As the demographics of Kildeer Countryside Community Consolidated School District 96 began shifting within the last decade, administrators responded. The solution they implemented in 2017 continues to benefit not only the K-8 students of Buffalo Grove and Long Grove but also the
Read moreJacobs HS Principal Barb Valle reflects on NIU-launched administrative career
Most parents would love to hear that their daughter wanted to become a teacher. Not Barb Valle’s, however, who were less than thrilled when she dropped her original major in International Business. “I’m originally from Princeton, Ill. I had a wonderful, wonderful
Read moreCleaning up: Ed.S. student recalls path from custodian to curriculum director
Like many teens, Michael Courington was dying to get a job. “My family didn’t have a lot of money growing up. I was chomping at the bit to turn 16 to start working because I wanted a car,” Courington says. “My mother
Read moreAlumni Accomplishments
Congratulations to these alumni who are making a positive impact on the leadership and administration of education at all levels! Jim Aalfs, M.S.Ed. Educational Administration, ’00, will become principal of Barrington Middle School-Station Campus in Barrington 220. He has served as the
Read morePodcast features Laura Ruth Johnson
Laura Ruth Johnson’s search for local knowledge from the direct source – the people who live those realities and the grassroots organizations they populate – has taken her from Chicago to Puerto Rico to Taiwan and beyond. Johnson’s community-based research serves to
Read moreA message from Dean Laurie Elish-Piper
As a finals week like no other begins, bringing to a close a semester like no other, it seems like an appropriate time to reflect. However, it is important now that we also look ahead at a university that will look and
Read moreFood for thought: Special Ed faculty tap technology to maintain early clinicals
Faculty from the Department of Special and Early Education (SEED) knew that their technological pivot of early clinical teaching requirements during COVID-19 was making lemonade from lemons. Among the things they learned from the abrupt shift from actual K-12 classrooms to Blackboard
Read moreAlumna Yuni Lopez experiences strike, COVID-19 in wild first year of teaching
Had life gone as planned, Yuni Lopez would be a nurse by now. And, given the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, that career choice would have generated quite the extraordinary first year out of college. But that doesn’t mean the last 12 months have
Read moreMay 2019 alumna Hanna Fewell receives NIU Career Services intern scholarship
Special Education major Hanna Fewell received an unexpected welcome at Kingston Elementary School, where she began her student-teaching in the spring of 2019. “My teacher was kind of overwhelmed, and on the first day I walked in, she was like, ‘Surprise! You’re
Read moreGraduate School honors COE students
Several students from the Department of Counseling and Higher Education and the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education were chosen to receive 2020 Outstanding Graduate Student Awards from the NIU Graduate School. The award is given to one student from each program
Read moreCongratulations!
Just because the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education was unable to hold its annual scholarship and awards luncheon this spring doesn’t mean the students aren’t receiving the recognition they deserve. Each award is $250. Congratulations to these KNPE students: Francisco Arellano-Aguilera
Read moreA message from Dean Laurie Elish-Piper
At the end of this week, as we welcome the arrival of May, it’s hard to believe the end of the semester is already in sight. Classes are almost over; final exams are on the horizon; mounds of grading will need to
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