Young Sullivan Zerby could barely contain his excitement. The 15-year-old Huntley High School freshman was in kindergarten then, his mother remembers, and had come home with news about something amazing that happened in his P.E. class that day. “Sully says, ‘Mom, we
Read moreCI alumna Ashley VanSickle humbled, validated, motivated by Golden Apple
Ashley VanSickle’s excellence as a teacher is without question. VanSickle, a 2013 alumna of the NIU Department of Curriculum and Instruction alumna, received a 2017 Outstanding Beginning Teacher Award from the Illinois Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. Now, she’s a 2022
Read moreAlumni Accomplishments
Congratulations to these alumni who are making a positive impact on the leadership and administration of education at all levels! Josh Barron, Ed.D. Educational Administration, ’12, and Ed.S. Educational Administration, ’06, has been named the next superintendent of Oak Lawn-based Community High
Read moreCongratulations!
Congratulations to these members of the NIU College of Education family! Alison Douglas, who graduated from the NIU College of Education in August 2021 with her Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, is a co-winner of the AERA Special Interest Group Research in
Read moreMiddle Level majors practice teaching, team-building with seventh-graders
Seventh-graders from Clinton Rosette Middle School stood in a circle, each clutching a several-feet-long string tied to the same marker. Their task: cooperate to insert that marker into the mouth of a 20-ounce plastic bottle. First, they remained still as they pulled
Read moreClinical supervisor Megan Gerken finds bright workarounds for COVID’s puzzles
Megan Gerken had Monday, March 16, circled on her calendar. That was the day the clinical supervisor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction expected to welcome representatives from Deans for Impact, who were coming to observe a pilot round of their
Read moreSTEM Read Institute sparks educators
Macy Gray’s journey as a teacher began at Mayatan Bilingual School, a non-profit in Honduras where she taught sixth-graders. When she returned to Illinois this summer to begin a new job this fall teaching sixth- and seventh-graders at Chicago’s Altus Academy, the
Read moreCoE’s Altus partnership blooms with El-Ed major Jamal Murphy
Jamal Murphy is not a typical NIU College of Education teacher-licensure candidate. Raised on the West Side of Chicago, Murphy encountered an eighth-grade teacher who told him he would drop out by his sophomore year. What? Not finish high school? “Once you
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