Lindsey Comeau was only 6 when she began volunteering for the National Association for Down Syndrome’s annual Bowl-A-Thon. The senior Special Education major from Romeoville drew her motivation from a family friend with Down Syndrome, eventually becoming a counselor at a Northern
Read more‘Book of record’: NIU faculty, alums help write new ‘bible’ on vision rehab therapy
Sue Dalton, a longtime instructor in the Department of Special and Early Education’s Visual Impairments program, is the author of two chapters in the newly published “Foundations of Vision Rehabilitation Therapy.” Its publication is heralded as a landmark moment by practitioners in
Read moreWilkins, Quinzio-Zafran co-edit guide offering advice, support to new teachers
Elizabeth A. Wilkins, coordinator, Graduate Career and Professional Development for the NIU Graduate School and professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and Anna M. Quinzio-Zafran, an adjunct instructor in the department and 2015 alumna of the Ed.D. in Curriculum Leadership
Read moreCongratulations!
Congratulations to these members of the NIU College of Education family! Dean Laurie Elish-Piper, Professor Emeritus Jerry Johns and NIU College of Education alumna Susan Lenski are recipients of the 2020 Diane Lapp & James Flood Professional Collaborator Award from the International
Read moreCongratulations!
Congratulations to these NIU College of Education students and faculty! Eight College of Education students have been named Dean’s Achievement Scholars! Dylan Banker, Kinesiology Roger Bezares, Kinesiology Hannah Clark, Elementary Education-Elementary Mathematics Education Esperanza Correa, Elementary Education-Reading Teacher Genesis Miranda, Special Education-Visual
Read moreTeacher-licensure candidates thrive, grow amid COVID-impacted clinicals
For future teachers, the professional semesters of their higher education provide the classroom immersion and real-life, hands-on experience that apply the icing to the cake. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, most schools simply aren’t operating as usual. Some are all face-to-face, some
Read morePerfect! COE licensure-candidates post 100% pass rate on edTPA despite waiver
Chris Gomes submitted his edTPA Feb. 23, two months before the Illinois State Board of Education decided this spring to waive that requirement for COVID-19. Passage of the edTPA, which measures a teacher-candidate’s competence in planning, instruction and assessment, is usually necessary
Read moreSarah Johnston-Rodriguez’s retirement leaves ‘think backward’ mantra to grads
Once Sarah Johnston-Rodriguez dismissed her early notions to become a ballerina or an archaeologist, she turned her attention to nuclear physics. “I used to have a lab in our basement and blow things up,” Johnston-Rodriguez says. “But I had a career counselor
Read moreRobin Miller Young writing next chapter in retiring from Early Childhood faculty
Robin Miller Young always knew that she wanted a career making positive differences for children and families. How to meet and exceed that goal, however, has evolved continually since the beginning of her pursuit – and, unsurprisingly, another chapter is soon to
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
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