Amanda Surrusco hadn’t expected the freedom. Maria Almeida hadn’t expected the differentiation. Kyle Conway hadn’t expected the trust. Surrusco, Almeida and Conway, three of the four NIU College of Education student-travelers on the inaugural Educate Global trip to Finland this May, witnessed
Read moreLiteracy Education grad students tutor, learn inside Jerry L. Johns Literacy Clinic
Danelle Davis spends most of her weekdays from August through May teaching in front of a classroom of nearly 30 first-graders. Summer 2019, however, has afforded the DeKalb School District 428 teacher the opportunity to work individually with a child who needs
Read moreEducate U.S., Engage U.S. celebrate second year of journeys to North Dakota, Colorado
Sometimes the second time around is just as sweet as the first. May 2019 saw the return of Educate U.S. in North Dakota and Engage U.S. in Colorado and Nebraska; both new options of the NIU College of Education programs debuted in
Read moreSTEM Read Summer Institute prepares educators to bring books, curiosity to life
Melanie Koss donned a headpiece that gave her deer ears, reclined motionless on a couch in the Gabel Hall Learning Center, closed her eyes and played the role of a deceased doe. And that wasn’t even the strangest sight at July’s NIU
Read more‘Keep talking’: Educators witness strength, advocacy at Social Justice Summer Camp
They were different women of different ages, sitting in different rooms, hearing different words on different subjects at different times. Yet their response – their natural, human reaction – was the same. The proverbial lumps in the throat, the moisture of not-quite-yet
Read moreSummer schools tap CI doctoral students to boost learning of international students
For each of the previous 15 summers, NIU College of Education doctoral student Laura Crisp has spent six weeks teaching teens from China and South Korea. The students come to the United States for multiple-year stays, most arriving in time for eighth-grade,
Read moreSocial Justice Summer Camp 3.0 to foster growth via discomfort, ‘intellectual threat’
Jennie Hueber felt uncomfortable at NIU’s first Social Justice Summer Camp in 2017 – and that was a good thing. Hueber, the director of curriculum and instruction for DeKalb School District 428, already had begun her personal and professional journey to recognize,
Read moreProject CUP research illustrates challenge of managing tough home lives of students
Jan Solano arrived at the home of virtual strangers to watch, like a fly on the wall, how they prepared themselves for the day. It was 6 a.m. The mother of the family knew that Solano, a junior Middle Level Teaching and
Read moreFuture middle school teachers at NIU hear expert advice from 13-year-olds, parents
As a former middle school principal and assistant principal in the McHenry County towns of Woodstock and Cary, Joyce Laben knows well the value of listening to the “stakeholders” at those institutions. It’s something she stresses in the EPS 512: Principal, Family
Read moreCommunity Learning Series explores concepts, challenges of social justice
Jocelyn Santana remembers going to protests and picket lines with her mother, a public school teacher, even though she was too young to understand what was happening. She remembers sitting among “brown and black bodies” in a remedial math classroom at her
Read moreCommunity Learning Series will explore social justice during April 11 discussion
Joe Flynn grew up with a clear sense of his primary role and duty in society. “I was always raised to think about where other people are coming from, and what struggles folks have, and that oftentimes the things that people have
Read moreNIU to improve math content knowledge for teachers from Rockford, Sauk Valley
Northern Illinois University has received a $1.6 million grant from the Illinois State Board of Education to provide professional development in math pedagogy to 160 teachers from Rockford and the Sauk Valley area. Grant dollars also will fund the development of online
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