Teacher Features

Showcasing Events of the Union College Education Program

The College Days came upon Union this weekend. Last evening, October the 28th, 2012, Juniors from all sorts of Midwest Academies enjoyed a College Fair in the Union College gymnasium. The Education and Human Development Department booth hosted not one but two fun games for the visiting students. First was a ball toss that was played by wearing crazy vision goggles to create a challenge that hindered the hand eye coordination. Another activity involved the visiting students creating a form of silly putty called Gak.
The visitors who made the highest scores and created the best Gak won gift certificates to the iTunes online store.

September the 28th, 2012, Kathy Bollinger graciously hosted the Human Development Department Vespers event at her home. It was a night of outdoor social to celebrate what would be left the summer weather, a dinner picnic of hotdogs and chilli, and a spiritual thought from Russel Palmer reminding us that God always protects and prepares us for our future. The sun set and the Sabbath was welcomed, and all attending had a blast into the dusk. And of course, everyone knew where there is a bonfire, there is always s’mores! We were not disappointed.

The students in EDUC 357 class this 2012 Fall Semester worked with literacy and elementary school children on Friday, September 21st, at the Plum Creek Literacy Festival at Concordia College in Seward, Nebraska. The students who attended along with Kathy Bollinger and Brittany Blankenship, were Heather Boulais, Jared Dittmer, Carmen Haubrich, Megan Jenks, Luis LaPorte, Tabby Schumacher, Kelli Vigil, Desiree Watterson, Barbie Whalen, and Maricella Torres.

Secondary Education major at Union College, Luis LaPorte, sang in Florida on Wednesday, October 17th, for “Hispanic Youth-Lives in a Real World.” Their goal is to get latino youth to accept Jesus as their Savior by presenting the Gospel in English, Spanish, and Spanglish. Luis sang on the Spanish Live Broadcast at 6:30 PM and during the English Live Broadcast at 8:30 PM. Union College also showed a promo video that night in English and Spanish. To watch Luis and for other information visit .

George Stone Elementary School hosted Flavors of Fall at College View Church on Sunday, October 7th from 12-5 PM. There was more than 30 commercial vendors, local artisans, shops, and a bake sale helped raise funds for the school and its ongoing renovations and improvements. A chili feed also took place from 11 AM to 3 PM hosted by the College View Trailblazers in the west parking lot.

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.