system in their countries.

Nearly 110 elementary and secondary education majors from Concordia University, Nebraska Wesleyan University, and Union College attended the event. Jessi Whitson, an elementary education major from Union, won the raffle for one year membership to PDK.

Erin Gruwell, co-author of The Freedom Writers, visited our campus on November 13, 2008. As the inspiration for the motion picture Freedom Writers, she presented “Becoming a Catalyst for Change” at the College View SDA Church that evening.

Earlier in the day, the Education Club members were privileged to be invited to a reception for her where they were able to talk with her personally and ask questions. They also were asked to be ushers at the evening presentation and were included in the VIP seating.

Read more about Erin Gruwell on the News and Publications section of the Union College website.

Demy Sigowa, son of Moses & Aida Sigowa, one of our fifth graders will travel to Washington, D.C. this week to participate in the People to People World Leadership Forum.

He will travel to Capitol Hill to the Smithsonian Institute, and from Colonial Williamsburg to the Nation Museum of American History. Demy will join 30 to 40 other participants from around the world to participate in small-group discussions and exercises to experience first-hand how successful leaders develop strategies, make decisions, build consensus and foster change.

The program is coordinated by People to People Student Ambassador Programs to fulfill the vision Dwight D. Eisenhower had for fostering world citizenship when he founded People to People during his presidency in 1956. If you would like to learn more, please click onto http://www.studentambassadors.org/default.asp.

We’re very proud of Demy!

The Secondary Student Teachers are well into their school year by now. They began with pre-school week responsibilities, will shadow their Cooperating Teacher for two weeks and then gradually assume responsibility to teach four or five classes on their own. Three of them are already teaching their first subject. The Cooperating Teachers supervise their and make suggestions to help them “learn the ropes.” Their last day of student teaching is Friday December 19.

Adam and Eric will graduate in December 2008. The rest will continue coursework in spring and graduate in May 2009.

The students in EDUC 458-Methods in Religion, Health, Science and Social Studies are teaching their first rotation in elementary schools.

ENRC
Eastern’s International Project
March 2008
By
Kathy Bollinger

ENRC’s funds—-$200.00.

Dr. Joseph R. Allison, the Chair of the Division of Human Development at Union College, which includes the Education Program, just returned from an annual visit to Canadian University College where he met with the School of Education faculty to review and discuss the events leading to the end of this collaborative venture.

The original partnership began in 1979 and since 1997, Union College and our sister college Canadian University College in Lacombe, Alberta, Canada, have conducted a joint program for education majors whereby the graduates from the Canadian campus receive transcripts from Union College in order to obtain Nebraska State Teacher’s Certificates. This collaboration qualified those graduates after 1997, who applied, to request a Letter of Professional Standing in the Canadian Province where they desired to teach.

This 29 year agreement between Union College and Canadian University College comes to an end in April 2007 when the last students under the program graduate.

A new agreement between the Canadian government and Canadian University College now allows graduates from that college to obtain certificates directly from the province where they will teach.